Christian’s Great Weekend

It was the end of the Hermantour, the year long celebration of Christian’s 50th birthday and he had invited the same large group of friends to have a fantastic weekend full of friendship, excellent food and good spirit.

I left on Friday morning, smooth driving all the way into the Netherlands for a few cigars and lunch with Jan and Lili.

Continuing into the sunny and hot afternoon the driving became more slow until it was standstill all around Antwerp – terrible traffic jams as always.

But I managed to arrive in time at Christian’s for a cold beer and a nice cigar with him and Jorg.

After taking my small, quiet beautiful old house in Aardenburg across the Belgian border in the Netherlands and a quick shower it was off to a spectacular dinner and cigars at De Kromme Watergang.

We had a bottle of 1996 Comtes des Taittinger with 2003 Cohiba Reserva at the restaurant’s cigar lounge and were joined by Edwin Vinke the owner of this magnificent 2 star Michelin gourmet temple, also a passionate cigar smoker.

The dinner was beyond extraordinary, it was a culinary delight with the menu being exclusively seafood – the freshest coquilles, oysters in champagne sauce ( so delicious we had them again for dessert ) delicate Turbot and many other delicacies that had the saltiness and freshness of the sea. All washed down with some stellar white Bourgogne.

We finished the evening back at the cigar lounge with another bottle of Bourgogne and more delicious oysters as dessert.

Next morning it was off to Knokke – the Dubai or Beverly Hills of Belgium I was told by my guide Christian – for breakfast and a walk through the city and the sea promenade visiting the LCDH Knokke as well as the Casa del Tabaco. Incredible town – I saw more luxury cars in 2 hours that I see in Germany in 2 months – and saw NC sticks at between 42 € and 82 € a stick ….. now that’s how the “other half” lives.

It was back to Christian’s home and the start of the meeting of friends, a great evening of more culinary delights by the Blend Brothers and a passionate speech by Christian to celebrate the birthday year and a sensational party.

Great fun with Dominique and Frederic, Frank, Jorg, Johan and all other friends. A special thank you to Johan for taking care of my torn shoulder !

It was a very memorable night and Christian was able to collect over 10.000 € for the children’s support charity. Well done !!

Next morning after packing up it was lunch in Sluis with Christian and friends before making my way back home.

A very special and spectacular weekend – thank you Christian !!

Nino