Nov 2008

Netherlands
On the road again! The bags are back on the back and heavier than ever. only 2 months left! We met up with some old mates in Amsterdam. We shared a room that was fully equipped with funky disco lights and mirror balls. Amsterdam was a lovely town and it was the first city where we didnt really do any sight seeing, we just had a really good time bar hopping and socializing with our friends. Having said that, we did as the locals do, hiring bikes and trying to run over tourists.

the gang at a great bar in amsterdam - Nick, jess, fi, bunx and chandler

amsterdam by day

even more gorgeous at night

It was very cool riding around town looking at the architechture and canals. we found a brewery in a windmill and sampled their beers.

windmill brewery

We drank the La trappe beer, the only dutch trappist brew. Amsterdam was having the Saint Nicolas festival, celebrating christmas or something. they had black helpers and were dancing everywhere. very politically incorrect, but they gave out yummy treats to all the kids (and us too!) We did go for a good walk through the red light district and toured the sex museum, and sampled the bakery treats in the coffee shops. (Thanks Jess and Westy for a fwe of your photos!)

by the canal when we were bike riding

nick, i knew you and your mate westy were dodgy - check out that dirty mo!

the scary sinterklaas

bike riding through dam square

Belgium
Belgium, finally! in beer heaven, i have never been so happy, within 3 hours i was ready to move to Antwerp. We found the best bars in Antwerp. The first bar we walked into was Oud Arsenaal, a bar favoured by local old men, but as the guide map said - old men often know what is good. Kulminator is run buy a husband and wife team that collect rare and aged beers. Some aged from the 70's. Here we drank the trappist beer Westvletern, which is pretty much impossible to get and is supposed to be illegal to sell. They served old beers in a basket. swanky! We did a trip out to the Westmalle abbey and beer cafe. we tried the Westmalle double and triple and a special one called half and half, which true to name is a mix of the double and triple. we had lunch there and ate the trappist cheese and their delicious paprika soup.

famous belgian fries

nick loving life at the kulminator in antwerp

the owners of the Kulminator - Leen and Dirk

Bruges was cool. we watched the Colin Farrel movie In Bruges before we went, giving us a bit of an insight to this lovely town. The belfry tower was a treat, there was a guy playing the glockenspiel while we climbed it. very cool. Unfortunately 2 of the best beer cafes were closed on the night we were there but we managed to find a brewery cafe called De Garre, which was excellent. A visit to the chocolate museum rounded out the tour of Bruges. They had a demonstration of the making of pralines, and tasting too of course.

chocolate tasting after the demonstration at choco story in bruges

bruges view from the famous belfry

Old men playing bocce in a square, near the church of the holy blood. You can also see part of the modern artwork the locals call the car wash.

Brussels. Street art of Tin Tin while you walk from bar to bar is a cool sight as you wander the streets. We saw the city from above by going up a parking high rise, a cheaper alternative to other cities. We toured the Cantillon brewery, the last brewery in brussels. they brew lambic style, which is spontaneously fermented by air-bourne yeast that only occurs in belgium. Manniken Pis, the little pissing statue, and the open air urinal on the side of a church were interesting sights. Brussels is home to Delirium, which holds the world record for beers, 2004 different beers available. we sampled a few.

cantillion brewery in brussels

Mannekin pis

So in the last few days we have drunk beers including....
Hoegaarten, Hoegaarten special, Traubadour, Westmalle double, Westmalle Triple, Orval, aged Orval (2006), Archel, Timmermans Kriek, Adelardus, Karmeleit triple, Gordons Xmas ale, Westvletern, St Louis Gueuze, Oud Beersel Gueuze, Kasteel Kriek, Kasteel Blonde, Chimay Blue, Mort Subite Kriek, Gouldin Carolus christmas ale, Malheur, De Koninek, Stella, Brugse Zot blonde and bruin, Hoegaarten Rosee, Kriek Max, De Garre Triple, Lindemans Pechehesse (peach kriek), Kwak, Celise Witte, Jacobins Gueuze, Rodenbach, Cantillon Gueuze and Kriek, Delirium Tremens, Delirium Nocturum, Rochefort, Mort Subite lambic blonde, Gulden Draak, Kapittel triple, poppering hommel beer, La trappe tripel, Maes, Jupiler, and probably a few others that we tried when the memory was a bit fuzzy.
highlights were the Westvletern and chimay, the karmeliet triple, the christmas ales and some of the krieks in particular the Max and Kasteel.

nick and his favourite beer, drinking at oud arsenaal

drinking the kwak in the cool glass at de garre in bruge

Nick trying to choose one of the 2650 beers available at Delirium

Austria
Last but not least we had a stopover in Vienna on our way to Beijing. This part of trip was a comedy of errors of sorts....
When we got to the airport train station, we accidentally ended up going the wrong direction on the train - only realising this at the end of the line, in the middle of countryside and nowhere! Had to wait an hour for the train to return to vienna airport and continue on half an hour in the opposite direction! What better way to see the countryside right??!! Once in vienna we found our hostel without too many dramas, and headed out for a night at the opera! Having missed the show at the state opera, we planned to see the other opera which was apparently starting an hour later at the other venue. When we arrived we found that we must have been told the wrong start time, but could get in cheaply anyway at intermission - standing room tickets at 3€! We didnt miss much - neither of us particularly loved the opera, it was in german, but translated in english on little screens. the orchestra was cool though, and the opera house was beautiful, lots of old important looking people very dressed up and eating hors'deuves and wine during the intermission.

We ate wiener schnitzel for dinner - massive servings of veal schnitzel, and dry and greasy and sadly dissappointing. Wanted to catch the christmas market afterwards - but it was closed!

The Wiener Schnitzel, not bad but got nothing on a parma

Next day we rode the tram around the city loop. We were told we could get on either the 1 or 2 tramin either direction. Lies! The number 2 took us somewhere the equivalent of Preston!!! another wasted hour on our 30 hour stopover! grrr! But then we caught the right tram, saw the spanish riding school/palace etc. We also visited the state opera - and it turns out we had been there the night before!! we had somehow ended up at the wrong opera!!!! so we saw the nice one anyway without realising it!

At the Opera.

Vienna had beautiful architecture, we had a lovely yet very cold time here. The highlight was the giant christmas market in front of the town hall, which had been made into an advent calender with numbered windows up to 24. Gorgeous! So was the Gluhwein that brought back memories of Germany 10 years ago for Fi...

The night market

Now onto China and a very different travel experience......

We spent our last week in Ireland sightseeing western and northern ireland by car. First Stop the Cliffs of Moher. we arrived near sunset, for a spectacular view over Ireland's answer to the 12 apostles. It was windy as hell and freaking cold, but worth the visit to see amazing cliffs, with huge sea spray.

cliffs of moher at sunset from a distance

cliffs of moher

Stayed the night in Doolin, in the cosy, well recommended Rainbow hostel. For dinner we went to the famous McGanns for a pub meal. Unfortunately we were too sick to stay for the live music that the pub was most renouned for. The Irish weather had finally got to us, as we were both suffering from the most severe colds that we can remember.

Doolin old cemetary

Next stop was Galway, where we had a quick walk around of the sights and the town center. On the way to Galway we passed through "The Burrens", best described by Fi as looking like the rock man from the never ending story movie.

The burren

We also drove through the Connemara, a beautiful part of ireland just north of Galway that was described in our guidebook as "so beautiful it makes your brain hurt". Unfortunately it was raining so hard we couldnt see 10 meters outside the car, in driving conditions so difficult, it made our brains hurt. We had a pitstop in Westport which seemed like a beautiful town, but as it was 4pm and getting dark we pressed on to Sligo. Our Hostel receptionist in Sligo asked us what month it was.... It's a bit of a slow town. For dinner Fi had the "recession special" - Dont ever be tempted to try curry cheese chips. It tastes even worse than it sounds.

We stopped at a waterfall just out of Sligo, and visited the Carromore Megalithic tombs. 2500BC stone tombs and stone circles. pretty impressive stuff. It was actually closed but there was a contractor emptying the sewerage tanks and he let us in for our own self guided tour. Nearby was another massive stone tomb on a hill of some important queen, but time restrains and more rain dissuaded us from scaling the hill for good views etc.

megalithic tomb with knocknorea in the background

waterfall near Sligo

We pushed on to northern Ireland, where the roads were much better maintained and the distance was now in miles. We visted the Giants Causeway. The legend goes a Giant named Finn McCool built a stone bridge from ireland to scotland to challenge a rival giant. He got scared and when he saw his rival approaching and ran home to his wife for advice. His wife disguised him as a baby to hide him. When the rival saw the baby he was scared at the size of Finn's "baby" and ran away destroying the giants causeway behind him. So the moral of the story is.....

a castle on the cliff edge - apparently built so close to the edge, the kitchen fell in

Giants causeway rock formations

giants causeway

After a massive day on the road we ended up in Belfast. In the morning we did a black cab tour of Belfast. Our very thickly accented driver took us to all the politically important sites - Shankill road with its pro loyalist, anti IRA murals, to Belfasts very own "Berlin Wall" which has gates that still close every night to separate the two communities. We saw the most most bombed hotel in the world (it has been blown up 36 times), and visited the IRA headquarters. For 90 minutes we were submerged in the turbulant history of Northern Ireland, learning that there are no easy answers to this political (not religious) land dispute, about the desparate struggles, hunger strikes, and the 18 bombs that have been disarmed in the last 6 months.... It also really brought into perspective the situation in palistine. We were also given the opportunity to write a peace message on the wall - and so are now part of the history. We found it absolutely fascinating, one of the best tours of our trip so far.

shankhill road mural

dividing wall

republican mural

On our way back to kilkenny we went via powerscourt waterfall and glendalough - fi's favourite place in ireland, so beautiful.

powerscourt waterfall south of dublin

Glendalough

Glendalough

We covered a lot of ground and managed to see a lot of things in such a short time. A few things stood out about the green isle...

- the irish really do love their guiness and drink a lot of it
- the country roads are somewhat narrow, and all the roads are country roads... and there are ALWAYS tractors driving slowly and nowhere to pass them!
- the names of towns read like an obituary - kilkenny, killarney - there are heaps!
- other favourite town names include - Borris, Borris-in-Ossory, Two-mile-Borris, Doon, Emo park, and Bally.... (insert about 1000 names here..)
- they always talk about the weather (but its always raining)
- you are "just after" reading the end of our blog.