A stroll around the streets of Bruges with CPL Dermody taking us on a tortuous route to find an apparently non-existent bar, reputedly
selling over 300 beers.
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1315
The group makes a quick purchase of chocolates for
loved ones.
1330
Settle in at an outside café and try out the infamous Bruges Triple beer
(9.5% alcohol!).
1430
Arrive at the train station and in the bar there try out another Belgian beer.
1515
CPL Jackson summons the refreshment trolley on the train with a "Yo!" and a pint of Jupiler each is consumed.
1600
Arrive Brussels and set up a temporary camp in another bar. We try a strawberry beer that is surprisingly drinkable and one other before making our way to the Eurostar.
1701
Board the Eurostar directly at the refreshment car and start on a round of Stellas. CPL Dermody tries to sit on his beer but only scatters it across the floor. CPL Jackson assists him in cleaning it up.
1745
Copping dreadful grief about the wallet incident, CPL Henderson declares that he now can't find his passport. After several accusations to the others to give it back (which, they admit, they wish they had of thought of doing) and a few furtive looks through his belongings, he begins to panic and imagines calling his wife and telling her he will be locked up in immigration jail upon arriving in the UK.
CPL Jackson, forever the nice guy that he is, institutes a more systematic search and finds it amongst the luggage. CPL Henderson finds himself the brunt of even more grief and his desperate attempts to attack back are easily beaten off. Mullen
and Dermody forgo the search but find the whole prospect of Henderson losing wallet to be most amusing.
1848
Arrive Waterloo and the patrol attempt to
act sober as they pass through immigration. CPL Henderson is trying to answer sensibly questions
regarding his EEA Family Permit to a stern immigration official when CPL Jackson calls out to him across the immigration hall "Come on Hendo, you
shonk!!"
1855
The patrol is disbanded. All view the patrol as a complete success with the twin objectives of visiting the battlefields and consuming large quantities of a variety of Belgian beers both achieved very successfully.
