Blogging Luxembourg

Addi Luxembourg

2010-07-07T00:21:00.001+02:00

It has been awhile since I last posted as I have been a bit of slacker lately and because we have moved from Luxembourg. Although we were sad to leave this wonderful country, we are happy to be home again in the U.S. In the near future I hope to fill in the blank of some trips that we took but never posted on!

Easter in the Netherlands

2010-03-31T00:20:00.002+02:00

This Easter Paula and I are going to spend a longish weekend in the Netherlands..more specifically my favorite city, Utrecht for 2 days and nights, then Delft for an afternoon and then Amsterdam for the last 2 days and nights before returning to Luxembourg in time for the annual bird whistle festival.

This will be the last trip that Paula takes in Europe before heading back to the U.S. next week and what better place to make her last trip than one of our most favorite destinations...Utrecht! and the rest of Holland for that matter.

We are going to drive up to Utrecht and enjoy the shopping, eating, drinking and people watching that the city has to offer. It will also be nice to visit a few of my favorite hangouts from back in the day (circa 2000) as this will also be my last trip to Utrecht for several years I would guess.

After a few days in Utrecht it is off to Delft just for a few hours to pick up some cool Delft blauw tiles and other items we have been thinking of for some time but never purchased before.

Then we are on to Amsterdam for 2 days and nights of roaming around shopping, maybe taking in a slow canal cruise or anything else that comes to mind. We have dinner reservations at a cool farm/nursery restaurant on the outskirts of Amsterdam that serves only things grown on the farm and surrounding area. Should be a great dining experience.

More to come....

Brussels....Cantillon Open Brewing...Moeder Lambic oh my!

2010-03-16T23:35:00.004+01:00

As if the Pre-ZBF was not enough on Thursday and Friday, were trekked on to Brussels for a Saturday of fun starting off with a visit to De Heeren van Liederkercke, our favorite resturant in Belgium, for lunch and a few beers. Usually a stop at De Heeren could be a full day itself with the gourmet food and extensive current and vintage beer listing they have but we had a full day ahead.

When we entered Brussels, after dropping bags at the hotel, Keith and I were off to Cantillon and Paula was off to some last trip to Brussels shopping for goodies.

The trip to Cantillon was to see what we could see for their bi-annual open brewing day where you can wander around the brewery while they are doing everything in the brewing process from boiling, to pumping the wort in the koelchip which is really cool to see. They also clean barrel, kegs and everything in between. Although we got there later in the day, we were able to jump on an English tour and got to roam around the brewery, sample some beer at the end and buy a few items on the way out. We also chatted for a few minutes with the brewer Jean who is a really nice guy and a guy that is passionate about authentic lambic brewing.

After Cantillon, our next stop was to the new location of Moeder Lambic right in the heart of Brussels and conveiniently right across the road from our hotel. Great planning by our travel agent I must say. A trip to Moeder Lambic is a must on any visit to Brussels but this Saturday trip was extra special as it turns out.

First, Moeder Lambic having a mini-Cantillon festival with 12 of their beers on tap which is just unheard of but not for a bar that is about 2 miles from the brewery. In addition to several rare beer you usually only get in the U.S. in bottles (Iris, Saint Lamvinus, Fou Foune, Vigneronne) we were also lucky enough to try Zwanze 2008 with rhubarb and Zwanze 2009 with elderflowers. Both beers were wonderful on tap...in fact all the beers were wonderful on tap but the Zwanze 2009 really stuck out to me.

After being there for a good hour or more, the Cantillon family arrived as the guests of honor for the night. It actually seemed to be a bit of a beer industry party as Rob Tod from Allagash was there, Tom Peters from Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia was there and several other Americans that looked familiar but I did not know were there. We had a great night of Cantillon's, fantastic cheese and we even had a bit more conversation with Jean from Cantillon.

All in all it was a great night and a great cap to a beery weekend in Belgium that was also a sort of beer bachelor party for Keith!

Check out our fun.

Pre-ZBF 2010 Edition

2010-03-16T23:01:00.004+01:00

The Pre-ZBF festival 2010 edition could not get here soon enough.....and now it is sadly over and I am already looking forward to 2011. Now I just have to figure out how to get back to Belgium next year...

This is a wonderful festival that is put on by the great folks at Picobrouwerij Alvinne (Glenn, Davy and several others) in Heule, Belgium. Pre-ZBF is held a day or so before the much larger and more mundane Zythos Beer Festival that is held each year around the first weekend of March. Pre-ZBF is in my mind the festival of the year in Belgium as it is much smaller that the big boys but pound for pound the quality of the brewers and the beers served is second to none.

Paula and I took in our first Pre-ZBF in 2009 when it was held at the Alvinne brewery which is housed in a sort of farm house in a residential neighborhood and is very charming. The 2009 fest was packing with fellow beer geeks from all over the world and certainly packed with fantastic and rare beers.

Although I thought it would be hard to top the quality of 2009, the 2010 did indeed top the prior year. Firstly, the festival was moved to a larger location just outside of Brugge, Kasteel der Lakebusschen. We had to get transportation out to the kasteel from our hotel in Brugge but Glenn and Davy at Alvinne helped to arrange all of that so things ran smoothly on that front.

The actual Pre-ZBF festival was held on a Friday from 10am to 8pm. This part of the festival was open to the public so you could have ordered a ticket ahead of time or just showed up that day and got in for a reasonable entrance fee which included a tasting glass and some tokens. As with most beer fests in Belgium, you typically pay a small upfront fee and then each beer sample costs you a token or more and each token usually has a value of €1 or €1.50.

For a lucky few (about 50 or so which included Paula, my cousin Keith and myself) there was also a special beer and whisky night on Thursday. This included a meet and greet tasting which each brewer for about 2 hours where we were allowed to sample one special beer from each brewer but it ended up being that we were able to sample several different beers from each brewer...and all this before dinner! Dinner was served inside the castle in a fantastic space that is hard to describe but the setting was perfect for the damn fine food that was cooked up by Glenn from Alvinne and paired with 5/6 beers and whiskys.

During dinner we were lucky enough to sit at a table with some fellow beer lovers from the U.S. so the conversation was flowing all night. Sometime during the dinner we were suprised when Glenn from Alvinne annouced that there was a person in the crowd that could not drink because she was pregnant ant that just happened to be Paula. Glenn was so kind to present Paula with a nice set of baby bibs. It was a wonderful gesture from a wonderful friend, something we will always remember. In addition to the gift for our baby, Glenn also presented my cousin Keith and I with a huge 1.5 litre bottle of a new Alvinne creation, Cuvee de Freddy, as a sort of congrats on the baby present for me and a congrats on getting married for Keith! Now I just have to figure out how to transport the big bottle home to Paoli.....

After a wonderful night at the beer and whisky tasting...we were back to our hotel in Brugge and after a few drinks out in the city at the Bruge Beertje for Keith and I, it was off to bed to get ready for an early rise for the actual Pre-ZBF fest on Friday.

The brewery listed was expanded in 2010 to include Alvinne, Struise, De Molen (all of which were there in 2009) and there were the additions of Brewdog, Thornbridge and Urthel which were much appreciated.

The listing of beers was expanded to something outrageous like 70 beers, several of them collaberations between the various brewers, several of them draft only and only for the festival and every beer I tried was a winner and worth the few tokens they cost.

I could not say enough about the quality of Pre-ZBF and about how much I will miss it if we are not able to make it in 2011 since we will be living back in the U.S. by then. If we don't get back next year or for several years...at least I these pictures to bring back fond memories...

A Long Weekend In Munich

2010-03-13T00:25:00.005+01:00

A few weeks back Paula and I spent a long weekend in Munich to visit the city, take in a Dave Matthews Band concert, visit a beautiful castle and to visit the sad history of the Dachau WWII concentration camp outside of Munich.

We also got to visit a few brauhaus' in Munich including the famous but very touristy Haufbrau Haus. Did I mention we got to taste some wonderful and very affordable Bavarian food?

Being that Munich is the home of some wonderful German cars...we visited the BMW museum to dream a bit...

We also made a day trip out to the sad yet historic Dachau concentration camp and one of King Ludwig's castles.

Andescher Monastery

BMW Museum

The city of Munich

Dachau Camp

King Ludwig's Castle

Where have all the posts gone?

2010-03-12T00:21:00.001+01:00

I know, I have become really lax in posting about our travels in and out of Luxembourg but that is not for lack of activity! Since my last post many moons ago we have traveled to Munich and Cologne in Germany take in the historic sites and a few Dave Matthews Band concerts. We also spent a weekend in Brugge and Brussels in Belgium for a beer festival / bachelor party of sorts with my cousin Keith.

There have been other interesting adventures along the way including a quick stop in the U.S.

Hopefully this weekend I will get a few minutes of time to jot down some words and to upload pictures which are always more interesting than my words!

Cheers,
Greg

First Stop in Italy, Bra....really

2010-01-24T21:52:00.006+01:00

Over the Christmas break, we came back from a nice U.S. visit early and made our way on a 6 night trek through Piedmont region of Italy and the wonderful cities of Torino and Milano.

The first stop on our trek was to the little town of Bra for a lunch at a great little Slow Food restaurant, Osteria Boccondivino. This restaurant is known for their home made Italian food, including the amazing wine infused Risotto I ordered and super smooth and creamy gnocchi that Paula had. In addition to the great food, they had a cool wall of wine and we enjoyed a few glasses from there.

A weekend in Champagne

2009-11-22T18:14:00.002+01:00

Last weekend we took a trip to Reims and Epernay in the Champagne region of France. I can't believe we have not visited Champagne before as it is just over 2 hours from where we live in Luxembourg and an easy trip to make from Saturday to Sunday.

Paula and I traveled down with a few friends (Jen, Gilbert, Keil, Nora and Kristal) and we visisted 3 Champagne houses on Saturday in Reims and then another 2 on Sunday afternoon in Epernay before driving back to Luxembourg.

Check out some pix from our trip....

Brassigaume Beer Festival in Belgium

2009-10-26T21:00:00.007+01:00

The weekend of 17 and 18 October was the 9th edition of the Brassigaume beer festival, a great gathering of some regional brewers from the Luxembourg province of Belgium but also beyond this area including some UK beers and a good number of craft beers from Italy. Paula and I attended the festival last year and had to go back this year.

The festival is held each year in Marbehan, Belgium which is conveiniently located only 5 minutes walk from a train stop less then 30 minutes from Luxembourg!

We arrived late in the afternoon on Saturday the 17th and quickly had a beer glass in our hands and some wooden tokens to purchase samples. The entrance fee was only €3 per person including your glass and samples (about 15 cl each) were only €1.40 each.

Over the course of the next 4 hours or so we had several nice samples including some from Belgium (La Rulles, Sainte Hélène, Val Dieu, Brasserie de Cazeau), some from the UK (Brasserie Great Heck and Tiger Top) and some from Italy (Birra del Borgo, Brasserie Panil and Birra Orso Verde). I think our favorites of the night were a few from Birra del Borgo as they had an interesting porter with tobacco, an ale blended with Cantillon Lambic (how can you go wrong there?) and another lambic-ish beer with peaches.

We also spend a good deal of time chatting with old friends and new friends. I ran into 3 Belgian friends from work, a few beer friends from the UK, another American living in Luxembourg that I met at Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon just a few weeks earlier, a few American G.I.'s stationed in Italy that just happened to be Phillies fans. We also spent a bit of time talking to our friend Chris that is the owner of the great beer store Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon. Chris is a man of many hats. In addition to running a beer shop, he is also a school teacher, a sometime brewer and he also is heavily involved in the planning for Brassigaume it seems. Chris has a min-store setup at this festival so between selling beer, we talked about beer and tasted beer! He was kind enough to invite Paula and I to try a few very interesting lambic blends made by a Germany guy who attended the festival. All of his blends were very interesting and gave me some thoughts for my own lambic blending project that is in process.

All in all, another successful beer festival in Belgium and we were home before midnight to boot.

Check out a few pictures from the festival

Travels through Belgium, Luxembourg and Scandanavia With Family

2009-10-04T16:37:00.006+02:00

It may have been over 2 and 1/2 years from the original time we had planned it, but my cousin Keith, his fiancé Suzanne, and Paula and I finally made our trip together through Belgium on a beer hunting mission. We started off on Tuesday, September 22, when Keith and Suzanne arrived in Brussels and we quickly wisked them off to Brugge and the surrounding countryside.

Brugge
Our first destination near Brugge, after a quick stop in the town of Roeselare for lunch, we were off to a personal visit to the new Struise brewery in an old school. Upon arrival at the brewery, we were greeted by Urbain and his great hospitality. He treated us to several of his cutting edge beers and a tour of the current setup of the brewery and what is to come.

Check our pictures from our afternoon visit to Struise!

After leaving struise we were off to Brugge and a cute little B&B we had stayed at before, just a few blocks from a working old windmill. Once we checked in we headed out into the city for some site seeing and then dinner at Erasmus, one of the best restaurants in Belgium. Erasmus is known for their excellent food and equally excellent beer list. After dinner, Paula and Suzanne headed back to the B&B and Keith and I made our way to two different beer bars..the famous Brugs Beertje and then a cool little cellar bar, Poatersgat.

A few of our pictures from Brugge

After a day and night in Brugge, we were planning to spend Wednesday the 23rd in Antwerp, Belgium but we had a few stops along the way. First, we had a 10 am tour appointment at Rodenbach to roam around the massive wood foeders where they age their fantastically tart Rodenbach Red and Grand Cru beers. Although we had joined a tour of Dutch senior citizens, it was alot of fun to just roam around this historic brewery and to get two samples at the end of the tour.

After the tour, we were looking for lunch and had one place in mind, De Zalm in Roeselare, just a few blocks from Rodenbach. Besides having a nice lunch menu, De Zalm is most well known for serving on handpump the very rare Rodenbach foederbier which is Rodenbach straight from the wooden foeders so it is completely flat and very sharp and sour.

Check out our adventures at Rodenbach and De Zalm

Once we had filled our stomachs with some good Belgian lunch food, we were back on the road and how heading in the direction of Picobrouwerij Alvinne Heule, Belgium. Alvinne is run by brewers Glenn and Davy who are both great guys that happen to make some wonderful beers. Paula and I have visited Alvinne on a few occasions in the past year and have enjoyed their beer offering, their great beer store and their hospitality. This day we were heading to Alvinne for a visit with Glenn and Davy and some shopping. Glenn and Davy were gracious enough to let us come in for a tasting that included 4 different versions of their Melchior beer including: regular Melchior, calvados barrel aged, bourgogne barrel aged and bourbon barrel aged. Having all 4 of these wonderful beers side by side make the differences due to the different barrels come out really well.

Can I Blend a Lambic in Luxembourg?

2009-09-18T00:30:00.008+02:00

That is the question I have been asking myself for nearly 2 years! Luxembourg is a wonderful country in its own right and with the close proximity to Belgium and all the wonderful beer that country has to offer, I can't really complain. Not too much at least. Luxembourg does lack a bit in the beer department, especially when it comes to my favorite beer style...lambic.

Earlier this year I read online that you are able to visit certain lambic brewers in the Payottenland outside of Brussels and purchase jugs of lambic straight from the barrel..no bottles. A few months back Paula and I made a day trip up to the Girardin brewery outside of Brussels and purchased a 10 litre jug of their young (jonge) lambic straight from the barrel! We brought it to a party that evening and had it to drink in our apartment for several night and it was a hit! Fresh, tasteful, yet inexpensive.

This got me thinking...if I could purchase one jug of lambic from one brewery, could I purchase several jugs and "blend" my own gueuze or fruit lambic? Of course this experiment would be for fun and informational purposes only as what I would be don't is not brewing.

Fast forward to a recent weekend in September and Paula and I decided we needed to make another trip to Brussels and to spend the night. Aside from visiting some of our favorite bars and sites, we also stopped at 3 lambic brewers on our way into Brussels.

Our first stop was to Lindeman's, the lambic brewer that people are probably most familiar with due to the huge success they have selling their framboise, kriek and other lambics in the U.S. and around the world but those fruit lambics are usually sweetened with syrup and not real fruit like more traditional brewers do (see Cantillon and Drie Fonteinen). Lindeman's does however brew their lambic in the traditional method with spontaneous fermentation and they do sell this lambic directly from the brewery if you ask nicely. We showed up on this Saturday and it took about 20 minutes to find someone to help me. I wandered around the warehouse with crates and crates and kegs and kegs of their beer everywhere, destined for various parts of the world. I finally got the attention of a worker who was cleaning the brewhouse and he took my plastic jug and dissappeared behind some huge tanks and came out about 10 minutes later with my jug full of 10 litres of jonge lambic. After paying the equivalent of about $18 (what a steal for what amounts to about 13 wine sized bottles of lambic) we were off to our 2nd destination.....

...Girardin. We returned to this great little brewery to claim our second jug of lambic or to refill our first jug I should say. This time we got a 10 litre fill of their old (oude) lambic as I wanted something older to help with the blending of a gueuze. We were in and out in 10 minutes and on the road into Brussels and to our 3rd and final destination.....

...Cantillon! My favorite of all lambic brewers and probably my first or second favorite brewer of any kind. We had visited on several occasions before and have become friendly with the brewer Jean. I arranged ahead of time to pickup a 5 litre "bag in a box" of their lambic. It was a real treat for me knowing that I could get a box of Cantillon to take home. Before we left Cantillon we sat down for a complimentary glass of Rosé de Gambrinus! What a great way to start our day in Brussels.

After spending the rest of this fine day and night in Brussels, we were back in Luxembourg on Sunday before 5pm or so and then it was on to the task of trying to blend my beer purchases and how to blend these 3 different vessels of beer without having alot of extra containers to blend into. I took out a pen and pad of paper and a number of tasting glasses and I was off. First I was looking for a solid blend of all 3 beers for my "Luxembourg gueuze". I settled on a blend that included approximately 6 parts oude lambic from Girardin, 3 parts Cantillon lambic and 1 part Lindeman's. I next moved onto the idea of a 10 litre jug of a blend to be used as a fruit lambic. This blend was mainly Linedman's with a few litres of Girardin and a touch of Cantillon.

What did I do with the remaining 5 litres or so of beer that did not fit into the 2 jugs containing 10 litres each of my blends? Well I put some of it in a ceramic Cantillon pitcher we have and th rest in some plastic cereal containers to store in the fridge and to drink over the course of the next few nights.

On Monday I purchased 16 packages of fresh Belgian raspberries and blanched them and then added to the blend I made for this fruit lambic. What a sweet, sweet and messy process but boy did it smell amazing. Most of the fruit fit in but I had to drain some and drink it to make room for the full 16 packages. We tasted the beers we had to drain from the jug and it already had a slight pinkish color an taste of raspberries. I put both jugs in little coolers and put them down in our cave to age.

A few days later I went to check on them and noticed that the framboise blended was fermenting again due to the addition of over 1.5 kgs of raspberries! I was amazed. Over the next few weeks and months I will take samples of each blend to see how they are doing and when they are ready to be bottled. More updates on that to come in the future!

In the meantime, check out some pictures from our adventures....

Ed's Wedding and Family Visiting!

2009-08-13T21:14:00.001+02:00

Paula and I made our first trip home since Christmas to take part in Ed and Kelli's wonderful wedding on Friday, August 7th. Paula and I were both part of the wedding party and we had a great time. In addition to taking part in the special day, we also got a chance to catch up with pretty much all of our family which was great.

Check out pictures from our great weekend!

Ed's Bachelor Party at the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown Beerfestival

2009-08-13T21:13:00.002+02:00

For Ed's bachelor party we took in the Belgium Comes to Cooperstown beer festival at the Ommegang Brewery. We camped over Saturday night and aside from the 4 hour festival, we visited friends at several different campsites throughout the huge Ommegang farm and drank wonderful beers from the U.S. and Belgium.

Pictures from the festival and camping fun

A Weekend in Ireland with U2 and a Few Pubs!

2009-08-13T21:12:00.001+02:00

Luxembourg Beer Festival at the Cactus Supermarket

2009-08-13T21:07:00.000+02:00

DMB at the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland

2009-08-13T21:05:00.001+02:00

For the 4th of July weekend we took a trip down south to Switzerland to make our first visit to Zurich and to also take in a Dave Matthews Band concert at the Montreux Jazz Festival which was right on Lake Geneva.

A Long Weekend in London to See DMB

2009-08-13T21:01:00.002+02:00

After dropping Paula's Mom and Melissa off at the Luxembourg airport for their return to the U.S., we were off on a flight of our own from Frankfurt to London, England! We planned a nice weekend to do some site seeing, take in 2 Dave Matthews Band concerts and visit with some friends in London!

A Visit From Paula's Mom and Cousin

2009-08-13T20:59:00.001+02:00

Near my birthday in June (June 22nd for those that don't know) we got a visit from Paula's Mom and her cousin Melissa and we made the most of it by traveling to Brugge, Belgium and throughout Luxembourg and neighboring Trier, Germany.

2009 Tour de Luxembourg

2009-06-08T22:44:00.002+02:00

This week the Tour de Luxembourg was held throughout the Grand Duchy this week and the final stage ended with a few rounds of a very hilly course in the Clausen section of Luxembourg City. The race consisted of 15 international teams with the 2 main riders from the Saxo Bank team, Frank and Andy Schleck of Luxembourg, who are national heros around these parts! Paula and I showed up about 2 hours early to get something to eat and drink and to take in the sites and sounds of yet another cool event in Luxembourg. We planted ourselves about 50 yards from the finish where we had a great view of the riders as they were crossing the finish line.

The crowd was crazy each time the riders came around the course and especially when Frank Schleck won the overall Tour!

A weekend in Burgundy

2009-06-01T20:06:00.001+02:00

Soon to come, pictures from our recent weekend in the Burgundy wine region of France where we had much great wine and great food...like snails!

The Ølfestival in Copenhagen, Denmark

2009-05-17T21:22:00.009+02:00

This weekend was the Ølfestival (Danish beer festival) in Copenhagen. The fest is not just for Danish beers though, they had beers from the U.S., Italy, Sweden, Germany, England, Belgium along with Danish beers of course and probably a few other countries I am forgetting. All totaled there were probably over 1,000 beers and it had to be if not the best, probably the second best beer festival I have ever been to. The Danes really know how to run an efficient festival and make it a fun experience. There was not much in the line of drunk frat boys roaming around screaming and dropping their glasses like we get at fest in the U.S. Ok..there was a little of that but not much!

I had not planned in advance to go to the festival but after finding a pretty cheap flight from Brussels and a tiny and inexpensive hotel in Copenhagen, I was off on my own to the fest. My flight left Brussels at 7 am so I was up and out of the apartment a little after 3 am on the road to Brussels. The drive is very quick when there is hardly any road traffic. A short 1 and 1/2 hour flight and I was in Copenhagen. Another 10 minute train ride from the airport and I was in the center of town.

After checking into the hotel, I was off on a little shopping mission. When Paula and I visited Copenhagen back in August she fell in love with some cool rubber Scandanavian boots called Viking boots but she did not buy them and has regretted it since. We looked online but were not able to find these Viking boots for sale anywhere near us in Luxembourg. So when I decided to go back to Copenhagen for the beerfest, Paula made sure that I would look for these elusive boots. I did and I found them and brought home 2 pairs for her and I got 1 pair for me for good measure!

The festival started at 2pm on Friday but before heading there I had to make a shopping stop of my own at one of the best beer stores in the world, Olbutikken, run by the brother of the brewer at Mikkeller in Denmark. I had a bag full of beer I brought over from Luxembourg to trade with the owner Jeppe so I grabbed one of the free Copenhagen city bikes and peddled myself the mile or so from the hotel to the store. They were set to open up at noon and I figured I would get there a few minutes early but was surpised to find a line of about 20 people deep waiting to get in! I headed to the back of the line to wait out the opening. Once inside it was very tight but I managed to get a nice selection of very hard to get beers and then headed back to the hotel to get ready for the fest.

My hotel was only about 200 yards from the main Copenhagen train station so after a quick walk and a 10 minute train ride I was at the festival location. It was about 3pm on a Friday so the fest was not as crowded as it would be later in the day so I had a good run of the place and whatever I wanted to sample at the time. With the price of admission you get a nice little tasting glass, 10 tokens for samples and a handy little festival guide with descriptions of every beer for sample, all 1,000 or more! Now 99.9% of the descriptions were in Danish which I can't read but at least it said what style each beer was and it also pointed out the times for special keg tappings for limited beers so I made a handy little list of my must have beers.

Over the course of Friday and Saturday I was lucky enough to sample about 56 of the worlds best and most extreme / cutting edge beers, many of which will never be sold in bottles or will not make it the part of Europe where we live or to the U.S.

Check out pictures from my weekend fest trip to Copenhagen

Check out the list of beers that I was lucky enough to sample in Copenhagen

Weekend in Brugge

2009-05-10T22:45:00.005+02:00

Pictures of our Saturday and Sunday in Brugge with Andrew and Tracy and a ton of tourists!

After our time in the Netherlands, we headed up Saturday morning to Brugge. No trip to Belgium or the BeNeLux is complete without a trip to Brugge, the Venice of the North as they say. We roamed around Brugge, along with masses of other tourists, on the hunt for great beer and food and some sites as well. Paula and I just spent the night in Brugge and then part of Sunday afternoon before returning to Luxembourg later on Sunday.

One Day in Delft

2009-05-10T22:38:00.003+02:00

Check out some pictures from our day in Delft in the Netherlands

After spending 2 days and nights in Utrecht with our friends Andrew and Tracy, Paula and I went with them to Delft, just under 30 minutes from Utrecht. We had a hotel right on a canal and we were off on a nice day wandering around the city, taking in the sites, doing some shopping and eating and drinking of course. Delft is famous for their blue and white tiles and other Delftware as it is called. They also have some nice antique shops to visit.

Roaming Around Utrecht and the Countryside with Friends

2009-05-05T21:38:00.010+02:00

This past week we were happy to see our friends Andrew and Tracy come to visit us in Luxembourg for a weekend before they head to Liege in Belgium and Amsterdam in the Netherlands, before meeting back up with them a few days later in Utrecht.

They arrived on a Friday in Luxembourg and we stayed in our flat and had a bit of a traditional dinner that we eat in Luxembourg which consisted of amongst other things...sausage and beer! On Saturday we took in some of the sites in Luxembourg City for the better part of the day and then we headed off to Orval in Belgium for lunch and a visit to the abbey. Later that evening we headed back into Luxembourg City for dinner at Mousel Cantine which is a great Luxembourgish restaurant in the Clausen section of the Grund.

After going back to work for Monday and Tuesday, Paula and I packed up the little hatchback and were off to Utrecht, where Andrew and I used to live along with a bunch of other American's and folks from all over the world on a special project. This trip was all pleasure...no work...or at least not that much work. Just a bunch of emails on my Blackberry. We arrived in Utrecht after about 3 and 1/2 hours on the roam and just in time for lunch.

After parking the park and checking into the hotel, we jumped on a train to Bodegraven, a little town about 20 minutes outside of Utrecht to visit a great Dutch brewery called De Molen which just happens to be in an old windmill (molen). We arrived just in time to have lunch and a few beers. As expected, the food and the beer were fantastic and the scenery was cool as well. There were no other patrons in the restaurant at the time so we got great attention from the brewer dude except for when he went out shopping and outside to smoke. After lunch and a few drinks we headed into their small but stacked beer store where I was a kid in a candy store! They have beers from all over the world including their own beers, tons of hard to find Belgian beers, American beers and a nice selection of beers from Scandanavia. I think I purchased something like 12 or more bottles, several big ones but we came prepared with a bottle bag and a backpack.

On the way back to the train we stopped in a bike store and Paula bought a nice set of saddle bags with flowers for her bike back home. Then we jumped on a train for Utrecht and to meet Andrew and Tracy at our hotel.

Check out our pictures from De Molen

After a quick stop at our hotel in Utrecht, Paula and I headed out through town to the main shopping, eating, drinking and general good time area right along the beautiful Oudegracht canal. We were on a mission to find some seats at Cafe Belge which is my favorite bar from the days of hanging out in Utrecht back in 2000. This bar has a great view of the canal and a fantastic Belgian beer selection and is really a locals bars. We arrived and were lucky to find a table right at front with 4 seats for when Andrew and Tracy arrived a bit later. Thanks to newish smoking laws in the Netherlands, the bar was smoke free so we were able to enjoy our beers without the extra taste in the air! Andrew and Tracy arrived maybe an hour later and we had a few more beers before heading off on a little walk down memory lane through the little streets of Utrecht. It was nice to pass by some of the shops, restaurants and bars that we used to frequent in Utrecht.

We were also in the middle of Queen's Night which is a crazy party night before Queen's Day. They were setting up all kinds of stages for dancing and late night partying when we were walking through town looking for a place for dinner. There were also a bunch of boats floating down the canal with partygoers and a few dudes sitting on couches in front of stores, drinking beers. Good party atmosphere. We updated up having dinner on the Oudegracht at Casa Di David which is right on the water. This was one of our favorite restaurants when living in Utrecht a few years back.

More words to come soon....

In the meantime, check out pictures of our Utrecht wandering and pictures from our biking adventures!

Ten Hours in Brussels

2009-04-05T13:50:00.011+02:00

What to do on a nice Spring Saturday? How about a day trip to Brussels. It is only a 3 hour train ride and the weather was going to be pretty nice so we decided to taken an 8:20am train that got us into the center of town at 11:23. We had planned to take a 9:37 pm train back to Luxembourg so that gave us just about 10 hours to roam the streets of Brussels, shopping, eating and have a few nice Belgian beers. We had a nice train ride up including a couple that got on with a beautiful golden retreiver that was very friendly and came up to us a few times to lick us and let us pet her. She eventually went to sleep in the middle of isle and didn't get up much, even when people entered the car and were stepping over her. That is what I love about Europe, the friendliness to pets. Even the train conducter that came to check tickets stepped over the dog and didn't make a big deal about it. We would see a bunch of dogs of varying sizes on our travels through Brussels on this day.

Here is how our day unfolded:

As we had just arrived on time from a 3 hour train ride, we were in need of some refreshments so we headed right down to Morte Subite which was already opened. We entered this huge bar and were greeted by a nearly empty place which was nice, less smokey. We were very pleased to also be greeted by our favorite waiter who was featured on an episode of Three Sheets with Zame Lamprey so we knew it would be a good day. Paula ordered a Mort Subite white lambic and I ordered a MS Gueuze. Both were very nice and refreshing. We later ordered a mixte of cheese and salami...yum. At the same time I ordered another drink, a Mort Subite Faro. Yum as well. While sipping on our drinks and doing some people watching on the street, it was amusing to see a few groups of people come inside the bar to take pictures and just leave..without having a drink. Although we enjoy Mort Subite, we had too many other places to visit so off we were....

..to Delirium Cafe. Delirium is a beer destination as they have reportedly over 2,400 different beers, many from countries or breweries you may have never heard of or would not want to ever try but it is still worth a visit. This bar can get really really busy, noisy and smokey but I really enjoy their selection and checking out all the old beer signs and beer trays throughout the place. When we arrived there were only about 15 or so people in the whole bar so we were able to get a nice table (which is a huge wine barrel standing up) and we quickly dug into the massive been menu and order a 75 cl bottle of Fantome Pissenlit to share. I was very happy to find this beer as it is not usually available and was very fresh tasting for a beer from 2003. A nice afernoon treat. Although there were many more beers to drink, we had to move on....

Our next stop was for a quick lunch at Fritland for some Belgian Frites and some sort of burger hoagie thing. Good food none the less. And then we were on...

...to De la Décasse, a well hidden and more local bar that serves mostly lambic beers from Timmerman's. I had heard good things about this place but have never visited so we gave it a try. It is off a very busy restaurant area but down a non-descript alley that is easy to miss. Upon entering, we realized it was mainly a local spot as there were several families in there enjoying some jugs of lambic and everyone turn their hends when we talked in but we still felt very welcome. There are a good number of old wood tables with a mix of different chairs throughout the place and then a tiny bar in the corner where they serve 3 different lambics from tap and then a few more in bottles. They offer the beers in about 6 different jug sizes from a single serving up to a jug that seems to be about 2 litres or more in size! we order a jug of the Timmerman's Doux lambic from about a 75cl jug which was enough for 2. The beers were served in little tumbler glasses which fit in with the atmosphere of this place. The beer was refreshing and worth a try and the bar was definitely a good visit and we will come back on future trips but we only stayed for this one drink and then we were off again...

...this time to Toone, the bar and marionette theatre right off one of the main shopping streets and not far from Delirium a stretch of touristy restaurants where the waiters stand out from and beg you to come in to eat their cheap food. We always pass up on the offer and head to Toone. Paula was lucky enough to see a marionette show when our friends Heather and Ray came to visit in 2008 but I have yet to see a show. Someday. Toone is down a long alley that opens into a courtyard where there are 5 or so tables but it was a bit chilly so we went inside to one of the 3 or 4 rooms on the ground floor. It was fairly empty so we had no trouble finding a seat and took up the menu to decide what to drink. At about 4:08 pm we got our drinks, a Mort Submite Kriek for Paula and a Vieux Temps for me. Both decent beers. In addition to having some old marionettes hanging on the walls and various posters from some of their shows, we were also in a room that served as the old stage and seating areas for shows but apparently they now have the nightly shows at the top floor of the building which is several flights of stairs up, almost in the attic! Toone also has 2 cats that roam around the place and last time we were here, one came crawled onto Paula's lap and slept there for awhile. This time we saw one of the cats licking itself in the distance but he or she didn't come to talk. We did get a chance to pet the other cat, a black one, on our way out and onto the next destination....

...Delirium Taphouse. I know what you are thinking...back to Delirium again..in the same day? Well this is not exactly the same thing as Delirium Cafe although they are in the same building and owned by the same folks. The Taphouse is on the first floor and the Cafe is in the basement. We were visiting the Taphouse for one reason...they had De Dolle Cosmos Porter on tap. A very special new beers from De Dolle that is not in bottles, only on draft at select locations. We had it at the Zythos beer fest last month and when I found out from a bartender at the Cafe that it was upstairs, we had to come back when the Taphouse was open. Although it was a bit smokey when we got there, we found nice seats at the back of the bar in a new area that was opened up since our last visit. I of course had the Cosmos Porter and Paula had a nice glass of Houblon Chouffe which is one of her favorites. After one drink each we were off for more shopping and then to....

....the Poechenellekelder, a really nice bar right across from the Manneken Pis statue that draws so many crowds of tourists and gawkers. Because of the proximity to one of the most popular destinations in Brussels, the bar gets very busy with folks stopping in to take a look around and have an innocent beer so it is ofen hard to find a seat but since they had the tables out at the terrace in the front, I thought it would be easier to find a seat. When we entered the first floor was completely packed so I quickly headed downstairs where not everyone knows there is seating. I had a couple right on my heels but I was able to find us a cool little table in the basement with a nice view of some beer signs on the walls and a cabinet full of beer books. We each ordered a beer from the draft special list: Paula ordered the Gouden Carolous Hopsinjoor and I ordered an Easter beer, the Slaghmuylder Passbier which was ok but nothing special. Paula's beer is very good and another of her favorites. After that we ordered a treat, a 75 cl bottle to share of the De La Senne Jambe de Bois which is a hoppy tripel beer and one I have been trying to find for several months. It proved to be worth the search for this one! After the Jambe de Bois we moved across to the street to...

....Taverne Manneken Pis which is also busy due to the proximity to the Manneken Pis statue but not as busy and it has a less extensive beer list but still is a charming corner bar. We easily found a table and each had one beer before hitting the road. Paula had a Tripel Karmeliet and I had a new beer, a Hopus, which was a nice hoppy pale ale served in a nice flip top bottle and in a huge glass with a huge head to match!

After these last drinks, we headed to get a waffle for the road, a real waffle, not one with all the creat and chocolate and strawberries on them. just a plain sugar Liege waffle. We packed that away for the train ride home and headed over the Greek area for a chicken pita each for the walk back to the train station for dinner. This is an odd street with a guy standing out in front of each trying to entice you into their restaurants. We went to the least offensive one and got some tastey pitas for the walk! Our train left Brussels at 9:37pm and got us back into Luxembourg at 12:40 am and we were back to the apartment with Molly at about 1am and then off to bed!

Concert Going in Europe....

2009-04-02T21:24:00.004+02:00

When living in the U.S., Paula and I would see a few concerts a year...usually the Dave Matthews Band or G. Love or Matchbox Twenty or something along those lines. I have personally seem DMB 33 times in my 33 years....Paula has seen them about 8 or 10 times and we have seen U2 once together in the U.S. but we have only seem a few shows so far in while living in Europe.

Our first European show was the Counting Crows in Luxembourg and then this past summer we saw Ben Harper/G. Love / Jack Johnson in London and we actually met Jack Johnson in the park before the show and had a great time.

We this year we are really packing in the concerts! We finally get to see DMB in Europe. About a month ago I heard that DMB was coming to Europe so we found tickets online for a DMB show in Hyde Park in London playing with Bruce Springsteen! The show is sort of a festival in Hyde Park with nearly a days worth of music so we are really looking forward to that. Being in London is great as they speak English which feels good every now and then. Plus we have some nice bars and restaurants to visit so it will be good to be back there.

It just so happens to be that while we are in London for the DMB / Boss London Calling show, DMB is also playing earlier in the weekend at a smaller venue and we found tickets for that as well. The London Calling show is in a huge park so it can probably hold 20 or 30 thousand folks or more but the smaller DMB show can hold maybe 4 or 5 thousand which is nice!

Then next show on our musical tour through Europe is to see....wait for it.........U2 in DUBLIN! I waited and waited for this to happen and finally it came about that U2 announced the dates for their new tour to support the recent album No Line on the Horizon. I managed to get decent seats for the Saturday, 24 July show in Croke Park. It turns out that U2 is playing 3 shows over the weekend in a huge stadium that holds about 80,000 folks and all 3 sold out quickly!!!! We now need to get some flights and a hotel in the city. We are also thinking of taking a day trip to Ballina in County Mayo where my family is originally from. We will see if we have time.

The last show we have booked just came up today. I found out that tickets went on sale for the Montreux Jazz Festival which is right on Lake Geneva in a wonderful location and it turns out that the Dave Matthews Band is playing on the 4th of July so we scooped up 2 tickets today! DMB is playing along with Steely Dan so that is nice as well.

Shortly after I turn the big 3-4....I will have seen DMB 36 times!!! woo hoo...

Genève, Switzerland

2009-03-30T20:42:00.004+02:00

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

2009-03-30T20:37:00.002+02:00

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

2009-03-08T19:08:00.005+01:00

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

2009-03-08T19:06:00.002+01:00

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?

2009-03-01T12:00:00.002+01:00

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!

A Saturday Afternoon Visit to Lambic Country

2009-02-01T12:56:00.006+01:00

Since it turned out to be a nice Saturday, we took a little drive Northwest to just outside of Brussels to the heart of lambic country known as Payottenland. Our specific destination was to the Girardin lambic brewer and gueuze blender. Girardin is a family run operation on a farm that is really in the countryside down a bunch of roads that are two way roads but can barely take one car at a time!

Although we were not able to take a tour of the brewery as they are usually closed to the public unless you have a prior arrangement or a large group, we were able to visit their brewery store where they sell all their beers in bottles and they also sell 10 litre jugs of several different beers including jonge (young) lambic, oud (old lambic, kriek ( lambic with cherries) and faro (lambic with sugar). We were in line behind a couple who were purchasing about 3 cases worth of various Girardin beers.

I was on a mission to get a 10 litre jug of lambic and then a few bottles of beer as well. We were going over to a friends house that evening for dinner so a large jug of freshly made beer would be just perfect! Plus I can't drink such a large jug all myself.....

We were helped by a very nice older man who filled a jug up for us with jonge lambic straight from the barrel! We also bought 12 bottles in total of 4 different beers including faro, 2 different kinds of gueuze and some framboise (lambic with raspberries). Each bottle was about €1.50 ( a real steal of a price!) and the jug was €16 for 10 litres which works out to €1.60 a litre which is larger than an average wine bottle. The price was a fantastic deal but besides the price, getting a fantastic lambic beer right at the brewery and straight from the barrel can't be beat!

After our lambic haul, we took about a 20 minute drive to Liederkercke, Belgium to have lunch at De Heeren Van Liederkercke. Paula and I were here once together with my brother and Kelli came to visit and I also went once myself a few months back to lunch. They have wonderful Flemish food and a fantastic selection of Belgium beers, heavy on lambics and gueuze and vintage beers as well. The restaurant was empty when we got there but quickly filled up with locals that all seemed to know the owners. For lunch Paula had coq au beer (instead of coq au vin as this was a beer restaurant) and I had stoofvlees which is a nice beer stew type dish with frites! The highlight of the lunch for me was a 1992 bottle of Alexander Rodenbach which tasted fresh despite its age in the bottle.

Overall is was a nice afternoon in Belgium and we were back in Luxembourg before 5pm.

Berlin During Christmas Time

2008-12-18T01:09:00.002+01:00

Paula and I spent the first weekend of December in the historic and up and coming city of Berlin and what a great time we had. Take a look at a few pictures for now. More words and pix to come either during holiday break or after the break!

Our Favorite Bar Dog

2008-11-30T22:13:00.005+01:00

A few times over the last several months we would visit a corner bar in Strassen. Although it is a bit smokey inside and it is locals bar, the main reason we go is because there is a dog that hangs out at the bar that comes over to talk to us and let us pet her. Her name is Tricksy and she is very friendly and seems to greet everyone that comes into the bar. During the warmer months they leave the front door open and the comes in and out from time to time to check out what is going on outside the bar. We realized that Tricksy does not speak English so she really doesn't understand what we say when we talk to her but she is friendly all the same!

A Daytrip to Brussels for the Cantillon Quintessence

2008-11-23T19:36:00.006+01:00

I got an email a few weeks ago from the Cantillon brewery in Brussels noting that they were having a cool open house tasting event on Saturday, 22 November that included about a dozen of their fine lambic beers, paired with local and regional foods and the kicker of it all was that it was only €15 per person! With todays exchange rates that is only about $20 to taste a full lineup of some of the best beers in the world and beers that are fairly expensive if, or should I say when, you can find them in the U.S. I emailed the brewery a few days later and made a reservation.

We debated about going up Friday night to stay 1 or 2 nights in Brussels but this would be our fifth trip to Brussels in less than 1 year so we opted to take a 8:24 am train from Luxembourg to Brussels which is so convenient and reasonably priced at €58 roundtrip for 2 people at a special weekend rate. We arrived in Brussels about 11:30 am and had only a 5 minute walk to the brewery. When we got there we were greeted by a bit of a line at the door but we were able to pay and have a tasting glass in hand in 5 minutes. The tasting was one from 10 am to 4 pm and for your money you got 10 tickets that were good at each of 10 different stations throughout the entire brewery. At each you got a nice sample of a Cantillon beer and a finger food items, mostly on bread. At a few stations you got to sample 2 beers. In these instances we were able to try to standard fruit lambic like their Kriek and then the premium version with more fruit added like the Lou Pepe Kriek. In most cases we got a little story about the beer we were sampling.

During the tasting we ran into our friend Chris that owns a great bottle shop in Arlon, Belgium, Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon. He was at the Cantillon tasting with about 20 members of his tasting group which meets each month at his shop for different beer tastings. We also got recognized by the Cantillon brewer which was pouring their gueuze so that was cool. We last saw him at Mi-Orge Mi-Houblon a month or so ago doing a tasting at the shop and then we were at Cantillon in September with Ed and Kelli. I guess from seeing a few times in the last 2 months he remembered us which was cool. At the 9th of 10 stands we started talking with the guy pouring Cantillon Iris which was matched with a fantastic peacan tart! When we started to speak English he asked where we were from, we said Philly and he got all happy when we said that. He talked very highly about Tom Peters, one of the owners of Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia. This fellow, named Lorenzo, also mentioned that he is good friends with Sam Calagione, the owner of Dogfish Head in Delaware. It was a nice end to a great day of tasting.

We left the Cantillon brewery a little after 2pm and walked into town and stopped at the Mannekin Pis frite stand for some lunch. After that we did a little shopping and then stopped at the Delirium Cafe for a drink or 2. Even at this early part of the afternoon the bar was packed but we were lucky to find a table in the back. We sat in the section clearly marked "NO SMOKING" but there were a good 15 people or so smoking in that section so it was pretty much a joke. We left and did more shopping and got caught up in some snow but nothing big. We then hit 1 or 2 more bars before stopping in the evening for a pita in the Greek area of town and then we were on a 8:37 pm train back to Luxembourg and in our apartment by 10 minutes after midnight. It is nice that Brussels is so close and we can do a day trip from there. It was nice to sleep in our own bed and wake up in our own apartment the next morning.

Check out the pictures we took of this cool tasting day!

The Luxembourg Festival of Lights and Trees

2008-11-23T16:24:00.003+01:00

A week ago Saturday, the 15th of November, Paula and I met up with a group of Americans to take a walking tour of the Luxembourg Festival of Lights and Trees. I could try to describe it all to you but it would probably be better if I just lifted some words I found on the internet that describe things....

The tress & lights festival concept was started in Geneva in 2001, with 18 international artists involved, but the concept of having open-air art festivals in Luxembourg started in 1995 when Luxembourg was the European Capital City of Culture. And credit also goes to Prince Felix who recommended that the festival be brought to the Grand Duchy.

This festival will see 10 artists' creations across the city, including four Luxembourg creations and three created specifically for this festival.

ArcelorMittal and LEO (Luxembourg Energy Office) are credited as main sponsors, the latter contributing to a 100% sustainable energy source for the festival exhibits.

The festival opens on Friday evening (24 October) at 19:00 on the Place Guillaume with a "Nuit du Festival", until 30 November. Jugglers, musicians and open fires will amuse visitors to the exhibits, and roasted chestnuts, tea and gluwein will also be available. And a tourist train will start from the Place de la Constitution at 20:00, taking visitors to all the exhibits. Additionally, three guided tours will depart from the Hotel de Ville on the Place Guillaume at 19:00, 19:30 and 20:00. The LCTO will also be organising free guided tours throughout the festival on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 18:30, starting in front of the Hotel de Ville.

The artists and their creations are listed below:
- "Brothers and Sisters" by Ron Haselden (England) at the Place des Martyrsds
- "Light Trees" by ACT Design (Belgium) at the Place de Metz
- "Focusing Life" by Marco Godinho (Luxembourg) at the Place de la Constitution
- "Hana-mi" by Simona Braga (Italy) at Bld Roosevelt
- "Le Trésor" by Cédric Le Borgne (France) at the Pont du Grund
- "Cohabitation" by Géraud Périole (France) at Square Robert Brasseur, sponsored by KPMG
- "TransGleditsias" by Elvire Bastendorff (Luxembourg) at the Grand Rue
- "Cellule originelle" by Studio CS (Switzerland) at the Bld Royal
- "Ouni Titel (7m héich)" by Mertens & Quetsch (Luxembourg) at the Place d'Armes
- "L'envoi" by Jean-Francois Arnaud (France) at the Place Guillaume II

Check out some pictures from our 2 hour journey around Luxembourg City at night to take in the lights!

A Second Visit to Amsterdam

2008-11-05T22:46:00.007+01:00

For Halloween weekend Paula and I took a train up to Amsterdam to enjoy the sights and sounds once again. We had visited for a day in May when visiting Utrecht but this time we spend the entire weekend in Amsterdam and Amsterdam only. We got up there early on Friday afternoon and checked into our hotel near the Van Gogh Museum. We wandered around for awhile and then found a pancake house for lunch and some traditional Dutch lunch pancakes which were yummy. We eventually ended up at the Anne Frank house for a tour of this sad but historic museum and then we headed off for a drink and then on to the Van Goghn Museum for a visit of his paintings. On Friday nights they open the Van Gogn until 10pm and have a dj and light food and drinks. We stuck around for a glass of wine while hanging out in the lobby of this cool museum. After the Museum we walked over to our destination for a late dinner, The Pantry, which had traditional Dutch food that was very good. My dish consisted of 3 different types of mashed potatoes and a meatball the size of a softball which was great! Paula had a nice dish of grilled prawns and we shared a really good bottle of Dutch wine. I didn't know there was good Dutch wine but apparently this was one of the best. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a few drinks at our hotel bar.

On Saturday we were greeted by rain throughout the day but we made the best of it. After a proper English breakfast at a nice little cafe, we roamed the city doing some fine shopping and dipping our heads into a cafe here and there for a drink or 2. We had lunch at a nice cafe off the main track but still busy with locals. It was canal side and we happened to be across the street from a bar where a group of about 8 American's and maybe some Dutch were still dressed for Halloween...as several world leaders including Barack Obama, Kin Jon Il, Vladamir Putin, Tony Blair, Nelson Mandela and several others. After smoking a few cigarettes and downing a few beers, they jumped on this huge red bike that all of them could peddle on. Check out a few pictures of this at the link below.

Later on Saturday we had dinner at Boom Chicago and then stayed for their very very funny show about the presidential election called "Bye, Bye Bush". We had heard about this show when we were therer in May and had to come back for it, especially since it was only a few days before this historic election.

Sunday was our last day in Amsterdam so we spend the last few hours before our train doing more shopping, picking up some little touristy things here and there, including by big orange clog slippers! All in all another fine trip to Holland which made me wish more and more that we were living back in Holland. Maybe somedays...

Check out our Amsterdam pictures...

Phillies Win....Phillies Win....Finally the Phillies Win!!!!

2008-11-05T22:32:00.006+01:00

The Philadelphia Phillies have finally won the World Series after 28 years of pain! My brother Ed and I were at the last Phillies WS win in 1993 and that was a great feeling but watching them win it all is the ultimate. I stayed up late or got up early to watch all the playoff games against the Brewers, Dodgers and Rays.

Although we know the Phillies had a great season and a great team, one fact you don't hear about how they broke their curse of no championships relates to a Chase Utley Smurf that was born in March 2008 in Ghent, Belgium, before Spring Training started in April. You won't read about this on espn.com or philly.com but I think my making of the Chase Utley Smurf doll is what put us over the top!

Our First Visit to Strasbourg, France

2008-11-05T22:31:00.002+01:00

It took over a year but Paula and I finally visited Strasbourg, France which is about 3 hours by train or a little over 2 hours by car to the South of Luxembourg. We decided to take the direct train from Luxembourg early on a Saturday morning and spend all day Saturday and most of Sunday roaming the town and taking in the cute little town. Strasbourg is probably most well known for their Christmas markets but there is plenty to see and do before the holidays arrive.

I had a little bit of a dilemma for Saturday night as the Phillies were playing in game 3 of the World Series vs. the Rays and I could not miss it. Luckily the hotel had free wireless internet in the rooms so I brought my laptop along with me to wake up at like 2am to watch the game online. Well it turns out there was a long rain delay before the game started so I went back to bed and woke up to catch the first pitch and the rest of the thrilling 5-4 win. Although I didn't get to bed until about 7am due to the delay and length of the game, it was worth it to get a wine.

Check out pictures from our short but fun weekend in Strasbourg!

4th Annual Dogfish Head Intergalactic Bocce Tournament!

2008-10-03T22:49:00.003+02:00

Yes that is right, this past week was the 4th annual bocce tournament at Dogfish Head and I traveled all the way from Luxembourg to Delaware to participate with my team of monks. Check out some pictures....

Pictures from the Bocce Tournament

Pictures from the Dogfish Head Brewery tour

Pictures from the afterparty at the brewpub

Running My First Bar in Luxembourg!

2008-09-20T23:57:00.008+02:00

Ok, it was not a bar I own or even a real "bar" but today Paula and I volunteered to help with a stand at the Discover Luxembourg day in Luxembourg City and we were put in charge of running a Bofferding beer tent. We had originally wanted to sign up a team for the Discover Luxembourg event which was basically a scavenger hunt through town but we didn't get registered in time so we opted to volunteer. We thought we would just be assisting those actually running the tent but they basically turned the tent over to us when we showed up but all was good. We were only selling beer, soda, orange juice and water. We were talking with our other volunteer neighbors who were selling pizza and cremant (sparkling wine). I was in charge of the beer all day and poured about 250 beers or so! There was only one option for beer but I was pouring from 2 taps at the bar. It got busy at times and it took awhile to learn the best way to pour without losing too much beer as the beer was coming out with alot of carbonation and very fast. Plus the glasses were only 30cl so they filled quickly. After many pours and samples, I found my groove and the night went well. After about 5 hours or so we were done and ready to head home! It felt like I was back in the days of working a stand at the Moscow Country Fair with my family although for the fair we did not sell any alcohol so this was more fun! I think this is good practice for the day when we own our bar either here in Luxembourg or back home in the Paoli area.

Check out the fun we had....

My Beer Glass Collection

2008-09-20T14:57:00.005+02:00

In just around 11 months living in Luxembourg I hav amassed a pretty decent collection of beer glasses. This is on top of the sizable collection I have stored away in boxes in a few places back in Pennsylvania. All the glasses I have in our Luxembourg flat were either purchased on our travels through bars and breweries in Belgium, grocery stores in Luxembourg or different markets here in Luxembourg. There are also a few from a brewery in Switzerland we visited in October for their 10th anniversary party.

Enjoy the pictures!

Ed and Kelli's European Visit - Part 1

2008-09-20T10:08:00.017+02:00

We had our first family visitors to Luxembourg and the surrounding countries when my brother Ed and his fiance Kelli came to visit from 5 September through 15 September. We first met up with Ed and Kelli when they arrived in Brussels. We spent the first 2 days in Brussels, then moved on for 2 days in Brugge. After playing around in Brugge and the surrounding countryside, we moved on to a day in Antwerp and then to Luxembourg for the remaining time.

Brussels - On 5 and 6 of September we cruised around Brussels. On Friday the 5th we started with a beer and lunch at Poechnellekelder right across from the Manniken Pis. We then wandered over to the Cantillon brewery for a tour and some extended tastings. In addition to the 2 samples you get in the tour at Cantillon, we also got to try their draft faro, straight lambik and also Broucsella straight from a bottle coming off the bottling line from the brewer. We also got to talk with the brewer a bit which was cool. We mentioned that we were from the Philadelphia area and they said they had some good friends in Philly including Tom Peters from Monk's Cafe. It just so happened that Tom was at the Cantillon brewery the day before to choose the barrel for their next Monk's Cafe Gueuze. Darn, we missed him by one day!

On the 6th we started our the day with a trip to the Brussels city museum and then off to the lambik countryside and lunch at Drie Fonteinen. Aside from really good food, they had their draft faro, kriek and a few others. After lunch we walked around the corner to the brewery and brewery shop to pick up a few bottles. When ready to leave Ed mentioned that we were from Philly and that he had seen the brewer Armand at a few events in Philly in March with my cousin Keith. Much to our surpise that was enough to get us a great tour of the brewery and their newly opened Lambik Droom tasting cafe. Lydie, partner at the brewery with Armand started by giving us a great tour of the brewery and then the barrel room down below in the cellar. Not only did we get a vip tour but Lydie grabbed a pitcher and cracked open a barrel of lambik and gave us several sample straight from the barrel. There is really no other place on earth to have their beer as pure as this as it would not travel well or and it is not bottled in this state. We moved on from the barrel room, after many pictures, over to the Lambik Vroom for more tasting, this time with Lydie and Armand the brewer! We were treated to gratis samples of their oude gueuze, oude kriek and kriek straight from the barrel. Side by side with the bottled kriek, the kriek straight from the barrel was hard to beat!

After about 2 hours with Lydie and Armand, we said our goodbyes and headed further into the countryside to take in a beerfest at De Heeren Van Liederkercke, a great restaurant outside of Brussels. We wanted to visit anyway as I have heard they have a great beer cellar and excellent beer cuisine but they were also having a beer fest that included a good deal of the beers they had on their menu. We were able to try some stellar beers for only a few euros each including the rare Drie Fonteinen Hommage and their J & J Blauw! We also stayed for dinner and had a great time listening to a band play music and watching kids in spiderman outfits running around while their parents drank great beer. Overall a great day.

We headed back to Brussels in the early evening and hit a few more bars for good measure including Morte Subite and Porte Noire. Brussels is one great beer city.

Brugge - After 2 days in Brussels, we headed off to Brugge about an hour away. We spent Sunday and Monday (7th and 8th of September) in this walled and watered town. I was stoked because our B&B we were staying in was on the outside of town, outside of all the crazy one way cobblestoned streets and all the people. When we arrived I was delighted to find I had my very own garage to park in and at the cheapest rates of the whole trip! The owner of our B&B was very nice, had several cats and knew alot about beer. When we told her that we were visiting Westvleteren on Monday to pick up some beer, she knew all about it and said she had a few crates at home and really liked the 8.

On Sunday and again on Monday evening we visisted a good deal of the Brugge beer bars including 't Brugs Beertje, Cambrinus Restaurant, Staminee de Garre, Brasserie Erasmus and De Zolder Keldercafe. Check out some pictures from these great stops.

On Monday the 8th we headed started the day off with a great sightseeing tour on the canals of Brugge. Check it out.

Later in the morning we all piled into the car and headed west to the Abbey at Westvleteren for lunch at the In De Vrede cafe next to the Abbey and then we had an appointment at 2:45 to pick up 2 crates of Westy 12, one of the best and some sought after beers in the world. We were not sure how we would fit 2 crates of beer in the car after we loaded in all the luggage and other things we purchased along the way but it all worked out.

After the great stop at Westvleteren we headed over to the Struise Farm for a visit and some sampling of the great beers they produce. Although the brewer, Urbain, was hard at work doing some bottling, he was gracious enough to spend time with us sampling about 5 beers including Fedeltà, a slightly sour blonde beer that Urbain said he had recently brewed at Allagash in the U.S. Next up was the Tsjeeses Reserva from a 750ml, a beer that is not even released to the public but that Urbain keeps on hand for samplings. After that we moved on to Dirty Horse, a fantastic beer that I had been waiting to try for some time. The beer was 5 years old and served from a really cool wine decantor. This the Struise take on a lambik style beer and it also has some flemish sour characters. The next beer was Pannepot Grand Reserva from a 750 ml bottle which I have never seen before. Another great beer. With some of the PGR left in Paula's glass, Urbain talked about a new beer he had recently brewed for a group in Sweden. This new beer, Black Jack is billed as an imperial porter with a special coffee used in fermentation. I think the coffee is Columbian. Urbain pulled some of the beer from the barrel and mixed it into Paula's PGR and it was a fantastic beer. The coffee aroma from the Black Jack was noticable once you got your nose just close to the glass and it was wonderful in the taste as well. Even after letting the last 1/2 ounce of the beer sit in the glass for 10 minutes or more, the coffee quality was still strong. I will surely be searching out this beer in Sweden if need be! After another great visit to Struise we were off to Brugge for the evening and a great dinner and some drinks at 't Brugs Beertje and the Garre, two great bars.

Antwerp - On Tuesday the 9th we headed off to a brewery tour at Rodenbach. Although the tour was only in Dutch, the brewery was good enough to let us join along with about 30 Dutch senior citizens and it was a great time. In addition to wandering around rooms full of huge wood foeders aging wonderful Rodenbach beer, we also got some nice samples at the end of the tour. After the tour we were on to Antwerp and a mission to spend a few hours at the Kulminator, one of the best beer bars in th world and they probably have the best aged beer cellar in the WORLD!

I could go on for days about the Kulminator but I can only type so much before I have to go to bed so I will hit some of the highlights. On two trips to the Kulminator that night, we had several great beers including Struise Earthmonk and Struise Pannepot Grand Reserva and we did a little blending experiment and it was damn fine. In addition to that we cracked into their vintage collection and pulled out a 750 ml bottle of Felix Oudenaards Kriekbier from 1975, a beer as old as me! Despite being as old as dirt, it tasted damn fine also. The cherry taste was very present and there was also some carbonation. One fine beer and served in a cool basket so it was all good. We also had a 1995 De Neve Gueuze that also had a fresh character to it and was another excellent aged beer. After sharing those 2 beers from breweries no longer in business, I moved on to a 1979 Oud Hoegaards Bier Blanche which is basically an early version of Hoegaarden and aside from no carbonation, this beer also held up very well. Between all of this Paula had a bottle of Kwelchouffe from 2000 which is no longer made. At the end of the night Ed and I shared a bottle of 1982 Thomas Hardy's and it was a great way to end the night.

A Cruise on the Moselle River in Luxembourg

2008-08-31T21:10:00.007+02:00

Since it was such a great day outside today, Paula and I made our first visit to the Moselle wine region in Luxembourg. This wine region runs along the Moselle River on the East side of Luxembourg which boarders Germany. We headed to the town of Remich which is less than 30 minutes from our flat and very easy to get to. When we arrived the town was completely full with people everywhere. There were many motorcylces running around town and many people lining the Moselle River, sun bathing and unfortunately some of the were wearing speedos!

We hopped on a cruise boat that takes you up and down the Moselle River for about 1 hour. For only €7 per person this was a deal and a good way to get some sun while taking in the sites. On the Luxembourg side it seemed like there was nothing but wine fields and nice apartments facing the River.

Check out some pictures from our day in the Moselle Valley

2008 Schueberfouer in Luxembourg

2008-08-31T21:02:00.004+02:00

On 25 August the 668th edition of the Schueberfouer opened up on Luxembourg City. The Schueberfouer is a huge fair that takes over the large Glacis parking lot in the Limpertsberg section of Luxembourg City, right in from of one of my company's offices. There are tons of rides to thrill kids and adults including a farriswheel, a bunch of things that left you up and spin you in all sorts of directions and even a little water ride!

In addition to the rides, there are tons of stands to win all sorts of prices from stuffed animals to Playstation 3's, Nintendo Wii's and plasma tvs. If would not be a fair in Luxembourg without tons of food and drinks and there is plenty of that. We have been to visit 4 different days already and have had several meals here and a good sampling of the drinks as well.

The fair runs until 10 September and during the week is open from about 11am to 1am and on the weekends runs until 2 am! We were there this weekend until after midnight and it is still packed with people of all ages enjoying the rides, food and drinks but there tends to be more punky kids at that point.

Check out our pictures so far from the Schueberfouer...we will be back several more times before it ends!

Brussels Flower Carpet

2008-08-17T20:13:00.005+02:00

Once every 2 years (.... 2004, 2006, 2008) the Grand Place in Brussels is completely filled with a huge flowercarpet made of begonia flowers that is put on public display. The total size is larger than an American football field. The flowercarpet this year was on display from 15 through 17 of August. Paula and I took the train from Luxembourg to Brussels on Saturday morning to check it out for the day and to take in the sites of Brussels again. For €3 you can go into the City Hall building and view the carpet from the 2nd floor to get some pictures. Viewing from the street level is free and you can stand all around if you like, you just have to watch out for crazy picture taking tourists from all over the world!

Follow this link for more details on the history of the flower carpet in Brussels

Check out pictures from our visit, some from today!

While snapping some pictures of the flowercarpet, we also visited some of the best beer bars in Brussels, again. Check out some pictures

Our Trip to København (Copenhagen) Denmark

2008-08-14T19:02:00.001+02:00

Check back soon for some tales for our trip, including yummy hot dogs, great cultural and beer destinations and a few prostitutes thrown in for good measure....

Our Visit to Stockholm, Sweden

2008-08-14T19:01:00.001+02:00

Stay tuned for some well thought out (not really) words about our trip to Stockholm!

The Beer Scene in Scandanavia

2008-08-12T20:56:00.005+02:00

On our trip to Stockholm and Copenhagen we visited some of the best beer destinations in the world and some would never know they were there. The beer landscape in Scandanavia is dominated by Carlsberg and Tuborg but there are many great craft brewers in Sweden and Denmark and some in Norway and Finland as well. One problem with beer in Sweden and Denmark is the sales tax applied. I think in Sweden taxes were about 23% on top of the price and in Copenhagen it was even higher at 25%. Despite that, we had to take advantage of being in this great beer area!

Stockholm
We first landed in Stockholm on 8 August and after checking into the hotel and roaming around a little, we took the T-metro to Akkurat, a bar that has been described as one of the best on earth with many rare beers made exclusively for them by Cantillon and other Belgian brewers. When we arrived at maybe 7pm, all of the outside seating was taken and most of the seats in the bar area as well but we were able to snag one bar stool and then an hour later a second stool.

The bottle list at Akkurat is simply amazing. They have a very extensive selection of Belgian beers, many from old vintages and many hard to find or rather I should say impossible to find beers. There were about 5 main beers that I was hoping to get while here, most of them from Cantillon. After having a nice Cantillon Gueuze on tap, I grabbed the huge bottle menu and asked for a rare Cantillon Soleil de Munuit but was sad to find out it was no longer available. I then "settled" on a rare Cantillon Reed Gueuze Pinot Noir and after several minutes of the bartender searching in the beer cellar (which is behind lock and key) for this beer I was relieved to see him come back to the bar with a beautiful bottle and a nice wicker basket to serve my beer from. He also brought 2 nice glasses for Paula and I to share. The beer was in a champagne bottle, like nothing I have seen from Cantillon and this was one damn fine beer!! The beer was several years old but the fruit character from the Pinot Noir matched very well with the tartness of the gueuze. Although this was a pretty expensive beer (about 400 Swedish Kronas which is approximately 40 Euros) but it was definitely worth it and due to the fact that it is not legal to take bottles away from bars in Sweden, I didn't feel bad spending the cash.

We went back to Akkurat the following day shortly after they opened and found it to already be half full but we had no problem getting 2 seats at a table in the bar area. I had one purpose in mind at this point, getting a bottle of Westveleteren 6. The production of this beer was stopped long ago and there are really only 2 or 3 places on earth that I know of that still have this beer and one of them won't sell it. Akkurat had it listed on their menu and although it was about 30 euros for a 33cl bottle, I felt it was worth it for this 1996 gem. The wait was worth it as the taste was still very present, malty and it was served in a proper Westvleteren glass! Overall Akkurat was a great experience and the 2 bartenders that we talked to on both occasions were very nice and helpful. They even remembered us the 2nd time we went, probably because we dropped a nice pile of kronas on both trips.

Later that same evening we ventured out in the rain to Monk's Cafe. No, not the Monk's Cafe in Philadelphia but the unrelated bar in Stockholm. This is a relatively new bar but has gained a great name for carrying a large array of Swedish, Belgian, German, American and other beers. Although the prices for some beers were quite high (like about $500 for a bottle of Sam Adam's Utopias) there were several reasonable beers and several on tap brewed by Monk's Cafe at their little brewpub or for them by local brewers.

We only had about an hour or so to spend here at Monk’s but we enjoyed it while we were able. Upon walking in I was greeted with a BeerAdvocate magazine sitting on a wine barrel at the entrance so I grabbed it to get a good English read in! We were quickly greeted by the bartender who spoke perfect English and was helpful in providing beer suggestions. As Monk’s brewed a few of their own beers or had them made my local breweries, I decided to start with their British IPA and then later moved on to an orange ale which sounded interesting and turned out to be pretty good. The bar was pretty empty and we found out was closing at 9pm as they had a late night the previous night due to the Stockholm 08.08.08 festival.

Check out pictures from beery travels through Stockholm

Copenhagen
On the afternoon of 10 August we made the short flight to Copenhagen to take in the culture and the beer. In Copenhagen is what many believe to be one of the best beer shops in the world, Olbutikken. Olbutikken is a small bottle shop but has a crazy selection of Danish, Belgian and even American craft beers. The shop is owned by Jeppe, the brother of the brewer at Mikkeller, a great Danish craft brewer. Olbuitikken has several beers made especially for the shop so I was geeking thinking about getting the chance to try some of these. Before we left for our trip I had traded emails with Jeppe to setup a time to visit his shop on Monday as they are only open 3 days a week for a total of 12 hours. Jeppe was kind enough to open up for us at 2pm on Monday and we took advantage of it. The shop was only about a 10 minute walk from our hotel so we headed towards the shop a few minutes before 2pm with a bag full of American beer to trade with Jeppe.

We got to the shop a little after 2pm and were greeted by Jeppe from the back room. I spend the first few minutes just circling around the shop looking at all the Danish, Belgian and American beers that he had to offer. Although the size of the bottle shop is not large, the quality of what he has packed into the space is just amazing, all killer, no filler. It seemed like they had every available bottle from Mikkeller including the newly released Beer Geek Brunch One – for - One which was made in a limited quantity for Olbutikken. The selection of Belgian beers was also great including Black Albert and Pannepot Grand Reserva from Struisse and several Cantillon beers including Blabaer Lamik, a blueberry lambik made exclusively for Olbutikken. I think the Blabaer was actually brewed by Jeppe at Cantillon. There was also a very nice selection of American craft beer including some from Allagash, Southampton and Jolly Pumpkin.

We spent about 40 minutes in the shop talking to Jeppe about beer and Copenhagen. He spoke English very well and was a wealth of information. I brought 6 beers from American craft brewers including some Russian River and Lost Abbey to trade with Jeppe. Thanks to my cousin Keith for sending these bottles over to me to help out with this trade. After I selected about 8 bottles or so to take home, we worked out the trade so that I owed nothing for my acquisitions! I tried to pay Jeppe but it would not allow it.

For the rest of our time in Copenhagen we had some decent Danish beers at a few bars and made a quick trip to the Norrebro Bryghus brewery to sample a few of their beers.

Check out beer related pictures from our Copenhagen travels

Is There Bocce in Luxembourg?

2008-08-03T16:50:00.003+02:00

We asked that question when we arrived and several months ago Paula found some bocce courts in a park near her office in the Kirchberg section of Luxembourg. About a month ago I finally found some bocce ball sets at our local supermarket, Cactus. We had looked in several places for awhile and found nothing and one night while at Cactus I decided to look in the kids toy section and found a bunch of outside toys including the bocce (or boules) balls. That is right, instead of calling it bocce, it is called boules but seems to be the same. We bought one set of 6 balls and the palino marker ball. Knowing that we needed 8 balls, 4 for each team, we also bought a set of 3 so in total we have 9 balls. Molly plays with the 9th ball at home. All the balls are silver with no other colors on them so we bought some blue tape to mark 4 of the balls from the other 4.

We have now played a few bocce games just by ourselves on a few Sunday afternoons, including today. I won't say who won but I am not happy about it.... Paula was walking by this park during the week and noticed that around lunch time there were 4 games going on in the 4 courts and it was full of office workers in suits (no coats) and dresses. The guys had their ties tucked into their shirts. People were sitting around watching, eating and drinking (some beer and wine). There is a little café not far from the courts so we will have to play some games during lunch to take in this odd display Luxembourg lunch breaks!

Check out our Luxembourg bocce practice!

Tracking Jason Bourne Through Europe

2008-08-03T12:21:00.008+02:00

Being a huge fan of the Bourne series of movies, I had to track down some of the scenes from the movies as we traveled through Europe. So far we have been to Paris where scenes from Bourne Idntity were shot and London where scenes from Bourne Ultimatum were filmed.

The first movie in the series was the Bourne Identity so when we visited Paris last weekend, we had to stop on the Pont-Neuf or new bridge because there is where an important scene was shot when Jason Bourne was trying to figure out his past and who was after him. He found a cellphone and called who he later found out was the CIA. He told the CIA guy to meet him on Pont-Neuf at 5:30pm and to come alone. Bourne then watched from the roof of a hotel that looked down onto Pont-Neuf. We took some pictures in the Pont-Neuf metro station, on the bridge and of the hotel Bourne looked down from.

We were also recently in London where some scenes from the Bourne Ultimatum were shot so we headed to the Waterloo train station to take in the sites from the movie. It was in this train station that Bourne confronted a newspaper reporter from the Guardian who had information on Blackbriar, a supersecret CIA program that Bourne was part of but did not remember. Bourne realized that the reporter was being followed by the CIA so he tried to direct him safely out of the station but was shot in the head by a CIA sniper before he could get him out.

There are many other locations throughout Europe that we would love to visit that parts of the Bourne movies were shot in. Some of the other locations include Zurich in Switzerland, Marsailles in France, Madrid in Spain and Tangiers in North Africa. I don't think we will make it to Russian where some scenes were shot but you never know....

Ok, I realize that Jason Bourne is not a real person but is rather Matt Damon. Just like Jack Bauer from 24 is not a real person but they sometimes seem real!

Enjoy my pictures so far...

A Saturday Night Out in Luxembourg City

2008-08-03T11:15:00.002+02:00

Paula and I decided to have dinner in Luxembourg City so we took a bus into the city at about 8pm. Although the city was still busy with shoppers and those out eating and drinking, it was not as busy as usually due to the holiday season when many Europeans are somewhere else on vacation. We thought this would give us a chance to get a good table at one of our favorite restaurants. We head over to El Campenero, a Cuban style restaurant for some tapas. We thought we could get a table inside but apparently they were full or at least full of later reservations. We found a table on the front deck which worked out well, despite it being a little cold outside. After a few mojitos and some excellent tapas, we were off to a café a few steps away for an after dinner drink.

I am not sure the name of this café but it is right behind the Grand Palace and they have very reasonable drink prices. By this time it was about 11pm and was getting more and more busy. We are still trying to master the technique of going out for dinner a bit later so that we can stay out later at much of Europe does. After a drink at this café we headed for the bus back home to Strassen.

On the bus ride home we decided to get off a few stops early to get a drink at a Strassen bar we have visited once, Benelux. It is a locals corner bar but we felt welcomed in here. When we entered a noticed that there were a bunch of tables with poker being played at WWE wrestling on a tv! After sitting down with a drink, we noticed that there was a cute dog hanging around one of the poker tables. A few minutes later the dog came over and sat next to us to let us pet him. We found out his name was Tricksy and he just loved to be pet.

A few minutes later a guy came in with a poodle type dog on a leash and he sat down at the bar and his dog sat down at a barstool next to him. A bit later, Tricksy the dog jumped up on a barstool to sit next to some guy that walked into the bar with no shoes on. We figured this guy lived above the bar but still don't know why he would walk around with no shoes.

It was too funny to see 2 dogs sitting at a bar with their owners just enjoying the night. When we open a bar someday, we are going to have to institute a dog at the bar policy because it just makes for a happier bar!

Our First Trip to Paris

2008-07-28T21:50:00.006+02:00

This past weekend Paula and I made a trip to Paris, France for the first time. With the train ride just over 2 hours from Luxembourg, it could not have been easier to get there. We left at around 10 am on Friday and got into the Paris Gare East train station a little after noon. At first we didn't realize that our seats on the train had numbers so we were sitting in someone elses seats for the first few stops until they got on so we have to move to the end of the car but no big deal.

Our hotel was just one metro stop from Gare East so we were above ground and searching for our hotel within 15 - 20 minutes of arriving in Paris. It took me another 10 minutes or so to locate the tiny street our hotel was on but we eventually got there and just in time as we were hungry for lunch so after leaving our bags at the hotel, we went on the prowl for lunch! We packed our handy and helpful Rick Steves guide to Paris so we used a suggestion and headed off to the Rue Cler area which was a bussling shopping district with tons of cafès, wine shops, cheese shops and all kinds of other little shops right next to each other. We figured we had to start our holiday in Paris out the Parisian way by having lunch outside at a cafè so we found a cool little place that had some open seats. By this time 99% of the outside seats at all cafès on Rue Cler were taken by eaters, drinkers, people watchers and smokers. We found a nice table on the edge of the outside seating and the inside part of the restaurant so we had the best of fresh air, a front row for people watching but also a bit of shade. We had a nice little lunch accompanied but what else but some French wine.

After lunch we took the short 5 minute walk from Rue Cler to the Eiffel Tower which is amazing to see in person. You see it first from so far away but then to actually get right under it, it takes about 10 minutes or so to walk to. We talked through the Parc de Champ de Mars which is a huge park that leads the way to the Eiffel Tower and makes for some great photo opportunities which we did not pass up on. We did not actually go up into the Tower, we will save that for another Paris trip, but we did walk around and when we got right up to the Tower, the police were holding everyone back as if someone special was coming. We figured it was maybe Barack Obama as he was in Paris that day and we heard others saying the same thing but we didn't actually see anyone and after 15 minutes or so they little people back to the lines to climb the Tower and back to their normal lives. Before that happened there was a small explosion under the Tower but it looked like maybe it was something the police set off to scare away pigeons, at least that is what we want to believe.

After a walk around the Eiffel Tower, we decided to walk along the River Seine and then headed for the famed Avenue des Champs-Elysees and the shopping, window shopping that is. After a walk of maybe 30 minutes or so we arrived in the middle of the Champs-Elysees and started up towards the Arc de Triomphe which is another of the great historical sites to visit in Paris. It is also home to one of the craziest roads it the world it seems. We passed by tons of high end shops on our way to the Arc but nothing really peaked our interest too much. The think that was most exciting was seeing an old blue or green Mini Cooper wizz by us on the Champs-Elysees. Over the course of our weekend in Paris we counted 12 different old Mini's, Paulas favorite car.

After tooling around the Champs-Elysees for a bit, we retraced our steps off this grand avenue and found a little café with some outside seating so we could enjoy a bit more of wine. We found 2 more seats in prime people watching position on got to our business of watching.

Check out our various different sets of pictures from Paris

Paris Sites

Tour de France

Mini's in Paris!

A Visit to Brasserie Achouffe

2008-07-19T22:53:00.009+02:00

Today, Saturday 19 July, Paula and I took a day trip about 100kms or 1 hour North to the Brasserie Achouffe for a tour and some drinks and bits to eat. I can't believe that after nearly 10 months in Luxembourg this was our first visit to Achouffe but it certainly won't be our last.

We arrived for a tour that was in French but we figured we could understand most of it. The tour turned out to be in Dutch and French but the tour guide, Carine, did some of it in English for Paula and I. The tour starts right outside the giftshop and works into the brewhouse and then you get to peer into the fermentation room but were not allowed in as they were cleaning or it was too hot or something like that...

From there we took a few minute drive to the bottling facility for Achouffe. Upon entering this facility, you are greeted by 2 huge tanker trucks. They take the fermented beer from the brewery and fill the tanker trucks and drive the few minutes up to the road to the filling lines. The inside of this building is massive with many many rows of kegs and bottles and all the bottling and kegging equipment.

After hanging out in the bottling facility for awhile, we were directed to the end of our tour which was to a bar where we were able to use 2 tokens each for Achouffe beers and we took advantage of these tokens by each ordering up some wonderful Achouffe brews. All this for €7.50 each which is not bad.

Take a look at pictures from our visit with the secretive gnomes of Achouffe...

A Visit to Brasserie Fantome

2008-07-19T22:49:00.004+02:00

Today, Saturday 19 July, Paula and I took a little day trip to visit Brasserie Achouffe and Brasserie Fantome. Fantome was the second stop on our trip and about 30 minutes further North than Achouffe. Although not very far, we did have to travel on some tiny farm roads. So tiny that if a car was coming in the other direction, we would have had a very hard time to move forward or to pull over. Luckily we didn't come across any other vehicles on such roads.

We didn't make it for a brewery tour although we probably could have gone on one. We decided to stop into the bar for a few drinks. We were lucky to get there when we did at 5 minutes after we entered is started to rain cats and dogs and cows even! When we got into the bar, there were only 3 or 4 others including the brewer and I think his mother. At one point the brewer left to get some food from home for his mom which was very nice. From time to time they looked at us as we were out of place but we still were welcomed there. We had a few of the wonderful and odd Fantome beers. Before leaving I purchased a few bottles to go. I asked if there were any other bottles for sale and the brewer led me to the bottling room which was just behind the bar. The bottling room and the brewery is very old looking which just adds to the mystique of Fantome. A few of the beers I purchased were hand labeled by the brewer right in front of me. Too funny.

We will definitely come back in the future for a tour eventhough the brewer speaks little English. That should not be a problem at beer is a universal language.

A few pictures from our visit...

Fuller's Brewery Tour in London

2008-07-08T22:07:00.005+02:00

On our Friday in London, we decided to take a trip out to the Fuller's brewery for a tour and a few brews. The tour started in the pub attached to the brewery and after putting on some bright construction type jackets, we were off on the tour which passed through the working brewery and then off to the tasting room in the cellar which was nice as they gave us samples of everything and even a few more for good measure!

Check out our tour pictures

The 4th of July in London

2008-07-06T17:37:00.008+02:00

What a better way to spend the 4th of July than in London, England! At least that was our best option since we were not planning on returning back to the U.S. for the holiday. During the few days we planned to spend in London to see a Jack Johnson concert and to view the historic sites, we also found out that there was an American craft beer festival at a bar/restaurant called the White Horse. The fest started on July 4th and was set to run until the 6th.

We were only able to go on the 4th but that was the best day to be there! After a few Underground transfers, we had just a few minute walk to the bar and when we got there about 7:30 the place was packed beyond belief. The outside patio area at the front of the bar was crammed with people so we made our way into the bar and took a look at the special beer list they had for the fest. At any one time there were about 27 beer on tap and a good deal of them were cask! They had a nice selection of beers from Sierra Nevada (Bigfoot, Southern Hemisphere Harvest, Extra Special Pale, Porter, etc), Flying Dog, Brooklyn, Terrapin, Anchor and a good number of English cask beers using American hops which was nice to see. One beer that really caught me by suprise to see on the list was Struise Black Albert in cask! It was a suprise as this was an American Beer Fest and Struise is Belgian but it was more of a suprise that the beer was in England and in cask none the less! Due to the rarity of this beer I had to try a glass, despite it not being American.

We met up with a group of very nice folks from http://www.babblebelt.com/ , mostly from England and one woman from the U.S. We ran into a few of these fellow beer lovers in Antwerp in December and had another great time.

Overall I tried several very tasty American beers, a few English, a Black Albert, and met up with some great people. Overall a great night!

A 4th of July Celebration in Luxembourg

2008-07-06T17:37:00.003+02:00

Our Holiday in London!

2008-07-06T17:36:00.004+02:00

Paula and I took a little holiday to London to see Jack Johnson in concert and to take in the sites that this great city has to offer. As I took a few hundred pictures, it will take us awhile to describe them all but for now, take a look at the pictures so far.

Pictures of London

Jack Johnson Concert in London

2008-07-06T17:35:00.003+02:00

Paula and I planned a 4 day/3 night trip to London, partially to see the sites in this great city for the first time and also to take in a Jack Johnson concert in Hyde Park in central London. Hyde Park is 350 acres of green smack down in the middle of London and a 5 minute walk from our hotel. Jack Johnson was the headliner and was supported by Macio Jennings, G. Love & Special Sauce and then Ben Harper.

We arrived in London around 9am and too the few minute walk from the train station to our hotel to drop off our bags. As we were several hours early to actually check into the hotel, we decided to walk to the park to figure out what the setup was like and then take in the circus that is the Harrod's department store.

We made our way to Hyde Park after a couple wrong turns and about 10 minutes. The concert venue was about 200 yards into the park and already had a crowd of maybe 50 people camping out waiting to be let in at 2pm to get to the front of the stage. As the event was general admission and just in a big field, getting to the front would be a good idea but also would not allow you to sit down and hang out in the lawn as we had planned.

After reaching the concert venue and talking to a worker about what we were allowed to bring in with us, we headed to the other side of the park towards Harrod's. After passing by a park working cutting the grass we ran into a guy who looked very similar to a certain guitar playing superstar. Turns out it was Jack Johnson and he stopped to talk for a minute when I said hello. He seemed like a really cool guy just walking around the park in a t-shirt, jeans, flip flops and a newspaper. I had a Phillies shirt on and I mentioned we were Philly and he got a smile and said we were from G. Love's town which was cool. Although it was just a passing minute, it showed that rock stars can be cool down to earth people. Some even a bit shy like Jack seemed. I didn't think quick enough to ask for a picture but I felt good that I didn't so he didn't think I was a big tool!

After walking around a bit more, having lunch and a pint at a pub, we arrived back at Hyde Park around 3pm to get into the venue. There were already thousands of people roaming around the venue, eating drinking and just having a good time. It rained a bit throughout the first hour or so of the concert but by the time G. Love came on, it was pretty nice out which made it easy to sit on the ground and to take in the sounds.

G. Love played alot of his best songs and a bunch from his new album. At first I thought his show would end without playing Cold Beverages but while I was in line for some beer and wine, he played it and everyone rocked out to it. G. Love put on a great show but I was a little diasspointed to see him be second in line and not third. It also didn't seem like the London crowd was that familiar with his music but he still got a good cheer.

After Ben Harper, who also put on a great show, Jack came on and everyone went nuts and finally stood up for his performance. He seemed a bit shy at the site of over 30,000 fans going crazy for him but he started out with some great songs from his new album and alot of the hits that you are used to hearing on the radio. Later in his show he brought out G. Love to play on Rodeo Clowns which I love and he also brought Ben Harper out later as well. For one of his encore songs he said he had 2 guests to bring out, G. Love and Jimmy Buffet! I could not believe that Jimmy Buffet would be there but sure enough he came out and they all rocked out to A Pirate at 40 or something like that. Cool song and a great show overall! Definitely worth the cost of flying to London for the show!

Check out some pictures we took at the show. Maybe a few videos as well.

Euro 2008 Futbol (Soccer) Championships

2008-07-06T17:34:00.006+02:00

I am a little late in posting this but last Sunday, 29 June, was the final of the 2008 Euro Championships in futbol. Although Luxembourg did not qualify for the tournament, it was still a big deal throughout the entire tournament in Luxembourg. Although I am not much of a soccer fan, watching games throughout the tournament was alot of fun and I even got into collecting stickers for the Euro. I am sure the sticker books were geared more toward kids, it was still interesting to collect and brought back memories of collecting baseball stickers from back in the day.

For the final on 29 June, there were a huge screen setup in the center of town and there were a bunch of beer and wine stands and all kinds of food. Since the final was held in Austria, there was some Austrian food as well. Paula and I went a few hours early and walked around and took in the sites of all the crazy German and Spanish fans watching the game. By the time the game started there were about 6,000 fans going crazy. The game was exciting and fun to watch but the crowds got a little too much to handle so we too off in the second half and walked around a bit before heading back home. When the game was over, Spain won 1-0 and they partied late into the night.

Check out some pictures from the final game and my obsession with collecting the Euro stickers!

The American Military Cemetery in Luxembourg

2008-07-06T17:34:00.001+02:00

Luxembourg National Day

2008-06-23T00:59:00.003+02:00

What does Luxembourg National Day entail you might ask???? Well let me just say it includes alot of people, alot of beer and wine tents, plenty of food, a touch of heavy rain, wonderful fireworks and many other things. Give us some time to relax and sleep after this great night and we will report back! And since tonight (22 June)was my birthday you can understand why I am slow to report.

Cheers,
Greg

Beer Passion Weekend in Antwerp, Belgium

2008-06-22T16:13:00.002+02:00

This past weekend (20 - 22 of June) the Bierpassie or Beer Passion beer festival is being held in Antwerp. I decided that since Paula had to work at the Sacred Heart graduation on Saturday I would take an early train from Luxembourg to Antwerp to take in this festival and also to visit the Kulminator as no trip to Antwerp would be completed without a trip to this fine beer institution.

Open House at Brasserie Artisanale de Rulles

2008-06-07T23:29:00.004+02:00

Today Paula and I visited the La Rulles brewery in Rulles (province of Luxembourg in Belgium). Yes, there is a Luxembourg area in Belgium, right across the border from the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. This area was given to Belgium many, many years ago from the Grand Duke in Luxembourg but back to the beer.

La Rulles was started in June 2000 and each year in June (7th and 8th this year) they have an open house at the brewery where can take a tour of the brewery and sample all of their current beers at very reasonable prices. They had their blonde, brune, estivale, triple and Jean Chris. We sampled all of them. We also got a little serving of Orval cheese and some local meat.

Check out our pictures from our little visit

What Does a $45 Pound of Cheese Look and Taste like?

2008-06-02T22:45:00.004+02:00

Well check back over the next few days and we will let you know. Paula and I went to a Spring fair last weekend in Luxembourg and ran across an Italian specialty stand that had some great cheeses and meats. We tried a few different cheeses and bought a little block of one thas was about €6 or $12. Not so bad. Before leaving I spotted a block of cheese that looked very interesting so I asked for a taste and was greeted with a slice of a very sharp cheese with Italian Brunello wine grapes on top. Not only was the cheese great but it was covered with some of the most expensive wine grapes the world knows. They were dried but still very tasty. I asked for a little block and almost fainted when I saw that it was €60 for a Kilo which is a little over 2 pounds so that is about $90 for a kilo or $45 a pound!

The Counting Crows in Luxembourg

2008-06-01T11:40:00.006+02:00

Last night, Saturday 31 May, Paula and I went to see the Counting Crows in Esch sur Alzette, a town about 15 minutes from us in Luxembourg. The concert was at a very modern and new looking placed called the Rockhal. It is right next to a huge old steel plan run by Arcelor-Mittal the largest steel company in the world and probably the largest employer in Luxembourg. It is also right near a huge new RED bank building complex for Dexia, one of the larger banks in the country. Although the building looks huge from the outside, the actual concert area was fairly small and maybe held 2,000 people or so. It looked similar on the inside to the main floor of the Electric Factory in Philadelphia but was not as deep.

We didn't know what to expect as we have been to a ton of concerts back in the U.S., mainly Dave Matthews, and we usually get there several hours to tailgate and avoid all the crazy traffic. The doors were to open at 8pm for the show that started at 8:30pm. We showed up at about 7:15pm as the drive was very quick and we hit no traffic. As the concert venue is right next to an old steel plant and a huge bank complex, all of which is still under construction, parking was odd but easy. We were the only car in line when we entered and quickly found a nice spot near the exit. For only €2 (or $3) we were able to park where we wanted with no little annoying kid with an orange wand telling us there to park and how close like you get back in the States usually. As this was our first concert in Luxembourg, we were unsure about potential tailgating ability and we didn't really find anyone doing it but I am sure we could have.

It was about a 300 yard walk to the venue but it was easy so no big deal there. There was already a line of several hundred people waiting at the front door to get in before the doors opened at 8pm. As it was a general admission concert I was worried we would be too far in the back but that ended up not being a problem. Instead of going right to the line we went to the beer truck and got a quick drink. Paula got a cremant (Luxembourgish champagne) and I got a typical Luxembourgish beer, Diekirch, a deal at €2. No ridiculous concert beer markup here. This is basically the price you pay at a bar or festival or anything in Luxembourg so I was happy for that. It is always nice to be able to buy a drink with a coin and the little €2 coins come in handy for things like this. After getting the drink we got in line and waiting for 20 minutes or so until the doors opened. Once they opened it was organized and easy to get in and get a good view. As the venue only held 2,000 or so, we were able to get near the front of the stage, maybe 20 feet away, pretty quickly. For the most part we had enough room to move about without having someone breathing right on your neck.

The show was set to start at 8:30pm and did right on time. There was no mention of an opening bank so when the band came out at 8:30pm we thought for sure it was the Counting Crows. We had not seen them in a long time and had not see pictures in awhile so when the lead singer had straight brown hair, no dreadlocks as the lead singer Adam always had, we were a bit suprised but thought it was just the fact we hadn't seem them in awhile and maybe they changed their appearance. I also thought there were 7 members to the band instead of 5. Anyway, after a few songs that we didn't recognize and words from the lead singer in another language, we realized this was an opening band called Dreamcatcher or something like that. I think they were actually from Russia but sang most of their songs in English and were pretty good. One song was called "f*** you" which was funny.

Once the opening band ended and some time passed to clear the stage, the Counting Crows came on and we knew for sure it was them as there were dreadlocks, t-shirts and guys looking high. They sounded just as good as they had in the past and played alot of the songs you are used to hearing from them and some new songs as well. The crowd was a mix of people from Luxembourg, France, Germany, Belgium and some Americans like us. We were chatting with a couple behind us from Germany that were big fans of the Counting Crows and they traveled all the way to Lux since they were not playing in Germany this tour. It was also very interesting to watch people in Europe at a concert. A good of them were obsessed with taking pictures on their mobile phones or cameras. There was no restriction on pictures I guess and I am kicking myself for not bringing our camera as we were really close to stage. It was also interesting to see a few people near us that wanted to clap at every song that played. I don't mean clapping at the end but it seemed like they wanted to start a group clapping during every song and they got it started several times but it died out quickly.

The Counting Crows played for about 2 hours and ended with one song for an encore. There is a curfew in Luxembourg and apparently that is 11am so they had to stop playing by then. After the encore song they played California Dreamin' over the PA system and Adam the lead singer remained on stage to sing along with the crowd to the song which was pretty cool to see. Most people in the crowd seemed to know the words to the song which was also cool to see. Seems like it was the think that the band does after all their shows but not sure.

The exit out of the venue was just as quick as the entrance. After a 5 minute walk we were at our car and in another 15 minutes or so we were heading into our parking garage at home. That is how a concert should be but most are not. Since Luxembourg is so small, I guess the concerts are as well. Despite the small size there have been and will be some really good concerts here besides the Counting Crows including Jame Blunt, Seal, REM, Avril Lavigne, Little John (YEAAAH!), Backstreet Boys, Mika and coming soon....KISS!

After getting the concert bug I went home last night and looked up some other concerts in Europe and was thrilled to see that Jack Johnson and G. Love & Special Sauce are playing throughout Europe in the next month. They will be in Portugal, Spain, Belgium, Holland, Germany and France. They will also be in London so it looks like we are going to try to get tickets and turn it into a little holiday to London around the 4th of July. If we can't be home with family and friends for this holiday, at least we could be in a fully English speaking country for it!

My Visit to the Struise Farm Brewery

2008-05-09T22:51:00.009+02:00

Since it was such a beautiful day today, I decided to take a little 3 plus hour trip to the Belgian coast. Well about 15 minutes from the coast actually to the town of Lo to visit the Struise Farm. The farm is basically the headquarters for one of the best breweries in Belgium. In addition to being an ostrich farm and a bed & breakfast, the Struise Farm also has a small brewery where they brew certain of their beers and other test beers.

It turns out Struise is about 10 minutes from the Abbey at Westvleteren so I decided to make an afternoon of visiting Struise for a few beers and then heading to the Westvleteren cafe for lunch.

I arrived in the town of Lo at about 13:00 and found myself on a bunch of very small farm roads. As I found out quickly, these roads are really only passable by 1 vehicle at a time when I came upon a huge farm tractor and had to pull off the side of the road and partially into a field to let him go by. Thankfully I didn't come head on with any others before I arrived at Struise. I got to Struise about 15 minutes later and was first unsure about heading down the private driveway but after reading on Ratebeer.com that the brewer Urbain was going to have a keg of their new and rare stout, Black Albert, on tap and open to the public for free, I knew it would be ok to visit.

When I got out of my car I was greeted by a very friendly woman, that I found out was Urbain's sister, and a large dog. When I annouced why I was there, I was led up to an office where Urbain was talking on the phone. His sister offered me coffee and water and let me sit down to wait. After taking a few sips of a water, I got to to meet Urbain and as a thank you for letting me visit, I gave him a few American craft beers which he seemed to really enjoy. In return he gave me a bottle of beer from a brewery friend of his. After talking for a few minutes we headed down to the farms bar.

In talking to Urbain, the bar is in an old farmhouse that he and his family has refurbished over the past 10 years or so. Although the bar looks private, it would be a really cool bar to hang out at as it is rustic and full of charm. After taking a few minutes to setup the sinks to wash our glasses properly, Urbain poured us each a glass of Black Albert which they have termed a Belgian Royal Stout. I think it lives up to the name. It rings in at 13% abv and poured a very deep black hole color with a thick bubbly tan head.

While sipping on this fine brew, Urbain showed me the keg system that they are testing with this beer. Instead of using stainless steel, they had this beer in a keg that comprised of a cardboard outer system with a foil type bladder on the inside that holds the beer. It would of course be a much cheaper and lighter way to keg beer and based on what he said and I tasted, there is no impact on the quality of the beer in such a system.

Since there was no one else around at the time, we went outside on the patio to enjoy the days sun and to chat a bit about various thinks including of course, beer and other things like the environment. He mentioned that about an hour before I arrived, a large group of folks stopped by to try the Black Albert and he envisioned that a good number of people would show up later in the day as well so I was lucky to try the beer while it was still available. It won't be bottled and available in Belgium for a few more weeks and will eventually make it to the U.S. but may not be very soon.

After filling our glasses again with Black Albert, we wandered around the farm a bit. First to take a look inside a large military tent that was currently holding all of the brewing equipment while they were renovating the brewing building. We then walked down to the brewing building and got to see where the equipment will be reinstalled and will allow Struise to brew on an 8 barrel system and to play around with different yeast, sugar, and other combinations that can only lead to good beer. Urbain then opened up the cold room and was kind enough to give me to bottles as a gift for visiting the brewery. A 750ml bottle of their Struiselensis and a 750ml bottle of Tsjeeses Reserva which is a beer not really released to the public. I Can't wait to try both beers but will probably sit on them for the right time to try.

Urbain mentioned a few beer projects upcoming that were interesting. They are going to brew another batch of Struiselensis in the coming months and about 1/6 of the batch will be laid down with kriek to form a nice lambic which I can't wait for. He also mentioned that they will be brewing an imperial porter in the near future that will mainly be for a private group but it will also be available at the farm brewery at times. I smell another trip to the farm in my future....

While we were wandering around the farm I saw a handful of farm cats roaming the grounds and protecting the beer! The large doggy was also roaming around but behind a fence which was good because a group staying in the B&B arrived and with a dog that could only be described as a large black bear! This dog jumped out from the back of their van and ran over to the farm dog and they did some looking and sniffing and barking but no fighting.

Not far from the brewery building is where the ostrichs live. We got close enough to look eye to eye with these interesting creatures. They seemed to be interested in people, at least the females did. The males apparently are not very friendly and held back in the pack.

Overall my visit to Struise was a great day. The beer was great, Urbain was a great host and is very generous with his time and his beer. Since there is a B&B on the Struise Farm, I am thinking that this would be a great place to stay on future trips to Belgium as it is a great place to have a beer, it is very close to Westvleteren and the Belgian coast.

After leaving Struise, I drove the few minutes to the cafe at Westvleteren but was dissapointed to find out that they were closed. Maybe for the upcoming holiday in Europe. Needing a lunch after having 2 glasses of Black Albert, an Royal Belgian Stout of 13%, I found a cool looking cafe not far from Westvleteren. I knew it was a good place to stop as a beer truck had just pulled up to unload a bunch of kegs and crates of beer...and water. I stopped at 't Vleterhof for some food and maybe another drink. There were already a few locals sitting outside having drinks. I think they were all in their 70's but they looked like they were having a good time so I thought I would also. I sat outside and ordered a Struise Pannepot, why not, and a coke and a croque monseuir, basically a grilled ham and cheese sandwich. While I was there two older ladies stopped by for some drinks. Their drink of choice, Pannepot, just like me. Those Belgian ladies can really have a drink as this beer rings in at 10%. There were also a handful of bikers that stopped by for some refreshments. No Harley bikers but the biking that is typical of this part of the country, the peddle powered type bikes.

After a good quick lunch, I was back on the road and made another quick stop, this time at the Deca Brewery where Struise sells their beers. I picked up a few large bottles of Pannepot for home and some 33cl bottles of Pannepeut which is a slightly different version of Pannepot, made for the Danish beer market.

After that last stop, I was back in the car for another 3 and half hours to Luxembourg. Overall it was about 7 hours in the car and 3 or so out of it but it was still worth it. I think the temp hit about 80 so it was the warmest day since we arrived in Europe!

I hope you enjoy these pictures of my trip....

Also, check out this short video I took while driving down some of the tiny farm roads leading up to the Struise Farm. If a car was coming at me I would have been in some trouble but luckily it was just me while I was shooting the video.

The Craft Beer Scene in Holland

2008-05-04T21:40:00.004+02:00

In the time I spent in Holland in 2000 I didn't really get to enjoy any craft beer from Holland and at that time I am not really sure there was much of a craft beer scene in the country. We mostly drank Belgian beers and the main Holland beers like Amstel and Heineken.

Flash forward to 2008 and it looks like the craft beer scene in Holland is alive and well although maybe not known to the world outside of the Benelux (or outside of the "ne" in Benelux). I discovered a few of these Holland beers when we visited my favorite bar in Utrecht, Kafe Belgie. I also found a bunch of them at a great bottleshop we found in Utrecht, Bert's Bierhuis.

We also found a good beer scene in Amsterdam, one that I had not really explored in the past. We searched out and found 2 good beer bars and 2 good bottles shops.

Boom Chicago in Amsterdam

2008-05-04T21:32:00.008+02:00

One of the most fun things I had done in Amsterdam when I visited the city on several occasions in 2000 was to visit the Boom Chicago comedy club. The club seems to be modeled after the Second City comedy club in Chicago which is a sketch comedy club with improv. Boom Chicago has the added bonus of basing alot of their shows on Amsterdam and the Dutch culture which is very interesting. It is probably best appreciated if you have visited there but the shows are funny none the less. The actors are mostly American but clearly live in Amsterdam or a nearby city as they are in tune with the wackiness of Amsterdam and Holland.

Paula and I decided to have dinner at the club before the show as they had a package deal that lets you have a 3 course meal before hand and then you get priority seating near the front of the stage. All the food that we had was excellent and the endless drinks were also a bonus.

At about 10pm we were all escorted down to the theatre from the restaurant area. We originally were seated at a 2 person table right at the front of the stage but they later moved us to a side booth along with another couple. This couple would later be picked on for the show, Miles and Tracy from London. The show we saw was called "The Last Person to Leave the Planet, Turn Off the Lights" and as you may imagine, it was about the environment. They had somewhat of a set plan for the show in general but they took tons of suggestions from the crown that they had to use in their skits or songs that sang. It was really, really funny.

The couple we sat next to got picked on for the show. Thank god we didn't get picked for this because they asked the girl what she hated most about her husband Miles and she said he farts! After asking them a few more questions, they used some of what they said in the show and they also brought Miles onto stage and we got a kick out of that.

At some point during the show they asked for some suggestions and some drink idiot from I think England or Scotland yelled something out that was not so funny and he kept egging on one of the actors. The actor made a bit of fun of him and eventually went down into the crowd and threw the guy out and everyone loved it. Eventually about 5 of his friends got up and left.

Overall the show lasted for about 2 hours and during that time we were served drinks as we wanted them. If you end up in Amsterdam for the sites, the culture, the red light district or the "coffee shops", be sure to check out Boom Chicago because it is a great deal of fun.

Check out this video on You Tube which is from Boom Chicago, they played this during the performance.

Amsterdam, Holland

2008-05-04T21:25:00.003+02:00

Utrecht, Holland

2008-05-04T20:59:00.005+02:00

Paula and I made our first trip to Holland this past weekend when we took a train from Luxembourg to Utrecht. Although the train, including connections in Liege, Belgium and Maastricht, Holland took a little over 5 and 1/2 hours, the ride was smooth and on time. We also booked a hotel right outside the doors of the Utrecht train station.

In 2000 I lived in Utrecht for about 4 months while working on a client project in the country. Although Utrecht is not the largest city in Holland, Amsterdam is the largest, Utrecht has a charm that is not present in Amsterdam. Along so many of the canals in town there are all kinds of shopping and eating / drinking options, with many of them being below street level at the canal level which is pretty cool. Alot of these canal side restaurants used to be old warehouses and were converted to restaurants of varying styles including Italian, Indian, Spanish, African, etc, etc, etc.

As with most cities in Holland, there are bikes everywhere. On the road, locked to every inch of metal that can be found along the canals or buildings and sometimes you can even find them floating in the canals.

Check out pictures of trip to Utrecht

Our Visit to the Keukenhof in Holland

2008-05-04T20:50:00.004+02:00

As 1 May was holiday in Luxembourg and most of Europe I think, Paula and I made a long weekend and took a trip to Holland to visit the city I lived in back in 2000 for a few months (Utrecht), Amsterdam and Paula's most anticipated destination in Europe, the Keukenhof flower park. To learn a little bit about the Keukenhof click here.

The Keukenhof, which runs for nearly 2 months, is the most photographed event in the world and based on the number of pictures we took and how many other people were taking pictures, I believe it. I have never seem so may serious cameras out taking up close pictures of tulips and the other flowers in the park.

Check out the nearly 200 pictures we took on our visit to the Keukenhof.

Our Second Visit to the Kulminator in Antwerp

2008-04-27T17:38:00.009+02:00

It seemed like it had been a year since the first time we visisted the Kulminator in Antwerp. The last time that we visited we spent about 4 hours at the bar. I mostly drooled at the 2 inch thick menu and tried to identify every bottle they had behind the bar.

Paula and I drove to Antwerp on Saturday the 26th of April to meet up with David and Sarah who had been making their way through Belgium and were ending their trip in Antwerp. David and I tried to visit the Kulminator while the girls went shopping but we were disapointed to learn that they didn't open until 5pm on Saturday. No worries, we walked a few more minutes and unded up at Oud Arsenaal for some great lambics.

After a few drinks and a walk back to the hotel, we arrived at the Kulminator at about 4:55pm just in time to see the owner Dirk opening the door and putting out the draft beer signs. We also saw one of the house cats sitting in the front window at about eye level, eating its dinner before the rush of tourists entered to order beers they may never have again. We were about 2nd group of people to enter the bar and were the first to walk to the back patio area. The patio area is covered by a clear room that lets you look up to the sky above and it also serves as a walkway for the cats. More on that later. The patio had about 5 tables and we picked the "large" 4 person table right at the entrance of the patio. The main advantage of this area was the fact that it was not smokey although with not many people in the whole bar yet, it didn't get smokey, even inside. Sitting in the patio you also get to see a huge stockpile of kegs, most likely empty.

Within only a few moments of sitting down, we were greeted by Leen, the other owner of this fine establishment. She handed us the huge menu and as with our first visit, I was lost with where to start. Luckily they have a draft list of about 10 beers that included a few Christmas beer leftovers and a Gouden Carolous tripel that I wanted to try, so I did.

While drinking my Gouden Carolous I had to walk the few steps to the glass windowed beer cellar. I imagine if someone saw me staring into this window it would look like a new parent starting through the glass into the maternity ward. There are just rows and rows of new and old beer. I spyed things from a newly released 2008 Gouden Carolous Cuvee Van de Keizer to bottles of La Trappe from the late 1970's. What almost immediately caught my attention were 33cl bottles of De Stuise Pannepot Grand Reserva! I had been waiting to find a bottle of this rare brew since arriving in Europe so this helped me to decide what to order. It shows that is pays off to roam around bars to see what new bottles they may have to offer as the menu at the Kulminator is not really up to date although they tend to have alot from the menu in stock.

After finishing my first beer, it was with a smile on my face that I ordered a Pannepot GR. Leen was quick to point out that the beer was €8 and wanted to make sure I was ok with that before ordering. I obviously had no problems with that. Within a few minutes I was greeted with the bottle and a De Struise glass to top it off. The beer was fantastic and worth the wait. I really should have tried this next to a regular Pannepot and a Pannepot Reserva. Next time.

While enjoying the beers and studying the menu, it was amusing to see at least 3 cats running from over the "cat crossing" tree at the back of the patio. Somehow the cats would get up on the branch and then walk along the roof of the patio, over our heads and then back into the building. They would somehow end up coming back into the front of the bar and then walked around us to get to the start of their play area again.

Some of the other beers we ordered, some we shared, including a Malheur 12, a Malheur Brut served in a Malheur champagne bucket and 4 Malheur glasses. We also ordered a very interesting bottle from 1987, a Fruitig Fris Framboosjes which Leen said was from Achouffe. She said that it had probably lost most of the raspberry taste but would still have aged well. The bottled arrived in a nice wicker basket used for serving lambics to help in not disturbing the yeast and other interest material at the bottom of the bottle. They must have an amazing beer catologing system at the Kulminator to remember where everything is at. This bottle was bare except for a shard of a label the size of a postage stamp that had the image of a few raspberries. The beer was actually very good and the raspberry taste was very present.

While we were there, from about 5pm to 9:30pm or so, several tables came and went and the patio area cleared out a bit but we kept on going. The service was fairly quick, eventhough the whole bar was just run by Dirk and Leen.

Check out some pictures from this trip to the Kulminator....

Also check out our pictures from the first trip we made to the Kulminator.....

Adbij der Trappisten van Westmalle

2008-04-27T17:35:00.012+02:00

On our way home from a weekend in Antwerp, we stopped off for some sight seeing and lunch at Westmalle. As it is only about 20km East of Antwerp, it was well worth the time to get there. Plus, we were able to knock off another Trappist abbey (Orval, Westvleteren and now Westmalle).

The cafe is open 7 days a week from 9am to midnight which is good to know. The abbey itself was not really open for tours but the grounds of the abbey were huge and they let you walk all over the place.

Check out some pictures from our walking around the abbey and lunch at the cafe.

Antwerp, Belgium Part 2

2008-04-27T17:35:00.011+02:00

We had originally planned to join our friends David and Sarah in Antwerp on Friday night but ended up not leaving until Saturday morning. What a wonderful day to be there, the weather was amazing. While Paula and Sarah did some shopping, David and I did some shopping of our own, for beer at the Oud Arsenaal.

We also visited a number of other bars and restaurants in Antwerp that we had not visited in our last trip.

Since we didn't take alot of pictures of the town on this trip...check out pictures from our first time to Antwerp...

First time in Antwerp

Beer bars from our first time in Antwerp

Beer stores in Antwerp

Orval, Trip No. 4

2008-04-27T17:34:00.003+02:00

The Village of Vianden in Luxembourg

2008-04-21T22:47:00.004+02:00

On Sunday, 20 April we visited the Village of Vianden in the North of Luxembourg. Besides being a cool little riverside town, there is a historic old castle literally hanging off the side of a huge cliff. We took the trip to Vianden with our friends David and Sarah that came to visit from the U.S. The trip was less than 1 hour and ran us through several little villages along the way including Diekirch, home to the wonderful Luxembourgish beer by the same name and also home to the Bee Musuem. Yes I said bee, not beer.

Some of the roads leading into Vianden were very narrow, winding and steep but since the weather was great, the trip was easy. The town could not be more well planned out. As you head down a huge hill winding into the valley, you come upon the castle to your right and hanging off the mountain. You know you are in the town when the road changes from asphalt to cobblestones. Not so good for the car but it really makes the scene.

We drove down the main road of the town and passed by a number of little cafes with people just sitting out, enjoying life and having a drink. We would join them a little later.

Check out our pictures of the town and the castle...

More to come...

The Smurfs

2008-04-04T13:45:00.005+02:00

On our recent visit to Gent, Belgium, we picked up cool little Smurf figurines that were part of the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Smurfs. You may not know it but the Smurfs were born in Belgium 50 years ago and are pretty popular in the country.

For €10 we each purchased a little white Smurf to color. The proceeds go to benefit Unicef which is good. I decided to color mine in like a Philadelphia Phillie, Chase Utley to be exact.

Check out the official Smurf's website for more info on these cool little creatures.

Check out the pictures showing the progress I made in painting this little thing with Sharpie markers....

Gent, Belgium

2008-04-04T13:41:00.003+02:00

We made a quick overnight trip to Gent, Belgium. It was an easy ride of a little over 2 hours to get there on a Saturday afternoon. Although it is not as popular as Bruges or Antwerp in the tourist circle, but it is the 3rd largest city in Belgium and has some great sites to visit, including some great beer cafes and cool canals to walk around.

Check out the pictures from our one day and night in Gent.

Kinder Suprise

2008-03-08T23:11:00.004+01:00

One of the best things about living in Luxembourg and Europe in general is the availability of one of the best candy thingies in the world! They are called Kinder Suprise and are these hollow chocolate eggs with a white lining that I think is praline or something like that. You break open the egg and inside is a little suprise toy in a yellow plastic case. Although the toy suprises inside are made for kids I am sure, they are still fun for adults as evidenced by the 15 or so that we have accumulated over the past few weeks after getting turned on to these little bundles of joy.

You can either get a single egg at the store or more frequently we get a 3 pack of eggs. Right how the 3 packs come with a Shrek logo on the box so that guarantees you one Shrek per box and then you usually get 2 other random toys. It is getting to the point where I get more enjoyment out of opening the eggs than eating them although the candy is really tasty as well.

Check out these pictures of the Kinder Suprise that we have acquired so far.

One night in Brussels

2008-03-08T22:12:00.004+01:00

Our friends Heather and Ray were visiting this week and we ended their trip on Thursday and Friday in Brussels. We they ended it on Thursday and Friday with Paula in Brussels. I drove up there Friday morning and spend the day and night with them. This one day trip included a look at some sites, some food and lots of good Belgian beer. We visited several bars in town, a bottle shop or two and the Cantillon brewery.

When I arrived on Friday morning, everyone was at breakfast at the hotel. I had some work to do while Paula, Heather and Ray visited a cathedral and then they were off to the Brussels City Museum. Since I had visisted it in December, I skipped the museum and head to the Bier Tempel beer store to do a little browsing and to pick up the Tim Webb Guide to Belgian Beer book. From there Ray and I made a post noon visit to the Delirium Cafe for a few beers. The crowd this time of day is alot easier to take than at night. There was less smoking and we were able to easily get seats at the bar. After a few beers, Paula and Heather joined us after some shopping.

Our Visit to Cafe In de Vrede

2008-03-08T21:59:00.009+01:00

Today on our way back from Brussels, Paula and I stopped at the Cafe In de Vrede which is right across the street from the Abbaye at Westvleteren. We had tried to visit here right after Christmas but were saddened to find out that they were closed. When we visited today they were open and they were hopping! We got there a little after noon and quickly found a table at the front. The place is gorgeous, modern and doesn't look like it could be associated with a monastery at all. We sat down and I immediately turned to the list of drinks but I didn't really need to see it as I knew I wanted a Westvleteren 12 and Paula wanted an 8. In addition to just 3 beers on the list (all Westvleteren of course), they had a nice selection of food that included, salads, cheeses, meats and sandwiches. Paula and I each went for a sandwich with a salad. While I was waiting for the food, I took a wander over to the little store at the front of the cafe that had various things for sale, food, candy, cheese and of course beer! On this day they had the 8 and Blonde for sale. Paula and I each got a 6 pack of the 8 as we already had Blonde in the basement at home. The price of a case directly at the Abbaye is extremely reasonable and although the 6 pack price is a bit more at this little shop, they are still very reasonable.

Everyone in this placed seemed to have a big smile on their faces while they were eating and drinking, even the little white dog that was sitting on a woman's lap while she had her beer and sandwich. You have to love the attitude towards dogs in most public places we have been to in Europe so far.

We also came across the coolest beer drinking sight ever I believe. The first was a group of about 4 ladies, probably in their eighties standing in line at the gift shop and one of them coming back with a 6 pack of Westvleteren 8!! This fine beer is not just for the youngsters anymore! We also saw a table of 3 other senior ladies each drinking a beer and no food on their table. I wish I could have taken a picture of this but Paula reminded me that sometimes strangers don't like you taking pictures of them. All in all this was a great lunch stop and one I hope to make back on several occasions with family and friends that come to visit.

About 5 minutes from the Cafe is Deca Brewery which is a contract brewer and beer warehouse but also the brewery where the guys from Struise (makers of Pannepot, Struiselensis, Black Albert and others) make some of their beers and sell them. I had traded emails with one of the brewers a few weeks back knowing that we would be passing through around this time and hoped to grab some Struise beers. I was told that the Pannepot Grand Reserva would be available by the case when we got there but it most have sold out as it was not available. The cool thing about this place is that you can grab an empty crate or box and make a case of whatever you want from full cases as most of them are in open crates of 24. I made a case of several different things including Struise Witte, Rosse and some others. I was told that the Grand Reserva and the Black Albert would be available in April so it looks like I will be making a 3 hour trek or so up to Westvleteren and Deca!

Some pictures from our afternoon at Cafe In de Vrede....

Salon du Vin

2008-03-02T22:32:00.003+01:00

Last week while Paula and I were taking a nice bike ride on a warm Sunday, I came across a poster advertising what looked like a wine festival for this weekend. I did a little research online and found out that this festival was in the town of Steinsel in Luxembourg and looked to be in civic hall in this little town that was about 15 minutes from our flat. I could not tell exactly how this fest work but it looked like it was €4 per person for samples of wines from about 30 different producers from Luxembourg, France, Germany, Greece, South Africa and a few others.

We went to the festival today, Sunday, with our friends Heather and Ray and it turned out to be a great time. After getting through the initial shock of not speaking French at most stands, the wine stand attendants, mostly the wine producers, were more than happy to help us through their various wines and offered really generous pours in many cases. After roaming around for about 2 hours or so, we had some snacks and then went back to purchase some bottles of wine from our favorite stands. I think we ended up with about 3 free bottles from stands that wanted to get ride of opened bottles or were just in a good mood.

I hope to post some pictures on this soon.

Our Second Trip to Orval

2008-02-02T23:53:00.002+01:00

After never having visited Orval in 32 years, we have been lucky enough to visit here twice in less than a month! The first time Paula and I went alone and visited the cafe at the entrance to the Abbaye and walked around a little but didn't go on the tour of the Abbaye.

The second time we visited we went with friends Jason and Janine, visited the cafe for lunch and then took the self guided tour of the Abbaye ruins and all.

Check out all the wonderful sites to see at Abbaye de Orval

The Big Book of Beer

2008-01-13T19:34:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I picked up a book that I had seen at various places since early December and I had almost purchased several times but kept putting it off. The book is called "All Belgian Beers" , translated into English. All parts of the book are in English, French and German I believe. It is a very, very thick book that is maybe 6 inches by 5 inches by 4 inches and could prove very useful as a weapon. Although it does not have "all" Belgian beers in it, it has 750 or so. Some of the hardest to obtain beers are not included and beers from smaller breweries may not be included if they were not readily available at the time the book was published. They also did not include all seasonable beers for summer or Christmas for the same reasons. The numbers of beers is still very impressive.

The book starts with a brief description of the purpose of the book and ends with some descriptions of the various beer types and the brewing process. In between are 2 pages dedicated to each beer. The left page describes the beer by fermentation type, beer style, ingredients, alcohol level, the proper glass to serve the beer in, the proper temperature to serve it under and some tasting notes and a place for your own tasting notes. The right page has a full color picture of a full bottle next to a beer in the proper glass.

Although some of the descriptions are not very detailed or well thought out, just the volume of data and pictures is pretty imressive and gives me ideas on many many beers that I have not run into before but many that I should. The cost if the book was €35 so it was a little pricey but will make a good addition to our extensive library of books. Ok, the library is not very extensive but this thick book makes it a little more full. Hopefully it is available in the US for thos beer lovers out there as the cost for me to ship one would be a bit expensive. Sorry.

Our Visit to Abbaye Notre-Dame d'Orval

2008-01-12T20:18:00.002+01:00

Today Paula and I took a drive to the Orval Abbaye. We found out it was less than an hour from our flat so we typed the address into the GPS and off we were, sort of. We could not find the exact address but got something close and started to drive. It was about 60 kilometers or so from our place (about 36 miles or so), most of it on the main motorway that takes us to all the main stops in Belgium (Arlon, Antwerp, Brussels, Brugge, etc.). Some of the trip was through the country on some smaller, curvy roads.

We arrived at Orval, just in time to get some lunch. When you arrive, you know you are there as you see a big, weathered old Orval sign pointing to the right. Down a long driveway there is the café to the left, a long row of parking spots to the right and up ahead, the Abbaye and all the related buildings. It is a rather large complex of buildings, not all of which are initially visible from the road.

We parked the car and headed into the café, A l'Ange Gardien, for some lunch and liquid refreshments. The café is nice and rustic inside with old wooden tables to sit at with little bench seats that look like they were from an old church school or from the Abbaye itself as they have little crosses engraved in the legs. There is a warming fire place in the corner of the main room that was glowing and heating us. The room we were in was fairly full at the time we arrived, with a few tables of 10 ore more people each, along with some side tables of 2 and 3 people sitting, eating and drinking.

Paula and I both started off with the Orval 3,5 beer (or Petite Orval) as I knew it. I believe this is the monks standard beer that they would drink during the day as it is lower in alcohol than the standard Orval which sits at 6,2% abv.

Follow this link to Orval.....

Our Beer Pilgramage to Abbay of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren

2007-12-30T23:11:00.000+01:00

Once we had solid plans to spend a few days in Brussels and Bruges after Christmas, I quickly called up the Abbay at Westvleteren to see if it would be possible to purchase some of their fine beer. First you have to call the automated phone line and find out what day you have to call back, at what time, and what beer or beers are available for purchase. The availability depends on what has recently been produced and is ready for sale. They seem to alternate what is available and spread it out so that they don’t run out of any one beer for too long.

We found out that we had to call a few days before our trip, 20 December between 9am and noon, to make a reservation and we also found out that the Blonde and 12 would be available. Knowing that the 12 would be available I had a strong feeling it would be very hard to get through on the phone. Both Paula and I called on the 20th and found it very hard to get through but eventually at about 11:30 am or so we got through and made a reservation for 2 crates of the Blonde. The 12 was long sold out at that point.

My original plan was to try to visit the Abbay while we were in Bruges as the travel time from there is a bit shorter than from Brussels but when we got through to the Abbay, the only day we could pick up beer was on the 27th, when we were still in Brussels, but we jumped at the chance to purchase any amount of beer at anytime.

Our appointment was for 2:15 pm on the 27th and we had a drive of about 1 and ½ hours so we left around noon so that we didn’t miss our time. The drive to the Abbay is a fairly easy one as the greatest part of the journey is on the motorways with only 10 or so miles on roads through little towns. Our GPS device got us there very easily, despite a little detour right before the Abbay on some farm roads.

The Abbay is not that well signed or that prominent but when drive up to it, you know you are there. We arrived about an hour early to be safe and we also hoped visit the café across from the Abbay as they usually have the Westvleteren beers for sale but unfortunately the In Verde café was not open while we were there. Probably running under holiday hours.

To help kill some time before our appointment, I got out of the car and did a little walk about the Abbay as they have some walking paths that you can stroll along. I headed down a little dirt road toward what looked to be a grotto. It was about a 100 or 150 yard walk until I got close to the little grotto or outside chapel. When things were really in sight I realized that there were 2 people kneeling or standing at the alter and they were not just people, they were monks from the Abbay. As soon as I saw them I quickly turned around and walked back the way I came so that I would not disturb their praying.

We stayed in a little parking lot at the front of the Abbay waiting for our time to arrive. It looked like the appointments started at 2pm as a few cars started to line up at that point. It seemed very organized as the cars would like up and drive into a horseshoe shaped driveway. At 2:15 pm we drove into the driveway and found only 2 other cars in queue which was nice. The car in front of us had 3 empty crates of beers to return and then he picked up 2 new crates of the Blonde beer. He was in and out in just 3 or 4 minutes. We were also in and out in a very short period of time. When I was first in line, I pulled up to a man that was loading stacks and stacks of crates. I got out, gave him my license plate number and he helped me load my 2 crates into my trunk. After I stopped smiling so much, I went into the little office and paid for the beer. The man who was loading the beers is also in charge of cashing you out. If you bring back empty bottles and a crate, the case of Blonde costs €22 but if you need the bottles and crate like I did, a case costs €34 in total, a steal in my mind seeing that a single bottle of the Blonde sells for about €6 at the cheapest that we have seen at bottle shops. You can even use a credit card to pay for your beer purchase but the quantity that I was able to purchase didn’t warrant a credit card but if I could have purchased more, I surely would have.

Since we were not able to visit the café and we only purchased Blonde on this day, we will surely be back for more trips to the Abbay now that we know how to get here and how the process works.

Take a look at pictures from our Westvleteren visit.

Bruges Beer Bars

2007-12-30T21:53:00.001+01:00

Paula and I were lucky enough to visit several of the best beer bars in Bruges including:

As with Brussels, there are several very good beer bars in Bruges that are a must if you travel there for any length of time. We did some research into which bars to head to first and when to do it. I also tried to find out if there were any rare treats in bottle or on tap that would be worth the trek to find.

t’ Brugs Beertje – The first bar that we visited on our first night in Bruges was t’ Brugs Beertje and it just so happens to be the most famous and well respected of all the Bruges bars from what I could tell. As with several of the bars in town, this bar was not easy to find but after a few wrong turns and dead end alleys, we arrived at the front of this cute little bar. There is some cool breweriana in the front windows before you enter the bar.

We arrived at about 6 pm and when we popped open the front door we were greeted by a full house at the bar and all the tables in this room, and a lot of smoke. I didn’t really get a chance to take in the sights in this front area but we were quickly greeted by the owner, Daisy, and told that there should be a few tables at the very back of the bar. We exited the front bar and went into a middle room that looked like a small living room as it had several tables and a fireplace that is now gas burning. As we were walking through I didn’t take in all the sights but there were several large posters on the wall and other old breweriana. We will come back to this room later.

After exiting the second room we found our way into the back bar which had a few open tables so we quickly grabbed one. This back area is really cool. The walls are covered with breweriana mainly from breweries you would recognize but they looked like older labeling. I also spotted a bottle of Victory Hop Devil on the top of one of the walls. There is a bar in the back and a very friendly guy working it but there are no seats at the bar, it is just for serving and there is a table that pretty much backs in the bar.

We were seated for less than 3 minutes when our bartender came around with a large menu in a nice binder and he also pointed us to the 5 drafts that were available. After giving a quick look of the beer menu we each settled on our first beer. My first choice was a Christmas De Kononick on draft but that was out so I picked a Still Nacht 2006 and Paula had a Tripel Karmaliet bottle. Both were served in proper glassware. After taking a few sips of our beers, we started to look around and listen and it appeared that more than half of the crowd in the back area where either American tourists or from England or Australia. It felt like a bar back home to actually understand the conversations going on around us. It was also good to see that a number of the groups around us were studying the beer menu like I was or writing down notes on beers in notepads or journals, again like I was. We even saw a girl next to us writing things down in a special beer journal that was organized by beer styles and all. The one thing that struck me as odd about some of the groups was what they were drinking. We saw a large number of Lindeman’s Peche beer being ordered. With all the other great, real, lambics on their menu, I felt like suggesting something different to them but they seemed happy with their choices so good for them. We each had one more beer for this night, a Bruge Zot for Paula and a Pannepot for me.

The beer menu at t’ Brugs Beertje is very indepth and I could have spent much more time than I did reading it. There was an extensive selection of lambic beers, trappist beers, and even some rare treats that looked interesting. I tried to order one, a 1984 Liefman’s Goudenband but unfortunately that was out.

We returned the following night to another full house, this time around 11pm or so. We found our way to the very back again and were lucky that a couple was just getting ready to leave a table right by the bar so we grabbed it. This time a new bartender came over to us with the menu and a few suggestions for bottles. I asked if they had any bottles of the Struise Earthmonk and unfortunately the last one was consumed a month or so back. Because I asked about this rare bottle, he told me of some other harder to find bottles that they had but were not on the list. We started this night out by splitting a 750 ml bottle of Glazen Toren Canaster Winter Scotch. When the bottle was presented to us in the wrapping paper and all, it turned some heads in the load crowd. Although the crowd the night before in this part of the bar was rather quiet, the crowd on this our final night in Bruges was much more talkative but what do you expect for after 11 pm in a great city like this. Like the night before, a lot of the people in the bar crowd were American or at least spoke English.

After finishing the Canaster bottle, we picked 2 more bottles that were not on the actual beer menu but suggestions from the bartender. We ordered a T’Smisje Grande Reserva which was aged in whiskey casks and also a T’Smisje Calva Reserva and split them. Both bottles were made for the U.S. market but I hadn’t ran into them before leaving for Luxembourg so I thought we should try them now. The Grande Reserva was pretty dark tasting although the alcohol was a bit higher. Although the Calva Reserva was interesting, it was not our cup of tea. The alcohol was much more noticeable in this one and the beer was rather flat but interesting none the less. We then moved onto another bottles to split, a Rodenbach Vin de Cereale which is very limited and comes in at 10%. Since it was now approaching 12:30 am or so, we split this one again. I just can’t get enough of this beer and apparently the bartenders really enjoy it as well as they were happy that I ordered it. About half way through this bottle we were only 1 of 2 tables left, a total of 5 people in this whole section of the bar so they moved us up to the 2nd room so they could lock up the back part. It was about 1am at this point and they supposedly close at 1 am but they were in no hurry to get us out, actually some of the bartenders were having drinks of their own and socializing with us.

After finishing the Rodenbach, we moved onto one last beer for the night, a 750 ml of De Ranke Kriek, a wonderful beer. In fact it was the favorite beer of our one bartender so we talked about it for awhile. We got more into talking and he said that folks from the New Belgium Brewery were recently on one of their beer vacations with employees and he also mentioned that Tom from Monk’s Café in Philly had been there in the past.

I got a laugh out of the other table that was left with us in the back and moved into the middle room. There were 2 guys and 2 girls, all American. They were asking the one bartender about different beers and he served them up a bottle of Deus and some other expensive beers.

After doing more socializing and some drinking, we decided to leave as it was approaching 2am and there was no sign of this place totally closing down although they had locked the front door. When we were ready to leave we got a nice goodbye from our bartender friends and were told we should come back soon. I am sure that we will try. When we got outside of the bar, I took a few pictures of the front of the place and thought it was pretty cool that although all of the curtains had been drawn and the door was locked, you could see some light coming through the windows and you could certainly hear the classical music and socializing going on inside. For a minute I also wanted to head back in but we moved on to our hotel for the night.

Hotel Erasmus
Hotel Erasmus has a few personalities. It is first a hotel, then a restaurant and then a quality beer bar. We were staying here for the 2 nights that we were in Bruges and we made dinner reservations when we arrived on the evening of the 28th of December for that same evening and they were kind enough to accommodate us at 8pm. After we arrived back at the Erasmus from our first trip to the t’ Brugs Beertje, we sat down in the upscale dining room and I was instantly focused on the wall of beer bottles above my head, maybe 200 or so. I read they had a vintage and extensive bottle selection and great food so it was a combination we had to try. Upon getting the beer menu I ordered a Kerkhom Winterkoninkske draft and Paula had a draft of Verhaeghe Christmas. My beer was ok but Paula’s was a real hit with her and I.

For dinner we decided to get a 3 course prix fixe menu that was only about €35 per person. For starters Paula got a smoked salmon dish and I ordered Belgian ham dish which was basically like pruscuitto. Both were very good. For our main courses Paula ordered sole filets in a Gouden Carolous sauce and I ordered the Flemish Grandmothers stew with apple puree and pomme frites. To go along with our main courses Paula ordered a bottle of Achel Trappist Blonde and I ordered a 9 year old bottle of De Dolle 21 which I read was made specifically for Hotel Erasmus for their 21st anniversary in 1988 so the bottle was around 9 years old at the time I drank it and the label really showed its age but the beer tasted very nicely, aged nicely.

Den Dyver

Cambrinus Restaurant

t' Poatersgat

This is a relatively new bar that I read about while doing some research about bars in Bruges but it was not in any books. It probably had the coolest location of any bar we have been to in that the entrance is down a tiny set of stairs down into a cellar. The bar didn’t open until 5pm and when it was closed it just looked like a couple of painted boards with a name on it. You could not tell that there were actually steps under there and you could not tell that it was a bar as there was only a name and nothing else. But when it did open up, we ducked our heads and found ourselves into a dark but well appointed cellar which seemed like a wine cave or something along those lines. Huge white columns all over the place and marble floors, some covered by large rugs. Besides one guy at the bar, we were the only ones there but we still had a good time and based on the beer menu, I think this place would be a good time when the crowds started to roll in later at night.

Paula started with a Pere Noel draft and I had a bottle of Struise Rosse, both very fine beers. My second beer was a Leute Bokbier. The more we stayed at this bar the more we enjoyed it, especially the music. They were playing classic American music. I remember hearing songs from Elvis, the Mama’s and Papa’s and Jackson Brown. The best part about this place is that it is a good 5 minute walk from the main tourist area so the crowds are lower but it is still extremely easy to find.

De ZolderDe Zolder is right across the street from t’ Poatersgat and has an almost equally dangerous entrance down a tiny set of stairs with some well placed beer signs. We also heard good things about the selection at this place and that it has the same owners at t’ Poatersgat so we wanted to give it a shot before dinner. Since it was about 7pm or a little earlier at this point, the crowd was rather light with only about 3 English guys at the bar and a young couple having dinner near us. There was a friendly husband and wife running this place and the bar had a really nice feel inside with a fireplace, hardwood floors, wooden ceilings and honey yellow colored walls. This bar also had a nice mix of American classics playing on the surprisingly high tech stereo system. We could have stayed there the whole night and worked through the beer menu if not for reservations for dinner at Den Dyver at 8pm. Paula had a Petrus draft and I had Christmas draft that I can’t remember at this time and for some reason I didn’t write it down on my geeky beer pad. After our first and only drinks here, we make the 10 minute walk back to our dinner destination.

Check out our pictures from the wonderful Bruges beer bars that we visited on this trip

Brussels Beer Bars

2007-12-30T21:52:00.005+01:00

Although it was not the main focus of our trip to Brussels, the opportunity to visit some of the best beer bars on the world was something that we could not pass up on. We arrived in Brussels on 26 December and after doing some site seeing and museum walking, we decided it was time to get a drink or two.

Mort Subite - Out of all the possible choices, we decided to find Mort Subite for a drink. Paula and I had been wanting to visit this bar since we saw it featured on a show, Three Sheets, which we watched all the time on Mojo HD back in the U.S. In this show, the host Zane Lampry would visit a city somewhere in the world and go to the local bars and watering holes to drink what the locals drink. His first bar stop was Mort Subite so we figured we should try it as well. We got there at maybe 5pm or so and it was packed. The bar is narrow but very long so we walked to the back and finally settled on a table at the very back of the bar, right outside the bathroom. Although the location near the bathroom was not a lot of fun with people walking by our tight corner every few minutes, we did get to sit right next to the bars cat, which was sleeping on a little bed on top of some game boards. This cat was also in the Three Sheets episode in Brussels so we felt special to sight right near it. After awhile the cat woke up and walked onto my lap and then to Paula’s lap. It was hanging out near me for awhile and rubbing its little face on the side of my cargo pants. In between playing with the cat and doing some people watching, we ordered a few beers including a Mort Subite Gueuze, Mort Subite Faro and a Bush de Noel for me and a Mort Subite White Lambic and a Kriek for Paula. We also got a nice little cheese plate to go along with our beers and to hold us over before our dinner plans at 8pm. Although the beer selection at Mort Subite it not nearly as extensive as some of the other bars in Brussels, it has a very classy quality to it and social aspect that you don’t get in all bars as a lot of the tables are very close together and they make for close conversations and making new friends. Overall there were about 17 beers in bottle and another 16 on draft and the prices were a little high for some of the trappist and other beers but the Mort Subite prices seemed reasonable. Mort Subite is definitely worth a visit while in Brussels and it is very close to some of the other bars that are worth a visit as well.

Delirium Café – This was the bar that I was most interested in visiting in Brussels as I had read so much about their extensive bottle selection, some 2,000 or more beers. Delirium was also featured in the Three Sheets episode so we really wanted to check it out. The bar is down a somewhat shady looking alley that was filled with a lot of guys and girls just hanging out but it was safe. Delirium is right across the alley from the Floris Bar which is related to the owners of Delirium. We entered the front door of Delirium and were greeting with a choice to either go to the upstairs bar or downstairs. I seemed to remember that downstairs is where all the good beers were located from watching Three Sheets so we headed down there.

We later found out that the downstairs is called the Delirium Café and the upstairs based in the Delirium Taphouse. The Café was very busy but there was still room to walk around and we found a little table in the elevated section of the Café which is no smoking but since there is no wall between the smoking and non-smoking sections, we were basically sitting in the smoking section. I also quickly found out that there was no waitress service here, you had to go up to the bar to get your drafts or bottles. I wasn’t able to get a beer menu right away so I went to the bar and ordered 2 drafts so that we would have time to look through the menu, while drinking a beer, to figure out what to get for our next beer and our next beer, etc. The two drafts I got were a Bush Ambree for me and a Dupont Avec Les Bons Voeux for Paula. Both were very tasty treats and helped to give us time to look through the 2,000 beers listed in the menu. I don’t think there were enough menus to go around for everyone that wanted to look at them but I did my best to hoard a menu long enough to look through all of the pages and to try to pick out hard to find and rare treats that we would want to try.

For our next beers I got a Gertrude for Paula which was a nice little hoppy Belgian ale and for me I got a De Koninck Kriek which I hadn’t had in awhile and I really enjoyed. Some of the other bottled treats that I saw in the menu were Pannepot, Cuvee de Ranke, De Koninck Gueuze, Struisse Rosse, Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel, Pannepot Reserva and too many more to list all here. I wrote down some names to try to either buy to take away or have later in the night or later in the trip. I finished the night with a bottle of the Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel which was excellent and although it was not Belgian, I had to try as it is highly rated and hard to find.
Although the Delirium Café has the largest beer selection I have ever seen and probably in the world from what their menu claims, there is a bit of a college bar feel here and it also feels a little like a tourist destination, rather than a beer destination. I guess a place with this large of a beer selection can’t be a secret so you have to take it all when you go here. The bar walks and ceiling are loaded with brewery serving trays which is really cool. I tried to read a lot of them but you get dizzy from leaning back too much.

Moeder Lambic – This bar, that features a lot of Lambic beers, is not in the middle of Brussels but is rather on the outskirts of town and better reached by a taxi or one of the Metro trams that drop you off near here. I had read a lot about this place having a very local feel to it and a nice selection of several hundred beers, including some hard to find Lambics. We decided to get out of the very busy tourist centre of Brussels on our second night in town so we took the Metro here.

After walking around some odd streets trying to find the right way to the bar, we stumbled across it when I saw a big bright Duvel neon sign, always a welcome sight. Moeder Lambic is not big at all with only maybe 8 tables or so and about 6 seats at the bar. We found 2 bar stools at the far corner of the bar, against the wall and backed up against a large table of drinkers but it suited us just fine. The bartender was very friendly and after taking care of a large drink order, he gave us a menu and helped us with our first order. Paula got a bottle of Duchess de Borgougne and I ordered a draft of Cantillon Faro which I had been wanted to try for awhile and heard this was one of the only places to have it. They served the Faro from a little plastic jug that looked like a wooden barrel. After we finished our first round of beers, Paula ordered a draft of the Grisette Lambic that appears to be a mix of blueberry and raspberry. I ordred a draft of Taras Bubla which I had never heard of but enjoyed.

This bar had a really nice cozy feel to it and although we had never been there before, we felt welcomed. They have a large selection of comic books to read if you are so interested. The beer menu is also very extensive and I could have spend awhile looking through it but we were only planning to stay here for a few drinks and then we were off to dinner at about 8pm. Our visit was cut a little shorter than expected as a guy sitting at a table right behind us was smoking unfiltered cigarettes and the smoke was blowing right into our faces and really bothering us and our beers so we used that as excuse to jet off to dinner. The prices at Moeder Lambic were really reasonable and it would be worth another trip here on our next visit to Brussels. It would probably be better to visit during the day or later when seats are easier to obtain. It also looks like they have a little seating area out front for when the weather gets warmer.

The next major stop on our beer bar hunt in Brussels was to be Het Bier Circus but after taking a taxi to the location of the bar, we were greeted with no lights on and the bars down over the windows. I had read that the owners don’t always stick to the published hours of operations and we found that out first hand and after a €20 cab ride. The cab driver ( a minivan) was a little surprised that we wanted him to take us back to the place he picked us up at a few minutes earlier.

After the Bier Circus disappointment, we headed of to the Delirium Taphouse to see what they had to offer. Actually we were first going to head back to the Café but they had a live band there and it was impossible to get a table or any space to have a beer. The Taphouse has a different beer selection than the Café, 25 beers on tap as opposed to about 10 at the Café. I don’t believe there are any bottles available in the Taphouse but you can get the bottles in the Café which is in the basement and just bring them up to the Taphouse. We decided to try a few drafts including a Gouden Carolus Christmas for Paula and an Anchor OSA for me. Yes, a good American beer on tap in a Belgian bar. The prices were reasonable as well and all the drafts were from an overhead tap line system that is similar to what they have at Bridgid’s in Philadelphia for 1 or 2 of their drafts. Although the drafts available were very respectable, this bar really felt like a college campus bar as there were large groups of loud younger looking tourist. I know that makes me sound like an old fart but when you see people drinking 10% beer out of 20 oz boots or 40 oz chalices, you don’t really feel like you are in a good beer bar. If you have the choice of going to either the Delirium Café or the Taphouse, I would stick with the Café and their 2,004 beers and leave the Taphouse for the 18 to 20 year old American tourists that can’t get served back home.

One of our last stops in Brussels was for dinner at the BXL Café which is right off the Grand Place. This was after we could not find room in 2 other dinner choices but the food here was really good and the beer was good as well. I believe this place is owned by a fellow that owns a bar in NYC under the same name, right off of Time Square.

Overall our few days spent in Brussels were definitely enjoyable well worth the drive up from Luxembourg. Although it was very busy when we were there due to being there for the Christmas holiday time, I am sure it is very busy almost anytime you visit as it is a great destination city for both the beer tourist and someone looking for European history.

Check out our pictures from some of the best beer bars in Brussels

The Cantillon Brewery

2007-12-30T21:52:00.001+01:00

On our last day in Brussels (28 December), we decided to track down the Cantillon brewery to go on their self guided tour. Since they produce some of my favorite beers and the brewery is so historic, we could not pass up on the chance to visit and taste a few of their spontaneously fermented treats. From our guidebook the brewery looked to be a good 15 or 20 minute walk from the centre of Brussels and since the weather was clear and not too cold outside, we decided to walk it instead of taking the Metro. Well the 15 or 20 minutes turned into more like 30 or more since my expert navigation skills seemed to be left at the bar from the night before. After a few wrong turns, we made it to the brewery and if not for my reading reviews of the brewery before our trip, I would have thought that the brewery was not open as the entrance is very non- descript.

I was very pleased to turn the knob on the front door and to be greeted by a nice crowd of lambic lovers and a nice funky feeling of being inside this historic brewery. The brewery is really a warehouse on a city block and appears to be very original. Upon opening the door you find a tasting area to the left where they pour samples of various beers at the end of the door and they also allow you to purchase a glass of any beer that is currently being sampled. When we visited they were sampling Rose d’ Gambrinus, Lambic, Kriek and Faro. Walk a little further past the tasting area and you find the reception desk and gift shop. The gentleman that greeted us was actually the brewer. He gave us a brief description of the brewing process and then they leave you to the brewery and let you walk through at your own pace. The little booklet they give explains each major room and what happens when they brew but sadly there was no brewing going on this day. Just walking through the brewery was amazing to see how such specialized beer is made.

There are several numbered sections to the tour including the mashing house, room with hop boilers and crushing machine, the granary, cooling tun room, barrel storage, barrel cleaning, the bottling line and the cellar. Going up into the loft for the granary was really cool as it was very very old and funky looking and smelling. The cooling tun area was also cool to visit as that is really where all the magic happens with the making of lambic beer. You can see where the shutters are opened and closed in the roof to let in the wild airborne yeast to help with the fermentation process, spontaneous fermentation that is.

After walking through the entire brewery and taking lots of pictures and videos, we ended up at the tasting bar where we had a few free samples of Cantillon beers including Gueuze, Kriek and Rose de Gambrinus. I also purchased a full glass of the Kriek for a mere €2.

The tasting bar area is very rustic and so is the seating area where you can relax and take in their great beers. There are a handful of odd tables and chairs in the seating area and 2 wood burning stoves that warm the otherwise cold warehouse. While drinking my full glass of Kriek I walked around the tasting area and ran into (no literally) the brewery cat that was walking around and climbing on things. He or she was up on top of a large palate full of Cantillon beer crates. He or she was pretty friendly as you can probably tell from the pictures below.

Overall we probably spent about 2 hours at the brewery and could have spent more time taking in the brewery and drinking their beers but we were on our way to Bruges so we had to leave. We will surely be back for more tours in the future.

Take a look at these funky pictures from the Cantillon brewery

Our Christmas in Bruges, Belgium

2007-12-30T21:50:00.000+01:00

Our Christmas in Brussels, Belgium

2007-12-30T20:46:00.001+01:00

I never really got around to writing down my thoughts on our time spent in Brussels around Christmas but it mainly involved visiting several great bars, seeing the main attractions and also visiting the Cantillon Brewery which was a highlight for me and I think for Paula as well. We got to see tons of dogs in town which is always nice as a dog lover and a cat in a bar and a cat in a brewery which was also cool. Overall it was a great trip and we will definitely visit a number of time over the next 2 years as we have visitors!

For now, check out there pictures....

Merry Christmas / 12 Days of Christmas Update 2

2007-12-25T16:05:00.000+01:00

Merry Christmas everything. It is already 4pm on Christmas Day here in Luxembourg, we are planning for our trip tomorrow to Belgium and I am getting ready to move on to Christmas beer number 2 of this festive day!

Below is a recap of my 12 beers of Christmas as today is the actual 12th day. I will eventually get around to also posting my notes on all of these beers but for now, here is the udpated list.

Day 1 - Kerst Pater Christmas 2007
Day 2 - Gouden Carlous Christmas 2007
Day 3 - Noel des Gèants
Day 4 - Bofferding Christmas (Luxembourgish)
Day 5 - Simon Noel (Luxembourgish)
Day 6 - Stille Nacht 2006
Day 7 - Stille Nacht 2007
Day 8 - Diekirch Christmas (Luxembourgish)
Day 9 - La Rullés Cuvee Meilleurs Voeux
Day 10 - Bocq Christmas
Day 11 - Chouffe N'ice
Day 12 - Brasserie Caulier Blonde de Noel

There were many more Christmas beers that we sampled these past few weeks, most of them at the beer festival we attended a few weeks back in Essen, Belgium, but these are the ones we had full bottles of and planned to sample. Some were very good, some were not so good but that is the fun of trying different beers.

Cheers,
Greg

Rochefort, Belgium At Christmas Time

2007-12-23T22:50:00.001+01:00

Today Paula and I decided to spend the afternoon in Rochefort, Belgium for their Christmas Festival or as they call it here, Marche de Noel. Last week on our way back from Antwerp, we found that Rochefort was just a little more than 1 hour from our flat so we figured today would be a great day to spend the late afternoon at their Marche de Noel eating some local food for dinner and roaming the town to get the Christmas cheer.

Conveniently Rochefort is also the home to one of only 6 Trappist monestaries in Belgium that brew beer, Brasserie de Rochefort which is also the Abbaye de Notre Dame de Saint Rémy. They make a 6, an 8 and a 10. The 10 is one of the top rated beers in the world and a favorite of mine. Since we were heading to Rochefort for the afternoon, we also decided to try to find the Abbaye so that we could take a few pictures and be near brewing greatness. Although our GPS directed us right to where the directions on Beer Advocate told us to go, it actually led us to a dead end road around a few houses. Either the website was uninformed or the Abbaye moved. We headed back in the heart of town for the Marche de Noel and on the way I think we found the road for the Abbaye but we decided to pass and head to the fest for some dinner.

The downtown area of Rochefort is very charming with a good amount of restaurants, bars and little shops and plenty of shoppers to keep them busy. Although it was a Sunday evening, everything was open and hopping. After parking we made our way to the block or so that hand a handful of the little wooden huts we are used to seeing in this part of Europe. We quickly walked through all of the gift vendors and made our way to the stand that had little wursts. We each got a blanc wurst and a little cup of hot white wine that was pretty good. The wurst was great and we chased it all down with a nice sweet Belgian waffle.

We were a little disappointed that this fest in downtown Rochefort didn't sell any bottles of Rochefort beer so we found a cute little hotel with a restaurant and bar a block away that had all 3 Rochefort beers and some wine. I got a Rochefort 8 in the proper glassware and I could not be happier. Ok, I was a little happier when we got a little plate of cheese and salami. Yum.

After my beer and Paula's wine we headed to our car. On the way down we passed a little butcher shop that had a bunch of different Rochefort beers and gift sets in their window. I was blown away when I say a 1.5litre magnum of Rochefort 8 for only €13! The reason this was such a big suprise to me is that just a week earlier in Essen, Belgium I paid €30 for the same bottle. I guess not everything I buy here is a deal and it just teaches me a lesson to buy closer to the source.

All in all it was a very nice evening in Rochefort. A cute town that has alot of charm and it worth another visit in the time to come. Next time, we will definitely find the Abbaye.

Click here to learn more about Rochefort beers

Click here to see a few of our pictures from Rochefort at Christmas

How Are We Spending Our First Christmas In Luxembourg?

2007-12-21T20:42:00.000+01:00

Thank you for asking. Christmas is a big deal in Luxembourg and Europe in general, just like at home. Just today I was at our local megastore, Cactus, for a few food items and last minute Christmas gifts and it was a freaking madhouse. It did remind me of home, just with foreign voices.

The Christmas markets are great in the towns that we have visited. It seems like most European towns have little wooden huts setup to sell all kinds of great foods and gifts like the Luxembourg City and Strassen markets we have mentioned earlier. Tomorrow, Saturday, 22 December we are taking a train to one of the better markets in Trier, Germany. It is less than an hour by train from Luxembourg and is supposed to be great with tons of shopping and eating options.

On Sunday, 23 December we are going to take about an hours drive to Rochefort, a little Belgian town to visit their Christmas market. Rochefort happens to be the home of one of the best Trappist breweries in the world. We probably won't visit there but we will surely try some of their beers while in town.

We will spend the 24th and 25th in Luxembourg, probably going to Christmas Eve mass in Luxembourg City at a church that is in English. We are not sure the exact denomination of the church but who cares, it is in English.

On the 26th we embark on our Belgian Christmas trip! We will spend the first 2 nights in Brussels and then we move on for 2 nights to Brugge. We are really looking forward to both and will surely post more stories and pictures on those trips.

See some of our Christmas pictures!

Cheers.

Beer Bars in Antwerp

2007-12-16T21:03:00.001+01:00

While visiting Antwerp this weekend, Paula and I visited 2 great bars, the Kulminator and Oud Arsenal. I had been waiting for this trip for some time. Ever since I was a little boy...ok, not that long but it has been awhile.

After checking into our B&B in the middle of the old section of Antwerp, we found our way through the winding streets to the Kulminator, which many regard as the best beer bar in the world. The front of the bar is pretty unassuming and even the big sign on the top is hard to see from down the street as it is not lit up. When we entered the bar we were instantly greeted with the feel of a real old fashioned Belgian beer cafe. When you walk in you are greeted by a small bar to the left. There is about 5 or 6 bar stools and some room to stand at the bar as well. there are 3 or 4 decent sized tables in the front area next to the bar. As you progress to the back of the cafe and toward the bathrooms, you go up a we steps and there is another area with a few more tables but is pretty tight. As you walk back to the bathrooms there is a large window that gives you a view into a beer lovers toy store. There are hundreds of bottles on display in this storeage area, some are rare and special while others are everyday beers.

Paula and I found 2 bar stools at the left end of the bar, near the window and near the 2 house cats that live there. More on them later. It is pretty intimidating to sit down and have to make a decision on what beer to get first, knowing that you will probably have a limited time to drink. Luckily they have about 10 or more drafts so we each chose a draft (a Kasteel Rouge for the lady and a Gouden Carolous Christmas for me). I then got a hold of the beer book which is about an inch thick and very very interesting to read. Although it is a little hard to read due to it being in Flemish, you still can make out the names of 99% of the beers. The prices and sizes are also easy to get through. I found that for the most part the prices were pretty reasonable as well. They had most of the current Belgian beers you would expect to see but the real draw to the Kulminator is the rare and vintage beers they stock. Although there are way too many to mention here, a few that caught my eye were vintages of Chimay blue back to 1981 or so, vintages of Thomas Hardy's(not Belgian, I know) back 25 or more years, and many vintage lambic beers that were really tempting. During the 5 hours or so that we were there, I had a Chimay D'Oree from 2004 which as I understand is the monks special beer they consume. I also had a Rochefort 6 from 1998, a Rodenbach Grand Cru from 2000.

After some reading and talking between Paula and I, we started to chat with a buy sitting next to us and a couple at the other end of the bar. It turns out that the guy sitting next to me was on his way to the same beer festival the next day and to top that, it turns out that he was from Scranton, PA where I grew up! It is a very small world to run into someone in Belgium that lives and works near where you grew up. The couple sitting next to him was from Minnessota and also heading to the beer fest. After while a British fellow showed up and started to talk to the guy next to me. We all started to chat about beer and travel and the fact that everyone was going to the fest. After we all determined that we loved lambic beers, our new British friend ordered a 750 ml bottle of De Troch Gueuze from 1999 that was very tastey and suprisingly fresh for its age. We also sampled a 25 year old bottle of Thomas Hardy's which still had good life left in it as well.

Aside from the beer, one of the main attractions to the Kulminator is the husband and wife that run the place. They do everything themselves including pouring and serving all the beers, most of them in proper glassware. They also cut up meats and cheeses and serve to their patrons. The area they walk behind the bar is rather small and cozy. They have stacks of boxes with beer glasses and as they wash glasses that were used that day, they put then back in the proper boxes or the cases above the bar. The walls behind the bar are lined with shelves of various different beers, all served at room temperature and including current beers and several vintage beers. From where we were sitting we could see several different label variations to Chimay blue and others. There is also an impressive list of gift beers that were given to Dirk the owner by guests. In the 5 hours we were there I spotted a bottom of Alaskan Smoked Porter from 2004, some Brooklyn Monster, Some Sierra Nevada, Anchor OSA, Alesmith Decadence, Captain Lawrence Smoke from the Oak.

After sitting in the same spot staring at the same walls and cats and breweriana, we had to move on to the next bar, Oud Arsenal. Although I left with the regret of not purchasing a few special beers to take away including a 1979 Cantillon frambozen and the Duvel Tripel Hop, we had a great time at the Kulminator and we know that we would be back soon.

How on to the Oud Arsenal

Pictures of Kulminator and Oud Aresenal in Antwerp

Beer Bottle Shops of Antwerp

2007-12-16T21:02:00.001+01:00

Before heading to Antwerp I did some research and found that there were a few really good beer bottle shops to visit in the city. It makes sense that in a great beer city like Antwerp with a cafe like Kulminator, there has got to be some good places to take away beer. We visited two shops on Sunday before heading back to Luxembourg.

The first store that we visited was Bierwinkel Den Borstvlegel which is on Oude Vaartplaats, just a few blocks away from a great bar, Oud Arsenal. I have read recently that this shop may be closing at the end of 2007 so I wanted to get there to do a little Christmas shopping for myself. The shop was very busy so it was hard to walk around and look and not knock things over. The selection is pretty impressive but does not border on the rare. I found a handful of harder to find lambics including a few faros. There was a nice selection of Cantillon beers at very reasonable prices including Saint Lamvinus at €7, Iris at €5 or €6 and Vignoronne at the same. Throughout the store there was a really nice selection of glassware and gift sets. They did have beers from 6 of the 7 trappist beers but no Westy to be found. They did have the largest bottle that I had ever seen in my life, a 12 litre bottle of 25 year old beer. I was not really sure what was in it but I was tempted to buy it, if not for the €85 price tag and the huge huge size of the bottle.

The next bottle shop we hit was something called 280 Belgian Beer Sortes or something like that. It was right at the end of the shopping area near our bed and breakfast so I wasn't expecting much. The store was fairly large with 2 large rows, one on either side as you walked through so this helped me to not knock over any bottles with my large backpack. I did find some nice bottles here like the Duvel green label that you don't find in the U.S. I also got a 4 pack of Kasteel Rouge for Paula. I then picked up a bottle of Coke on my way to the cash register and I almost tripped over the best find of the weekend. A case of Westvleteren 12!! A full case and then there was another case just sitting in their front window. Without hesitation the owner said they were for sale so I purchased 2 bottles. Yes, just 2 bottles. They were €7 a bottle which is a great price but since my back was already loaded down with other bottles, I thought 2 was a reasonable number. Plus, I expect to visit the Abbey to get a few crates of Westy in the week after Christmas. Check back to see whether I am successful.

Check out our shopping pictures

12 Beers of Christmas....Update 1

2007-12-16T20:57:00.000+01:00

As the 12 days of Christmas started on Thursday, I started my travels through 12 different Belgian (and maybe a few Luxembourgish) Christmas beers.

Day 1 - Kerst Pater Christmas 2007
Day 2 - Gouden Carlous Christmas 2007
Day 3 - Noel des Gèants
Day 4 - Bofferding Christmas
Day 5 - Simon Noel
Day 6 - Stille Nacht 2006
Day 7 - Stille Nacht 2007
Day 8 - Simon Noel
Day 9 - Diekirch Christmas
Day 10 - TBD
Day 11 - TBD
Day 12 - TBD