Genève, Switzerland

This past weekend Paula and I took a quick flight to Genève in Switzerland to take in the sites, enjoy tons of fondue, raclette, wine and to buy a few massively expensive watches! Genève is not a place many of our friends have been and it not high on the list of places tourist guides tell you, you should go in Europe or even in Switzerland but it has a ton to offer in the way of history, scenery, shopping, food, wine, etc., so we made a weekend of it.

We arrived early on Friday morning on our one hour Luxair flight, complete with a little breakfast box. That is one of the best things about Luxair. No matter the length of your flight, you get a little breakfast or lunch or dinner and if you travel in the afternoon or evening, you can have wine, beer, cremant, whatever you want. We quickly picked up our bags and too advantage of the free train transportation from the airport to the center or Genève which is only a few miles away. After a 20 minute wait for the train, we were in the center of town in 6 minutes and then after a 1 minute tram ride, we were right outside our hotel. Although we were too early to check into our hotel, we dropped off our bags and started a nice walk into the center of town.

Our hotel was only a few minutes away from the train station so it was very convenient for that but a few minute walk from the real heart of the city but that did not matter, the streets seemed safe (aside from the area we talked through that had more than a few sex shops and hookers walking around) and the weather was good for the most part so we did not mind the walking. Plus they have a very good tram system that was also free with our stay in the hotel so we had transport covered.

Cologne, Germany

A few weekends ago Paula and I took a daytrip to Cologne, Germany to take in the sites and the hometown Kolsch beer and the local cuisine. We had planned to visit for Carnival several weeks back but didn't make it down so this was our first trip to this fine city.

More pictures and words to follow soon....

Pre-ZBF Days at Alvinne Brewery

On Thursday and Friday, 5 and 6 March, there was a great little beer festival being held at Picobrouwerij Alvinne that included just under 40 beers from Alvinne, Struise, De Molen and some collaberation beers between then.

A Weekend in Gent, Belgium

This past weekend we made the short 2 and 1/2 trip back to Gent for another weekend (we had previously visited in March of 2008) to visit with friends from the U.S. and England while attending 2 fantastic beer festivals outside of Gent.

Why Haven't There Been Many Post Lately?

Maybe you have asked yourself the question, why haven't we made many blog posts lately. Or maybe you haven't....but if you have there is one main reason...we have to work sometimes but have no fear, we have some nice travel plans coming up that should lead to some nice words and pictures in the near future!

Here is what our planning looks like at this point:

March

• The first full weekend of March, which just happens to be the first weekend of Philly Beer Week, we will try to forget about not being in Philly for this great week+ of events by visiting Picobrouwerij Alvinne in Belgium for a fantastic beer tasting with beers from Alvinne, De Struise and De Molen (from the Netherlands). Glenn the brewer at Alvinne and Urbain from De Struise have put together a fantastic 2 day tasting at Alvinne that leads up to the weekend Zythos beer festival in Belgium. This Pre-ZBF festival will have approximately 30 wonderful and rare beers from these brewers and some fancing sounding food as well. We also plan to visit both days of the Zythos beer festival for a period of time to see some friends and sample some nice Belgian beers. We will spend the weekend in the city of Ghent, which is a less traveled city that Brugge or Brussels it seems but has just as much charm and is a bit Dutchy with the canals and all so that is good as well.
• The last weekend of March we found cheap flights from Luxembourg to Geneva, Switzerland so we are going in search of Swiss watches and Army knives!

April

• We originally planned a trip in April to Dublin and parts of the Irish countryside including County Mayo where there is a Gaughan's Pub! I had visited Dublin and the Irish countryside with my parents in 2000 and we made our way to Gaughan's Pub in Ballina in County Mayo, only to find out that they were closed on this Sunday...boo hoo. I have since done research on Gaughan's Pub and found out it is owned by an Ed Gaughan, not my dad, and I also found out they no longer sell beer....what??? Oh well, we still want to visit. The problem is that we booked our trip over the Easter weekend and in Ireland....EVERYTHING is closed, including BARS and restaurants throughout the country on Good Friday and Easter Sunday and Monday things are not much better so we have made a smart decision to rebook the trip to May.
• At the end of April our friends Andrew and Tracy from Philly are coming to visit and we plan to show them around Luxembourg and also to travel to Brugge, Amsterdam and Utrecht in the Netherlands. This will be a very fun trip.

May

• We now plan to visit Dublin and other parts of Ireland at the end of May when things will be open!

June

• At the end of the month we are taking a short flight to London to visit the city a bit more and also to see Bruce Springsteen and the Dave Matthews Band in Hyde Park!