Haggerty In The Hague

Update: See the whole album here!

After a great time seeing Buffett in Paris, it was time for our first Oktoberfest experience.  A friend at work, Matt, is German and graciously set us (and a group of about 30 others) up with tickets to the tents and hotel reservations.  We left Paris by taking a flight from Charles De Gaulle airport to Munich.  Upon arrival in Munich, we decided to go check out the city before heading down to our hotel.  After figuring out the metro system, we went to the center and walked around town.

A nice park in Munich

We got close to the Englisch Gardens, but never quite made it there.  A friend was there the day before, and got some pictures of people surfing the river that flows through it - pretty cool!

Surfing in the Englisch Gardens, Munich

After our tour around the city, it was time for some beer and German food, so we headed to the famous landmark - the Hofbräuhaus.  This restaurant / beer hall had a great atmosphere, with a full 6-7 person traditional band, picnic table style seating, and delicious food and drink.  We got our first liters beers and pretzels of the trip.

Beer and pretzels at the Hofbrauhaus

Liters of beer

The next day a small group of us took a trek to the Kloster Andechs, an abbey on the western edge of Munich that brews fantastic beer.  After an hour metro ride, we had to hike for about an hour in the woods uphill to reach this place.  Fortunately, it was a beautiful day, so the hike uphill was a welcomed excuse to be outside.  The abbey itself was beautiful from the outside, and although we never thought to go inside, we found out later that it’s even better from the inside.

Andechs Abbey from the outside

The abbey also had a large deck area for hikers - a perfect place for a few beers and some food.  We purchased some excellent haxen (pig’s feet), potato salad, and beers and sat down to enjoy the view.

View from the Andechs Abbey

After spending a few hours relaxing, it was time to head back and buy some Lederhosen and a dirndl before heading out to the tents that night.

Bill's lederhosen

The first night, we went to the Hacker tent, and met up with our British friend Rob and a bunch of his British friends.  They had been at tables outside the tent for about 5 hours by the time we met up with them (and it showed), but they were nice enough to share their limited seating with us.  We hung out with these guys for a while, until we decided to venture into the tent.  Great night overall.

Prost! (Cheers!) A toast with the Brits

Inside of the Hacker tent

This chicken was a bit salty, but delicious

The next day we had to get an early start for the next tent reservation at noon.  Unlike the previous night, this time we were able to fit all 30 of us together at adjacent tables in the Hippodrome tent.  The group made it there on time and started the fun all over again.

The tent on day #2 - Hippodrome

We started off with some traditional Bavarian appetizers placed at the table.  This food was delicious, although I was a little startled when I learned that one of the “spreads” was lard…

The Bavarian spread awaiting our tables

The live band was right in front of us, and each member chugged a full liter of beer before they played a note.  Never seen that before, but it definitely set the mood for the rest of the day.

Simmisamma band, die Oktoberfestband!

It was great day all around, and we all enjoyed each others company and the music/entertainment that the band provided.  I’ll definitely be coming back next year…

The waitresses can carry lots of beers!

See below for a video of the song “Ein Schoner Tag”, which means “A beautiful day”.  This song was a fantastic sing-a-long song and by the end of the day, the entire audience was doing the hand motions that go with the chorus.

Fall, Germany, Travel

We decided to start off our Oktoberfest holiday with a Jimmy Buffett concert in Paris.  We took the train down to Paris on Saturday morning which got us in by 12.  After grabbing a bite we toured around one of our favorite areas - Montmartre.  Next we went around to gather materials for our tailgate - French wine, bread, sausage, and cheese.  Then we met up with Bill, Maura, and Sara to start the tailgate.  We first started at the Chat Noir with Jeff and Sara.

Pre-gaming at the Chat Noir

Next we met up with Bill and Maura.

Bill and Maura!

All of us together at the show.  We were 30 feet away from stage and the venue only had 1000 people in it.

The group at La Cigale

The concert was great.  Of course “Fins” was played.

Fins up!

We were really close up!

Signing autographs

We saw this guy throughout the show, so I had to talk with him afterwards.

The ultimate Buffett fan

Walking from the show.

Moulin Rouge

Next up - Oktoberfest.  The next post is coming soon!

Fall, France, Paris, Travel

Brussels Beer Festival

The first weekend in September, Brussels held there annual Beer Festival where beer vendors take over the Grand Place for 3 days of beer drinking and festivities.  I left the Hague on Friday afternoon and met Matt (who was in Brussels for work) to attend and I must say, it was a very fun weekend.  We spent Friday afternoon touring around Brussels as neither of us had been there.  We ventured into chocolate shops, saw the Mannequin Pis (Brussels famous statue), and of course had some Belgium waffles and moules frites (mussels and fries) - delicious!

Everything referenced the Mannequin Pis

Friday night we went to the Delirium Bar-  they had 2004 bottled beers and hold the world record for the most beers at a bar!  It was a very cool bar-  and we got to try some beers that I’m not sure I will get anywhere else!

Delirium Bar

Saturday we went directly to the beer festival to try the hundreds of beers that were available. We were joined by several of our friends and co-workers and we spend almost 6 or 7 hours at the festival trying all types of beers.  You paid for the beers with these coins they gave you (1 coin = 1 euro) and none of the beers we tried were over 4 coins!

Matt and I with our first beers!

That night we continued the festivities with a great dinner on the water and then went to bars.   We went to this one awesome bar that we found in the NY Times article on Brussels.  It was called Goupil le Fol which was a 3 story bar that used to be a former brothel.  There were old records over all of the walls and they had old French music playing on the jukebox.  We really enjoyed it and stayed there for a few hours before heading back to the Delirium Bar for one last beer.

At Goupil le Fol

The next day was our last in Brussels and we went back to the beer festival for one last time.  Sunday we were able to try the Westvleteren Abbey beer.  This beer is not sold commercially, and to get it at the abbey you have to call between certain hours of the day and give your name and license plate number (so they know you are not a vendor) in order to get 1 case.  It has been named the best beer in the world and was incredibly good- and we only paid 4 euros for a glass!!  It sold out very quickly at the festival so we were lucky to get a glass-  and it was a great way to end a great weekend!  If you’d like to see more pics, be sure to check out our Picasa Album!

They had hops surrounding the fence around the festival :)

Beer, Belgium, Fall

The town of Hvar

Back in August right before I started work, we ventured to the beautiful country of Croatia for 3 nights in Hvar and 1 night in Zagreb to see U2 in conert.  We arrived in Zagreb by plane and had to get down to Split in order to catch a ferry to the island of Hvar.  We decided the easiest way would be to take a bus - although we were VERY pressed for time as the last ferry to the island of Hvar left at 8:30pm.  We left Zagreb by bus around 3pm (first one we could get).  The bus ride was very nice and we got to see the beautiful countryside along the way.  I really didn’t know what to expect about Croatia, but I certainly did not expect it to be as gorgeous as it was.  Everyone on the bus was very helpful too, as they knew we would be cutting it extremely close to make the ferry.

We arrived in Zagreb at 8:25-  Matt ran to get ferry tickets and I got our bags and made our ferry with 1 minute to go- PHEW!  The ferry took about 2 hours and we arrived in Hvar exhausted from a long day of travelling.

View from our apartment

In Hvar we stayed in an apartment with our friends Chris, Katie, and Eric.  We had great views of the beach and spent the next couple of days relaxing and enjoying the Hvar sights.  The beaches were very rocky so it was different from what I was used to but still great.  The second day we were there we rented a small motorboat and went to some of the surrounding islands.  This was fantastic and we found some really neat bars on some of the islands.

Matt on the beach

Lindsey on the beach

We were very sad to leave Hvar as it was such a nice change from our other vacations- instead of running around sightseeing, we actually got to kick back and do nothing!  But we had a U2 concert to get to so off we went to Zagreb after our 3rd day in Croatia.  We took the ferry back from the town of Hvar to Split around 8am, and then caught a train to Zagreb (so we travelled by air, ferry, boat, train, bus, and car while we were there!).  The train was sketchy to say the least  The trains all shared one track and there was a man with a flag telling the train conductor whether or not he could go-  what if the flag guy wasn’t there??!!  We tried not to think about that!

Sketch flag guy directing our train

We arrived in Zagreb around 5pm and got ready to go to the U2 concert.  We saw lots of people tailgating although we arrived to late to do that.  The Croatians know how to tailgate well-  there were people grilling and selling ears of corn everywhere - something you cannot get in the Hague very easily!  We got into the concert just as Snow Patrol was finishing up (who were really good as well) and then the show started.  The U2 concert was absolutely amazing-  the money spent on the set was sinful but it really made the concert spectacular.  If you ever get a chance to go to a U2 show I would highly recommend it.  They played lots of songs from their new album but played plenty of their old songs as well.  So glad we went!

U2 concert!

The day after the concert we were flying back to the Hague, but Matt and I were able to do a bit of sightseeing in Zagreb as well.  We saw a bunch of very nice parks, churches, and even came across a market where we bought a lunch of bread, fresh olives, fresh goat cheese, and meat.

A church in Zagreb

This is how they weighed the olives we bought

We were sad to have to leave this country (and I was sad to have to start work!), but we had a great time!  If you want to see more pictures from our trip be sure to check out our Picasa album!

Croatia, Summer, Travel

So we know we’ve been delinquent on posting blogs so we are going to get caught up!  In the next couple of weeks you will see posts on our Croatia trip, Brussels Beer Festival, Oktoberfest, and the Ahr Valley.  Stay tuned

HITH