The following day, after a good breakfast, we wandered round Ieper, looking at the walls of the town and at the graves and the names on the Menin Gate. In the mid afternoon we decided to go to Moeskron to watch a Belgian First Division match between Moeskron and Mechelen. The line up at the festival was pretty frightening to be honest, so we gladly blew it out. I’d have liked to have seen Eric’s band, Enemy of the Sun, but it wasn’t worth wrecking a whole day for. At the station in Moeskron, it was the usual drab scene, and the town map wasn’t much use for finding the ground. We walked up the hill into (what turned out to be) the town centre, and it was a lovely little square with little shops and bars around it. We then walked down the other side, and found the ground. We stopped at what was like their supporters bar, and had a few beers. I think most people there were surprised any Englishmen would come to their little ground. But it was neat enough, and only a little more expensive to get in that it is to see Bromley. One side of the ground was being redeveloped, and the remaining three got pretty packed. They had a marquee with a long bar in it, which served pils for the exchange of tokens you had to buy from a lady at the end. We then had a couple of wursts, and squeezed in to the back of the home terrace. The game ended 2 - 0 to the home side, who totally outclassed the visitors. As we left for our train, they were giving out free Cokes, which we drank on the way back. The train was on time, and we changed at Kortrijk back to Ieper...as we approached you could see the Cloth Hall lit up by searchlights, dominating the night sky. It was on this journey between Kortrijk and Ieper that the seeds of a plan were hatched. the last HWM/Discount show in Europe was in Deinze on a Sunday, and it didn’t seem far from the port at Oostende. It started at 1800...could we get there? We got back to the hotel in time for Match Of The Day, which was agreeable.

The following day was a Sunday, and not much was open. The bands were slightly better, but before checking them out we discovered Bromley had drawn with Windsor & Eton in the FA Cup Preliminary Qualifying Round. More frites and beer today, and lunch at the Posterie, which serves over 200 different beers. We saw Leiah, who were obviously thought they were going to get slaughtered by the tough boys in the crowd...but they actually loved them, and it proved an enjoyable set. We bought a few more CD’s and stuff, took them back to the hotel, had some more beers, then back for the last band, The Get Up Kids. They had their new keyboardist (as on their new records), but his keyboard wouldn’t work. I love this band, and much as I enjoyed them (particularly "Don’t Hate Me" as the encore) a big part of me wished I was in Germany with those geezers from Gainesville. After they’d finished we said goodbye to Emre who said he’d send me his video of the HWM show (still waiting!) and then back to the hotel for a good night’s sleep...our train was early in the morning.