Day 19 - Amsterdam to Ghent

Jan 1st - Happy New Year! When the alarm went off at 6:00 am, I was definitely happy that we had made it an early night (well, an early night for NYE standards that is). As we headed off for the train station, it was still dark & hardly a soul on the streets.

Our destination for today is Ghent (Gent), where we are staying for 4 nights, and using as a central location for some day trips in Belgium - with a stop first in Antwerp to walk around & find some lunch. Once our bags were stowed in the locker, we realized I'd left the camera in my bag in the locker. We'll just have to rely on the blackberry again for some pics instead of paying 5 Euro more to unlock & relock :)


Cathederal in Antwerp



Antwerp

We spent close to 2 hours wandering around Antwerp - it seems like a good desitination, but probably better on a different day, as the streets were eerily quiet & empty. I think the city was still asleep, after a really good New Year's Eve party (evident by the many bottles seen on the sidewalk along the way), and not much in the way of lunch options open today. So once we had a sufficient walk-about & were pretty soaked from the heavy rain, we baorded our next train to Ghent.

Fancy Digs

Ghent looks like it will be a great central spot for spending a few days in Belgium. We've read good things about Ghent itself, and there are short train trips from here to Brussels, Ypres, Bruges, and Roeselare. We checked into our hotel, which seems like it is a great spot. It's a small hotel in a gorgeous old building, and feels more like an inn than a hotel. The reception we were greeted with was fantastic - complimentary beverage followed by a personal overview of places to see in the city and restaurant recommendations, and a free upgrade to boot...I think we'll like this place :)

After a short nap, we set out to find some food...hoping something will be open. After wandering around for about an hour in the rain, we were about to concede that our only option would be McDonalds when we found a Irish pub that was open & serving food - an Irish pub in Belgium on New Year...we'll take it! Turns out they were also serving Belgian beers so we were happy. First up was a Hoegaarden Wit that was oh so refreshing. I was happy I ordered the small though because when Rob's 0.5 L arrived it was like a bucket...almost as big as his head...I'm including a picture so you can see for yourselves :) Once we satisfied our hunger & warmed up, we made one more stop on the way back to the B&B at a place we found open called 't Galgen Huisje, which happened to be the smallest beer bar I've been in, but was a good find!

New Beers for the day: Hoegaarden Wit, Leffe Blond, Rodenbach (not Grand Cru), Orval, Karmeliet, Rocheford 6, Gentse Tripel, Gulden Draak (Golden Dragon), Tongerlo Prior, Westmalle Tripel

Day 18 - Amsterdam

Dec 31st - Happy New Year's Eve! Our plan for the day is to leisurely 'pub crawl' our way around Amsterdam to hit some places we had on our list, with some good walking in between. We're planning an early train ride in the morning, so we may make it to midnight or we may not :)

De Wildeman

Flying Dog?

The city is certainly in a festive mood today! Everywhere we walk we hear fireworks going off (yes, even during daylight hours!). Our first stop for the day was at a small beer bar called De Wildeman - what a gem of a spot! They had a 'In De Wildeman Farmhouse IPA' on the board, so thought I would give that a try. We thought it very odd that it came to me served in a Flying Dog glass (a brewery in Maryland) since everywhere we have been, the beers are served in the brewery specific glass - regardless, this farmhouse ale was a delight. We got to chatting with the bartender, and asking about who brewed it for them, and he told us it was indeed Flying Dog. He said he was a friend of someone from Flying Dog, and they decided to brew a beer specifically for De Wildeman...collaborating with them on what they were looking for. It took them a while back & forth tasting and recipe tweaking to get to this beer. The bartender was very interested in hearing about our trip, where we were going to next, and our interest in beer. He gave us suggestions of places we must visit in our upcoming cities, and then a sample of another interesting collaboration - a Mikkeller/Brew Dog brew called I Hardcore You (an Imperial IPA). Rob was amazed with this one, so we stuck around for one more. We hated to leave, but sadly couldn't spend all day in one spot :)

After a pit stop for lunch, next up was a walk to De Beiaard - a bigger spot, but also found a friendly bartender when we sat down (we are pretty sure everyone in this city is friendly!), sampled a couple, and then onto our next to next stop for the day - Het Elfde Geboud. This place was getting into the Chinatown area that our B&B owner told us was a good spot for seeing some fireworks. It was just getting to be about dusk at this point, and there were definitely fireworks going off...we never were quite sure where they were going to go off from next...as they just seem to set them off right in the street, some being very close. I'd be shocked if there were no firework related injuries here!

Our Happy Homebrewer Bartenders :)

Our last stop for the day/night was to a newer place in Amsterdam called the Bier Temple - it's owned by the same folks as t'Arendsnest, and we were almost hesitant to go there as it specializes in American craft beer (which we can get at home). But we were able to find a seat, and on New Year's Eve here that seemed to be a bonus. Once again, we ended up with a very friendly & interesting bartender. Even though the majority of what they had here were American beers (even Maine Brewing Company and Smuttynose were on the board here), and a great selection of American craft beer indeed...but there were definitely plenty of more local options available. Our excellent bartender (who is also a homebrewer) pointed out a special offering on the menu that was going to be available at midnight - it was called "Occupy Your Mother" and was a homebrew made by him and two other of the staff members at Bier Temple. Being fellow appreciative homebrewers, he was happy not to make us wait til midnight to order one though - and it was a great Dutch-American IPA. Once again, even though we didn't want to leave...we had to make our way back to the B&B since it's an early train in the morning.

It wasn't quite midnight yet, but you could tell it was definitely getting closer to that hour since the quantity of the fireworks exploding all over the city was intensifying. We made it back to our room just before midnight & opened up the windows as we had a spectacular view of the brilliant displays. Though definitely not choreographed like most of the New Year's/July 4th fireworks we are used to seeing, just the sheer amount of them going off from every angle was awesome. Happy 2012 everyone!!

New Beers for the day: In De Wildeman Farmhouse IPA (brewed by Flying Dog), De Ranke Pere Noel, Mikkeller/Brew Dog I Hardcore You, Emelisse Double IPA, Westmalle Dubbel, De Manke Monnik (local to Beiaard), Jopen Ongelouinge Thomas, Le trappe Quad, Boon Framboise, Hoegaarden Grand Cru, Dutchess De Bourgone, Hoegaarden De Verboden Vrught (forbidden fruit), Kolval (Belgian Pale Ale), Kuhnhenn Rice Double IPA, Occupy Your Mother (Dutch homebrewed IPA), Temple Bier (Dutch IPA)

Day 17 - Amsterdam

Dec 30th - Day of exploring Amsterdam! After fuelling up with breakfast, we set off back to the train station to get a map & info from the tourist office. The place was completley mobbed with people...it's almost like everyone came here for New Year's celebrations or something :)

Amsterdam Train Station

About the only thing I wanted to be sure to do in Amsterdam other than just exploring the city on foot was to get to the Anne Frank House, so that was the next stop on our trek. Unfortunately when we were about 2 blocks away we saw a queue of people...that snaked it's way to the museum. We were guessing the wait would be in the vacinity of hours, so decided that we would opt for a Plan B. Our Plan B was to check out the Van Gogh Museum, which was about a 2 km walk from the Anne Frank House, so we saw more of the city on our way there. And as our luck would have it...we found an extremely long queue here as well. Oh well, maybe we were meant to spend our time just wandering today. No complaints though since it was a sunny day and Amsterdam is a great walking city, so we were happy just enjoying the views.

After some lunch and a further walk-about, we made our way to one of the local breweries tasting rooms, De Prael & sat down for a 6 sampler flight of their brews. All of their beers that we tasted were exellent...the Willy Quad was definitley the stand-out here (though we're wishing we'd had a chance to try the Mary - a barley wine, but wasn't part of the sampler). By this time our feet were sufficiently tired, so we headed back to the B&B for a short rest, and to do some planning for the rest of the trip.



We did have a good long nap, we were up & at 'em again to search out a late dinner and a stop in at a couple of beer bars before we called it an early night.

New Beers for the day: De Prael taster - Heintje (wit), Johnny (kolsch), Zwarte Riek (milk stout), Willeke (tripel), Willy (Quad), and oooh I can't remember the 6th and forgot to write it down; Grimbergen Blond; La Chouffe; Hertog Jan Pils; Tsarina Esra RIS; Oster

Day 16 - Berlin to Amsterdam

Dec 29th - It's a travel day, so of course that means up early to get our next train. I must say it was nice having the station so darn close to the hotel in Berlin. Today we have another 6 hour jaunt on high speed trains, destination Amsterdam. We decided to take a break part way with a short pit stop in the middle - Rob's goal, to have Kolsch in Cologne (Koln).

Sion Kolsch

We hopped off the train at about 1:00 intending to store the bags in a locker & have just under 90 minutes to get some lunch and a Kolsch. Rob had already researched a couple of options within walking distance of the train station. We discovered the bag storage here not to be the typical lockers we'd found in other train stations. Here it was a machine you put your bag in & it went somewhere (not sure where), and then trust when you put your card in on return that your bag would come out. I'm sure the whole system works very well, but with such a short time we weren't chancing it. The spot we were heading to was only a 5 minute walk from the train station, so the packs stayed on our backs...20 minutes later of walking :) and what seemed like a complete loop because we were now literlally 3 minutes from the station, we found one of the places on Rob's list (Sion) and found a spot to sit. Service was not top notch, so we opted not to order lunch given the time, but settled in to enjoy a few Kolsch's. These were served in the traditional small 0.2 L glass as we'd had in Berlin, and as expected very light, clear and refreshing. The 3 minute walk back to the train station gave us plenty of time to catch the next train to Amsterdam.


Our canal view



The train was a packed one...lots of people heading to Amsterdam! We'd only gone a couple of stops when we were told that due to technical issues we'd all have to get off the train & take another, so we all loaded in to finish up the end of the trip. When we arrived in Amsterdam it was dark out and swarms of people were out & about. We successfully navigated our way to the B&B - we'd had trouble finding accomodations in Amsterdam, so had settled for a B&B that had a shared bath. This happened to be the owner's house & she rents out 2 rooms - not perfect, but it will do. Our room was on the top floor of a very steep, narrow, spiraling staircase. I assume this is a typical staircase in Amsterdam with all of the tall, skinny rows of houses. The view out our window is great...looking right over a canal.

Since we missed lunch we were about starved at this point, so we headed into the Joordan area, just a few canals away and settled in at a little Italian joint for some food & then off to find one of the highly recommended beer bars that was very close to our B&B. One thing I have to say about walking around Amsterdam, besides the beautiful canals, bridges, and cobbleston streets, is holy bicycles!! They are absolutely everywhere...and they are booking it! We very quickly learned to not only look for cars when crossing a street, but to keep an extra eye out for approaching bicycles. It'll be a miracle if I don't get run over by one :) We got caught in the middle of a huge thunder & lightening storm with torrential rain & hail - we took cover in a doorway to let it pass and were amazed by the crazy bikers who kept going, with an umbrella in one hand, other hand on the handlebar.

We found t'Arendsnest, which is a spot that came very highly recommended by several people - a gem of a beer bar indeed. The servers really know their stuff, and is almost a piece of art to watch them pour the perfect glass of beer. One thing we love here (Europe in general, not just this place) is that every single beer has a specific glass to be served in...makes for a great display of glassware everywhere we go. After hanging out at t'Arendsnest for a little while, that was the end of the day for us.

Tap list at t'Arendsnest

New Beers for the day: Sion Kolsch, Heineken (the one and only for this trip!), Le Trappe Blond, Le Trappe Bock, Budels Kolos, Texelsel Tripel, Hertog Jan Grand Prestige (to date one of Rob's favorites for the trip), Jopen Extra Stout

Day 15 - Berlin

Dec 28th - After reviewing what was left on our list of Berlin 'must-sees', we decided today's goal would be Olympiastadium and the Berlin Wall Memorial. So after a breakfast at the hotel, we were off to the Hoptbahnhof to catch an S-Bahn out to Olympiastadium. We picked up some audio guides to help explain what we were seeing & some of the history. The tour took us around the grounds around the staduim - past the cement columns that list all German Olympic medalists through all of the games (the column for that last couple of Olympic games is not yet erected), past the outdoor pool & diving platforms, and around the back to the Maifield that had been used for polo matches.

As we rounded the back of the stadium, we could enter via the marathon gate to see where the Olympic flame had been lit & to see the inside of the stadium. Very impressive indeed. Originally used for the 1936 Olympic Games during Hitler's rule, it was reopened in 2004 with many updates, including a very cool roof. When they made the recent updates, I have to say, they were done very well as the structure & feel of the original stadium is definitley still in tact. Just inside the Marathon Gate are stone slabs, listing all of the gold medal winners of the 1936 Games - very cool to see & think of the amazing performance of Jesse Owens's four gold medal wins here. More recently the stadium is now regularly used for sporting events - 2006 FIFA World Cup was here - and concerts - Bruce Springsteen will be here in May...how excellent would that be? :)

All toured out for the morning, we were off to find lunch at a brew pub called Brauhaus Lemke that Rob had heard about on an NPR aricle...one of NPR's Berlin correspondents had said it was one of his favorite spots in Berlin. It was a great spot...and the first place we have been in on this trip that offered a sampler taster - so we ordered one up to get a small tasting of each of their 4 brews.

Our final stop for the afternoon was to go to the Berlin Wall Memorial which is a memorial to the victims of the Berlin Wall - for the at least 136 people who died at the wall between 1961 and 1989. This site is another one of the few places where a section of the original wall still stands. There is a picture wall memorial with pictures of all of the victims, and around the grounds, some of their stories. One info pilar had an audio reading of the victim's names, ages, datee of death, and how they perished, so many drowned or shot trying to breech the wall - I have a short video/audio clip that I attempted to include here, but can't seem to upload via the connection I have. A very touching spot, especially when taking in the wall of pictures to see how young many of the victims were. A very moving memorial.

We decided to head back to the hotel for a short rest and to warm up before heading out in search of dinner. We found a couple of brew pubs located close to Alexanderplatz, which we had not yet explored, so we decided to head there, walk around a little and then enjoy a couple last beers and dinner in Berlin. There was a lot of construction going on in the Alexanderplatz, but we did manage to see the tall Television Tower and Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall) before stopping in at Marcus Brau for a drink and then Brauhaus Mitte, where we also found a sampler taster of their 4 beers and dinner. Odd spot in that is is located in a mall, but decent beer & great food and service. We decided we should try the Berliner Weisse with the syrup...so I ordered up a red (Himbeer raspberry) and Rob a green (Waldmeister)...and we recieved them in goblets, again with a straw. Rob tried ordering without the syrup, but the waiter told us we needed the syrup (otherwise we should just order another beer). We got a little more background from the waiter who told us that the Berliner Weisse is viewed more as a cocktail than a beer here...and typically only ordered by the ladies or the tourists :) The verdict...enjoyable if thought of as a cocktail...definitely sweet.

And that's a wrap on Berlin!

New Beers for the day - a lot of these were shared tasters :) : Brauhaus Lemke Original, Brauhaus Lemke Pils, Brauhaus Lemke Weizen, Brauhaus Lemke Weihnachts Bock, Maisel's Weisse Dunkelweisse, Maisel's Weisse Helles Hefeweizen, Berliner Marcus Brau Dark, Brahaus Mitte Pils, Brahaus Mitte Dunkel, Brahaus Mitte Hefeweizen, Brauhaus Mitte Christmas Bock, Berliner Weisse Kindl Himbeer (raspberry, with red syrup), Berliner Weisse Kindl Waldmeister (with green syrup)

Day 14 - Berlin

Dec 27th - Two full days in Berlin - a huge city, tons of history...where to start & what to do? We made a long list of the highlights we would like to see, so we started off at the top and will hit as much as we can.

Brandenburg Gate

First stop for the day was a quick S-Bahn stop away, to Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). Coming up the steairs from the train stop, the massive monument was in full view. Despite the construction going on in the area, and the tacky-tourist photo ops in front (where you could stand on a podium with a dressed up German & American soldier to get a photo), the monument was impressive. It was built in 1791, and was the only gate to Berlin still standing after World War II. When the Berlin Wall was erected in 1961, Brandenburg Gate was within the restricted area, so it was not accessible to the East or the West until the wall came down in 1989...so it is also a major symbol of a reunified Germany. We could not fully walk around all angles as the back of the gate was closed off for construction of the huge stage in preparation for Berlin's big New Year's Eve bash at Brandenburg Gate...now I bet that will be a party! :)

Reichtag

Located directly beside Brandenburg Gate is the Reichtag (German Parliament Building), so we headed over there to take a walk around the grounds ...yet another impressive piece of architecture with a huge glass dome on top. This building has been the seat of Parliament since 1999. The building was constructed in 1894, severly damaged in World War II, but then reconstructed between 1991 and 1998. You can go in to get to the top of the glass dome, but only if you apply in advance for a visit, so we enjoyed the view from the outside.

Markings of the former wall

Next up on the walking tour in this section of the city was to find the Holocaust Memorial. On our way there, we discovered a 2 row path of cobblestones crossing through the street...this path of cobblestone throughout the city, marks the location of where the Berlin Wall had once stood...almost the only reminder of the Wall left in the city. We found the Holocaust Memorial, and walked around the grounds there - it is an area of about 1 city block, and contains 2711 concrete columns (steles), all of the same footprint size (about 5 by 3 feet), but of varying heights (anywhere from 1 to about 10 feet tall), with the shortest around the edges, getting tallest in the center. The paths in between the columns were up & down hilly. The grey color of the columns is in rememberance of the ashes of the Jews who were cremated during the Holocaust and the intended feeling of walking amongst the columns of varying heights & uneven ground is meant to provide visitors with an impression of uneasiness & insecurity - a definite sobering experience.

Holocaust Memorial

I had originally thought I had read that there was nothing much left to see at the sight of Checkpoint Charlie, but we did have the location on the map, so decided that should be next up on our tour. We were glad we did head there, as there definitely is still something to see here. The guard stand is still here along with the sign indicating whether you were entering or leaving the American sector - this famous border crossing was used from 1961 to 1990. The intersetion of streets here is also lined with big panels that give a lot of the history of the border crossing, and what life was like living on either side of the wall. The pictures of families separated by the wall standing on step ladders so that they could wave to each other over the wall particularly struck me.

 After a little further walk through the streets, we found a Lowenbrau Bierrehalle to sit down for a quick lunch before making it onto the next stop on our tour. I was thrilled to find a meal with a salad on on the plate (other than potato salad that is)...these German meals have been very yummy, and the ultimate in hearty comfort food, but I was starting to realize I hadn't seen a veggie in eons :)

On our way to our last stop of the day, we passed by an interesting building at Gendarmarkt square (oh, and it looks like a big christmas Market still going on here!). We went inside the building we thought looked interesting just to see what the inside was like. I think this building is called the Deutscher Dom. We found once we were inside that there was an exhibit of German parliamentary history, so we spent some time doing an audio-tour here. It was dark by the time we left...perfect timing for the market, but I think I can say I was all marketed out, plus this one had a fee to enter...not really worth it for just some browsing.

We figured our original last stop for the day, the Topography of Terror Museum, would likely be closed by now, but when we looked it up found that it was open until 8:00 PM, so we decided to get it in. At the museum location is one of the few still standing porions of the Berlin Wall. It was pretty dark out, so we did not get a really good view of it. We spent a couple of hours reading through the very well laid out displays in the museum which chronicled the history of 'terror' in Germany, from the beginning of the formation of the SS and Gestapo, through the reign of Hitler, the crimes committed by Hitler's regime, to the end of the Third Reich and the war crimes trials. The museum building is located on the site where the former SS and Gestapo headquarters stood.

Tired feet & hungry bellies, we decided to hunt out a place we had seen on Friedrichstrasse earlier in the day for dinner. On our way though, we were tempted by another good looking spot, so we went in and sat down. When we got our menus, low and behold, realized this was the place we searched for last night...the name on the outside "Treffpunkt Berlin" apparently isn't the full name, and the name on TripAdvisor "Alt-Berliner Kneipe" wasn't the full name...but the menu stated "Alt-Berliner Kneipe Treffpunkt Berlin"...whew! All was enjoyed :) Here I had my first Berliner Weisse - always found on the menu in Berlin under "low alcohol" beers and with the option "red" or "green", as traditionally a red or green syrup is added to sweeten the sourness. I asked for mine without any syrup, as I wanted to taste the sourness. We had a good laugh when we saw the glass it came in (almost like a bowl), and a straw. The straw was short lived...the Berliner Weisse sans syrup was good, with just a hint of sour. 

New Beers for the day: Lowenbrau Premium, Berliner Pilsner, Schultheiss Pilsner, Schofferhofer Weizen, Berliner Kindl Weisse (without syrup)

Day 13 - Munich to Berlin

Dec 26th - Happy Boxing Day! As is usual for a travel day, we were up at it early to get some breakfast in us & off to the train station for Berlin. It's a 6 hour ride on the high speed train, so it's time to sit back, relax & enjoy the scenery.

We arrived in Berlin & found our hotel within walking distance from the train station (Hoptbahnhof). Wow, this train station is one of the most impressive I have ever seen...almost a work of art...and absolutely massive! Over our 3 night stay in Berlin, we needed to come to the Hoptbahnhof a couple times a day to catch trains & we were in awe every time. The hotel, wasn't necessarily in the middle of it all, but the convenience to the station was a huge bonus, and with our passes being good on the S-Bahn trains all over the city, we took advantage of that!

As soon as we got checked in, we were off in search of a laundromat - yep, the glorious part of travelling :) We were fortunate to have had a washing machine in the apartment in Vienna, but now were at the point of needing to head out to find a place to do laundry - we found one a few train stops & a walk away, and managed to get ourselves a whole load of fresh clean clothes (exciting, I know).

Big tree...can you find me? :)

It was getting late after we finally made it back to the room & we were both beyond starving, so off we headed again in search of a restaurant Rob had read great reviews for on TripAdvisor. Just one S-Bahn stop away to Friedrichstrasse - and then we searched and searched but could not find the place...so we gave up & wandered into a spot that we saw getting off of the train. The main beer they served in here was a Kolsh in itty-bitty 0.2 L glasses, which apparently is a traditional way to serve a Kolsh, even though larger sizes were available on the menu. We did order a larger one, much to the shagrin of our server who gave us the low-down on the traditional small size. It was an excellent Kolsh, crisp, clean and oh so thirst quenching!

That rounded out our exciting travel & laundry day...we didn't have a chance to take a single picture, so I am including a few shots we took of the Hoptbahnhof a couple days later :)

New Beers for the day: Gaffel Kolsch