Vijay Basrur

Beer in Brussels

Even before I left for my trip, I had read a lot about the types of beer in Belgium. While I was keen on visiting the Hoegaarden brewery, I couldn’t manage to. But I ended up sampling quite a variety of beer. If there’s one thing I’ll visit Belgium for, it will have to be for the beer.

Brussels

My trip to Brussels started on a pretty bad note. While the original plan was to leave Eindhoven at 10, I finally ended up boarding the train at 12. Interestingly while I boarded a train bound for Maastrich, I ended up at Heerele. Turns out that 1 half of the train travels to Maastrich while the other heads to Heerle. Whoever heard of one train going 2 different ways? Since I had to catch the train from Maastrich to Brussels, I lost 30 mins and another 30 waiting for the train to Brussels Central.

Arriving at Central I just couldn’t spot the tram station and ended up losing my way miserably. After calling up the hotel a few times, asking for directions, via the metro and then a tram, I finally ended up at the hotel at 5 pm. Turned out that the hotel was a hole in the wall and the room barely enough for 1 person.

I had to get myself a beer for all the hard work. I started the evening with a Leffe. Took a tram to the Grand palace, had a lovely dinner of mussels & fries along with a pint of Maes beer. I then wandered to the famous Mannekin Pis and then ended up sitting in one of the cafes nursing an amazing pint of Chimay.

Trivia around Germany

I was amused to find some really interesting stuff during my short stay

2 way escalator
I saw this at the station I was boarding from called Josephburg. It had a 2 way escalator. It helps that there are hardly any people around but its a huge space saver. It would be disastrous to have it anywhere in India.

Connection metro trains
This one is pretty cool. There are a few guaranteed connections on the underground metro. Basically if you are on the one that’s coming in, then you have another train waiting for you on the other side of the platform. Though its just 2 minutes but the co-ordination is what’s amazing

Jet spray in the loos
The hotel we stayed had jet sprays in the loo. I’ve got frustrated with no options during our last 2 Europe trip. So it was a great relief.

Encouraging group travel
The Metro offers a huge discount for group travel. Euro 5.20 for one person and Euro 9.40 for 5 people. No wonder everyone takes the public transport.

Exit
Different word for exit for people -Ausgang and different for vehicles – Ausfahrt

Driving on the Autobahn

When PJ suggested I drop my Munich Brussels flight and drive back with him instead, I was more than glad. I wasn’t going to pass an opportunity to get on the Autobahn.

For the fact that there are no speed limits in some patches on the Autobahn, the traffic is still quite disciplined. We touched a max of 160 and while we were just about feeling good, a red ferrari zoomed us by in a microsecond making us look like a bullock cart The thrill of seeing cars zip past slowly waned off and I actually fell asleep for a few patches while PJ drove on.

The facilities for drivers to pullover and take a break are quite amazing. Along with clean toilets, there are also benches where they can grab a bite and shaded areas where they can catch a nap. The petrol stations are usually attached with a full fledged restaurant. We caught an excellent bite at one of these. (Chicken fillet with mushroom sauce for me and penne for PJ) Another station we stopped by we had an amazing pastry with coffee.

Long distance driving is a thing of joy in Europe and in Germany its even better since you get to really floor the pedals while enjoying the drive. Must do a long road trip in Europe sometime

Music at the Oktoberfest

Music seems to bind the crowds at Oktoberfest. Ein Prosit (German for Cheers) is the standard filler along with something that goes Chiki Wiki Chiki Ho Ho Ho. There were a few popular numbers like Hey Jude, Oh Caroline, We are the champions to which the crowds glady joined in Chorus. I was quite surprised when at one of the tents the band belted out a cover version of Gypsy Kings Volare and then followed it up with CCR’s Proud Mary. After a few beers, even the cover versions sound pretty good. Another artist with mass appeal at the Oktoberfest was Robbie Williams. The chorus for ‘Angel’ was probably the loudest I heard in any of the tents.

Without music the tents are a totally different experience and totally not recommended

Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest in 2 words would be Beer & Chaos.

It is as much as a tradition for the Bavarian folks as much as it is a tourist attraction. Locals throng the place in typical bavarian costumes and its quite akin to a local carnival with locals in their finery all out to have fun. We wandered around the place and decided to queue up outside the Hofbrau tent. Begging & pleading got us inside the beer garden after nearly 30 mins and we had to wait for another 20 mins before we managed to squeeze inside the main tent thanks to some confusion at the other entrance. Once in we had to plead with the waitress to serve us beers (they only come in 1 liter mugs) which she gladly agreed to for a tip. Along with the tip we ended up forking out 10 euros for a liter. We spent 4 hours standing on the sides of the reserved spaces, enjoying the music (which was mostly good barring a female rendition of Summer of 69). We made friends with folks from London, helped them get a few beers, ate the much hyped pretzel and downed 2.5 liters of beer each. It was great fun and though getting back was a breeze the next days hangover was terrible.

For the folks working at Oktoberfest (which are mostly women) it is really a lot of hard work. You will spot women carrying 6 and sometimes even 8 mugs of beer, large trays laden with food and whistling their way for people to make space for them. They also manage to clear 12 to 14 mugs at one shot and with the numerous orders flowing in they are always on their toes. Its no wonder the they get tipped very generously. And the most impressive thing about these women is that they seem to really enjoy their work due to which they are always cheerful.

Surprisingly the next day (Sunday) was relatively less crowded as we strolled in at about 6 pm. We got easy entry into a few tents since there wasn’t much action inspite of the fact that they were quite crowded. We landed at Pschorrbrau tent where we found it difficult to get in so that got us even more determined to go in. After 3-4 failed attempts one security guard agreed to let us in only after demanding a small bribe. The place was buzzing and there was a lot of love in the air with gays (mostly men) all over the place. We ordered a beer each and hung around for a while. An hour later, done with the beer, we decided to try out another tent.

We decided to give the Lowenbrau tent a shot since it had the grandest entry. We were lucky to get a table and managed to squeeze in pretty easily. We ordered 2 beers and also were pleasantly surprised to know that we could even order food (the rule at Oktoberfest is that no table, no food). I ordered stuffed veal with sauerkraut and PJ ordered what looked like steamed fries with sauerkraut. We sang & danced till the music stopped, made friends with a local and walked out of the tent with the one liter beer mug as a souvenir. Our return journey was quite uneventful but awfully cold. The proper sit down dinner made all the difference since there was no hangover the morning after, thankfully!

With 2 nights at Oktoberfest it was quite an eventful weekend and we drove out with memories which should last a lifetime

Munich

If you are arriving into Europe from India, you’ll always arrive devoid of sleep.

I was surprised with the 5 deg temperature at Munich. I was totally unprepared. But thanks to the excellent connectivity to the S Bahn from the airport, I was back indoors in no time.

One interesting thing I observed (I had read about it earlier) is the etched fly in the urinals in the mens toilet. Apparently it has helped keeping the floors clean. Quite amazing isn’ it?

There isn’t much tourist info at the airport but the signage (as usual) guides you to the right direction. I changed to the U Bahn (underground metro) at the Central station and arrived at Josephburg in about 45 mins. The neighbourhood reminded me of Bracciano (Italy). Its so quiet that you can actually hear the silence.

After a nice breakfast and a short 2 hour nap I headed to Oktoberfest. More on that later