We got into London on Monday night. Our hotel was well located, though we had some issues there that I won't go onto here (in the hopes of keeping the exhaustingly boring to a minimum. Despite the fact we were both (by this point) battling raging head colds, we managed to pack a fair amount in while gathering enough rest to stay conscious during the sightseeing. Tuesday was St. Paul's cathedral and a pub visit, Wednesday was the GBBF, Thursday was the National Gallery (great exhibit on detecting fakes and other hidden gems inside old artworks) and a pub visit, Friday was a return visit to the British Museum (which you really need at least a week to visit properly - two if you move slowly through museums on general). The GBBF was the seed for this trip, and was quite fun. If you like real ales, it's worth going to. The second day is a good day to go, as the beers are still fresh, but it's not the madhouse that opening night can be. We had the good fortune of hooking up with friends from the US (Chicago) and the UK (Wantage) there which made the visit all the better. Made some friends, too, natch. Ah, and our pub visit on Tuesday was also quite entertaining, chatting with Owen the beer writer who'd just come from the press event at the GBBF and later Ken the photographer and his brother, who were charming and entertaining. Today we're on the train to Edinburgh, though we're immediately getting a car and driving to Glasgow as our base of operations to see some Scottish countryside while avoiding the madness of the Fringe Festival. On Monday night we'll catch a night train back to London for one last day before flying home on Wednesday. In the intervening days, I expect cool weather, charming countryside, ales, and whiskeys.

Just making note of the beers I sample in the various pubs (and at the Great British Beer Festival) in and around London. I really love the ales I get here in The UK. I get cask ales home when I can, and they're good, but they just don't stand up to what I can get here (depending on the style). As soon as I lift that pint glass to my lips, and I get that first aroma in my nostrils, and the first taste on my tongue, I am transported back to that first pint I had here the fall of '06, where I truly fell in love with it. I need to investigate what it would take to try to recreate some of these flavors and do some genuine cask ales Tuesday, at the Royal Oak (one of our favorite pubs), I enjoyed Harvey's Armada (flavorful, hoppy - happy I tried it), and Tom Paine, Harvey's take on an APA, in cask. Had this last year, and it's as yummy as I remember it. On Wednesday, at the Great British Beer Festival, I had more types than I could count. I remember quite enjoying Adnan Gunhill. Thursday, we found ourselves at the Bree Louise (our other favorite pub), I sampled Brewdog Trashy Blonde (fizzier than I was expecting), and some other beers whose names, alas escape me. I went Friday without a pint - not sure how I managed that. Must be the head cold.

Is the US the only place with air conditioned public transit? Actually, I think I've decided that Europeans (or at least, the places we've been) generally eschew A/C altogether, and are generally more comfortable being warm than I am. Copenhagen's subway looks, acts, and feels like an airport tram. Apparently, Brian Posehn (a comic we really like) is in town, and playing a show tomorrow night. Also, he's staying at our hotel. I think we may have to take in that show.

No Bier circus for us. They're closed on Sunday and Monday, which means my tire adventure prevented me from going to somewhere i wanted to revisit. Dur. Last night, we went to a great little bar across the street from Manneken Pis (a very overrated tourist sight that's a statue of a little boy peeing). It's called Le Poechenellekelder (don't ask me how it's pronounced), and well worth a visit. Today, we visited Cantillon brewery, the last of the authentic Lambic breweries. These guys do it it the old fashioned way, with genuine wild spontaneous fermentation and multi-year fermentation times. But the product they come up with, while certainly an acquired taste is amazing. Following that, we had an aborted trip up to Le Bier Circus, only to discover it's also closed on Mondays, and instead made our way to A La Mort Subite, a place we enjoyed last time. We also had a few drinks at Delirium Tap House to round out the day. Now we sit waiting for our chunnel train to London on the Eurostar. My random summary of our time on the continent: 1: We recommend strongly the Hotel Birger Jarl is Sweden. Also, the Hotel Centrale in Brussels is well situated. The Hotel Sylter Hof in Berlin is fantastic, and the CABINN city in Copenhagen is… well… cheap. 2: The area around Brussels Gare-Midi/Zuidstation is generally to be avoided after dark. 3: If you're ping to rent a sport car to drive across Germany, spring the extra bucks and ensure you get what you want. 4: Sundays and Mondays are both generally 'closed' days. 5: The sun practically never sets in Scandanavia. 6: River/canal cruises are fun. 7: Brussels is a place where even in a tiny cafe, you can usually count on getting a really good beer. (He said as he sipped a Chimay Blue in the train station.) 8: If you've got a deodorant/antiperspirant you really like, bring enough of it with you. You won't find it here. 9: If you rent a car, get a diesel. Petrol costs 7.11 a gallon here right now. That ought to do it. Soon, we'll be in London, ready for the next stage of our adventure. Pics coming soon.

For the first time, we didn't set an alarm. Slept until around 10 AM, and it felt great. Well, it did for me. Yesterday morning Tisha discovered she's come down with a cold, so she's fighting that. I feel so bad for her; coming down with a cold just as we're entering the land of her favorite things -- sour beer and chocolate. (Separate, not mixed. Ew.) A day off our feet did wonders for all four of the feet involved, and walking around the city was pleasant. But there was only a short amount of walking before we had to deal with that rental car, an albatross around our neck. After re-entering that seedy part of town I'd just as soon avoid, and still only finding automated gas stations, I got fed up and decided to return the car to the airport (20 miles away), regardless of how much gas was in the tank. Happily, on the way to the airport, we found a manned station and got the car full of petrol as well. This car was a super-efficient car with this economy mode that did interesting things such as every time I was in neutral with my foot off the clutch and not moving (like at a red light), it would turn off the engine. Then, when I pressed the clutch to go into gear, it would restart. Little things like this are important when gas is over $7 a gallon. The return at the airport was quick and problem-free, and we caught a train back to the city to begin our day. First order of business was breakfast/lunch, which we accomplished at a little cafe just near Grand Place (main square). Following that, we wandered the square, had a beer, and took in the Brewing Museum right on the square. It wasn't anything particular informative to someone who knows how to brew, but it was only €5 and it included a beer. Tisha was still pretty tired, and everything else we want to see isn't open until tomorrow, so I suggested we rest up at the hotel, grab dinner at Bier Circus tonight and call it a day -- we'd been here before and the main reason for coming back was to visit Cantillon Brewery, which we'll do tomorrow, and to catch the Eurostar to London tomorrow night. So there we sit. Tisha's snoring behind me, and I'm enjoying some down time by finally jotting down my recollections of the journey. Tonight, yummy yummy beer.

The next morning we checked out, and made our way to Sixt to pick up our car. We had reserved a BMW 1 Series. A friend had reserved a similar car from them, and when they were out of that he was upgraded to a BMW Z4. While I harbored no hopes of getting a Z4, it would have been cool. Well, they were out of the car I reserved, but what they gave me was a Mercedes B class. "Cool!", I thought. "Mercedes!" Alas. I drove across Germany in the autobahn in a Mom car. Well, it was comfortable. The autobahn was pretty heavily traveled when we were on it, so I only really managed to get the car up to 110 mph a few times -- I really wish I had a sportscar, though. Some beautiful looking rocket sleds were passing us on the road, and it just looked too fun. The German countryside was pleasant and relaxing, we had good driving weather, and only got stuck in one traffic jam due to road construction. We saw a lot more Jesus fish on cars than I expected, in that I expected none. I thought that was a US-only thing, but it we saw about 6 or 7. Upon arrival in Brussels we found our hotel, checked in, and made our plans for the evening. Fill up the car with gas, return it to the rental place at Gare-Midi (south train station) and do dinner at Bier Circus. Finding a gas station proved next to impossible. Well, I mean, we found them, but couldn't use them as they were all automated and wouldn't work on credit cards without PINs. Take note, people, everyone is going that route except the US. Canada began its conversion last year. In our quest to find a gas station that was open around the train station, we were driving in a decidedly seedy part of town. I pulled off to the side to consult a map on the iPad, and just as I was about to pull away, this guy starts knocking on the passenger side window and pointing at our rear tire. I pulled away, and noticed the car making some funny noises. Sure enough, the rear passenger tire was flat. I drove around briefly in the belief a service station was nearby, but eventually didn't feel comfortable going any further and pulled off next to a Metro (subway) station. I called the customer assistance line and explained the situation, they said someone would call back. Within a half hour I got a call from Mercedes roadside assistance who estimated someone would be there within 30 minutes. During those 30 minutes, various people kept coming by and offering travail (work) for money to change the tire. Now, I'm capable of changing a tire myself, but I wasn't comfortable in this part of town, so I kept shooing them away. After about 30 minutes, the guy who I'm convinced punctured the tire came by and again offered to fix it. "How much?" says I. "Five Euro". "Done." I'm principled, but eventually my comfort comes first. We go to the back of the car and pull out the spare, but can't find the jack. The spot where it looks like it should be doesn't contain anything. After a few minutes of checking every compartment (but not checking the owner's manual -- foreshadowing), I send them on their way saying we can't do it without a jack. After an hour of waiting, I got a call saying it would be another 45 minutes at least before someone could be there. It was getting late, and we were tired (still hadn't eaten supper), but we waited still. In the last call, however, the dispatcher told us where the jack was (in a secret compartment behind the passenger rear seat). So, about an hour after the last call, and after getting more visits from the same cast of characters who don't seem to understand they weren't getting anything out of me, we decide I'm going to change the tire. I get out of the car to look for the jack, and just at that very moment, the mechanic pulls up. 5 minutes (if that) later, he's done -- wonderful what you can do with a proper car jack and an impact hammer. We head back to the hotel and decide to handle the car return in daylight. By this time it's after midnight. No beer, no dinner. On the upside, though, our room has air conditioning (a rarity in the places we've been staying), and the bed is comfy, and the room is nice, so we're going to sleep it off and start fresh. Hooray!

The Berlin Night Express leaves Sweden and makes its way to Berlin by way of a ferry. The train actually rolls onto the ferry, at which point you have the option of leaving the train or staying in your berth. The train picked us up at 9:30PM, and was on the ferry by 10:30, at which point we were quite warm and wanted some cold water to drink and a snack. No luck. I had no Euros on me, and the ferry (despite being Swedish) did not take Kronor. Also, while they happily take Visa, the guy at the cash was quite insistent they could not take a card that didn't use chip and PIN, even though every Visa terminal has this capability. Also, he was being a real jerk about it to everyone in the same situation as me. We decided sleep would be good and opted to head to the train to try to sleep. This was a bad decision, as when the train's not moving and just sitting in the hold of a ferry, you're not getting any nice cool breeze in the window. The train didn't have any A/C that we could find, either. So we spent about 3.5 hours on the train trying to sleep in an oppressive and muggy heat. We'd have been much better off staying up and relaxing upstairs -- notes for next time. By 2:30AM the train rolled off the boat in Germany and shortly thereafter we were underway with a nice breeze that quickly cooled off the cabin. So we each got about 3 hours' sleep before the announcement came that we were pulling into Berlin Hbf (main station). After a quick breakfast at one of the fast food cafes in the train station, and we made our way to the hotel, hopeful they'd let us check in early. They, of course, were happy to. If they had any rooms vacant. Which they didn't. We left our bags and were told to check back between 11 and 12. We walked around the city enjoying the nice sunny and cool day while half-asleep like zombies, and ultimately decided we could go to the zoo. The Berlin Zoo is enormous. And they've got just about every kind of animal you could think of. We wandered for a while, taking in various birds, cats, a panda, and some crazy nocturnal creatures. A few hours later, it was 11 and I was going to fall over if I didn't get into a bed soon, so we made our way back to the hotel to get some sleep. A nice 2 hour nap later, and we were ready to take on the rest of the day. For our second half of the day's adventure, we made our way towards the former East Berlin to check out the former Checkpoint Charlie and the museum there. The museum itself is dense and interesting -- I think we spent almost 3 hours there. If you don't believe the only thing missing from pictures of Ronald Reagan is a halo, you might get a bit annoyed in one of the rooms there. The have what amounts to a shrine to Reagan, which I find kind of laughable. But I won't go into politics here except to say that I think Ronald Reagan's connection to the end of Soviet communism had more to do with when he was president than what he did. The museum has a great deal of artifacts and stories from people who escaped from the east to the west, including the makings of the balloon that was the inspiration for the movie Night Crossing. I'd seen that movie as a kid when it was released, and it was my first exposure to the concept of not being allowed free travel. It really stuck with me, and it was very cool to be able to see and touch the actual balloon platform these two families built to get themselves out of the east. After the museum, we made our way to the Berliner Republik, a restaurant and bar with a "beer exchange". Modeled after the stock exchange, the beer prices are up on the monitors and updated every 5 minutes. The more popular a beer gets, the higher its price goes, and vice-versa. Occasionally, there's a market crash and for five minutes every beer is at its minimum price. Alas, this did not happen on our visit, but it was quite fun all the same, and it was nice to have some fresh German beers. Our next day in Berlin started with a bus tour of sorts, riding the 100 bus from the zoo stop all the way over to the Berlin Cathedral in the east, through the Tiergarten park, around the Brandenburg gate, and down Unter den Linden. Once at that part of town, we hopped off to catch a cruise on the river Spree - our run of doing a boat tour in every city we visited was still intact! Following the cruise, we walked back along Unter den Linden toward the Brandenburg gate. Along the way, we stopped at this Volkswagen shrine called Automobil Forum Berlin. We strolled in to look at some nice VWs, plus other cars from their sister companies (including a Bugatti Veyron), enjoy some coffee at their cafe, and play with some interactive art exhibits downstairs. One of the exhibits was a cool ferrofluid exhibit I'd only ever seen on Youtube. From the gate, we made our way to Potsdam Platz to have an early dinner before crashing at the hotel in the hopes of an early rise for our drive across Germany. Pics of Berlin.

The net in Copenhagen was decidedly crappy, so I fell out of the habit of updating what we've been doing. Everywhere I went in Stockholm I could find a hotspot, but not so in Copenhagen. Ah well. Our day in Copenhagen was decidedly short -- after breakfast we went to see the Rosenborg Slot across from the National Gallery, then hopped a train out of town. Our train ride to Malmö was short and simple, we put our bags into a locker and made our way across the street to the TI to see if there was something to do in town while waiting for our train to Berlin. Hey, a canal cruise! We've done one in every city we visited, so why not Malmö. It was pleasant, and a respite for our feet (Tisha's shoes aren't being kind to her, alas). Following the tour, we wandered into the town square, had a nice leisurely-paced dinner followed by "glass" (ice cream) at the base of the statue in the square. By then it was about 2 hours to our Berlin train, which was leaving from a different station. We grabbed our bags and made our way to the designated station, planning to kill some time there. Turns out the station (Malmö Persborg) is nothing more than a commuter rail stop. No station, no schedules posted, no people. This confused us greatly, so we hopped on a train back to the main station where I could confirm we were doing the right thing. Of course, at this point, all the ticket counters were closed. Luckily, there was net, so I was able to look up and see that the train normally stops at Malmö Central Station, but isn't for 2010 due to construction at the station. By this time, our options for getting back to Persborg were a bus which (if on time) would get us there 15 minutes before the Berlin train, or a train (again, if on time) that would get us there 5 minutes before. I'm conservative when it comes to making connections, so we waited for the bus. After the bus was 5 minutes late showing up to get us, we made our way back into the train station, hopped on the train, and crossed our fingers. To make matters worse, we could find no information on which side of the tracks we should catch the Berlin train. I made an educated guess. The train got us to Persborg on time, and now there were plenty of people on the platform. I asked the first guy I saw if he was waiting for the Berlin train, and the look of relief on my face when he nodded must have been something else. Shortly thereafter, there were track announcements and the train came by just as expected. On board, we had a little compartment with two berths and a bathroom with shower. The optimist in me thought this shower would come in handy. But more on that later. Pics from Copenhagen and Malmö.

Staying at the CABINN Hotel in Copenhagen. Cheap, with crappy net, but it does the job. The rooms look and feel like cabins on a ferry, down the bunk bed and the shower that takes up the entire bathroom. The last hotel really spoiled us, so we'll have to get used to more sparse amenities. Started the day by getting some local currency. Copenhagen is way more expensive than Stockholm despite the fact the Danish Krona (DKK) is stronger than the Swedish Krone (SEK). I got a hair over 500DKK for 100USD (in Sweden I got 650SEK), so I treat these 100SEK bills like they're twenties. Problem is, you just burn through them. For instance, beer is about $10 a pint. If I lived here, that would put a serious crimp in my beer drinking, though it would significantly up my brewing. There are some bargains, though. We took a great canal cruise for only 30DKK each, and ended the day with a visit to the free National Art Gallery. In between those activities we walked the Strøget in the Latin Quarter, a very touristy pedestrian mall. How touristy? They have a Ripley's *and* Guinness World Records museum. Yeah, that touristy. In fact, Copenhagen is far more touristy in general. I think I prefer Stockholm between the two of them. Though Copenhagen does have the wonderful Mikkeller Bar, serving 9 taps of Mikkeller and 6 guest taps (all quality US brews while I was there, and all of which I could get back home). I had a Simcoe IPA and a small glass of George, their Imperial Stout (12.12%! Named after George Foreman). Tisha had a glass of their Spontanale and their "Brett" yeast series. I recommend checking this place out if you're in the area. Tomorrow, we'll check out a palace, and make our way out of town in the late afternoon, on our way to Malmö to catch an overnight train to Berlin. Sleeping on a train, woohoo! I'll get pics uploaded to Flickr at some point, but can't right now as my net is craptacular.

Today we left Stockholm, and started making our way to Copenhagen. We have a Eurail pass, which is nice, but I forget that some trains require a reservation, or in some cases it's really smart to make one. We hopped onto the train to take us to Copenhagen, only to find we kept having to change seats as people got on the train. Finally, when the ticket taker came by, we learned that all the seats were sold on that train. This left us with three options; float fro empty seat to empty seat in the hopes that someone wouldn't make it, hang out in the bistro car, or hop off at the next station and get reserved seats. We opted for the last one, and got off at Norrköping. Turns out it's a popular travel day -- the next train with available seats was in 3 hours. No matter, it gave us an opportunity to explore a new town. We popped our bags into a locker, and walked the main street, checking out varied shops, stopping for coffee, and relaxing in their quaint park near the train station. Finally, at 4:30, our train arrived and we were under way to Copenhagen. Or, at least, Malmö; once we got there we would have to change trains as that particular run ended there. The X2000 train from Stockholm to Malmö is quite nice, with comfy seats, readily available power, and wifi. It's also a high speed train, which I love riding. The train to Copenhagen is a local, and certainly nice, though not the same (I miss my wifi). We arrived in town around quarter to 9, just as the sun was starting to go down. A late dinner at Wagamama, and it's off to bed! A handful of pics here.