Panic on the Streets of London...

to quote The Smiths. For a brief little blog entry, we're now officially finished our World Tour 2012-13 and have left the MV Explorer as it heads to Norway and beyond. I guess we missed being on a ship so much that we did a touristy river cruise on the Thames today amidst the throngs of tourists out of an uncharacteristically sunny British afternoon.

I think it's going to take me months to process all that I've experienced on our trip. What I guess I can simply explain that life on the ship was that–life. Good things happened, some days were crappy, some days were great, tragedy struck people we know, and life continued for us and everyone else. I feel like I have a lot of catching up to do with friends, coworkers, family, and sometimes I may want to talk and other times I may want to be a bit of a loner. I need to and desperately want to reacquaint myself with two wheels.

Ellen posted a list of places we've been, and I'm going to borrow it here so I can see exactly where we have been. With the only exceptions of Barcelona, Antwerp, and Amsterdam, every place was new to me. Whew.

San Diego, California

Ensenada, Mexico

San Diego, California*

Ensenada, Mexico*

Hilo, Hawaii

Yokohama, Japan

Kobe, Japan

Shanghai, China

Hong Kong, China

Singapore

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Yangon, Burma

Cochin, India

Port Louis, Mauritius

Cape Town, South Africa

Takoradi, Ghana

Accra, Ghana

Casablanca, Morocco

Barcelona, Spain

Monte Carlo, Monaco

Livorno, Italy

Cadiz, Spain

Casablanca, Morocco*

Lisbon, Portugal

Le Havre, France

Antwerp, Belgium

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Edinburgh, Scotland

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Dublin, Ireland

Dover, England

* Yes, we hit these places twice on the voyages.

So far, England has been great in the sense that it's beautiful, exciting, huge, and spectacularly full of culture and beer. It's also nice to be renting a flat on Memorial Day weekend (guess UK celebrates this holiday, too, just like the US because, basically, it was the same war but here it's referred to as a bank holiday) and have small things like a living room, internet that actually works faster than early 1990s dialup, and being able to hop on the Underground and taking the subway anywhere in the city. It's also really cool to be in London near subway stops that are mentioned in Smiths songs and also seeing sights that you've read about and heard about in literature or song, be it the Beatles, Shakespeare, or Britpop. What I think all of us have learned as a family is that can be a bit tough being cooped up around each other for so long, and I'm looking forward to being back home and being able to have solo time as well as time together.

Oh, and I still haven't found Altoids in the UK, so it'll have to wait until I get back home before I can get the small minty mints in the tin. What I do have are the Cantillon lambics and Belgian quads that I bought on the enrichment voyage and am enjoying immensely in our flat. There are also pubs nearby, so European ales are suiting me quite well now, and when I get back home I'll take a short break, whip myself back into shape on the bike, and treat myself to some of the US bourbon-barrel aged beers in my cellar. 

Here's a few shots of our first evening and today's stay in London.

The MV Explorer landed in Dover. We got on a bus to Heathrow, minus a bag. Found said bag that another passenger had mistakenly grabbed. Took the Tube to our Flat.

Yes, I realize the British talk a bit formally and spell words with extra "u"s and whatnot, but I have no idea what this is talking about.

London Bridge is not falling down. It's a rather large, curved, undescript bridge across the Thames...

...and London Bridge is not this bridge. This is Tower Bridge, and it's a few hundred meters away.

Picasso at the Tate Museum.

A little further down the Thames from the Tate is a rendition of the Globe Theatre where Shakespeare's plays were shown. Reminds me I need to go see a show at the Blackfriar's Theater in Staunton.

Meal at the Turkish restaurant on night one in London. Great meal, but Jasper per usual was not in a smiley mood.

More London! More Cowbell! This sculpture on Morelondon Street has a gently cascading waterfall over all edges. I had a picnic and looked at the Tower Bridge and people watched there today.

This double-decker bus just happened to drive by as I was taking pictures of Big Ben and Parliament. I swear. Just a lucky coincidence I got the shot of the hot cheerleaders.

Here's the picture I meant to take of Parliament.

Don't forget to mind the gap.

Dublin, Ireland

Commuter on the streets of Dublin.

I would have a bit of trouble remembering which side to drive on as well, so the live-action billboard would be a big help.

Fiddle-head ferns in the Wickslow countryside.

Falls on the Powerscourt estate in the Wickslow countryside.

Sugarloaf Mountain. I think it's around 3500 feet or 1100ish meters high.

 

I find that I'm taking a lot of pictures of the phone booths that are present in the streets of Europe.

U2, Sinead O'Connor, and other Dublin musicians on the "Wall of Fame" in the Temple Bar district.

 

Beach shot of the Wicklow area about 10 miles away from Dublin.

I took a pass on the Guinness gelato. 

The corporate monolith that is the Guinness brewery.

 

...Just like everybody else does. I saw this lyric from the Smiths, and I love the Smiths along with U2 as probably among my all-time top-10 favorite bands, but they're from Manchester, UK and not Dublin, but I'm sure they played close by.

 

Shot of a velocipede in the visitor's lobby of the Jameson distillery. Not sure what it really had to do with the whiskey, but it was a cool artifact and had a connection to the Powerscourt estate we had toured earlier.

 

Probably a good thing to have liver insurance if you live in Ireland. Unless this is for life insurance, which would probably make more sense, but I could still really see a market for liver insurance.

 

Dang, I sure would like to see this show in Dublin about two weeks after our visit.

Robbie Williams is also playing, but I wouldn't be as excited to see him, even if he does look like Morrisey from the early years of the Smiths. We saw a bar in the Temple Bar district that had a tie-in promotion to the concert with a few Robbie cocktails and Robbie-themed surprises all day, but as far as I could tell, Mr. Williams himself wouldn't actually be at the bar. Bummer.

Pint of Guinness at the Gin Saloon.

 

Had a few days in Dublin, Ireland after a quick stay in Belfast. Dublin is a bit more modern, seeming to have more of that big-city quality to me that Belfast didn't really have. Dublin is bigger, obviously, and it is home to one of my favorite bands growing up, U2, so I was hoping to catch some sign of the foursome's old haunts. Dublin is also home to the quintessential dry Irish stout Guinness, but I have a confession–I don't really care that much for Guinness. It's a workable option if there's a poor selection on tap otherwise, but as far as a well-crafted brew, it's a bit thin, bland, and low on taste as well as calories (I think of it as a light/diet beer). It's everywhere on the streets since there are lots of pubs on the streets in Dublin, so I probably would encounter it at some point in the short Dublin stay.

Day one, we headed into County Wicklow to see the countryside. Barely 10 miles away from city centre Dublin we were on the rocky shoreline near Sugarloaf mountain. Too cold to swim, and it was windy, too, but the sun peeked out and shone perkily on the emerald countryside. The beach wasn't really sand so much as rocks, pebbles, and ground-up shells, so Jasper and I had a few minutes to throw stones into the surf and skip rocks on the beach before we were bussed off to the next stop at the highest waterfall in Ireland. Pretty countryside, and we had a pretty chill afternoon once we were back aboard the ship.

Day two, we headed out in the off-and-on drizzle to a couple free National museums. The Irish Natural History Museum, aka the Dead Zoo as the locals call it, houses a collection of fossils, insect specimens, skeletons, and a surprisingly large assortment of native and worldwide taxidermy. The animals in the collection are faded and aging, and the building itself is due for a renovation which is scheduled to come up in the next decade, so the facility as well as the holdings were a step back in time. After the museum, I cut out on my own to do some touristy things including–gasp–a visit to Guinness.

I had a few Irish Pounds in my pocket and was in the mood to walk, so rather than taking a tram (no subway in Dublin), I located the "storehouse" and headed in that direction. I could smell malt mashing as I got close, and I saw buildings with signage indicating it was right straight ahead. That in reality meant a walk around several blocks, as the brewery sits on I would estimate several dozen city blocks. It's a huge brewery and really is a mass-market churner-outer of the local quaffable beer, but as far as a true craft beer, it's not. I went into the visitor entrance and saw there was a nice tour, but I took a pass since it was 16 Euro 50, so heck with that. I'm not paying that much for a factory brewery tour, pint at the end be damned. Still, I snapped a few pictures and then headed off to the Jameson Distillery.

I've also had an interest in distillation, and I really like bourbon and would love to dabble in single-malt scotches but am a bit afraid of the price tag for entry. That's being said as I sip on one of the Cantillons I picked up in Brussels which goes for a nice tidy sum back home but was pretty affordable at the source. So, I found the building about a mile from Guinness, and it looked nice from the outside and had some of the old stonework incorporated into the expanded factory as the distillery grew over the past few decades. I believe both Guinness and Jameson have been around since the mid 1700s, so there's a lot of history in them both. Upon entering the visitor's entrance, I saw that there were several scheduled tours coming up, all sold out, despite the 14 Euro 50 entrance fee. What is up with these entry fees? I passed again and figured I'd walk back to the ship and stop somewhere along the way for a pint.

I could have taken a tram from near Jameson but decided to walk since it was a pretty afternoon and I wanted to see some of the local scenery. Lots of bars along the waterfront, and there's a district called the Temple Bar District with lots of restaurants and pubs. In fact, Ellen, Sandy, Jasper, and I went there the first evening for some live Irish music, and it was okay but not what Jasper would call a good time, so we didn't stay too late. On this afternoon, there was no Irish music that I could find on the other side of the river, and that was okay with me, since really all I wanted was a pint at a more secluded pub. I found a spot called the Gin Saloon, which was a bit glitzy with an old-style mirror-backed bar and lots of liquor bottles of whiskeys and gins along with a few tap handles. No beer engines that I could see, but among the choices of Bulmer's Cider (with–I swear–a small video screen showing adverts for Bulmer's/Magner's), Bud, Coors Light, and Smithwick's, there was the mandatory Guinness handle.

This place also seemed to have cheaper pints by at least a Euro than in the Temple Bar district, so it worked for me. I asked the bar staff for a pint, and about five minutes later a cascading brownish-black liquid was in front of me. Guinness is served on Nitrogen versus CO2 as most tap beers aside from cask to try to duplicate the cask look and feel. It's a bit different and I'd say inferior, but dang if it doesn't look nice in a glass with the foam lasting for minute after minute.

Made it back aboard the MV Explorer with quite a lot of time to spare before heading off to our last sea day. Dover, England is the next stop, and it's where I get off and the round-the-world journey reaches its conclusion.

Belfast, Northern Ireland

Supporters of football/soccer, perhaps?

Graffiti on Belfast storefront.

After the Titanic Museum, I had a pint of cask ale at McHugh's Tavern. The spot was a little over 300 years old with a modest bottle list and a few taps along with two gravity-fed "beer engines" that dispense real ale. Real ale is still undergoing fermentation in the cask when it's dispensed, and lots of Americans tend to dismiss the beer as being flat and warm. It's more like it's gently carbonated and cellar temperature, and the cask is viable for a few days and has subtle flavors expressed by the live yeast which really are nice.

Jasper in front of the Titanic Museum. It's less than a year old and really does a good job of explaining how much work went into building the ship and how quickly everything went south after hitting the iceberg, a combination of overconfidence, incompetence, and tempting fate. Jasper was really impacted when he realized how many people died, quite a few needlessly, in the disorganization after the impact. Plus, many of the second- and third-class passengers were killed along with the first-class passengers but were ignored by the press and whose families were given far inferior burial arrangements and settlements.
 

Exterior of the Titanic Museum. It was only a couple hundred meters across the dock from MV Explorer, but we couldn't get there directly unless we swam.
 

PSA aboard the Belfast buses. I guess it's a pressing issue, right?

Here's a bar Ellen and I found on our pub crawl. It's in a flatiron building and pretty small inside and dates from the 17th century. Colorful characters inside, too, along with trouble mural type paintings and muppets drinking alongside famous Irish authors. Sure, why not?

Glorious pour of a British IPA.

More street art. These are crocheted sleeves that get placed upon scaffolding, signposts, and what have you. 

We've just left Dublin, Ireland and our trip is quickly coming to a close. I have a few more at-sea blogs to jot down so I don't forget about the details. The MV Explorer landed in Belfast a few days ago, and we had a little more time than in Scotland for this trip, about a full 16 hours, which was enough to get a taste.

I'm a little confused about the money. Ireland is part of the EU and uses the Euro as currency, but Northern Ireland uses the British Pound. Even beyond that, we got Irish Pounds at one ATM, so we'll have to convert them at a bank in London to regular British Pounds. Erg. Well, all I know is that I spent all my Euro, so I'm okay in that regard, and I'll have a little bit of Pounds once we hit London, although I don't expect them to last long in one of the world's most expensive cities.

Growing up, I associated Belfast with political unrest and terrorism even before I understood what terrorism really is. It's going to be quite interesting to be in London tomorrow just a couple days after the terrorist machete attack on the soldier, and it seems lately that there are frequent reminders that the world is on edge. In Belfast, the streets felt safe and people were friendly, and it's now a tourist destination whereas a decade or two ago visiting Belfast would be equivalent to visiting Beirut or Tehran. Doable, possibly, but probably not advised. Now, it's a fairly stable area with beautiful sights, pretty countryside, and stuff that makes Northern Ireland inviting.

Jasper and I snapped few pics below to show what we saw in Belfast. In the morning, Ellen, her dad, Jasper, and I went to see some of the city before they branched off to see some of the "trouble murals" painted on walls separating Protestant and Catholic Belfast; the murals show support and opposition to viewpoints political, cultural, religious, national, and perhaps even more complex than these. Jasper and I went to the Titanic Museum for a few hours, followed by a pint for me at the closest real-looking pub I could find, before meeting up again on the ship to have some dinner. Sandy took one for the team so Ellen and I could go out for our own little pub crawl before getting back aboard before onship time of 2200 (10pm).

A fairly short blog since we had only part of a day in Belfast, but the pictures came out okay although for some reason Blogger wants to put them at the top of the screen. Next up is Dublin, Ireland, before we have to disembark.

If it's not Scottish, it's crap!

Late '90s semi-obscure Saturday Night Live reference made: check.

Landed in Edinbugh, Scotland: check.

Bagpipes heard (and scurried away from): check.

Creepy street performers sighted: check.

Altoids found: um, no. Dang.

I've been out of Altoids since about South Africa, and ever since I've been looking at drug stores, groceries, convenience stores, with no luck. I figured when we hit Barcelona and were in the EU I'd be able to find them, but still no luck in Spain. Then I figured surely Amsterdam would have them, but the only thing I found were large sweet peppermints, so not the same thing as the wonderfully pepperminty orbs in the metal tin.

Surely Scotland as part of the UK would have them, right? Um, no. Guess I'll keep looking and see if they're in London, and if not I guess I'll have to wait until I get home and get them at Sam's Club or Kroger in Charlottesville. The peppermints sound less exotic when I put it in those terms.

Okay, now that that's out of the way, we've got about another week to go before disembarking in Dover, UK, spending a couple days in London, then heading back to Good Ole VA US of A. I miss home, I miss the students who were aboard the Academic Voyage, I miss my parents and brother and friends back home, and I really miss being semi-fit and fast on a bike. I know it's going to take awhile to get back into a rhythm once I'm back. For now, I'm still enjoying seeing lots of sights, so we've got a couple more to go.

It's been good. It's been exhausting. It's been harmonious. It's been drama-filled. It sure hasn't been boring. I think it'll take me years to process all I've seen, done, and experienced. I'm starting to realize that soon the trip will be over and I'll be back home. Starkly, simply, home. Life goes on, has gone on. Life has happened while on the ship. Next phase of life begins shortly.

Today is Monday May 20 and we left Edinburgh, Scotland around 2030 (8:30pm) last night after about, oh, 8 hours ashore. Definitely one of the shorter stops along the way. It's a pretty place, what I could see of it through the fog. With just a little bit of time, we hopped ashore, bussed it to the big Edinburgh Castle at the top of the hill in town, then worked our way back before heading off to Belfast, Dublin, and then Dover. The ship will continue for a couple more weeks to Scandinavia and Russia, but we won't be able to stay aboard that long. I'd love to see places a bit north of Europe, but maybe some other time.

At the castle, we saw stone fortress buildings built over the years to house the growing Scottish port and protect the area. Mostly what I got out of it was a desire to go back to my laptop that evening and rewatch Monty Python and The Holy Grail. The castle and museum artifacts could have been the setting for the movie. If you haven't seen it, watch it. If you have seen it, rewatch it and remember, it's merely a flesh wound.

The castle sits at the top of a touristy stretch of street called The Royal Mile. About a quarter down the Royal Mile, we were getting hungry and ducked into a pie shop for some English pastries. Not low-fat, but filling and tasty. A few steps further up the block was the Scottish National Museum. In some ways, it's like portions of the Smithsonian crammed into a decent but not huge building: some hands-on science experiment stuff, some transportation stuff, history, and special exhibits including a cool exposition on bugs stuck in amber. Best yet, it was free. The Edinburgh Castle was well done but kinda pricey at 16 pounds, so it was good to hit a free museum. I think the Scottish lottery funds the place, and that seems like a good use of voluntary tax in my mind.

Plus, the National Museum was near the one additional place I wanted to see: Brewdog. Again, this goes into my beer nerd focus, so I'll try to explain it without it seeming too silly. Brewdog is a bit of a rabble-rousing brewery in the UK, and UK brewing tradition tends to be somewhat grounded in history. British beers are quite nice and tend to emphasize subtlety and sessionability (i.e., being low in strength so you can have many in one sitting and good conversation in your local pub). I figured there were British-style pubs in Scotland and will surely be in London, so why not check out the bar by the namesake brewery that ruffles the hackles of many a Brit. Some describe them as being focused on marketing and flash, and others less charitably describe them being in a d!c&-wagging contest to try to keep coming up with the world's strongest or most extreme beers. However, I'd had seen their beers in the US but had never tried them and wanted to see the bar.

Pretty cool place and not as hugely "punk" as the brewery seems to try to come off in the press. Concrete, exposed duct-work, and wood interior, like many other places, plus on a mid-afternoon Sunday it was quiet. I left the museum a bit earlier than Sandy, Ellen, and Jasper, and they joined me after I'd had a draft or two of IPAs since I had a hop craving. Jasper played with Jenga while Ellen and I had a pint of Vice Bier weiss and Vagabond Pilsner, and Sandy caught up on some online articles since there was WIFI. Pretty cool afternoon with a nice vibe, good taps, and fun bar staff. They saw me snapping pictures of the stoat-sheathed bottle that once held End of History and brought it down for a closeup and even told me I could pet it. That right there was worth the price of admission.

Some places along the Royal Mile focused on Scottish history and, obviously, tying that into touristy trinkets you simply must have. I passed on buying bagpipes. I can take the music in small doses if it's mixed into a track such as, say "Under the Milky Way" by the 90s band The Church, but when some dude on the street is cranking out bagpipes at the front of a stone wall, it's exceedingly loud. I put that there with the creepy frozen statues as urban annoyances now that mimes have fallen out of fashion, good for distracting the newbie tourists and best to be avoided while I head to spots that interest me. There were plenty of tartan shops, too, and I saw one for Ramsay but didn't get it. Looked like a basic blue and black plaid. My family has some Scotch-Irish heritage but I'm not sure that specific tartan was exactly correct. Anyways, it looked like the Princess Di tartan, so I took a pass.

Belfast, you're up next, with Dublin and Dover on deck. For now, later.

Foggy day at sea as we near Scotland. I can't see it yet...

The lane winding up to Edinburgh Castle. Named after one of my ancestors, perhaps. Sure, why not?

Today IS the day of fudge. Isn't every day?

Statue of Sir Robert the Bruce at the gate of Edinburgh Castle. I think it was intended to inspire awe and a sense of history. It actually made me really, really want to watch Monty Python.

 

Love these old phone booths. The phone inside actually works.

Boom!

Scottish Crown Jewels.

 

Tartans were available on the Royal Mile.

Dolly the Sheep in taxidermy at the Scottish National Museum.

F1 race car at the museum. Jasper drove one in a simulator and got the day's second fastest time.

Taplist at Brewdog Pub.

 
I'll have the stoat, please. This is one of 7 bottles of the stoat (large) version of End of History, which I think was more of a publicity stunt than actually a real brew. It supposedly clocked in around 55% (110 proof) and retailed for over a grand. The stoat was soft and had a wonderful bouquet–the actual stoat, that is, since I didn't get to actually try the beer.

Amsterdam!

As I posted in the previous entry on Antwerp, Belgium, I had originally planned to spend the night with Ellen in Antwerp and catch up with the ship the next day in Amsterdam. Then it turned into me by myself in Antwerp, then it turned into me sprinting back aboard the ship due to a botched B&B stay. Today is Saturday May 18, and we've left Amsterdam after almost two days. Amsterdam.is.fantastically.great.

The ship docked in Amsterdam about a half mile from the central station, so we were really close to the exciting parts of downtown Amsterdam. Basically, a 10-minute walk put us into the action. Ellen and her dad were on a trip to the Keukenhof tulip flower gardens. She and I had biked there from Leiden on our Amsterdam/Belgium beer trip in 2000, and I remember the acres and hectares of flowers. Europe has had a colder wet winter and spring than usual, and the flowers were in bloom now even in mid May, so they said it was beautiful. Jasper and I stayed behind and rested up a bit on the ship since he was getting over a stomach bug. I had plans to fulfill once everyone got back, too.

While Jasper's grandpa and mom were at the flower displays, Jasper and I hit the streets of Amsterdam. It was a bit drizzly but not too wet or cold, just typical Dutch spring weather, so the cyclists pedaling around seemed okay with it. Sure would be great if the US had infrastructure so that we could bike all around, but we'd also need trains, too, to make everything work like the Netherlands. The downside is, well, the bikes are not your typical commuter or racing road bikes but are drab and heavy–almost as if being built with extra tubes counts for anti-theft properties–in order to not stand out to get stolen or pitched in the canals. Most bikes had heavy security chains that could tow a semi truck, so I'm guessing theft is pretty commonplace, and then again there's the theory that they have to dredge the canals every so often because of all the jettisoned bikes...

Around mid afternoon, Ellen and Sandy returned from the Keukenhof, so we all met up to head out as a family. We're finding that the four of us often have varying ideas on what we'd like to do, so we first ventured out to the NEMO Science Museum which was about a two-mile walk until we figured out a shortcut across part of the dock system. Ellen, Sandy, and Jasper had a fun time at the museum while I headed off to the beer store I had researched beforehand. I had missed out on some bar time in Antwerp and was hoping to find the last and most elusive of the Trappist beers, the mythical Westvleteren. Beer Advocate, Rate Beer, and other beer sources have Westy at or very close to the top of the highest-regarded beers in the world, and in my years of beer geekdom I've read much about Westy. If you have connections or are resourceful, you can get it, but part of the rarity contributes to the desire for it. Westvleteren is an abbey where monks make a 6 blonde ale, 8 dubbel ale, and a 12 quadruple ale. If you live in Belgium, you can call up the brothers, give them your license plate number, set up an appointment, and pick up a case of what happens to be available at the time they tell you when to arrive. Evidently it's hard to get through on the phone, much less have a car and the time to head off to the abbey. As I understand it, the beers themselves aren't expensive, a few euros per bottle, but there are extremely limited quantities and the monks typically don't distribute the beer. Last year, there was a fundraiser to make repairs after a fire, so there were a few thousand "bricks" of Westy 12 and special glasses released in the US with a retail price of $85 for the package. That's about, say, $10 for the glass and $12ish for each beer bottle.

I've heard that bricks were snapped up as soon as they hit the US, so even during my beer shopping last year, I didn't bother to get on any waiting lists or try to hunt one down, so I never had seen one. If you're resourceful, you could find a trading partner in Belgium to mail some to you or order a few bottles when they occasionally show up in online beer vendors. I've heard the street price of Westies can be anywhere from $25 on up depending how desperate people get. Nothing to confirm it, but I've also heard that craigslist and ebay and other sites had asking prices of $500 for the Westy bricks. I'll pass at that price. I've had some delicious Belgian quads including Rochefort and St. Bernardus, but folks swear that it's worth the trouble to try Westy 12 if you can ever lay your hands on it.

Did I mention that Amsterdam is a bit touristy? There are the "coffeeshops" that don't sell coffee but specialize in pot to smoke or ingest in brownies or lollypops or pastries or vaporizers. Not that I'd actually know since Ellen and I skipped them on our 2000 visit and I wasn't about to hit up a coffeeshop with Jasper in tow. There are also blocks that have fairly prominent sex shops, peep shows, and ladies standing in storefront booths beckoning for customers in the world's oldest profession. It's a bit exciting, a bit sleazy, and a fascinating contrast between the garish sights and the old-world architecture.

Anyway, Amsterdam is a bit touristy with souvenir shops, tacky museums, canal cruises, and stuff everywhere catering to gawking folks. Based on the map I had, the beer shop should be close to the Madame Tussaud's wax museum. I've never really understood the attraction of paying the $30/25euro or whatever it costs to see fake wax mannequins of historical figures and semi-famous but outdated celebrities. Spice Girls circa 2001? No, thanks. Really. It was raining and I pushed past the Tussaud's crowd to walk down the street where I saw a stack of European plastic beer crates. Here it was, De Bierkoning. That's Dutch for BeerKing, I believe, and by gosh it was a hell of a beer store. Sorry if this post and the Antwerp post are both a bit heavy on beer and beer photos, but I know great beer and found lots of it. The shop had a stellar selection of Belgians, quite a few Dutch beers (including La Trappe quad which I have at home in my beer cellar; it's quite good but is a Dutch Trappist brewery rather than the more sought-after Belgian Trappist breweries), and a really surprisingly strong assortment of US beers. I had limited space for beers so I passed up the American brews, some of which I can't get on the East Coast, in favor of Belgian beers. I also passed up sours since we had picked up some Cantillon lambics in Brussels. The Cantillons were here, too, along with other hard-to-find sours, but I had to set a limit, so six small Belgians it was. I picked out a Kasteel Cuvée Du Chateau quad, Rochefort 10 quad, St. Bernardus Abt 12 quad, Pannepeut quad, De Dolle strong stout, and... drumroll... a Westy 12 quad. Whoa. This store had a few cases of Westy 6, 8, and 12. I'll be honest, the Westy cost as much as the other 5 beers, probably in the neighborhood of $20 for just the one small bottle, but this is the only one I've actually physically seen and wouldn't have to trade a vital organ to get.

I can't wait to try it. I'd love to bring it home but really doubt there will be room on our checked baggage, plus I'd hate to have it broken in transit. As I noted in the Antwerp post, the ship security holds on to alcohol and then returns it when you leave, and I hope that works out for us. I'm really optimistic I'll see those Cantillons, quads, and the Westy and get to try them in London after we leave the MV Explorer. Package in hand, I carried the six bottles back to the ship walking about 2 kilometers in heavy rain, cradling the plastic bag like a cuddly puppy.

Ellen, Jasper, and her dad were back at the ship, so Jasper and I had dinner aboard while the two of them went out for Indonesian cuisine. The meal was quite good Ellen reports, and perhaps one day I'll say I've had Indonesian. I've probably had similar on this voyage but not straight-up Indonesian food. Once they got back, Ellen and I headed to a bar which I'd also researched named In De Wildeman. Odd name, and it had a plaque out front with a caveman once we found it down an alley near some 420 shops and across from a BurgerBar. I've noticed that there are lots of to-go spots, and I suppose when everyone gets the munchies after shopping at the coffeeshops they hit up the snack spots. The bar was highly recommended on Beer Advocate (ding ding–yet another beer nerd mention) and looked to have been decorated at least 50 years ago with old beer paraphernalia, wooden kegs along the back wall, and a small woodstove. There were a mix of Europeans in the bar and a nice sizable menu with Belgian, Dutch, British, German, and US beers. Ellen and I sat at a four-top table for a bit before two gentlemen came by looking for a seat and I invited them to join us. They were from Norway, and much like Ellen and I, one of them talked and the other pipped in occasionally. It was a great conversation about politics in both Norway and America, what we like and would improve if we could, and what we like to see when traveling. Norway is small, the men reported, and they are glad to see Americans vacationing in Norway and during their European travelers. Definitely a world tour as we had Belgian pale ale, German smoked lager, Dutch witbier, and called it a night after discussing world politics.

Our second day in Amsterdam was a bit like the first. All four of us went to the Stedelijk Art Museum, which is a bit outside the central train station/dock area. Early in the morning, I walked to the train station, got four day-use tram tickets, then we boarded the tram to go to the museum. It's shaped like a bathtub on the outside and has 20th and 21st century modern art and design objects. Really nice. It's close to the Rijksmuseum which recently reopened after a 10-year renovation, so we skipped the crowd for that huge historic Dutch art museum in favor of the modern art. I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

After the museum trip, we branched off: Sandy went to the Rijksmuseum, Ellen and Jasper went to the zoo, and I headed back to the canal/central station area. Once again, I used Madame Tussaud's as a landmark, this time finding the BeerTemple bar that I had seen on the tram that morning on the way to Stedelijk (plus, I had already researched it on Beer Advocate, big shocker there). This was also a great bar with a fair number of tap beers including some semi-rare Belgian, Dutch, and US beers, plus a strong bottle list. I got to try about 5 strong beers in small quantities, so it really suited the ticker in me. Also on the bottle menu were both Westy 8 and 12; I took a pass since I want to try my Westy on a rested palate, but I had an eclectic few beers including a Three Floyds/Mikkeler Hvedegoop wheatwine, a Spanish double IPA, a specially hopped Duvel, and a Left Hand imperial stout.

We reboarded and watched the buildings of Amsterdam fade out behind us as we now passed by chemical plants on our way onward toward Edinburg, Scotland. For now, ciao.

Bike parking lot.

Bathtub museum.

Van Gogh.

Picasso.

Chair.

Jasper Johns painting "Untitled". There's a broom in there.

Ducky bike.

Pass the ducchie.

Clocktower on the canal.

De Pelgrim Dutch beers. Ellen and I visited this brewery during our 2000 tour. Glad to see them on the shelves.

Glorious Westvleterens.

My haul at De Bierkoning.

Locks? by the canal. Not sure what this was about.

Part of the menu at BeerTemple. I could have had a Westy or two here but will have my Westy 12 at our flat in London if I get my beers back when we leave the ship.

Another part of the menu at BeerTemple. I passed on Dark Lord. The Hvedegoop was less expensive on tap.

Rainy streetscape.

Buildings along a canal. Some of them tilt outward so cargo, when it was offloaded back in the day, wouldn't bang against the windows as the ropes hoisted the cargo up to the attic.