Les Bières Belges

"All Belgian Beers" by Hilde Deweer - I didn't know about this book during our trip!

I heard there are 500+ different beers brewed in Belgium. Not sure if that's correct, but we tried to taste as many as possible during our time in Belgium!

I attempted to keep a running list of all I tried, but I'm sure it's incomplete. But, here's the list below. These are only the ones I had a glass/bottle of myself, so does not include sips I tasted of someone else's:

St. Feuillien Cuvée de Noël, Hoegaarden Rosé, St. Bernardus Christmas Ale, Floris Witbier, St. Helene, Pere Noël, Christmas Leroy, Tripel Karmeliet, McChouffe, Westvleteren XII, Cantillon Gueuze (spontaneous fermentation lambic), Cantillon Rosé de Gambrinus (framboise lambic), Westmalle Tripel, Waterloo 8 Double Dark (brune), St. Berbardus Tripel, Gordons Christmas, Grimbergen Brune, Garre, Dupont Saison, Chouffe N'Ice, Adelardus Tripel, Witkap Pater, Delerium Tremens.

Phew! That's a lot of research. And finally, since I sometimes enjoy the same humour as 12-year-old boys, I will share a final picture. This is the description of Tripel Karmeliet from the huge notebook of beers at the Delerium Tremens bar:

Pics from Ireland and Belgium

Matthew and I had a lovely trip to Ireland and Belgium. We were in Dublin for two weeks, and did a side trip to the Cliffs of Moher and Galway. Then, we went to Brussels and had heaps of fun with Kate and Stéphane. We took day trips to Bastogne, Bruges and Antwerp. 


Here are the links to our various Picasa albums, if you're interested:

Dublin

Cliffs of Moher, Galway and Limerick

Brussels

Bastogne

Bruges

Antwerp

Happy New Year, and Heading Home

Happy New Year, everyone! Hope you have a wonderful 2012.

Matthew and I are heading home today - Brussels > Amsterdam > London > Singapore > Sydney. See you on the other side of the world!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all our friends and family!

Since our Christmas card didn't allow for captions, here's the photo key:
1. At Tamara and Andy's wedding, September 2011.
2. We met a dingo in Healesville, NSW, August 2011.
3. Harbour Bridge Climb with Janine and Deanna, April 2011.
4. At Iguazu Falls, Argentina, May 2011.
5. In Portland, OR, September 2011.
6. At The Big Merino in Goulburn, NSW, October 2011.

Hello from Dublin!

As you may know already, we're in Dublin!

Sláinte! from the Gravity Bar atop the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin.

We're here for a work trip for M, then we head to Brussels to spend Christmas and New Years with our friends Kate and Stéphane.

Winter may not be the ideal time to travel to Ireland, but we've really enjoyed it so far. In fact, we've been pretty lucky, and the weather really hasn't been too bad. 

This past weekend, we rented a car and drove from Dublin to the Cliffs of Moher, and then stayed overnight in Galway. The Cliffs were amazing. The wind gusts were crazy - I almost got blown over and had to go over to the side of the path and hold on to the wall! Driving through the Irish countryside was beautiful, and I'm so glad we got to see it, even if it was a short road trip. 

We're here in Dublin a few more days, then on to Brussels! Looking forward to relaxing with good friends, eating frites and chocolate, and drinking Belgian beer!

We're sad to be so far away from the rest of our friends and our family on Christmas, but we'll be thinking of you! xoxo

Unpacking

Unpacking is going a bit slowly. I may have eaten my lunch and dinner off a serving tray because I haven't unearthed any regular dishes. You may well think that, but I couldn't possibly comment.

Our New House!

Yesterday we moved into our new house, which is wonderful!

It's a 3-bedroom terrace house, still in our same Inner West suburb of Newtown. The owners recently renovated to add a master bedroom and ensuite bathroom upstairs. Here's the album with all of our pics:

New House