Beer Gallery

Berliner Weisse - a wheat beer with syrup in it, usually raspberry or woodruff, a sweet herb. That's our host, Alex. He was caught off guard by the bright flash of my camera.

Oktoberfest



Guinness was 5 Euro, or about $8 a pop! So I drank a lot of whiskey in Ireland.

Antwerpen

The little bit we saw of Belgium was SO beautiful - and supposedly there are other parts that are even prettier. It was the perfect place to officially begin our Eurotrip, as Antwerp is relatively small and has a very relaxed, hang-at-the-cafe-all-day culture. And we also might have enjoyed the beer.

Tons of sidewalk cafe's and great people watching..
Love the architecture ..
history ...

Plus there's this guy.
he owns a dive bar.

Germany

A tip: if you plan to travel to Germany, take a flask and fill it with water. Yes, water - there is no such thing as free water in Germany, and bottled water isn't exactly cheap. But despite being poorly hydrated, we got to see a nice chunk of Germany.

Berlin Wall

Holocaust Memorial, Berlin

One of many gorgeous churches in Wurzburg

Oktoberfest, Munich

The bedding that Renee's in-law's lent me when I was a guest in their house in Ravensburg (Ben's hometown). ha!

Fredericksburg birthday trip, finale

On our way back to San Antonio, we stopped at the National Museum of the Pacific War, saw camels and swam in the river at Blanco State Park.


This is all the locally produced stuff we bought!!!! Wine, jellies, peaches, peach cider, salsa, sweet jalapenos, spicy peanut butter and even a leather-scented candle.
Texas=yum

Fredericksburg birthday trip, part zwei

Saturday we were joined by Gino's brother and sister-in-law, who are a lot of fun and often invite us to their house for bbq'ing and swimming. We toured Main Street, stopping in no fewer than 5 wine tasting rooms. It was a challenge finding a good dry wine but there was no shortage of tasty Rieslings.


We ate lunch at Auslander Restaurant and Biergarten, where I ate the littlest potato pancakes Ive ever seen, then made our way back to the cottage to rest for a while. That evening we stopped at Friedhelm's Bavarian Inn & Restaurant for a round of beers, went to West End Pizza Co for a pasta dinner (not really recommended), then ended the night with live music at Crossroads Saloon.

Fredericksburg birthday trip

For my BDAY I wanted to go to Texas wine country - yes, Texas has a wine country!

Fredericksburg is a quaint little town about 1 hour northwest of San Antonio settled by the Germans back in the 1840s. It's a town full of B&Bs, antique shops, German restaurants/beer gardens and wine tasting rooms, as well as one of the area's wineries.

Our rental cottage - 2 bedrooms, a kitchen, living room and 2 bathrooms for $125 night!
Us with Baron Otfried Hans von Meusebach, famous German-Texas pioneer, founder of Frederickburg, TX and initiator of a treaty between German settlers and Comanche indians.


Friday night we went to Wildseed Farms for a chili-pepper and salsa festival. About 40 tasting booths!!

The festival at dusk.

Waco and hushpuppies

Waco was a bit of a spontaneous stop on the way back from Dallas so -again- no camera but i felt it was was still a blog-worthy experience. First of all, we had dinner at an establishment set along the Brazos River called Buzzard Billy's. It was busy, seemed very local and had a big deck to sit on. Here's a pic stolen from flickr:

Right below the deck in the river there were literally over 50 or so turtles and whatever kind of fish scrambling for crumbs of biscuits thrown to them by restaurant patrons. As if this wasn't entertainment enough, I was enjoying a tall 5-rum Hurricane, and THEN the food arrived. We had to try the beer-cheese soup, which was surprisingly delicious. And with my Cajun combo plate, I had experienced for the very first time a REAL hushpuppie! Those things you get at Long John Silver's are garbage I tell you! A real hushpuppie, as it turns out, is a southern gastronomic delight.

Any how, the next morning we explored some more of Waco, which is home to Baylor University and actually a bit of a college town. We found a sculpture garden in a Waco tourist brochure (it was between that and the Dr. Pepper museum). Here is one shot I liked from G's phone of me entering a tall door to nowhere:


No, we did not try to find the Branch Davidian Compound.