Tag: museum

Warszawa & Berlin – Day 2

Published on 13 October 2023

Time for Some History…

Since I had to catch up on some sleep—working some night shifts, followed by an early arriving sleeper train will do that to you—I woke up just too late to have breakfast at the hotel. I was hoping they would have something at Ministerstwo Kawy—yes indeed, this translates as “Ministry of Coffee”, like in London—but I had to settle for a piece of pie with my coffee.

The plan was then to visit the Muzeum Życia w PRL (Life Under Communism Museum), but for some reason I couldn’t figure out, it was closed.

On to the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego (Warsaw Uprising Museum) then!

For lunch I had somę pierogi and a glass of kompot at Wałek Warszawski. Quite a popular place apparently, since I had to queue for over twenty minutes! The pierogi were really nice though, so in the end, totally worth the wait.

After another coffee at Forum, my next stop was POLIN, the museum of the history of Polish Jews.

My last educational visit was at the Muzeum Marii Sklodowskiej Curie, in the house where she was actually born.

All of a sudden I was in a really nice and historical looking part of town, although everything looked so clean and fresh, I have to check how old it actually is…
(Edit: indeed, the “Old Town” has been rebuilt after WW II…)

In the old town I had some beer at Same Krafty and Same Krafty vis-à-vis.

For dinner I went to Zapiexy Luxusowe for, well, zapiekanka, a toasted open-face sandwich, which apparently is a popular kind of street food in Poland. I had the Chłopska zapiekanka, with—of course—cheese and mushrooms, and a topping of kielbasa sausage, bacon, and onion

Then it was of course time for more beer! On the menu for this evening we’re Hopito Chmielna, Hoppiness Beer & Food, and Chmielarnia Multitap. The last one was quite the experience: think bar in the basement of a sports hall crossed with an Indian restaurant… Still some great beers on tap though!

My Belgian Summer Holiday – Leuven

Published on 11 August 2023

The last trip with my Off-Peak Unlimited train ticket was kind of a mini-trip, since I already had plans in the evening. So my destination was nearby, with a rather limited—but high quality—selection of craft beer places: Leuven!

After arrival in the quite modern but beautiful Leuven train station, my first stop was at Madmum Coffee Roasters, for an iced latte—it was a warm day—and some apple cinnamon cake.

The cultural part of the day was spent in M Leuven. They used to have a nice bar, with a great selection of beer, but this apparently is a thing of the past, so the art had to suffice…

From there, I went to Hops ‘n More. It primarily a bottle shop—so they’re open early—but they have a nice terrace and some beers on draught, and by sheer coincidence, there was a “Rare Bottle Fest” going on as well!

The next and already last beer destination was MALZ, and here too there was a special event today: a Jester King Tap Takeover.

On my way back to the station, I first stopped at Kebab Leuven for—you’d never guess—a döner kebab.

And that concludes my Belgian summer holiday, or at least the part with my special train ticket.

My Belgian Summer Holiday – Namur

Published on 1 August 2023

Some unexpected illnesses at work, and summer breaks of breweries I didn’t know about until yesterday, meant I had to shuffle around my trip planning a bit, so today’s trip was to Namur.

According to the forecasts, it was going to be a wet, windy, and sub-20°C day, so for the first time since I was in Aberdeen—almost two months ago—I had to take the Barbour off the coat rack again…

After arrival at Namur station, and navigating my way through the construction site that the station square apparently is, my first stop was at Coffee & More. Here I dodged the worst downpour of the day, while enjoying a coffee and a piece of cheesecake.

Although it hadn’t stopped raining yet, I then started to make my way up the hill to the citadel of Namur. After the first couple of steps uphill, I noticed there was actually an aerial cable car all the way to the top. I couldn’t be bothered to go back to the other side of the river to use it though, and honestly, considering the afternoon I had planned, I could probably use the exercise…

Unlike the one in Lille, this citadel is largely open to the public. There even was a visitor centre—Terra Nova—with lots of information about the history of the city and the citadel. Most important thing to remember: in despite of its long history, most of what you see of the citadel, was (re)built by the Dutch in the 19th century…

After descending back to into Namur centre, I went for a first couple of beers at La Cuve à Bière. Only InBev on draught—the curse of the hospitality industry in Belgium—but some interesting cans in the fridge nevertheless, and the barman was very helpful in finding some nice beers.

From there I went to Craft Beer Market Namur. As you would expect with a name like that, it’s half beer shop. The other half is an actual bar though, with some bangers on tap! In hindsight, it was the best beer destination I’ve discovered in Namur.

Since I ended up drinking double IPAs and imperial stouts again, a sensible next stop was at snackbar Cat’s Corner. Or is it Kat’s Corner? They don’t even seem to know themselves, since I’ve seen both spellings there and online… The food was nice though, a bit different from the usual chip shop fare. and definitely did the trick in absorbing some of that alcohol!

After dinner, the program was cut a bit short, since one of the places I intended to visit just had their summer break, and the other one—Le Chapitre—wasn’t putting much effort in it either… They had nothing available on draught, and even from the can and bottle list on the chalkboard, they seemed to be missing of quite a few… That, and their cash-only policy, meant I left after just one beer.

Considering I have an early day tomorrow, it wasn’t even a bad thing that I was back on the train just after 20:00…

My next post will not be about My Belgian Summer Holiday, since I’ll be off to Germany for a couple of days! However, after that, there are still some more Belgian excursions to come.

My Belgian Summer Holiday – Bruges

Published on 25 July 2023

So today I went to Disneyland… Oh wait, no, to Bruges! Although the amount of tourists didn’t differ much… Seriously, when I got off the train, hordes of tourists went the same direction, like they wanted to get on the same ride as me…

Somehow, I did manage to shake most of them off, and I had a relatively tourist free coffee and cake at Li O Lait.

After that, my first stop was at the Gruuthuse museum, home to majestic tapestries, colourful stained-glass windows, elegant wooden sculptures, historic lace, Burgundian manuscripts and Chinese porcelain. Most interesting of all, were the private access way to the adjacent church, and the loggia with a great view of the city.

The Volkskundemuseum (Folk Museum), gave some insights about ordinary daily life in Bruges in the 19th and early 20th century.

After that little trip to the past, the first been stop was at De Garre, which was remarkably hard to find, especially considering I had been there before!

Easier to find, and definitely less touristy—but stil fully booked—was Café Rose Red, where they always have some interesting beers on the menu.

After that I went underground to have some beers at Le Trappiste.

By that time I really needed to eat something… My originally planned venue, and even my first backup turned out to be closed, but prepared as I usually am, I had a second backup—Cropains— where I had a tasty chicken and bacon wrap for dinner.

Then there was still one place to visit, one that had been on my list for quite a long time: De Kelk. Their beer list is excellent, and I could easily have spent the rest of the night here, but I didn’t want to risk stranding somewhere in Flanders… So after having some of the best beers on the menu, I made my way back to the station, and home.

My Belgian+ Summer Holiday – Lille

Published on 20 July 2023

So today’s trip was to Lille, called Rijsel in Dutch, or in this case more correctly, in Flemish. Because although technically Lille is not in Belgium—hence the “+” in the title of this post—it’s in Flanders nevertheless. Lille is in French Flanders to be exactly, which used to be a part of the historical County of Flanders. While it has been a part of the Southern Netherlands for a while, it eventually ended up as a part of France in 1659.
However, to some extent, apparently Flemish is still spoken here, although I haven’t seen or heard any proof of that on this trip…

My Off-Peak Unlimited train ticket was of course not valid for the border crossing, but the international add-on was only a couple of euros extra. With a fifteen minute delay—vandals messed up the signalling system—my train arrived in Lille-Flandres, a train station that was way bigger than I expected!

My first stop was of course at a coffee bar, Coffee Makers in this case, for an espresso macchiato and some banana bread.

Since my Museum Pass isn’t valid here, and I hadn’t been in Lille as an adult yet, for as far as I can remember, I just played tourist for a while. Of course, I had to visit the citadel of Lille as well. This fortress was built between 1667 and 1670, designed by Vauban, a French military engineer, apparently considered the greatest engineer of his time. Unfortunately, it’s closed to the public, because it is still in military use: it’s home to the Rapid Reaction Corps-France. From the outside, it doesn’t look like much, but just check out what it looks like from above!

From there I strolled past the future location of BBP Lille. There’s still a lot of work to be done, but it’s a really nice building!

My first actual beer stop was at Beer Square, right next to the quite peculiar Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille: modern in the front, old everywhere else.

Even though it was still quite early, the high ABV beers I consumed necessitated a food stop at Friterie Meunier. Their specialty is all kinds of croquettes, and they were tasty indeed!

The next beery stop was then the hôp[i] microbrewery. I loved their beers, the selection of guest beers, and the art on the walls!

After a short stop at La Ressourcerie, I then went to the highlight of the evening, La Capsule. I could easily have spent the rest of my evening here!

I didn’t want to risk missing my train home though, so I went back to Lille-Flanders train station, only to find my planned train had been cancelled…
There was a train to Mouscron however, and from there, it was a direct train to Brussels!

That’s another adventure in the bag, next up: the Hopz beer festival in Hamont-Achel! (Although I doubt that warrants a blog post, since I won’t see much apart from the beer festival itself. The next post will probably be about Bruges!)