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Day 1 – A Proper Visit to London

Day 1 – A Proper Visit to London

Published on 17 September 2024

Time for a proper revisit of London! While I did manage to squeeze in a new bar on my day trip in June, this week I’m actually staying for a couple of nights. That means I should be able to visit a whole lot more new—for me—bars, taprooms, museums, coffee shops, and even two hashes I didn’t run with yet!

The day before my trip I tried to change my seat on the Eurostar, so I wouldn’t have anyone next to me. However, when scanning my ticket upon entering the Eurostar terminal, I was reallocated a new seat and coach… It turned out to be one of four seats around a table! Luckily nobody showed up to sit across from me, so I could stretch my legs, and the guy next to me left soon after departure to find another seat. 

To find an affordable hotel in London, I had to venture a bit from the city centre, so after arrival in St. Pancras International I took the Piccadilly line all the way to Earl’s Court, to check in at easyHotel South Kensington to check in and drop off my bag. 

It was then time for my daily coffee, at HJEM Kensington this time, serving coffee from kiss the hippo roasters. 

For my first beers of the trip I went to The Queens Arms, one of the pubs listed in my book An Opinionated Guide to London Pubs, by Matthew Curtis. The first time I actually made it to one! I had a couple of halves and some miso chicken skewers, before heading back to the hotel to get changed for tonight’s run. 

After taking the District line to Putney Bridge, I arrived at The Bricklayer’s Arms to meet up with the City Hash House Harriers. Head torch at the ready, and off we went! It was a lovely trail, but rather dark, so I wasn’t able to take many useable photos…

After trail, I rushed to BrewDog Shepherd’s Bush, hoping to get there before the kitchen closed. I actually made it in time to enjoy The Feast, and some beers from their German Craft Beer Showcase! The last time I had been in this bar was in 2018, but it’s still definitely one of the nicer, small ones! 

Interscandi!

Interscandi!

Published on 27 July 2024

After the hashy intermezzo on Thursday, it was back to normality for a couple of hours, before the main event of this trip would really start: Interscandi. What supposedly started as a joint hash event for/by the Scandinavian hashes, now extends to anywhere the vikings have been, hence the choice for Hamburg this year…

Normality usually starts with breakfast and coffee, so after a breakfast buffet at the ibis budget hotel, I headed to Milch for that coveted coffee. Unfortunately they were inexplicably closed, so I walked on for my only cultural stop today: the Kramer-Witwen-Wohnung, the ‘shopkeeper’s widow’s home’, built in the 17th century—so widows could move out of their husbands’ shops, so other shopkeepers could move in—and in use for this purpose until the 19th century. Reading this explanation probably took longer than the visit, because it was tiny!

To be fair: I limited myself to one cultural stop to be able to squeeze in one last beer stop before the less predictable part of the weekend would start… On the way there was the Elbgold coffee roastery though, so I could have my espresso macchiato after all!

But just a little after lunch time I found myself already at the Beyond Beer shop, tasting their draught beers…

I still had some time left, and I decided to kill it at BrewDog St. Pauli. I actually already dropped by there on my first night in Hamburg, but I just missed last call then…

Interscandi is with accommodation included, so I had to change venues on the day it started. So my home for the next two nights would be the Pyjama Park Hostel, completely filled with other hashers… The checkin was a happy reunion with people I met at other hash events, and of course a a substantial delegation of BMPH3 members. Let the mayhem begin! Well, as it turned out, the mayhem was too much for the people behind the bar of the hostel, so I fled to The Baby Goat Barn, and had some pizza while I was there.

After that, it was already time to start the pub crawl, no running involved this time. To my delight they had set a “beer nerds” trail as well! It brought me back to The Baby Goat Barn, BrewDog, and Bar Oorlam, but I was so happy to be drinking craft beer on a Nash Hash pub crawl!

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…

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…

Warszawa & Berlin – Day 7

Published on 18 October 2023 
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Back to Brussels…

And just like that, it was time to go home again.

To keep things simple, I just had breakfast at ibis Berlin Mitte, with a view on wat seemed to be a rooftop apiary. I didn’t try the waffle maker, but I was tempted!

After checking out of the hotel, I took the M2 tram again—the tram with which every day in Berlin started and ended—to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, to take the ICE to Köln.

The ICE arrived almost in time, so I had plenty of time for a coffee at Blooming Coffeebar and Roastery, before a last beer in Germany. I was considering going for a Kölsch, like last time, but when I passed Craftbeer Corner Coeln, still well before its opening tim, there was already some movement inside, and the door was open. When I asked about their 18:00 opening, they took pity on me, and served me some beers already!

From there it was back onto an ICE, for the last stretch to Brussels. That meant the end of another wonderful trip, full of great discoveries, and happy revisits of familiar places!

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