Concert Going in Europe....

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

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

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

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

Cologne, Germany

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

More pictures and words to follow soon....

Pre-ZBF Days at Alvinne Brewery

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

A Weekend in Gent, Belgium

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

Why Haven't There Been Many Post Lately?

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

Here is what our planning looks like at this point:

March

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

April

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

May

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

June

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

A Saturday Afternoon Visit to Lambic Country

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.