Martijn – Martijn.be

Carnival in Tilburg

Published on 1 March 2025

Somehow I keep ending up in North Brabant during carnival. However, while last time it was by accident, this time it was intentional: I went to Tilburg—for the occasion renamed Kruikenstad—for a special carnival run!

Tilburg station was very crowded when I arrived, and the square in front of it was even worse! The reason became clear when I overheard people discussing today’s schedule while I was having my coffee at Buut Vrij: right around the time I arrived in Tilburg, Prince Carnival—every town or village over there has one appointed for the carnival season—was expected there. I was basically crashing his welcome party!

Since I still had some time before my run, I seized the opportunity to discover the local craft beer scene. I didn’t expect many places to be open, or serving anything special during carnival, and my first intended stop—Café Kandinsky—was indeed closed… Luckily in the LOC Brewery it was business as usual, so I could try some of their beers there. I wanted to take a couple of cans for later—I love the Dutch hashers and their runs, but their choice of beers less so—but apparently there is a very strict separation between the hospitality industry and retail in the Netherlands! So after being unable to sell me any beer to go, bartender Teun was so kind to call ahead to Koen of De Bierbrigadier—the craft beer shop in town—to ask him to already put some LOC beers in the fridge for me, so they would be ready and cold for consumption later.

Amsterdam H3 Trail #1442 – Carnaval in Tilburg

With cold beers in my bag, I then headed to the start location for the run. As is not uncommon for trails by the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—the organisers of this run—the start was from the hare’s home. After waiting for everyone to actually find the place, and changing into a theme appropriate outfit, we were off! I was one of only two runners—the others were walkers—but we did get some nice views on trail the walkers didn’t! There were a couple of drink stops on trail, but one was quite unique: it was on a hand-operated chain ferry, in the middle of the canal!

After the run, we gathered back at Pink Panter’s apartment for Circle and dinner.

Since the Belgian rail unions were still partly on strike, I didn’t want to leave it until the last train to get home. So after dinner, I made my way through the partying city to the station—which was way less crowded than when I arrived there earlier that day—to catch an early train to Breda. Over there, it was a bit more chaotic—bigger carnival crowds, multiple last minute platform changes—but I made it on my train to Brussels eventually.

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Homage to a Clansman 2024

Published on 5 October 2024

Once again, the Scottish clans with members in Belgium, gathered in Ypres to pay homage to their kinsmen fallen in The Great War. This year, there were representatives of the clans Hay, MacLaren, Ramsay, MacKinnon, Lamont, Sutherland, MacLeod, MacMillan, and Scott.

Read here why I am a member of the Clan MacLaren Society

For the clan MacLaren, I was the only one member able to make it to the ceremony this year. I knew this quite a while In advance, so I was able to order a poppy wreath made at Lady Haig’s Poppy Factory, with the MacLaren clan crest and motto already mounted in it. Apart from the convenience, it is also nice to know that it keeps disabled ex-servicemen and women employed, and that the proceeds help out veterans and their families in Scotland.

So early on Saturday morning, I found myself at the train station in full, traditional Boy Scouts of Belgium uniform—including hat¹ and thumbstick—and my MacLaren kilt, to start my journey to Ypres. Earlier than I would have liked, but due to engineering works on the rail network my trip would include a replacement bus and take much longer than usually… Since it was a matter of of arriving 15 minutes late or 45 minutes early, I at least had some time for coffee and cake at local roastery SloWWings before the ceremony would start.

After meeting up with the other clansmen and clanswomen and the Grote Markt of Ypres, we marched to the Menin Gate, headed by the Clan Hay Pipe Band. After arrival, we waited for the stroke of twelve and the sound of the bugles playing The Last Post. The ceremony then started with a reading of the fourth stanza of “For the Fallen”, a poem written by Laurence Binyon:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

A representative of each clan than read out five names of their kinsmen fallen in Belgium and France in World War One. As the only Maclaren present, that honour fell to me. After that, each clan then in turn laid down a wreath. Again, for the MacLarens, for the first time, that honour fell to me.

After the ceremony we headed back to the Grote Markt of Ypres, for an aperitif in Clans Pub Les Halles, and a lunch in the In Flanders Field Museum café.

Since I had a long journey back to Brussels ahead of me, I said my goodbyes then and went back to the station, sadly missing out on the afternoon ceremony at the Scottish Memorial in Zonnebeke.

¹ The keen observer will have noticed the dents on my hat are wrong for a BSB hat. This is because I only replaced my old hat eaten away by moths the day before with a hat from the catholic scouts shop, and didn’t have time to reshape it.

More Interscandi!

More Interscandi!

Published on 27 July 2024

The first and only full day of Interscandi continues to follow the usual schedule: breakfast, run, lunch on the way, circle, and dinner and a themed party. Considering we were based in the second largest city of Germany, we had a surprisingly green run!

After last night’s pub crawl, the hot dorm room, and the loud music from the venues on the Reeperbahn, not everyone made it in time for breakfast, but luckily I did!

After an U-Bahn and an S-Bahh to Hoheneichen, we were ready to run the trail. My choice was the long trail, good for 14,3 km of running, including some ‘checking’ (running in the wrong direction to find out where the trail actually continues).

So, a note about the party and dinner: the theme was ‘vikings in drag or flip flops’, although the formulation changed over time, and mermaids were squeezed in there somehow as well… I decided to just go for a viking in a viking dress.

Since I’m not much of a party goer, I snuck out early to put my battle axe safely away, change into my usual kilt, and go back to Craft Bier Bar Hamburg, probably the bar with the most interesting taplist at the moment!

History and Hilarity in Hamburg

History and Hilarity in Hamburg

Published on 25 July 2024

A new day in a new(ish) city, that means I had to visit some history museums! However, since today was the day before the main, weekend-long hashing event, there was also—as hashers call it—a pre-lube: a Red Bra Charity Run! And that is exactly what it sounds like…

First things first though: breakfast and coffee! The Grosse Sache breakfast at Lieblings was ample, definitely enough to keep me going until the late afternoon run. For my coffee of the day I went to Nord Coast Coffee Roastery, bringing me closer to the part of the city where I would spend most of the day: HafenCity. I didn’t expect there to be a queue, but I decided just waiting my turn was still quicker than going somewhere else. The espresso macchiato was excellent though, so worth the wait!

On the cultural programme today: the tiny Speicherstadtmuseum and of course the huge Internationales Maritimes Museum.

After that it was time to head back to the hotel, but not before finally having a sit down coffee at Playground Coffee.

Then it was time to change into my special running outfit, and go all the way back to the other side of the Nordelbe river to the Veddel S-Bahn station! Here was the start for the Red Bra Charity Run, a run organised by the Edinburgh based BRAS* and Pants H3! The charity chosen to receive our participation fees, by the way, was Kinderbauernhof Kirchdorf, not too far from the Bunthaus Schankraum, where our run ended.

(*Brewery Runs Around Scotland)

After the run and a shower, I had time for two more bars on my list: Omnipollos Hamburg and the rather uninspiredly named Craft Bier Bar Hamburg, which had great beers nevertheless!

Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour 2024

Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour 2024

Published on 15 June 2024

The infamous Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour was exactly on the birthday of my breweries tattoo this year, the 15th of June. Like for the first and second edition, the turnout for this third edition was great!

In the end, three persons managed to visit and drink in all seven breweries, although in a slightly different order than myself: two needed to catch a train, so squeezed in Surréaliste somewhere in the middle, and another had to go to a concert, so he did the same with La Mule, the then join me again in the last brewery. They truly earned their patch!