Leuven - Friday

'See you at 10am' we agreed as Simon got out of the lift on the third floor and I continued to the sixth floor of Leuven's Ibis Budget Hotel, after walking back from Cafe PaRaDoX in the early hours.

At 10am on Friday 23 March 2018, Simon had not appeared so I sat in the hotel's foyer reading about Belgian breweries in my 2002 edition of CAMRA's Good Beer Guide to Belgium & Holland by Tim Webb. Simon never changes his watch from UK time so perhaps he would appear at 11am local time?
At 11.15am it was time to set off on my own and let Simon catch up later!

It is possible to visit the Stella Artois (AB InBev) brewery in Leuven but a photo of a delivery lorry in Bondgenotenlaan would suffice on this visit. Further along the road, beyond the statue of Justus Lipsius, a variety of market stalls were trading. Freshly griddled waffles (3 for 1.50 euro) were warm and very sweet.

At Monseigneur Ladeuzeplein there is a good view of the Leuven University Library and Tower.

My route to STUK was via Herbert Hooverplein and Sint-Donatus Park with remains of the original inner city walls from the 12th century.

STUK, Naamsestraat 96, 'a house for Dance, Image and Sound' includes a public cafe on the ground floor. STUKcafe is spacious with high windows on two sides and a mirror behind the bar. Although a good selection of beers was available, a coffee was my preference. By now Simon had responded to my text messages and would soon arrive after taking a direct route from the hotel.

A short walk led us to the Groot Begijnhof. This well preserved, traffic-free, beguinage dates from the early 13th century.

Simon had visited before and suggested a slow tour of the cobbled streets to appreciate the peaceful setting, now mainly occupied by university academics.

We crossed the southern part of Leuven's ring road using a pedestrian / cyclist underpass, featuring some colourful street art, just west of the river Dijle.

We had lunch and beers at De Spuye, Tervuursevest 101, overlooking the river.

The furniture had a solid, industrial, feel about it and the red theme is related to the colour of the tiles around the fireplace.

Music, played through decent loudspeakers, included tracks by Keane and The Knack.

There was a short tap list here so it was an opportunity for me to drink a bottle of Orval Trappist Ale served in the correct glass.

Simon chatted with the barman and discovered that his draft blond 6% ABV Job by Biercentrum Delvaux / Brouwerij De Kroon was brewed in Neerijse, about 10 km south of Leuven, by the 'beer professor' Freddy Delvaux. A Belgium Beer Tourism blog post mentions that Freddy Delvaux and his son Filip are experts on yeast and fermentation.

From here we took the underpass back towards the beguinage and then walked in a clockwise direction to reach the Botanic Gardens.

It was good to see how tidy the gardens were and that we could warm up by having a look inside the temperate and tropical greenhouses which housed a pond with terrapins. Free entrance.

Continuing clockwise we headed to the Klein Begijnhof / small beguinage near Saint Gertrude's Abbey and Church, north of the city centre.

We crossed the river Dijle and headed for De Blauwe Kater, Mechelsestraat 51, which opened in its new location, facing the Vismarkt (Fishmarket), on 16 March 2018. Simon remembers visiting the bar, famous for its jazz and blues nights, in its previous location (Hallengang 1).

The interior is spacious and we took advantage of an empty table on the first floor, with a low balcony, overlooking the ground floor.

Old posters have been pasted on some areas of the wall and a blackboard gives the name of the band that will be playing on the next Monday night free gig. De Blauwe Kater has a list of over 100 beers and we resolved to return here on another day.

Before heading back to the hotel we stopped at Rector de Sommerplein to listen to some music at a 'Jamming with Fonske' gig, part of Leuven Jazz festival. The dates for the next festival have been set as 15-24 March 2019.

This area, near St Peter's and the Grote Markt, with steps and a road underpass is also the location for the statue nicknamed Fonske. An off duty tourist guide kindly explained to us that the Fons Sapientiae (Latin for 'fount of wisdom') statue was a gift from the university to the city. There was no water when we visited but it should be a fountain with water running from the glass he holds into his head representing a flow of knowledge as he reads.

Leuven - Thursday night

Diestsestraat pedestrian street led Simon & me directly from Leuven station to De Fiere Margriet, Margarethaplein 11, in the shadow of St Peter's church, a distance of about 1km.

 We had arrived earlier in Leuven on Thursday 22 March 2018 on an Inter City train from Brussels Midi (fare 5.50 euro) after transferring from a Eurostar train from London St Pancras International.

Our table near the window gave good views of the bar and staircase to first floor. This is a bar full of character but with a limited choice of draft beers.

Opting for a bottled beer from the extensive beer menu, my first choice of a beer from local brewery Hof ten Dormaal was unavailable. (We would make up for this by visiting the brewery's taproom on Saturday.)

Remembered from my last Belgian trip, a beer by The Musketeers Brewery, the strong and flavourful Troubadour Magma was a splendid second choice. A variety of music from 1967 was playing during our visit including: Moody Blues 'Nights in White Satin'; The Archies 'Sugar Sugar' and Tom Jones 'Green, green grass of home'.

Leuven's Grote Markt (St Peter's on right)

It was twilight when we emerged and set off for a wander around to get our bearings and succeeded in losing them but did pass an interesting statue en route.

 This depicts Pieter de Somer, the first lay Rector of Leuven University (1966), a biologist and founder of the Rega Institute.

Simon was relieved when we finally reached a decent bar - Metafoor.at Parijsstraat 34.

A good selection of draft beers included Boon Kriek reasonably priced at 3.20 euro per glass. With good music like the Rolling Stones 'Sympathy for the Devil' and Carly Simon's 'You're so vain' playing, this would be a bar to return to (on Saturday). We noticed that customers could bring in takeaway food and eat it in the bar as no food was served.

With appetites aroused we headed to Ah! Quy, a Vietnamese cafe for a cheap meal.

Afterwards, Simon was keen to visit The Capital, a bar remembered from a previous visit. Inside it was busy but we found a table near the entrance. The background sounds here were mainly from conversations as no music was playing.

My first beer here was Luvanium Blond brewed by Brouwhuys De Vaart whose brewery is actually closer to Mechelen than to Leuven. However, with this brand name the beer is widely available in Leuven, which has a huge student population.

Simon and Tim at The Capital, Leuven

We took each other's photos (spliced together above). When I advised Simon that the stone wall was actually wallpaper rather than a genuine finish he was disappointed by his own misapprehension.

We made a small dent in the impressive beer menu which ran to many pages.

The draft tap list was also impressive including Troubadour Magma and Kasteel Rouge, one of Simon's favourites.

Many of the bottled beers are stored on wooden shelves in the cellar which is visible through glass floor panels.

My favourite beer of the night came in a bottle - Hop-a-Billy, a 6% ABV hoppy saison brewed by 't Hofbrouwerijke of Beerzel, between Leuven and Antwerp.

Jack's Precious IPA from the Belgian Legends series of The Musketeers Brewery was another good beer from the list of bottles. 

On leaving, we walked back to Leuven station, passing underneath and continuing on to Cafe PaRaDoX, a sports bar in Kessel-Lo celebrating its 10th anniversary.

Although dimly lit we were still able to read the special beers list. The Gouden Carolus Tripel was the obvious choice for me to finish up with on my first night in Leuven while Golden Earring's 'Radar Love' (1973) played in the background.

Social Oxford Saturday

It was an honour to be invited by Martin to join an Oxford pub crawl on Saturday 24 February, 2018 which would include pubs on the map below.

Martin a.k.a. NHS_Martin on Twitter regularly updates his retiredmartin (Travel, Pubs, Music) blog with posts about his visits to pubs in connection with his mission to visit every pub listed in CAMRA's Good Beer Guide. Martin's posts always include a catchy title eg 'Tottering with Tim Thomas to the Turf Tavern'- an inspiration for the title of this post. If only I could adopt Martin's admirable ability of posting in a timely fashion instead of waiting until many relevant details have escaped my memory.

I arrived at Oxford station by train at 11.20am on a cold and bright morning. Heading towards town I noticed that Oxford has been colonised by colourful fleets of bicycles since my last visit. An encounter with perforated tyres, a feature of Pony Bikes, called for a photograph.

Walking down Lower Fisher Row and Paradise Street beside the Castle Mill Stream, an ivy covered Saxon St George's Tower, a remaining part of Oxford Castle, also deserved a photo.

My destination was the Swan & Castle, a contemporary Wetherspoon pub opposite the new Westgate shopping centre and beside an access route to Oxford Castle Quarter.
Friends have told me that a Wetherspoon breakfast is the best way to start a pub crawl but today was the first time I graduated from a bacon roll to a full breakfast. Complemented with a 'bottomless' cup of coffee, my brunch cost less than £5.
I was already on my second Flat White when Martin and Christine (aka Mrs RM) arrived to join me for coffee.
We walked to the Victorian era St Aldate's Tavern via Bonn Square and past Oxford Town Hall, the venue for CAMRA's Oxford Beer and Cider Festival in October.

Cheers to Martin for my first beer of the day, a half of Wild Weather Ales Pirate Captain 6.5% ABV Jester IPA. As the narrow bar area downstairs was full we headed upstairs to 'The Blue Room' where Winter Olympic coverage was on the flat screen TV prior to the Six Nations Rugby.
We made ourselves comfortable and were soon joined by the rest of our erudite companions - Peter  (Twitter's Pub Curmudgeon) whose The Pub Curmudgeon blog includes a link to the Beer and Pubs Forum. Other contributors to the Forum who joined us were Paul Mudge, Jon Benger, Michael a.k.a Citra and Oxford resident, Tim Hampson. A photo of the group appears later in this post.

As editor, this was my proud opportunity to hand out copies of the winter issue of Ullage - the West Berkshire CAMRA magazine, which includes a regular Curmudgeon column by Peter. I was also able to give Peter a proof copy of his column in the Spring issue. Martin promised not to set fire to his copy after an incident when a pub's candle had this effect on a previous issue. Martin confessed to this atrocity with a photo as evidence in a blog post!
See Martin's post about our visit to St Aldate's Tavern for more details of Saturday's visit.

The Chequers

It was now time for the short walk to the reclusive and historic Chequers which is entered from a courtyard approached from a narrow alley at 131 High Street. Once again we had Christine to thank for finding a big enough space for us all to congregate on an upper level.

In debt to Martin, it was my turn to buy the drinks but confusion arose when I asked for the beer to be topped up and was told it was not the Skinner's Porthleven Pale Ale that I had ordered. After a dash to locate my beer, which Martin had taken and was about to drink, I returned to the bar and authorised a top up of Pedigree IPA which was the beer Martin had ordered. Of course, the full pint did not survive being carried up the stairs but a napkin was found to dry the outside of the wet glass and we were both reunited with our respective pints. Porthleven is a beer that I will look out for again. Thanks go to Martin for spotting the 20% discount, for CAMRA members available at this Nicholson's pub, in time. The main group ordered lunch here but after my brunch I only needed a pint. See Martin's blog post for more photos of the Chequers and its courtyard.

While Martin & Christine later headed to the Covered Market for their lunch, I headed back to the mock-Tudor style Castle pub, near the Westgate shopping centre, which is Hook Norton's first pub in the city.

The bar front, made from old Hook Norton beer crates, was my favourite decorative feature here.

A lower room had a TV for the Six Nations rugby match. The raised level of the main room with steps up to the corner entrance is an unusual feature. My half of Oakham Inferno guest ale had the right flavour but was not as cool as hoped for. Martin and Christine would soon join me here. See Martin's blog post for photos of the Covered Market and the Castle. On our departure, while Christine made a detour to visit Uniqlo, Martin and I took a circuitous route to the tucked away and historic Turf Tavern, which is overlooked by the Bell Tower of New College.

Martin's blog post (with my name in the title!) includes interesting photos taken en route.
There was a limited choice of beers at this Greene King pub and my choice was the indelicately named Daleside Old Legover.
We were able to rejoin the main group at a good sized table near a window in the busy pub.

Paul produced a bag of badges dating back to a 1981 campaign to save the Burton Unions. Paul handed them out and this seemed to be an ideal time to get a partial group photo as this would be my last beer with them.

L to R: Paul Mudge, Jon Benger, Peter (Pub Curmudgeon), Michael (Citra) and Tim Hampson.

Our group would walk to the nearby King's Arms, a Young's pub covered in scaffolding. This is where I shook hands with the stalwart group and said farewell.
See also Pub Curmudgeon's blog post on this Oxford Day Out.

My second ambition for this trip was to visit Tap Social Movement on Curtis Industrial Estate near the A34. With a tagline 'Criminally Good Beer' an unusual feature of this brewery is its focus on social justice. The brewery provides training courses for people serving prison sentences, o ffering courses in brewing and business start-up, and providing one-on-one support in securing permanent employment to assist in e ffective rehabilitation.

The S1 gold bus heading west towards Witney / Carterton from George Street stops nearby.

The Taproom is open between 4pm and 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays.

An award certificate shows that Goodsize Eh was Runner-up in the 2017 Oxfordshire Beer of the Festival Competition. All the beers are served on keg here and this would be my first half pint

The spacious taproom is decorated with various artworks.

My favourite decorative feature was Hugh Pryor's bottle chandelier suspended from a BMX wheel.

Some good music was being played on the sound system. I liked hearing the lively latin sound of Moliendo Café by Fanfare Ciocãrlia and the jazzy sound of Elijah's Remedy by TRI-Force.
The second half pint I enjoyed here was Hops off the Press a 5.1% ABV American style IPA with tropical flavours.

Waiting for the bus back to Oxford station as the sun set

This had started out as a social day meeting fellow beer and pub enthusiasts and ending up at Tap Social Movement. I look forward to the opportunity to do both of these things again!