Kim Andersen and Roger, 2000 in Tournai.
Previously: 40 Years in Beer (Book III), Part 84: Y2K and the Belgian beercycling inaugural (1).
With the foreplay at Vapeur ended, it was time to meet the Danes.
Narrow Wallonian countryside lanes brought the beercyclists back into Tournai as a clear and warm Saturday afternoon turned blustery and overcast. Cochonette-laced warm fuzzies dissipated rapidly in the face of a brisk headwind.
What’s more, the Three Danes of the Apocalypse awaited our return: Kim “Little Kim” Wiesener, Kim “Big Kim” Andersen and Allan Gamborg. Having gathered for European soccer championship matches held in Belgium and Netherlands, they conspired to include a brief Tournai stay in their itinerary.
These three cosmopolitan natives of Denmark are bosom friends of long standing, dating to 1987 when Barrie Ottersbach and I booked a tour of the USSR led by Little Kim. They’re multi-lingual, well-traveled and professionally accomplished, each in his chosen field. When a soccer match is taking place, they merrily revert with dazzling speed to adolescence, a state understood intuitively by sports-obsessed males everywhere.
We met as scheduled at the hotel, and haggling began over details. The non-negotiable idea, conveyed with a palpable wagging of Danish fingers, was to partake of the...
Read more
