Berlin 2018 - Sunday 5 August

By bus and S-bahn to Berlin Hauptbahnhof, which opened in 2006. The S-bahn platforms are on the upper level and trains also depart from an underground level.

Haus der Kulturen der Welt

A walk via the footbridge over the river Spree and then east along the river banks, busy with passenger boats, to the riverside courtyard of the Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW). The theme for this year's summer music concert series 'Wassermusik' is 'Goodbye UK - And thanks for the Music' a #Brexit reference. Acts booked for the festival include Matthew Herbert's Brexit Big Band, The Zombies and Mexrrissey.

Inside a colourful Britlin's exhibition includes satirical urban plans based on 1970's holiday camps.Britlin's is a project by artist and graphic designer Scott King.

 

BRLO Brwhouse

Bus 100 from John-Foster-Dulles-Allee across Tiergarten and then U-bahn U1 from Nollendorfplatz to Gleisdreieck brought me to an overground platform with a view of BRLO brwhouse.

An A-board just inside the brewhouse entrance illustrates the brewing process.

Arriving before Mark and the main group, I ordered a large wheat beer (Weizen My Ass hefeweizen 50cl 5 euros) and found a table in the beer garden. Hops are trained up wooden poles that support the mesh covering which provided some shade from the bright sun.

The tables and benches have been crafted from solid planks of wood and painted mainly in black with some white details. Some additional seating has been constructed from wooden pallets. A container has been converted into an ice cream sales point and there is a play space for children.

When Mark and the group arrived I was surprised that they preferred to stay inside where I joined them on one of the long tables in a raised area. The black painted walls draw attention to the shiny stainless steel brewing vessels visible through a window behind the bar.

The Brlo tasting board with cheese (5 x 15cl glasses) for 14.50 euros looked tempting.
Mark's group had ordered meals and when these were served the quantities were too large for some. This was economical for me and minimised waste as I could finish off half a delicious Chef's sandwich for half the full 7 euros price.

Before leaving we had a chat with Grace who agreed to pose with a copy of Ullage, the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine.Originally from Ottawa, Grace explained that BRLO takes its name from the old Czech name for Berlin which means swamp land. Grace was impressed with Mark's choice of places to visit during our group visit to Berlin.

A visit to the upstairs toilets before leaving revealed an amusing neon motto.

With its range of quality beer and food and its convenient location, just a few paces from Gleisdreieck U-bahn station, BRLO Brwhouse should be on the itinerary of any beer loving visitor to Berlin.

 

Hops & Barley

We took the U1 line to the eastern terminus at Warschauer Strasse and then tram enthusiasts took the M13 tram to Wühlischstr./Gärtnerstr, the stop opposite Hops & Barley, Wühlischstrasse 22/23, while others walked the short distance to the Friedrichshain brewpub.

The pavement tables, on the sunny side of the street, were occupied so we would find a table inside.

A blackboard behind the bar listed the beers available.

My first beer was Mandarina Hell from the Spezial section of the board - 0.3l for 3.20 euro.

Our round table in the back of the pub was cooled by a breeze from an open window.

Lighting was provided by 8 bulbs from a chandelier style fitting that may date back to DDR days?

The main brewery vessels can be viewed through a rectangular window from the room to the left of the bar.

A further small brewplant is also sited to the right of the bar. The ceramic tiles are a clue that the premises was formerly a butcher's shop. Hops & Barley was established here in 2008.
My favourite beer at Hops & Barley was a Berlin Beer Week special - India Pale Lager (0.3l / 3.50 euros).

 

Berlin Biermeile

On the third and final day of the 22nd International Berlin Beer Festival, only five of us wanted to revisit the Berlin Biermeile on Karl-Marx-Allee.

I enjoyed a draught Edelstoff by Augustiner-Bräu München, from a stand where the barmaids wore Bavarian costumes.

There are plenty of places to find street food at the festival and we got grilled sausages from a stand. There were fewer people around than on previous evenings and no queues or lack of seating.

Mark (L) poised to decant his beer from a Spandau glass.
David (R) ready to get a refund on his Spandau glass!

At the Brauhaus in Spandau stand, which offered cheaper beers than at most stands, we each saved 0.50 euro on the standard price of 2.50 euro by not presenting our 0.2 litre festival glasses. Instead we ordered a 0.2 litre glass and paid the 2 euro deposit, only to decant the beer into our festival glasses and return the branded glass for a quick refund of the deposit!

Another beer sampled was draught Pit Bull IPA by Zloty Pies from Wroclaw, Poland.

At 9pm the sky in the west towards the Fernsehturm Berlin looked pretty! We would soon be heading in that direction for my final beers of the day.

We caught the U-bahn (U5) from Weberwiese to Alexanderplatz then U2 to Klosterstraße, a mniutes walk from Zur Letzten Instanz.

 

Zur Letzten Instanz

Arriving late on a Sunday evening, the door was open but the historic bar was empty inside except for Greg behind the bar.

Stammtisch, Zur Letzten Instanz - L to R: Dave, Mark, Bod & Graham

Greg kindly showed us into a far room and invited us to sit at the Stammtisch.with its elaborate brass sign in the centre of the table.

My final beer of the day was a draught Berline Kindl Zwickel by Berliner-Kindl-Schultheiss-Brauerei.

The decor inside the bar includes some old drinking vessels and enamel signs.

The signs for the toilet doors at Zur Letzten Instanz were also decorative!
It was now after 11pm and time for me to head back to my hostel in Grunewald and say goodbye to Mark and the group. They would travel by train to Bamberg on Monday while I stayed on in Berlin.

Berlin 2018 - Monday 6 August

Mark and the 'Farnham Travel' group caught a train to Bamberg on Monday leaving me with a full day to plan for myself.

Corbusierhaus Berlin

In the morning I visited Corbusierhaus Berlin near S-Bahn Olympiastadion and the Olympic Stadium site. Le Corbusier was invited by the city of Berlin to build an example of his 'Unite d'Habitation' concept in 1957, five years after the first one had been built in Marseille.

Route (yellow) from Flatowallee bus stop to U-bahn

With European Athletic Championships starting at the Olympic Stadium it was possible to walk outside the perimeter hedge of the stadium from the southern entrance to the east entrance.

Eastern gate - Olympic Stadium

The sunken stadium, built for the 1936 Olympic Games, has its lower part 12 metres below ground level.

After viewing these impressive buildings, I took the U-bahn (U2) directly to Sophie-Charlotte-Platz station which has preserved seats and decorative features.
Taking the Suarezstrasse exit led to the street renowned for its antique shops and the opportunity to view some interesting window displays. Posters advertised the 17th Antikmeile festival held there on the first Saturday each September.

A little to the west is Lietzensee Park and I stopped for a coffee at Bootshaus Stella am Lietzensee at an outside table on a deck overlooking the lake.
A rest at the hostel would follow a bus ride from Stuttgarter Platz near Charlottenburg S-Bahn station.

Spinnrad

Later, the M29 and 186 buses took me from Herthastrasse to a stop opposite Spinnrad, Wiesbadener Strasse 16.

Cafe Frau Maus

Walking down the tree lined street of Rheingaustrasse, I stopped to take a photo of Cafe Frau Maus.

At 7pm I arrived at my nearby destination - Foersters Feine Biere, facing a green space with benches. This lies on the northern boundary of the Steglitz neighbourhood.

Joe Stange had kindly recommended Foersters to me on Friday as one of the few good beer bars reasonably close to my hostel in the east of the Grunewald district.

Although it was a Monday, most of the outside tables were occupied. After ordering my beer I would take a seat on a keg with a red cushion on top at a round table near the entrance.

The Fränkischer wheat beer (Aischgründer Karpfen-Weisse by Zum Löwenbräu of Adelsdorf) was especially refreshing as the first beer of the day! This was one of the changing draught beers listed on the blackboard outside - 0.5l 4.90 euros - and was served in a tall glass.

There was time to look through the beer list but I chose the second beer from the blackboard as my next - Bock from Brauerei Keesmann of Bamberg. Although I couldn't be with Mark in Bamberg this evening, at least I could drink beer from Bamberg in a stemmed glass!
Bottled beers selected by sommelier Sven Foerster include Lemke 030 & Berliner Beirfabrik Schabrackentebier (pale ale) and Lemke Spree Coast IPA & Labieratorium Paranoid (IPA).
The snack menu included items like bread with cheese or salami served with gherkin and tomato for 4.90 euros but I decided to have one more beer here and eat at nearby Cafe Frau Maus.

From Brauerei Kundmüller, in the Bamberg area, I picked Weiherer Keller (0.25l 2.50 euro) from the regular draught beer list as my final beer. There was no distraction from traffic noise at my outside table but some cigarette smoke did drift across to my seat especially after a couple asked to join my table.

I didn't have a chance to talk to the owners of the bar whose photo appears in the beer menu. This page also mentions the bar opens at 4pm, is closed on Sundays and holidays and does not accept card payments.

Burkhard - Foersters Feine Biere

However, at 9pm, when it was time to pay my bill, I did have a brief chat with Burkhard who had been efficiently serving beers poured at the bar to customers at the tables outside. He explained that the warm weather had brought extra customers to the bar. Burkhard accepted a copy of West Berkshire CAMRA's Ullage magazine to add to the stack of beer books on a shelf near the bar.
I can recommend a visit to Foerster's Feine Biere which was ranked 6th in the 2018 Beer Gastronomy section of Bier, Bars & Brauer a specialist German magazine and website.

The nearest U-bahn station is Walther-Schreiber-Platz (U9).

It was only 150 metres to walk from Foersters to Cafe Frau Maus, Rheingaustrasse 4, in the neighbouring Friedenau district, which I had walked past earlier. Inside, I discovered that the beer mats also feature the distinctive mouse head logo I had noticed on the outside wall of the building.
Again, the outside tables were busy so I took a seat at the bar to order my beer and consult the menu. A useful feature in the dimly lit bar was a lighting strip under the bar edge to illuminate menus etc..

I asked about the entenbratwurst and zucchini item on the handwritten menu of the day and was advised this was duck so ordered this to go with my beer.

Meals are prepared from a kitchen above and behind the bar. The duck sausages on a homemade ratatouille base were delicious!

The beer range here was limited but I enjoyed Flensburger Pilsener from the permanent draught beer range and a smooth Brauhaus Riegele Kellerbier from Augsburg which was the draught beer of the week on the handwritten menu.

A variety of older furniture is used inside the bar. My table had a ridged surface so a beermat was useful. Another interesting feature is a display of decorated china that is used for serving meals.

Before leaving at around 10.30pm I let Dirk know that I would like to take a photo and he hurried to fetch proprietress Sabine Mauszewski to be included. They have now been running the popular local establishment for four years. Cafe Frau Maus is open Wednesday - Monday from 4pm until 11pm.in the summer.

When I left, the compact beer garden was almost empty.
For good value, freshly prepared food and good beer served in a friendly environment, Cafe Frau Maus has been added to my list of places in Berlin to return to.

At this time of night the 186 bus runs less frequently so there was time to visit Spinnrad, near the bus stop, for a final beer. Several tables on the enclosed pavement forecourt were still busy here.

Here, at a cost of 2.50 euros, I enjoyed a glass of Edelweissbier from Allgäuer Brauhaus of Leuterschach in the Allgäu Alps (Bavaria), part of the Radeberger Group.

The bus journey to Richard-Straus-Strasse only takes 10 minutes with little traffic around.

Grunewald Feuerwache

I stopped to take some photos of an unusual disused old building with a half timbered section, on the 1km walk back to the hostel via Wernerstrasse and Grunewald church. Later research showed that the building was designed in 1895 by the architect Franz Ahrens & was Grunewald fire station (Feuerwache).
As on other nights I returned to the hostel a little after midnight to find my room on the top floor still retaining the day's heat.

Antwerp - Thursday 21/6/2018

The Parcel Yard, the Fuller's pub inside Kings Cross station, was the rendezvous for our group before catching a lunchtime train from St Pancras International to Brussels Midi.

Arriving at Brussels later in the day than for previous years we decided to catch the first train to Antwerp.
Andrew, Richard and John got off at Antwerpen-Berchem station, convenient for their hotel (Tryp by Wyndham Antwerp) while Simon and I continued to Antwerpen Centraal where we checked into our rooms at the nearby Ibis Budget hotel.

Our first stop,  on the way to Antwerp's historic centre, was at Cafe Oud Arsenaal, Maria Pijpelincxstraat 4, 'authentic pub since 1929'.

Simon ordered a draught Rodenbach and my choice was a draught Musketeers Troubadour Blond costing 2.60 / 2.90 euros for 33cl respectively.

While enjoying our beers it was interesting to look around this much appreciated bar with the bar counter in one corner and only a few tables to choose from. Brewery signs and old photos adorn the walls and ceiling!

The bar front has contrasting wood layers in a geometric pattern. A brass rail runs around the base of the bar and a selection of bottled beers are displayed on the counter top.

A cat was resting in a raised basket at the back of the pub, underneath the front wheel of a dangling old bicycle. A tall blackboard lists some special bottled beers in 75cl and 37.5cl sizes.

Ian McCallum at Oud Arsenaal

Ian McCallum, a recent Twitter acquantaince, joined us, having flown from Edinburgh to Charleroi and on by train to Antwerp via Brussels today. Ian was looking forward to his first visit to BierPassie Weekend festival tomorrow when his friend from Rotterdam would join him. 

With a name 'Run through a Field of Wheat', echoing Theresa May's self-confessed past misdemeanours, this bottled beer from The Musketeers Brewery bucketlist series (No. 1), caught my attention and proved to be one of my favourites on this visit to Belgium.
We got a text message from the main group that they would meet us in Cafe Kulminator so we said goodbye to Ian and the cafe cat!

We imagined meeting up with Ian again at the festival but it turned out that our times there never coincided with his - perhaps we'll meet again next year! However, it was nice to be able to keep up with Ian's posts and photos on Twitter and find out that he would visit De Koninck Brewery and enjoy 'awesome beers' at Cafe Kulminator.

The venerable Cafe Kulminator, Vleminckveld 32, is only half a mile west of Oud Arsenaal.

We found our group around a round table in the raised rear level of the cafe with a view of the conservatory at the back.

From the list of draught beers (van 't vat) chalked on the Erdinger board, I chose Malheur 6° (4 euros). 

There was time for a (bottle) of 9% ABV Musketeers Troubadour Magma Maris Otter before we left in search of a meal closer to the historic centre.

Thanks to Keith who led us to WoW Wok, Oude Koornmarkt 4, less than a 100 metres from the eastern end of the Cathedral of Our Lady, the highest Gothic building in the Low Countries. 
The simple ordering process involves choosing rice or noodles, chicken or pork and type of sauce. The chef got straight to work and soon our bowls of food were ready. 

We caught the No. 11 tram, a 1.60 euro fare when validating a Lijn Card in a yellow machine mounted at each entrance. We were heading to Dageraadplaats - known by our group as 'Argument Square' from previous visits, notably including one on the day that the EU referendum results were announced in 2016.

On arrival at Dageraadplaats stop we crosed the square to reach Cafe ZeeZicht,
Dageraadplaats 7-8. 

We sat outside for our first beer and I enjoyed a draught Chimay Triple, an authentic Trappist beer
produced by Scourmont Abbey's 'Bières de Chimay' brewery. 

Also known as Chimay White (its bottles have white caps) this is listed for 3.50 euros in the beer menu.

With the temperature falling we moved to some seating on a raised level before ordering our next beer. 

A chalked up seasonal offer above the bar for a bottle of De Ranke Saison de Dottignies caught my eye. When in Belgium I enjoy trying Saisons / Farmhouse Ales although not keen on Lambic or Geueze which are more sour. 

Keith Morore - Homebrewer - Cafe ZeeZicht

It was now well after midnight and although we had been chatting there were no major arguments on this occasion and we made a major decision concerning the next day - Friday's lunchtime rendezvous would be at Café De Smoutpot, Zwijndrecht, on the western side of the river Scheldt. 
Eventually Simon and I would say goodnight to Keith, John, Richard and Andrew before walking back to our hotel, less than a mile away.