Jane and John in Europe, Trip Report

[John Sand]

Jane's Six City Shopping Tour, or John's Five City Beer Tour. We just came back from Rome yesterday, prior to that we visited London, St. Peter Port Guernsey, Amsterdam, and some little country... Oh yeah, BELGIUM! Brussels and Bruges. We had great weather, a ton of fun, met distant family, saw amazing sights, and had a few beers too. This is a quick recap.
London: Great, cosmopolitan city. People are fun and funny. Went to a pub for dinner, of course. Ate fish and chips, drank Old Speckled Hen (decent) and Oakham Jeffrey Hudson Bitter, quite good. We also visited a castle and a church. Next day we saw a palace, took a boat to Greenwich, drank a flight (they call it a paddle) of Meantime Ales: One Red, One IPA, two Pales, English and American. They ranged from good to very good. Ate more fish. Had a burger for lunch. Don't eat burgers in Europe. Jane bought a scarf.
St. Peter Port: Charming old town. Met Jane's cousins of some degree, who drove us around and took us home for a cookout. Drank some local cask ales, and John Smith's Bitter. I liked the cask ales, from White Rock on Guernsey. But I still prefer my beer a little colder and bubblier.
Amsterdam: Another big town, with a very old center. Heineken does taste better there. Budvar is decent.
Brussels: Great, but no street signs. I figure it out. We drink Kwak at a street cafe in the old city, it is fine. Later we find Delirium Cafe, home of 3,000+ beers. We drink Chouffe Houblon IPA, very good, then Delirium Tremens, excellent. We buy rounds with some tech guys from Indiana, and get tipsy. Jane buys lace.
Bruges: The best preserved city in Europe, it looks like a movie set. We risk another burger, not as bad, but still bad. I climb the famous belfry, 366 steps. A french schoolgirl wants to come home with us to see NYC. We dine in a cafe, drinking Brugse Zot, pale and dubbel. Both are excellent. Jane buys more lace.
Rome: The Eternal City. The Pope is not in. (Neither was the Queen of England) We visit his house anyway. The old Romans left stuff everywhere, but they built really well. We did see some pick-pockets, and were over-charged by some merchants, but had good experiences to balance. Jane buys another scarf, and a purse. Essentially there is no beer in Rome, which is why my drinking tour was only five cities. Moretti is better than Peroni. I do earn a small beer by helping a Maitre D' install a light outside his restaurant, because he isn't tall enough to reach. I assuage my thirst for beer by replacing it with excellent food.
We loved Europe, but I was glad to come home. I opened a homebrew as soon as I got in.

[Beer-lord]

Sounds like a ton of memories from that trip. A very good, quick tour of your visit.
I've only been to Italy and the beer was blah but maybe one day I can visit more of Europe.

[philm00x]

So jelly right now. Wife and I left a piece of our hearts in Bruges. It's such a magical place! De Halve Maan is my favorite Belgian brewery and their Brugse Zot and Straffe Hendrik beers are fuhmazing. The food can go 50-50, but the sights, sounds, and nice people were excellent. We will go back one day, I hope!

Did you visit the pissing baby fountain in Brussels? It's a lot less impressive in person than it seemed on travel reviews. Nutella and strawberry waffles! Steak and frites!

[John Sand]

Thanks guys.
Phil, we skipped that fountain, having heard that it was unimpressive. We also skipped the Trevi Fountain as that was under repair. But we loved the beers.

[philm00x]

Good call. To be honest, if you've ever had a Blanche De Bruxelles, the statue is not much bigger than the picture of it on the bottle! LOL!

[Inkleg]

WOW, that was really smart of you not to post this till after you got back. Ya know with your homebrew unguarded and all. Sounds like the two of you had a great trip.




PS, How's the French girl working out?

[BlackDuck]

PS, How's the French girl working out?

And all that lace?

[Beer-lord]

Dirty old men! The lace was bought because his wife is making him some hop and grain bags for steeping.
What's with you people? Where are your minds?

[Inkleg]

Dirty old men! The lace was bought because his wife is making him some hop and grain bags for steeping.
What's with you people? Where are your minds?

That's all fine and dandy, but can you explain away the French girl.

Never mind, she's there to clean up after brew day, duh.

[RickBeer]

Leave it to Inkleg to find the important morsel in the trip log...

[John Sand]

Alas, the French girl was not passed through immigration. And the lace is handkerchiefs and a table runner. We did look at lingerie in Italy, but either the sizes or the styles were wrong.
As for protecting my homebrew, Hope, the Killer Cat was on watch.

[Inkleg]

It's good to have a cat on the job.
I tell our garage kitty her only job is to keep the elephants out of the front yard. So far she's been pretty good at it.

[philm00x]

It's good to have a cat on the job.
I tell our garage kitty her only job is to keep the elephants out of the front yard. So far she's been pretty good at it.

Elephants?! WTF! Lol!!

[Gymrat]

It's great that you had a good trip and made it home safely. It is even better that you like your beers better than European ones

[John Sand]

Well, Gym, thank you. I don't think my beer is quite up to some that I drank over there. But finishing in Italy sure made me relish a tasty ale. I look at the rest as inspiration. One of my biggest successes is a Belgian. I may make more soon.