Quote from today:

"...Six to nine hours of torrential rains..."

And now back to our regularly scheduled summer...??

An open letter to tourists of London

Dear Tourists in London,
I'm glad you're here enjoying this great city. It's awesome (except of course for the rain we've had every day since June 1, how hot the tube gets when the temperature goes over 75 deg F, and the fact that everything here costs 2x as much as it does anywhere else in the world). I love this city, I hope you do too.

However, I have a couple of suggestions/favors I'd like to propose to you today regarding London's public transportation system. It's easy, gets you where you want to go, albeit at astronomically high cost. So consider these the few freebies you'll get:

1. As you get on the tube, please try to do so in something resembling the orderly manner that the British have refined down to an art form. It's not the Continent - we queue here. I like queuing - it works. (No cuts, no butts, no coconuts.)
   
2. For example, your 3' x '3 x 2' backpack in which you seemed to have packed your entire life for a 2 week jaunt around England won't fit through the turnstiles no matter how much you try to pull it through like the Little Tortoise That Could. (Now un-wedge your backpack and step aside or I'll miss my train; that makes me grumpy. )
   
3. When you race up to be the first person at the turnstile, don't choose that time to find your transport ticket. If it's not in your hand, you've negated your place at the front of the line. (Excuse you, now move over. )
   
4. I realize London's streets are a total nightmare - I mean, it takes cabbies like 2 years of study just to qualify to take the certification test. The "London A to Z" (yes, I do pronounce it "A to Zed") is a wise investment. But I advise not you to choose one step past the exit turnstile of the tube, the bottom of the stairs exiting Victoria station (the single busiest station in London), or crowd the dead-center of the sidewalk just outside of the station to start consulting with your entire tour group of 18 over your "A to Z". (I happen to know where I'm going, so get outta my way.)
   

So, I hope these hints are just reminders of common sense that I'm sure all tourists innately possess, but may forget temporarily amid the excitement of this fabulous city.

Think of the tube entrances & exits as well as the sidewalks as our highways & interstates, since most of us don't have cars here. Anything you'd give me the finger for at home if I did on the highway, I equally would consider un-advisable when you're on the roads & public transport systems here. (And just as an FYI, road rash doesn't look good on you, so would you mind moving out of my way now?)

Best regards,
A fast-walking lady who's got somewhere to be that isn't Madame Tussaud's.


PS - for those thinking I've completely gone mental, I point out that there's not a little bit of sarcasm in this! ;)

The Algarve

Hank and I opted for a beach holiday this time, and we got some great recommendations about the Algarve area of Portugal (the very southern part of the country from the coast all the way to Spain). We've been doing so much city touring that having some time to just sit and read books (or play our entirely-too-addictive new PSP game) was such a treat!

We stayed in a beach town called Armacao de Pera, and the hotel was right in front of a long, busy beach section. Mostly we hung out at the pool-side area nearby steps that led down the the beach. (It was happily convenient to the pool-side bar area... imagine that!) We also had 6 solid days of perfectly sunny weather - something I haven't seen in London since May (... mutter, grumble). I'm doing my best now to savor having my skin color be something besides translucent for once. Hank, usually the king of first-day sunburns, managed to stave off getting fairly pink until our last day - hurray!

The hotel was a bit of the "cheap & cheerful" variety, but we had a killer room setup with a huge living room area and two windows both looking out over the beach. My afternoon naps were to the sounds of the waves less than 100 yards away... (man, I could use one of those now). The pool/beach area was really nice, however, and since that's where most of our time was, the rest of the hotel didn't matter a whole lot. The city of A. de Pera was definitely not tourist-gentrified, but still had lots of good restaurants and cafes. There was even a "circus" in town (with really freaky clown posters up all week... yes, Julie, I thought about you!) on the last night of our stay... we walked down to where the carnival area was going on, and they had the usual rigged games and questionably-safe rides. We opted instead for some churros freshly-made and rolled in cinnamon-sugar (not those nasty frozen ones most fairs get now) and continued our wander around town.

Portugal is very popular with British tourists... we were never without an English menu or someone to help take our order in English (although "sangria" doesn't really need too much translation). There's also the other European factor I hadn't considered when opting for a beach holiday, which was the prevalence of older gents in speedos. I'll not apologize for saying that unless you're a speedo MODEL, just don't go there.

In the evenings we picked a few of the nearby cities to visit, the largest one being Albuferia. There was a crappy, tourist trap area of that city that we mistakenly showed up at, and then a cooler, old-town area down the hill by the beach that we hiked down to. We even went back on our last day there to look around when the shops were open before heading off to catch our plane home. We ate a delicious dinner at a restaurant called A Ruina (The Ruin, located in what I'm guessing is a restored bit of old building) where you ordered by going up to the fish counter and pointing out the fish you wanted to eat. The calamari was so unbelievably tender and un-chewy - I never really knew squid came anything but rubber-bandy!! No sauce, just lemon... I'd go back in an instant just for that dish.

Ooh, and for the shocker of all shocks, on our first evening in Portugal, Hank said he had an announcement... HE NOW EATS FISH!! And he did, too - like every night! We shared some really delicious fish dishes like prawns in spicy piri piri sauce, some red snapper, and on his first night of eating FLESH in >16 years, he ate most of two swordfish steaks. Now really, is it *that* far a leap to starting to eat bacon?? ;)

Happy Wednesday!!

To all our friends in California (or Massachusetts or Illinois or where ever), we hope you have a nice Wednesday. It's yet another rainy day here in London, with no flags, no bbqs, no fireworks you illegally smuggled back from the next state over that sells "the good ones." Anyway, we hope you're enjoying your no-frills-here-in-England Wednesday however you like, as they try to repress the sad memories of the-one-that-got-away.

Now time for a cup of tea with one of my British co-workers, no doubt descendants of those crazy, rascally red-coats. Viva la revolution!

May flowers and June gloom

I've been meaning for ages now to post my photos from the Chelsea flower show. I took about 150 that day, so I finally had a sec to cull the list down to the ones I liked best. A lot of ones from the indoor show didn't turn out as good as I'd intended (macro zoom + flash = very challenging), but I'm overall really pleased with how lovely some of them turned out. I could have been using crayola crayons and butcher paper and any images from the show would have turned out equally amazing, though! The place was just packed with some of the most insanely gorgeous gardens and flower exhibitions I could ever imagine. (It was also wall-to-wall people.) I have all sorts of grand ideas of what I want to do to my backyard once we get home - too bad I don't have those gardeners' budgets, too!

The most amusing part of the day was the sale at the end of the show. Most of the indoor exhibitors sell off their displays - they're not allowed to disassemble anything until 4pm, but once the bell rang at 4pm, it was chaos! A lot of plants were already tagged as sold, and people came to collect huge Japanese maples or fuscia trees or bamboo or ... My mom, who went with me that day, bought some exotic flowers from one place, and I went to the daffodil display (one of my favorites of the entire show... they're just such happy flowers!) and bought a giant bouquet for £2 that had maybe 2 dozen blooms in it.

The trees and flowers around London are all still quite happy, mostly because I don't think we've gone 5 days since the start of May without at least one day of rain. Mostly it's been very overcast. Winter here wasn't all that bad, and I thought to myself, "Hey, self... this whole England thing isn't that bad." Well, actually, it really does earn its reputation for a reason.

Summer faires that aren't so fair

Walking down to Portobello Rd this past Saturday for a haircut, I passed by a school that was holding a Summer Faire. There was a jumpy castle, bbq, games for the kids, etc. Nobody really seemed to be having that great a time, however, as it was POURING down rain.

Summer in England doesn't necessarily mean summer weather. There was however, a bit of sun on Sunday between 1pm and 2:15pm, which has thus far counted as "summer".

I have, however, discovered at least redeeming quality about summers here - Pimms with lemonade (which is fizzy here, like Sprite but more lemon-y). It's best served in pitchers with orange, lemon, mint, strawberries and cucumber slices. Alcoholic AND refeshing. Yum.

In other news, our next trip is booked for early July. This time, it's beach-flavored.

Blogging the blogger (and airing her addictions)

I've been blogged! A friend (and co-worker) and I did a presentation about the new feature we've recently launched. I was so excited Astraware was there, since, as they mentioned, I AM a total Bejeweled addict. (Those who don't know what it is really have no idea what they're missing... it really shortens those long tube journeys!)

Didn't find Heathcliff on the Heath

The weather finally changed for the better this weekend (horray!!) I attended a friend's piratey birthday party at a bar next to the Golden Hinde ship on the Thames. We all dressed up to varying degrees, had a good assortment of noise-making plastic cutlasses, and said "Arrrrrgh" quite a lot. It was quite a photographed event (and not just by those of us attending the party), and garnered a fair bit of attention from the 5-9 year-old crowd passing by.

Sunday Hank and I decided that spending the day outside in the sun would be good, so we took off for the posh neighborhood of Hampstead, specifically the Hampstead Heath. It's a massive open space with lots of ponds (some for swimming, some for ducks), hills, great views over London, and cool shady paths through the trees. I forget how little I get to hear birds singing in London. Our flat is quiet enough from traffic noise, but it's definitely lacking in nature.

While we were walking, I thought we took a path that was essentially circular, that would take us back to where we'd started. However, I really just managed to take us in a straight line to the opposite side of the 2-mile wide park, meaning we had to walk the 2 miles back to our starting place as the bus we needed doesn't run on Sundays. So, I've learned two things: 1) I will not survive long in the wilderness if I'm actually expected to get somewhere to be rescued, and 2) London transportation on Sundays and holidays is a pain in the arse.

A'dam

Ok, before I talk about our recent Amsterdam trip, first I have to whinge (complain) a bit: it's the 2nd bank holiday (3 day) weekend this month (yay) that it's been miserable and rainy. I mean, it's like a week away from being June, and I was wearing my heavy wool coat and hat today, and I could see my breath at like 1pm. Global warming, my bum.



But last weekend Hank and I took a spontaneous trip to Amsterdam, land of windmills for a very, very good reason (they have some serious wind). It was such a lovely, laid back city with canals weaving through it. There are bicycles EVERYWHERE. We sadly didn't rent any (I didn't feel I could juggle a bike, camera and map, and one bike crash per year is my limit), but it's definitely the way to travel there. The trams around the city were pretty easy, but mostly we just walked and enjoyed the lovely houses and quiet streets. We spent one day wandering around the city and taking a boat tour of the canals, one day on a trip out to the surrounding area to see the town of Edam (yes, like the cheese but not where cheese is made ironically) and touring working windmills, and another day museum-ing.

Most of the Rijksmuseum seemed to be closed off, but we did see the amazing Rembrandts on display. The Van Gogh museum also had so many pieces of his that I'd never seen even in poster form before, really fabulous stuff.


On a culinary note, we discovered how brilliant Dutch pancakes are. Yuuuuum. If you're ever in London, there's a great place to get some called My Old Dutch, however there's still no comparison with the real deal from the Netherlands.


Ooh, yeah, and they have really good cheese sandwiches in the Netherlands as well.

Pics from Stratford-upon-Avon are up!

Feel free to check 'em out here.

Oft expectation fails, and most oft there.

We had another bank holiday weekend (meaning Monday was a holiday), so Hank, our friend Matt from work and I set off for Shakespeare-land: Stratford-Upon-Avon. (My favorite quote of the day, not to tease Matt too much, was, "So, anyone know what river this is?")

We managed to find a couple of plays that the Royal Shakespeare Company was putting on... there were a couple of requests for "The Seagull" by Checkov (no, not the engineer), and as a bonus: Sir Ian McKellen was in it! So, we doth booked our tickets and doth boarded our 2.5 hour train ride out of London early Saturday morn.

Stratford-Upon-Avon was definitely a different city than I think I'd expected. I didn't read up a lot in the guidebooks before going - mostly we just wanted to wander as we'd done before. But there were very few of the typically Shakespearian-style homes (one of which sat on top of what's now a Pizza Hut... shudder), mostly "high-street" (chain) shops, and everything closed promptly at 5pm. I guess I was expecting something a bit more like Hank and I had found in Canterbury where there were nice lanes to wander down, some independent shops, and perhaps something resembling life after twilight.

The play itself got mixed reviews from the three of us - Matt was the most positive, I was the least positive, and Hank stuck to middle ground. I thought the acting was marvelous - were they acting something I could get interested in, I'm sure it would have been a fabulous experience! The story just never grabbed hold of me.

The rest of the weekend we didn't do much, mainly relaxed. I got a bunch of knitting done - I'm so excited to be working on a project (a sweater, even!) for myself, after finally getting out of the "I owe someone a late xmas/bday/bribe-payment present" cycle. The weather up until this past week had been perfect and lovely, but this weekend the rain and solid gray skies set in firmly. We had a hard time getting motivated to actually want to go outside in it all. Personally I blame Taka & Neko for making napping on the couch all day look like such a tempting option.

Journey to a different land

So as hinted at in the last post, Hank and I hopped continents last week and headed to Morocco. We left very, very (painfully) early on Thursday morning, but arrived in Marrakesh and had most of the day to spend walking around. We stayed at the Riad Houdou in the Medina, the oldest part of the city. The streets there are completely mind-boggling: tiny alley ways criss-crossing and turning into larger streets packed with people, bikes, donkey carts and mopeds, lined with stalls selling everything under the sun. There were stalls with live chickens in back and fresh chicken meat in the front, bread, lamps, metal work, furniture, carpets, silks, clothes... you name it, it can probably be found here. It's completely impossible for tourists to find their way without street signs, so some of the locals take the opportunity to show you the way, and then ask for a return favor of anywhere between 20 dirhams to 70 dirhams. (What you give, if anything, is up to you.) I think we both thought Morocco would smell like spices and cooking food, but this first impression jut sort of smelled like wet donkey.


In Marrakesh there's a main market square called the Jeema El Fna. During the day there are dried fruit, orange juice carts (they have the most AMAZING oj there... I could have drank gallons!) and snake charmers out and about. At night, folks pull in carts and start cooking - it becomes a massive outdoor restaurant serving skewers of chicken and lamb, vegetable couscous, french fries, spiced olives, and bowls of snail soup. Mmmm. We also tried a cinnamon ginger tea and some chocolatey-cinnamon dessert. The tea was great - my mouth was absolutely on fire from how gingery and spicy it was. The dessert thing was hard to describe - sort of like dry paste. Neither of us really liked it, but both of us eating dessert cost about $.50!


On Friday morning we met our wonderful tour guide, Rachid. (Here's his email if you're interested in booking a trip.) We drove out of Marrakesh and approached the Atlas mountains. The changing terrain over just two or three hours of driving was amazing - we went from pretty flat, arid landscape to chilly mountain air with lots of wildflowers, and then mountains that were pretty barren deserts where you could see every layer of earth which the primordial oceans had worn down.


We stopped and took photos of a couple of kasbahs (protected castles) on the way. They ones we saw were 300-400 years old, but several of them had been refurbished and are commonly used as movie backdrops.

That evening, we arrived outside of a city called Zagora on the edge of the Sahara. We hopped on a couple of camels, who were surprisingly calm, didn't spit or bite at all, and our intrepid guide led us about 4-5 miles into the desert. We ate dinner in a lovely Bedouin tent amongst the stars and sand dunes, which I think was truly the highlight of the trip for both Hank and me. (We did, however, opt to drive back into the city the following morning for expediency, but I would really have enjoyed riding the camels back in the morning sun.)

Saturday was mainly driving back into Marrakesh, and then spending a bit more time in the Medina doing a bit of shopping. Morocco is renowned for carpets as well as minerals... happily we brought back a couple of both!

Hank and I were both stunned how completely different Morocco was, and that it's such a short flight from London (just over 3 hours). Marrakesh is definitely aggressive towards tourism, but out in the smaller cities people were less interested in selling us things, henna-ing my hand without my permission, or in general trying to get a couple bucks out of us. The scenery is absolutely picture-book, and changes every moment. In a heart beat I'd go back for a week or two and work my way around different areas of the country!

Galavanting

Having a tiny bit of free time this evening (and a cat fast asleep and dreaming of something that's making her paws all twitchy) I figured I'd give a bit of a post between trips, house guests and the normal chaos of work.

The day after I got back from Cali, our friend Annie came for a visit. Mostly she museum-ed herself out, as Hank and I were busy with work, but we had a few great days together. She and I managed a manic day filled with shopping, looking at very old crap in museums, more shopping, followed by tea at Kensington Palace Orangery, and perhaps a bit more shopping together. She even finished her first knitting project at my local Stitch & Bitch meeting - a fabulously chic cap! (Post the friggin' pics, Buckethead!!) My brother also stopped by for two quick visits - seriously, though, I think he just comes for the waffles.

I got back this past Sunday from Switzerland - we had an engineering meeting in Davos (pronounced by the Swiss as daVOS!), then worked for a day in the Zurich office. Davos was the most fabulous snow I've ever skied on ever ever ever... for all of 2 runs. The top of the mountain was two tram rides (about 15-20 minutes) up, completely in clouds, and had been snowing for the past 3-4 days pretty steadily. It was that white fluffy goodness of snow that I've never had in California (a few thousand feet in altitude really DOES make a difference). But it was so hard to see between the snow and the low cloud cover that the only way I could tell how steep the run was by skiing behind people and seeing how far down they were (that was when it was possible to see the people in front of you, of course). So, I headed downhill to have a rosti and a beer for lunch. I just classify it as re-prioritizing.

This Thursday we're off on exotic adventure involving some desert, a hookah, and possibly a camel or two. And Burningman is still 5 months away! ;)

Wrapping up

I've got about a day and a half before my flight back to London, and I've been busy trying to figure out exactly how all of the stuff we bought will make it back to London. :D Hey - it's all so cheap!! I've stocked up on yarn (not like I don't have miles and miles of the stuff in London, but after going to the knitting convention and buying all these new cool patterns, I can't be expected NOT to stock up... that'd be just wrong!), some baking supplies (the surprising lack of Dutch-processed cocoa in England being one of the things coming back with me), new clothes & shoes...

So, besides decent prices on EVERYTHING here in the good ol' US of A, what did I miss? Funny you asked - I've got a top five list!

5. Listening to the radio. I didn't really realize that I never listen to the radio in London. I usually am traveling by tube, so I just play MP3s.
4. Singing along to music during my commute. Doing so in the tube is frowned upon.
3. Stores that stay open late. Like past 6. Sure, London has some grocery stores that stay open kinda late, but nothing generally helpful when you have an impulse to knit those pair of socks you're dying to try but you're fresh out of size 2mm double-pointed needles and self-patterning yarn.
2. Not having to wear a heavy wool coat all the time. Or hat. Or gloves. Or bring an umbrella.

and finally the number one (drum roll please....)
1. SUN!

I know that last one is sort of a gimme given that I do live in England, which does have a bit of a reputation.

16 degrees latitude does make a difference

Apparently I chose my dates to visit California pretty perfectly. It's been alternating between usual London-ish type weather (cloudy, and some pretty strong rain) and beautiful, sunny, fabulous days of 70 degrees F (21 C for those who who care). The difference in the strength of the sun (when there *is* sun to be seen in London) is pretty dramatic. I've managed to get in some time lounging outside recently to try and look a tad less ghostly.

I'm starting my 3rd week of being back in CA; I'd only intended to be here 2, but had to extend for work-reasons another 10 days. My first week was working in the office, and my second week was vacationing with Hank (though it's an odd concept to vacation at your own hometown). H and I spent quite a bit of time shopping with the bargain that is the US Dollar, seeing different family and friends, some more shopping. Hank's suitcase for his flight back to London just barely eeked by the weight limit! "Hey, I can't get good baking chocolate chips over in London, Mr Customs Officer!!"

Coming home after 6 months definitely felt odd. Everything seems a bit more garish than I had remembered it. England is just different enough to cause a bit of culture shock. I've also enjoyed checkout out what little changes have happened since I left - new buildings popping up, friends' kids getting bigger, etc. The highlight has been seeing everyone I've missed for so long! And oh, how I've missed the cafes at work.... mmm. The revised cafe in London just opened yesterday, so hopefully a lot of the effort I've put into promoting changes will pay off there as well!

I'm still in California for another 8 days or so, but I am looking forward to not traveling for a while and being home with Hank and the kittens (he propped them up in front of the webcam last night for me to see, but it's definitely not the same as waking up with one of 'em on your hip and one on your head).

Catching up

Sorry for the long delay between posts. I'm back in California right now, but sick in bed, so it seems like a good opportunity to update the last month or so.

For Christmas, we were adopted by our friend Amy and various sides of her family. Christmas eve dinner was at her mom's, and they made three wonderful pies for dinner! I made sticky toffee pudding, which I was relieved got rave reviews (actually having English people try my version of an English dessert was surprisingly intimidating). For Boxing Day we then went to Amy's aunt's house. That side of her family is predominately French, so I got some good practice of my language skills in. (Hank smiled and looked pretty.)

New Year's was pretty much just me & Hank - we went and stood outside Downing Street (Tony was in Florida, otherwise we would have yelled "hi") to watch the fireworks over the river. We ate dinner at a fabulous restaurant called L'Escargot in Soho - highly recommended! I had fish with clams and cockles that was simply divine, and a surprisingly great banana souffle for dessert that Hank (even more surprisingly) finished off for me.

January was definitely the craziest month we've had so far. First I had a work off-site in Zurich, so Hank flew out to meet me there and spend the weekend. The weather was so beautiful - and almost 50 degrees (F). I was glad not to be freezing, but it was disappointing we couldn't sled down one of the mountains. Zurich is a beautiful city. Shopping is pretty pricey, though, but they make up for it in CHOCOLATE! I think I brought back at least a kilo of chocolate with me. Hank picked up a few Cuban cigars also.

After that, our friend Kari came to visit, and brought her friend Bethany with her. They stayed for about 10 days, and spent 3 of the days in Dublin and dragged Hank along with them. (I'll let Hank post his update about Dublin separately.) Nope, I couldn't go since I had a date with my skis in Courmayeur, Italy! That was the site of the 2007 company ski trip, generally very successful except for the bout of food poisoning I was lucky enough to catch. But I got in two great days of skiing on the fresh snow that had dropped our first night after arriving. Courmayeur is one of the sites of the Turin olympics, but the site wasn't as large or as difficult as places in California that I'd skied. But I was able to watch Amy learn how to snowboard and ski down some of the black runs with other buddies from work, so it was great fun!

I've also uploaded a bunch of other recent photos to Flickr that I've had sitting around for the last month.

Happy 2007!

Hank and I welcomed in 2007 with 8 zillion of our closest friends watching the London Thames fireworks show last night. We hope you rang it in with friends (maybe a few less than we were joined by), and that the new year brings you everything you hope for!

Merry Christmas to all...

...and it's almost good night for us. We're currently sitting back drinking some nice port to cap off a lovely London Christmas. We have the webcam (handy gift from my bro) setup and have been chatting with friends and family most of the afternoon, so it's almost like being at home! But to those we haven't spoken to today, we hope you're having a wonderful Christmas and look forward to seeing you in 2007!

Do they know it's crazy time at all?

December is always a busy month, and moving to London hasn't changed that at all. Work always tends to go a bit manic, and right now the only thing keeping me from working 29 hours a day are the actual fun things happening! We had a work engineering party that included a visit to the Science Museum's video game exhibition. Seeing all the games that I grew up with behind museum glass tends to make one feel prematurely old... It was amusing to see how massive the early GameBoy boxes were compared to today's (I think you could probably fit all of a PS2's hardware inside of one). That, in good English workplace form, was followed by a trip to the pub.

My brother and his wife just recently paid us a visit - we had a great time! Austin and Hank had some guy-time at which Hank discovered Austin's limit of alcohol intake (shockingly low... wuss) with a rum tasting at a Soho Cuban cigar & drinks bar. I ordered a fig and vanilla daquiri which was a very girly thing to order, but OMG that was tasty. So between that place and the local Tiki bar (called the Trailer of Happiness), we've definitely scoped out nice local watering holes. Janine is also a fellow knitter, so we scoped out a couple of knit shops, then went out for a lovely cream tea (cream tea = scones with jam & devonshire cream + tea) at Kensington Gardens. The boys avoided such frivolous girlish things and went...Drinking! Duh.

Hank and I are staying in London for Christmas, and our friend and co-worker Amy has kindly adopted us for the season. Christmas eve dinner is at her mom's, and Boxing day lunch is at her aunt's! I'm still learning about a lot of the differences in traditions here around Christmas, such as that you light Christmas pudding on fire with brandy but not Christmas cake. And Christmas crackers are *seriously* better than the cheapy little ones we'd ever get in the US. Harrods had boxes of crackers for the hefty price of £799 for 5 crackers. Apparently Tiffany also makes custom crackers... I wonder if Santa's still taking requests? ;)

Belgian Beers

I tasted a few different Belgian ales while living in the states. Local stores had a few of the more well known ales in stock (Chimay and Duvel).

Our trip to Brussels was a chance to find some less known and hopefully more exciting brews from small family breweries.

After our trip to Bruges, Danielle was in dire need of a nap (editors note: Danielle is napping at this exact moment in time), so I decided to head down to the hotel bar with a book and a Partagas SD#4.

I talked to the bartender for a few moments about local beers and such and he pulled a Tripel Karmeliet from one of the fridges.

"Try this one. If you don't like it, I will pour a different beer for you and you will not have to pay for it," said the bartender.

An offer like this is not one to refuse, at worst you end up eating a nice pile of olives to mask the flavor of bad beer.

This brew is a bit of a darker malty ale and went down very smoothly and paired well with a few olives.

I also discovered a nice surprise at our restaurant this same evening. They had Jenever on the drinks menu. Jenever is the national spirit of Belgium and started out as a spirit distilled from rainwater. The rainwater was ditched in favor of treated water during the plague years.

Jenever has a nice floral/herby flavor and is best served cold like Sake, Vodka and Gin. Generally I think of it as a cross between Sake and Gin.

The next night led to the moment of the trip for me, Beer Mania. BM is THE place to go for beer in Belgium. It is a very comfy spot with a lovable drunken dog and a great staff.

The back of the store contains some nice wooden tables and a huge wooden bar. The staff will pour beers to your taste. I really enjoy bright and hoppy beers, so he poured a Bink Blonde for me. This was dead on my sort of beer. No chemical tastes. Just a smooth bright beer flows down nicely and leaves a tingle in your mouth.

Danielle likes a more malty beer, so the staff poured her a Mea Culpa, which was created by the owner of BM. She really enjoyed this beer and said it was exactly what she wanted as well, plus the glass is beautiful.

Next we wanted to try a lambic and we wanted to try it in its raw state (no sugar added). They poured a nice bottle of Girardin Kriek. Kriek is a cherry lambic and this brand was light, crisp and very tasty. Danielle, who is usually a very slow drinker, managed to polish off her glass and part of mine very quickly.

On your next trip to Belgium, take my advice and visit Beer Mania first. This will give you the lay of the beer land and make the remainder of your dinners much easier as you will have idea of what beers will go well with your next meal.