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Tag: architecture

Shetland Simmer Dim Hash

This weekend was all about the main event of my trip, the Shetland Simmer Dim Hash! A hostel full of hashers running and walking on both Shetland proper and Bressay, and getting a taste of local culture, food, and beer! 

After a restful night and a nice breakfast in the Magnus Lounge on the Hrossey, all the hashers gathered in the lobby to debark together. In the arrivals hall we were greeted by some local hashers—although only one of them actually lived on the island—and fiddle music. 

There was a coach already waiting to take us to the hostel to quickly drop off our baggage, and then on to the start of trail, a good hour’s drive away.

I’m sure a run around Lerwick would have have been lovely, but the drive was worth it, and Saturday’s trail was just stunning! The weather was surprisingly un-Scottish, since it was incredibly sunny, albeit quite windy, and the bogs invariably soggy…

After trail we had the opportunity to visit the Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary, which was hosting a grey seal, and the caretakers passionately told us all about it. Some others were crazy enough to take a dip in the cold sea…

We then had a sandwich lunch and circle at the nearby St Magnus Bay Hotel—also serving local beers—after which the coach took us back to Lerwick, so we could get settled in our rooms. It had been a while since I had shared a room with ten other guys! 

By sheer coincidence, just before we were about to leave for dinner, the Lerwick Midsummer Carnival parade passed right by our hostel. As so much on Shetland, it was very Viking themed! 

Dinner and the rest of the evening program would take place at the nearby Lerwick Town Hall. The main hall was beautiful, with a wooden vaulted ceiling, and stained glass windows, many of them featuring Norwegian monarchs. 

The dinner buffet was excellent—lamb pie made with local lamb—the beer aplenty—cask and keg from the local Lerwick Brewery—and the ceilidh—I even brought my dancing ghillies for it—a lot of fun for everyone! 

Since it was overcast and rainy by then—we even had a thunderstorm that night—the ‘dim’ was a bit darker than it usually is… It still was a very short night, though! 

Hangover Trail

As is customary at events like this, there was a hangover trail on Sunday morning—even though my hangover was less severe than on Saturday morning… Less customary was the trail length: even longer than the Saturday trail! Since I would need my trail running shoes by Monday evening again, and I prefer them to be dry, I decided to do the walk. 

For this trail we actually had to cross the water, as it was on Bressay. Considering the weather—mostly wet and misty—this had been a smart choice to not run today, as they most definitely would have gotten even wetter… As nice as the beach at the ‘swim stop’ looked, I couldn’t be tempted to go in the water! I did get to see a seal in its natural habitat, though! 

After trail we had another marvellous lunch: I just couldn’t stay away from the buttered bannock with slices of lamb…And again: Lerwick Brewery beer on cask!

Then we had to run to catch the ferry to Lerwick again. There we had another drink together, before picking up our bags and the ride to the NorthLink ferry terminal.

Once on the Hjaltland, I enjoyed another dinner in the Magnus Lounge, before joining the other hashers in the front bar for the last couple of beers.

More Inverness

After a good night’s sleep, I was ready to properly discover Inverness. Well, after some breakfast and coffee of course! 

The plan was to have some kind of breakfast taco from one of the vendors around the food plaza in the Victorian Market. Unfortunately they apparently stopped doing breakfast a couple of weeks ago, so I had to find an alternative. Luckily Milk Bar, where I intended to go for coffee anyway, served some food as well, so I ended up enjoying a ham, cheddar, and caramelised red onion marmalade toastie. And then I had my planned coffee and some millionaire’s shortbread there after all. 

Time for some history then, and I started with Abertarff House, the oldest house in Inverness, and an important example of 16th-century domestic architecture.

Next was the Inverness Museum & Art Gallery, which was mainly about the history of Inverness and the Highlands. All signage was in both English and Gaelic, as I’ve seen in more places in Inverness, and now I know why: Gaelic is on the rise! In 1891, one third of the people of Inverness spoke Gaelic. After falling to 5% by 1991, the figure today is back over 8%, higher than any other Scottish city!

For lunch I headed to Roots Café, a place I had been before when it had another name and owner, and I had a huge hangover… When I noticed the special was a black pudding and crispy potato hash, I simply had to have it! Not enough people realise that a ‘hash’ first and foremost is something you eat…

Even though I’ve now been a kilt wearer for over eleven years, I had never seen one made in person! The Scottish Kiltmaker Visitor Centre—basically a little exhibition and a big window in the workshop of the Highland House of Fraser—fixed that for me. 

Just fifteen minutes before closing time—did I mention that the food plaza in the Victorian Market closes early?—I got myself a pork sausage roll at Bad Girl Bakery. I had to, just for the name alone! The sausage roll was good, though. 

The plan was to visit Inverness Castle as well, but apparently it still hadn’t reopened yet… Just a look from the outside would have to do this time, although it was impossible to get a view without scaffolding or fences!

On my way past the castle, I then had a quick stop at Number 27, for a couple of halves. 

The next stop was The Castle Tavern. Apparently I was a bit early for dinner—although my stomach on Belgian time disagreed—so I had to kill some time drinking beer… It was worth the wait though: both the haggis croquettes and the chipotle chicken sandwich were very nice!

The furthest I would venture today was Uile-Bheist, a distillery and brewery. As they only started in 2022, they don’t have their own whisky yet, and they don’t make any other distillates. So while they did have their bar well-stocked with other whiskies, I stuck to their beers. 

On my to-do list for ages, was Hootananny. Originally because they have a weekly ceilidh, but Thursday is not the night for that. They do however have live music every night, and tonight it was Tuath (Gaelic for ‘North’) that delighted us with their tunes. Neil on the fiddle, and Blair on the keyboard and the sass… Luckily I always carry protection in my sporran, because they were really loud! 

After the first set I moved on to the Black Isle Bar, since I noticed they had some new beers on. I mean, if you launch a Belgian Golden Strong Ale on my last night, I can’t skip that! After eleven they already started cleaning and closing tills, so that was the signal for me to head back to the hotel. 

Just a Day in London

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…

New Spring Beer Festivals

The beer festival season has well and truly started for me! After a very enjoyable trip to CBFS24 in Stuttgart in February, I visited two more beer festivals in Belgium I had never been to yet: The Beer Experience in Zolder, and Fest’IPA in Namur.

The Beer Experience – 24-25 March 2024

First up was The Beer Experience, which I visited on the 23rd of March. I arrived quite late—it was a two train trip, all the way to Zolder—so it was in full swing by the time I entered. There were lots of familiar faces, bot among the visitors and the stand holders, but more importantly, also a lot of breweries I hadn’t tried any beers of yet!

The location was quite special—an old mining site—and I didn’t quite get around to exploring all of it. Neither did I had the time to ‘experience’ all aspects of the festival fully, with its art exhibits spread out over the buildings, since there were simply too many beers to try! I did get to enjoy some of the live music, though!

This definitely is a festival I will visit again, and allow a bit more time for next time!

I also skipped the food trucks for once, since I had my heart set on something I can only get the way I want it in Limburg, it seems: a döner kebab in Turkish bread that doesn’t get squished in a panini grill, and with green peppers on the side. The appropriately named snack bar De Mijn had exactly that!

After a beer festival, train trips with a change to get home are always a bit risky, but I didn’t miss any connections, and made it back to Brussels without a hitch.

Fest’IPA – 19-20 April 2024

The next discovery was Fest’IPA in Namur. I already discovered that Namur has something to offer for beer lovers, but I hadn’t been to any events here yet. Fest’IPA is an event by Namur Capitale de la Bière, the organisation behind the festival with the same name, but also some other beer events in the city.

The location for the festival—La Nef—was already quite special. It was in fact the desecrated Notre-Dame church of Namur, but a lot of the artwork was still in place.

No entrance fee, no tokens, just one bar with six beer pumps and a couple of fridges. Apparently that’s all you need, since I had a great time tasting some of the beers they had selected. If I didn’t have to get up early the next morning, I would happily have spent a couple of hours more!

So that’s another, completely different, beer festival to look out for next year!

Back to the ‘Dams

My little autumn break wasn’t quite over yet, after my Warszawa-Berlin trip, so on Friday I went to both Amsterdam and Rotterdam.

For the long stretch Brussels-Amsterdam, I used up all my Thalys points—mostly earned by filling out questionnaires—for the high speed option. Although officially the company is Eurostar now, my train was still adorned with the Thalys branding.

After my morning commitments—my trip wasn’t all leisure—I stopped at Quartier Putain for a coffee and a piece of apple pie. I’m not sure if that name would go down well in cities where they actually speak French!

By then it was time to discover the newest addition to BrewDog‘s portfolio of bars: BrewDog Amsterdam Centraal! It opened just a week before, when I was about a 1000 km east from here, so I missed the EFP opening, unfortunately… The shipload of EFPs—literally, since they had organised a communal ferry crossing for the opening—didn’t drink the bar dry though, and they even had one beer on draught I hadn’t had yet!

It was only around lunch time, but the bar was packed, the staff seemed to be well-trained, and handled the crowd well. Apart from a couple of beers, I had the Cluck & Satay Skewer. It’s always nice to have something ‘local’ on the food menu of a BrewDog bar!

Just before leaving, I also had a nice chat with franchisee Peter, who seemed to be confident he had found a great location for the bar. I can’t disagree with him: located right within Amsterdam Central Station, it will definitely one I’ll be visiting more often!

From the bar to the train platform was only a couple of minutes’ walk, and soon I was off to my next destination: Rotterdam!

The BrewDog Outpost Rotterdam was the only BrewDog bar in the Benelux participating in this year’s edition of Collabfest, so if I wanted to taste any of the beers, I had to make a stop there. Not every bar get’s all beers, but the selection in Rotterdam was great. As it turns out, it even included the highest rated beer, which was Rotterdam’s own collaboration with the Moersleutel: the K9 Chocolate Stout – Brewdog Rotterdam Outpost Collab!

After trying almost all the Collabfest beers, and a few others, it was time to go back to the gorgeous Rotterdam Central train station, and catch the train home again…