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“Gay for a Day” in Amsterdam

Published on 3 August 2024

The Amsterdam Hash House Harriers—with whom I ran only a couple of weeks ago—have a tradition of organising a run on the day of the Pride Amsterdam Canal Parade. So when they announced this run a couple of months ago, I asked for the day off, booked some Eurostar tickets, and ordered a theme appropriate kilt and T-shirt…

The red Eurostar—still carrying the Thalys branding here and there—was bang on time, which left us with just enough time for a coffee at Black Gold, a coffee shop slash record store for the proper vinyl kind, the other ‘black gold’… Lovely coffee, and great music as well!

At eleven it was time to gather in the Wertheimpark for the run. We weren’t the only visitors who had come over for the occasion, so it was a nice mix of very colourful hashers. AH3 had a logo designed for the run, to be printed on your own T-shirts, but I was one of the few to have actually done this. My kilt for the day was in the Pride of LGBT tartan!
The run was rather short and sweet, allowing us to be back in the park in time to still see the first boats float by.

After the run, circle, and barbecue, there was still some time to kill in Amsterdam. Obviously there would be beer involved, so we headed to the American beer bar Beer Temple, the way more Dutch Proeflokaal Arendsnest, and the logical last stop, BrewDog Amsterdam Centraal. Then is was just a few paces to the platform, where surprisingly a gold and blue Eurostar arrived to take us home.

A Short Trail and a Long Trip

A Short Trail and a Long Trip

Published on 28 July 2024

Reached this post by just scrolling through my blog? 
If you want to read about this trip from start to finish, instead of in reverse order, click here!

The last day of a hash event is usually a short one, to give participants enough time for the voyage home. On the programme: the Hangover Trail!

The Hangover Trail was as usual quite short—just 4,5 km sightseeing through Hamburg today—and followed by a circle to close off the whole weekend.

While the trail only lasted an hour, the voyage home, which should only take 6,5 hours including transfers, would take me 9 hours in the end! Just as well I didn’t book the latest trains, since I would then probably have had to spend the night in Köln! The extended transfer times of 45 minutes in Hannover and of 1,5 hours in Köln did mean I could take my time for a coffee—although just not enough time to go to a specialty coffee place—and a proper meal in Köln: Leberkäse mit Spiegelei, Bratkartoffeln, Krautsalat und süßem Senf (meat loaf with fried egg, fried potatoes, coleslaw, and sweet mustard) at Gaffel am Dom. And I had some Kölsch… I didn’t plan to, but when their first question is “Ein Kölsch?”, it’s hard to say no!

Then, again in true Deutsche Bahn style, the departure of my last train was about 35 minutes delayed… It did do the job of taking me home though, so this is where my story ends!

Hamburg Ho!

Hamburg Ho!

Published on 24 July 2024

My first and only visit to Hamburg already dates back almost four years, and it was just four hours long… It was however enough for me to decide I had to come back for longer someday, and today is that day! It won’t be merely a city trip, however, since the last couple of days will be spent with runs and other hashing shenanigans.

Three trains it took to get to Hamburg from Brussels! For the train geeks: the first one was a ICE3 neo! In true Deutsche Bahn style, the second arrived 25 minutes late in Hannover, so I missed the booked ICE… In the end, I arrived in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg well over an hour later than planned.

From the station I went straight to my ibis budget in the St Pauli quarter to quickly check in, and head off for my daily coffee. Train coffees don’t quite cut it for me, so I skipped those, but the hour delay meant Playground Coffee was already closed by the time I got there.

The terrace at the brewery ÜberQuell was still sunny, and the beers better than I expected! But with only breakfast and a Laugenstange in my stomach, I quickly felt the two beers, and knew it was time to move on…

Without any caffeine and some pastry, I didn’t really feel like going to one of the few museums still open I planned to visit—the U-Boot Museum—so I decided to get a head start on the evening programme instead.

Last time in Hamburg, the only taste of the local cuisine I had, was a Fischbrötchen. This time I therefore decided to try something more substantial: Labskaus, a dish with salted meat, potatoes, and onion, and beetroot, pickled gherkin, and herring on the side. The version served at Eier Carl had some good reviews, and it was conveniently close to the brewery I just was, so that’s where I went. The dish certainly reminded me of corned beef, but more liquid. While I was there, I had of course try the Eierlikör as well!

It had been quite a long day after a couple of very short nights, and I didn’t want to stray too far for tonight’s beers. So I stayed rather close to the hotel, and my next destination was just a short bus ride away: Malto!

From there another bus took me to Bar Oorlam, which kind of is the taproom of Buddelship Brauerei.

After that, it was time to finally catch up on some sleep…

Just a Day in London

Just a Day in London

Published on 5 June 2024

It’s easy to forget how nearby London actually is: just a two hour train trip from Brussels! So even though I already have a longer trip to the Big Smoke planned later this year, I decided to pop over for a day just to visit the British Museum for an exhibition which was about to close very soon. And of course, while I was there anyway, have a couple of beers…

The trip didn’t start off too well: the Eurostar which would take us to London already had a fifty minute delay even before it arrived in Brussels. Apparently there were some signalling problems between Amsterdam and Rotterdam… Since there was no way to make up for that delay en route, and I would miss my scheduled coffee stop, I did something I had never done done on a Eurostar before: visit the bar carriage and get a coffee there!

After arrival, there was just enough time to walk to the British Museum for the exhibition I came for: Legion: life in the Roman army. Being the Roman (military) history geek I am, I found it definitely worth coming over for! There were some artefacts I had only ever seen on photos before, and I quite liked how the visitors kind of followed the career of one specific soldier throughout the exhibition.

After the visit, it was time to enjoy the sun—we were definitely lucky in that department—and sights of London a bit: the parks, the architecture both old and new, the monuments…

The walk ended at Borough Market, the perfect place to grab some lunch. I went for a classic: some Scotch egg with black pudding and pork and Stilton pie from Mrs King’s Pies, apparently already in business since 1853!

Right next to Borough Market is The Rake. It’s a beer bar—well, you could say the OG craft beer bar of London—that had been on my lists for many years, but I just never made it there, until today!

Just a day in London is shorter than you would expect—especially with the long check-in times recommended for Eurostar in London—so I then already made my way to Camden, to be on the safe side. And a visit to Camden of course means a visit to BrewDog Camden! Not a lot of new beers brewed by BrewDog themselves, but the staff recommended me some excellent guest beers!

Basically just across the canal from the station, in the Coal Drops Yard, there is a bottle shop—well, can shop actually—where you can drink in as well: the House of Cans. A really nice selection of canned beers indeed, so since I only had time for one beer, I also bought a couple to take home.

Ten minutes after leaving I had already checked in, and all that was left to do, was to wait for my Eurostar to Brussels. No delays this time, so just fifteen hours after leaving it, I was back home again…

A Beery Birthday in Rotterdam

A Beery Birthday in Rotterdam

Published on 9 May 2024

A midweek public holiday in May was for me an excellent occasion to check out the newest additions to the craft beer scene in Rotterdam. Coincidentally, it was also my birthday, which meant I could claim a free birthday beer here and there…

After taking a very full train—even people standing in the corridors—from Brussels to Rotterdam, I really needed a coffee! There were definitely some decent coffee bars nearer to the station, but to get me closer to the rest of the locations I planned to visit, I decided on Urban Espresso Bar West this time. Breakfast was already more or less digested by now, so I had a nice piece of salted caramel cake with my cortado as an early dessert.

For the main dish, and to add another name to my long list of visited BrewDog bars, I then went to BrewDog Witte de Withstraat. The place was much larger than I expected from a bar in this street, but I was almost alone inside: the sun was shining, and terrace therefore more popular. After finishing my The Big Pastrami One pizza, I spent quite some time here, since none of the other bars I planned on visiting would open before 4pm… And I did get to enjoy my first free birthday beer!

Completely different, and way more local, was Kaapse Will’ns, the newest bar of the Rotterdam brewery Kaapse Brouwers. With just a limited number of taps, it tried to stay true to its origins as a traditional, local bar. Considering the number of people still asking for a Heineken, I’d say they succeeded! Funny detail: one of the tap handles actually says “Heineken“, but it’s the tap for sparkling water…

In the next bar—Bierboutique—the taps with “Heineken” on them actually did serve the horrid beer, and most of the other taps were from the same producer… The bottle and can list however was way more interesting, and I was able to try some more interesting local beers.

As last stop of the day I revisited the BrewDog Rotterdam Outpost. It wasn’t that busy when I came in, but considering the number of booked tables that would later fill up, it was probably smart they actually booked a table for me as well! One of the nice things of an Outpost is a selection of unique beers, brewed on-site. They were actually brewing while I was there! That beer obviously wouldn’t be ready in time to have as my free birthday, so I had another one instead.
For dinner I had the local special Brews Springstew, a six hour slow cooked stew with beef cheek, onion, celery, carrots, and Black Heart stout, served on a bed of fresh fries. Very nice, but I could hardly finish it!