Martijn.be

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…

Van Moll & Mokum

Van Moll & Mokum

Published on 7 July 2024

Another weekend well spent with beer and running! This time the beer festival was Van Moll Fest in Eindhoven, and the run was in Amsterdam, where I joined the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers!

The weekend didn’t start that well: only on Saturday morning I found out I had to take a rail replacement bus service, from Tilburg to Eindhoven! Kudos to the NS though, it was all well announced and indicated at the station.

This year’s Van Moll Fest was definitely muddier than the previous editions I had been to, but luckily no more rain fell after the gates opened. On the other hand, it did feel like it was quite a bit more expensive than previously, with many beers costing two or even three tokens for a 20 cl serve, and that at € 3 per token! There were however plenty of new breweries to discover, so it was still worth it for me.

Since Eindhoven is a bit of a pain to get back home from after drinking quite a few beers—I’ve had a bad and very expensive experience with that—I spent the night in a nice ‘auberge‘ this time… After some bacon & banana pancakes for breakfast at The Happiness Café, it was time to move on to Amsterdam. The journey started with a rail replacement bus service again, until Boxtel this time…

Upon arrival in Amsterdam—also known as Mokum—I first went for a proper coffee at Sango, just in time to shelter for the rain! I then still had some time to kill, and since I had to take the tram at the central station anyway, a couple of beers at BrewDog Centraal Station was the obvious choice!

The reason for coming to Amsterdam, however, was to run with the Amsterdam Hash House Harriers! They run at exactly the same time as BMPH3—Sundays at three o’clock—but since it was actually quicker to get to Amsterdam on a Sunday morning, I decided to run with AH3 instead this time. Even though it was my first time running with them, there were quite a few people I already knew from other hashing events.

I just can’t go to the Netherlands without having something with peanut sauce! I asked my fellow hashers about recommendations for nearby Surinamese or Indonesian restaurants, and thus I ended up at Café Kadijk. Some Javanese meatballs and satay ayam later, both well doused in peanut sauce, I was on my way to the train station again, for a final beer at BrewDog Centraal Station, and my train home…

Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour 2024

Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour 2024

Published on 15 June 2024

The infamous Brussel Breweries Tattoo Tour was exactly on the birthday of my breweries tattoo this year, the 15th of June. Like for the first and second edition, the turnout for this third edition was great!

In the end, three persons managed to visit and drink in all seven breweries, although in a slightly different order than myself: two needed to catch a train, so squeezed in Surréaliste somewhere in the middle, and another had to go to a concert, so he did the same with La Mule, the then join me again in the last brewery. They truly earned their patch!

And some more photos by Hannah:

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!