Tear Down the House

My last weeks in Germany were quite stressful and all a whirl.  I had a several things to do before the movers arrived.  But, the most important thing was buying my beer and compiling my inventory so it all could be shipped and Maryland could tax me.  My friend Jannine and I headed to Belgium for a beer run.  She's awesome AND she has a van.

 Don't worry, some of that is Jannine's.

But all of this is mine and will hopefully make it over.

 The no parking sign outside my house for the day of my move.

So I bought, I organized, I cleaned, I cleaned, I saw friends, I had dinners, I cleaned, I wrapped, I shipped and I ran on July 1st.  I am gone.  I am home.

What were some of the best three years and some of the worst are over.  When asked if I would order it again, that's a hard decision to make.  But without having ordered it, I wouldn't be where I am now, having seen all the places I saw and having met the good friends I made.  And for that, I am grateful.

Live Your Life

I read a New York Times article about a "trail" of Belgian beer in Belgium.  (Yeah, shocking, I know.)  In it, there was a bit about a bed and breakfast at the brewery of our favorite Belgian beer.  So even though Chris and I are famous for doing nothing, I knew we'd be kicking ourselves if we didn't go while he visited in February.  After all, as part of the price of the room, you have unrestricted access to the B&B fridge, which contains the beer the brewery makes.  We didn't plan to be invited back.

The brewery is in the middle of nowhere and the GPS took us on some roads that didn't seem like roads at all.  It's surrounded by fields and the landscape reminded us both of the landscapes of our childhoods, in Ohio and Tennessee.

The trip was entirely relaxing and we got lucky with sunny and warmish (for winter) weather.  We had a tour of the brewery the first morning, which we both loved.  So many St. Bernadus bottles and labels and kegs! 

 

We walked to the closest town, Watou, afterward.  It's a small town and has quite a lot of things going on....during the summer.  We wanted to eat lunch at this restaurant by this famous Belgian chef who cooks with the local brews, but the woman at the B&B that morning told us that his wife had died the day before.  The only place open was where we ended up and it was very good, as was the Hommelbier (Heaven beer) on tap.

That evening we stayed at the B&B and relaxed in the living rooms.  For dinner we had bread, cheese, pate, apples, and pears, which we picked up at the small grocery store and bakery while in town for lunch.  And don't forget the beer....

Would You Go With Me

Two weekends in a row in May, I went on trips. On May 21st, my friend Kim and I headed to Bruges, Belgium, a small city in West Flanders sometimes called the Venice of the north. It's one of the cutest cities I've ever visited. It's very small, but has so many cute roads and what I think is beautiful architecture. After very annoying traffic all the way up, Kim and rushed to dinner to have what ever tourist visiting near the North Sea should have......mussels. And when in Belgium, beer. Kim was even a trooper and had beer, save for the last dinner.



The next day, we were grateful for the bright ball in the sky, which Germany seems to lack from October through May. We strolled through the city and took a canal boat ride to see some of what you can't by foot. We took a tour of De Halve Maan, the only working brewery left in the city, and had mussels for lunch. With beer. There were no museums or plans or large groups to satisfy. We just did what we wanted, which some might argue wasn't much, and had a lot of fun.


At the end of canal ride, our canal boat driver asked us if we could recall the story of Romeo and Juliet. As he did so, we approached a house with an open window, out of which a blond was looking. It turns out, she's the Juliet of Bruges and she's not a bad looking broad.

Gone Going

This month I've been to many countries. Notice that I didn't say I had spent a lot of time in many countries, because that would be a false statement.

Last weekend Will asked if I wanted to ride along to Belgium to get beer, because he had made an appointment to pick up his two cases of 12 from the Trappist monastery in Westvleteren. It's a 5-hour drive from here and he didn't want to go alone, since Amy was out of town, so I got the experience without the hassle of trying to call and get through to make an appointment. We left early Saturday morning and ended up driving from Germany, about 30 minutes through France, and back into Belgium. We stopped at two large beer stores on the way there. Lucky for me (but only because of this trip), Amy and Will are leaving at the end of June to move back to Maryland, so I got to stock up on some beer using the roominess in his Land Rover.

The first store we stopped at was like a Toys R Us for adults. The first thing you see after you drop off your empty crates and bottles for the refund is a bar. A bar in a beer store!! Now THAT is heaven. There were so many rows of crates of beer, many of them I had never heard of, that it was overwhelming. I knew what I wanted to get, but I exceeded my expectations and could have gone for more if I didn't think it would have been rude to take up that much room.


5 crates of beer and 4 large bottles of special Christmas beer that was leftover from the season, plus 6 glasses, a bar towel, a tray, and some Belgian chocolate. Any guesses to the damage done? You might judge me.


After playing Tetris in the car, we headed to the monastery. You have to call on certain days (noted on thier website) for a chance to make an appointment to pick up a specified number (usually 2 and sometimes 3) of crates of a type of their beer (the blonde, 8, or 12). It has been voted the best beer in the world, the 12 that is, but I think it might only hold the vote because it's so difficult to come by. Two crates of the 12 is 30 euro each, plus a bottle and crate deposit, which came to 100 euro. However, one crate of the 12 in the U.S. can be sold for about $400. Now, that's technically against the waiver that you sign when you pick up your beer that says you will not resell your beer, blah, blah, blah. At the monastery is the only place you can buy or taste the beer, legally, but the last time I checked, a Trappist order of police didn't exist.

The cafe where you can have a glass of each of their beers, a coffee, or a light snack, as well as make a purchase of their cheese, or a sampler pack of their beer and glasses.

I tried the 12 a few weeks ago at Amy and Will's house and I had tried the blond at the Belgium beer festival last September, so on this trip I also go to experience the process as a tag-along. I'm glad I got to go and I might try for an appointment for the 12 sometime, but it's not high on my list of things to do. The St. Bernardus 12 tastes quite similar and it's much, much easier to find at a price that's easier on the purse strings too.

The point where the check your license plate to match the order and give you your beer.Empty cases and bottles customers returned.

We were going to stay in a small town near the monastery, but once we got there and saw the room, even the draw of the hotel bar with 100 Belgian beers couldn't get us to stay. So we drove home that evening, stopping for Belgian frites (fries) along the way, and somehow adding another country to our trip--the Netherlands.

Things I Like to Do

Since Christmas, most of my time outside of work has been spent with friends, who I'm very lucky to have here. Mostly we just get together for dinner, conversation, or a movie....and a drink or so. This winter has been a long one (especially without my beloved laptop), but it was much better than last year. The number of days it snowed was absurd since "it never snows here." And because it never snows, they also don't believe in snow removal. Their idea of cleaning the streets consists of letting the cars drive on the roads to pack the snow down, which later turns into ice. It was so much fun.

Over the 3-day holiday weekend in January, my friend Dave and I decided to take a day trip to Koblenz. We heard it was a nice city and it's at the confluence of the Moselle and Rhein rivers. I'm sure it's a very pretty city, when your teeth aren't chattering and you're constantly looking for a church to duck into to get warm.

I don't look cold at all.Neither does Dave.

Also in January, I drove to Mons, Belgium to visit David and Rita, with whom I used to work. They were kind enough to invite me over for a weekend to be Belgian, which basically includes beer and french fries. I was in heaven. They have a fryer in their kitchen counter!! I'm afraid that would be a little too dangerous, even for me. Unfortunately, I forgot to take out my camera the entire weekend so I don't have any pictures. Mostly, though, all three of us had a beer in our hand and a fistful of fries in the other for a good part of the weekend. (And those who know me well or who have been reading my blog with interest and are probably wondering why I'd even make that statement--it's pretty much a given.) They also took me to SHAPE, which includes a grocery store filled with international food and drink, catering to the many nationalities stationed there. I think I'd like to work there just for the international food selection (and beer) without taxes!

In February, my friend Chris came to visit again. We relaxed around here and we also took a trip to Berlin. It was so cold that it was hard to walk around much, but we did take in some of the sights, since he had never been. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, and the East Side Gallery, which is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall still standing. We also had dinner at a restaurant called the Alpenstueck, where I had the best meal since I've lived here. The Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, was also taking place and we got free tickets to a showing of film shorts by Mexican directors. There were no George Clooney or Leonarda Dicaprio sightings, but we felt famous.

Yes, that's ice on the river.I need longer arms for self-portraits in front of large monuments.

Beer for My Horses

I think Belgium could be heaven and its beer the angels. If that is true, then I saw a lot of halos over Labor Day weekend. I went to the beer festival in Brussels, Belgium on Saturday and I had a lot of fun.

Amy and Will

Early Saturday morning, I rode over with Amy and Will and laughed the entire way there. They've been married 12 years and I never have seen a couple who laughs as much as they do, especially at each other. We got there before 11, checked into our hotels, then headed out for lunch, and then on to the beer fest!

St. Bernadus is one of my favorites.

One advantage to arriving early is that we got to try one of the Westvleteren 6 beers (6 is a type, like a blonde or a brown or, if you must, a pilsner). Westvleteren is touted as having the #1 beer in the world. You have to call the Abbey at the designated time, make an appointment to pick up your 1-2 crates of beer, and include your plate number. I have yet to get through calling, but I will eventually.

Anyway, the 6 was okay, but I like other Trappist beers much better. So I tried some :) I tried a lot of beer and all of it was terrific. I tried to sample beers that I hadn't before.

Speaking of sampling, Amy and Z finagled their way into being contestants in the beer tasting. They had three beers--a blonde, a brown, and "special." They had to taste each one and determine which one was which. For their efforts, in addition to downing three extra beers, they received a coupon for a free beer at the fest.

Z and Amy after their blindfolded tasting.

As the afternoon went on, people we knew or other people knew started showing up. I have no idea how many of us there were, but I'd probably guess around 30. They included families and a family with a dog. A family with a dog that likes to drink beer! A dog that likes to drink good beer--Belgian beer! This dog may be the coolest dog in the entire world.

He couldn't get enough. He was begging us like a dog does with food!

Some us left probably around 6 or so and found a place to eat. After that, we headed to Delerium Cafe, which has a crazy number of beers to choose from. Delerium also has their own beer. I tried the Nocturnum, which I really liked a lot.

I think I'd like to go back to Brussels to sample the beers at Delerium and the food of the city without the craze of the fest. It was a long day and a lot of beer, but I had a lot of fun.

Wish you could have been here, Dad.

If I Had $1,000,000...

...I'd be rich. On Sunday, I got up before the birds, which is really early since the sun starts to slowly think about rising before 5 here. The girls and I were off on a road trip to Tongeren, Belgium for the outdoor antiques market that takes place there every Sunday (Chris and I visited when he was here in January). We met at Kim's house at 5:30 and took her husband's big-ass truck so we could fill it with treasures. I was on the hunt for a dining table, some end tables, and pretty much anything super cool that told me it couldn't live without me.

Around 8:30, we barreled into Tongeren and scored on our first path of choice. Kim wanted another "bread boat" and we found some right away. She got one the size of a small canoe, I got a smaller one, and she bought another even smaller one for her friend who couldn't find one the last time she was there. We each grabbed a handle and off we went back to the truck.

Me, Melissa, Naymar, and Kim carrying the 3 bread boats back to the truck. Kim, Naymar, and I look happy. Melissa was probably realizing at this point that coming along meant manual labor ...and this was only within the first 30 minutes.

We had a breakfast of Belgian waffles, then we were off again. We hit sort of a lull when we lapped all the stands and Kim was getting nervous that we wouldn't be able to justify bringing Brian's truck. Kim and I hadn't found our furniture--no big pieces--and had only found a few cool buckets. On lap number whatever it was I found something that I had seen on the first lap and decided I liked it. Everything I showed interest in, Kim threatened me that if I didn't buy it, she would. This bodes well for me now, since I'm the one who has the room, but they're hoping to move soon into a bigger place and if this happens in the future, there could be blood.


We went back to the car with my interesting wood storage thing. We happened to have parked the car where Kim parked last time, 1.) because she still had it programmed into her GPS and 2.) because the area was big enough that we could get out and not hit anyone. Kim had mentioned when we got there that the buildings surrounding the lot had tons of furniture in them, which all belonged to the shop facing the road, but they weren't open when we got there. When we returned to the truck thinking we were done, an older woman was standing near it and made a comment about the weather. Kim asked if the buildings were open and she welcomed us to take a look around. So we did.

The girls had been on the lookout for a table for me and Naymar spotted one as soon as we walked in. It was covered with a tarp, but it was really pretty and in good shape. We asked how much and after having to make a call to her husband who, I presume, was in the house, told me it was 75 euro. I had to ask her twice, because that was way, way low. She assured me it was 75 and with that, Naymar stared at me with the look of death and said, "you're going to buy this table." It was such a good deal that we felt like we needed to get it in the truck and out of town as quickly as possible, for fear that they'd made a mistake.

We looked around some more and Kim found something she liked. Then, the human game of Tetris began. We got it all to fit and quite well, I might add. Our reward was lunch before we headed back. We were pretty loopy from the success and more likely from getting up so early.

My house is really starting to come together. I was worried that it had been a mistake that I had gotten rid of a lot my furniture before I moved. I'm not now. My living room is especially cozy and even had some friends comment yesterday how nice it is.