23rd Paisley Beer Festival 2010

Hector's Birthday Treat

Hector’s arrival at Paisley with Steve was a display of thorough professionalism! The festival was in its third day, and some of us do not go midweek.
The Bon Accord group were assembled at the main bar and Thornbridge’s Kipling was the recommended starting pint. This was followed quickly by Osset’s Excelsior. The organisers clearly share the opinion of the Bon Accord crowd; the best English biers are mostly from Yorkshire: then there are the Bradford curries...Mr Holden, you are a luck man!






Robin departed very soon, he had been there all day. Howard departed, Scott disappeared. This left Steve, Craig, Yvonne and Hector.
Time for some ‘foreign bier’. Franziskaner, (Verhaeg?) Kriek, and Christoffel Blond were dispatched before the main show began.

The Affligem Blond is one of Hector’s favourites. Some years ago Hector refused to leave the Festival until the last drop had been consumed.










This could not be repeated as Marg was due to arrive to wheech me away…thanks to Andy for lending me his pass so that Marg could be rescued from the queue outside!















Scott reappeared! Steve disappeared. Jonathan was never there.
Photos were taken with Colin who really should be running the Foreign Bar, and some ‘well kent’ faces who prop up this section every year. I find I have a plumber’s business card in my wallet, how did that get there?




Derek, of Kelburn fame, related his saga of getting back from Deutschland last week. He and Margaret decided an extra four days in Bamberg would make up for the loss of their flight from München. He did not get from München to Calais for €74!














Time to go for a curry, The Village is straight along Paisley Rd… it must be a sign…

Hector stranded in Europe, again!

München to Aachen by 7 trains!

On Sunday morning we decided that the inevitable cancellation of our flight to Edinburgh from München should be dealt with in a proactive manner.
Marg, Maggie, Lord Clive, Steve and Hector purchased a DB Schöneswochenende Karte for €35. With a schedule that only Tonto could compile, we set off on seven trains to Aachen; as far as we could to in one day on one ticket.









Nürnberg, Würzburg, Frankfurt am Main, Mainz, Koblenz and Köln were the intermediate stops. The day went like clockwork. Pre-booked rooms awaited us at Aachen, Tonto in true form.














Aachen has two Ibis Hotels, both close to the station. Lord Clive took us to the the left, Hector thought it was to the right. We went to the wrong hotel, guess who was 'right'?

We even saw another Münster!







An evening of pasta and Grimbergen followed.












Aachen to Calais, only 4 trains...











Today a crowded ICE took us to Bruxelles and we caught the connection to Gent by minus two minutes. Hector was first up the stairs to platform 22 to see the Bert about to close the doors..."Arretez" shouted Hector. There was compliance, and another 20 folk piled on to the train.

















The mass of bicycles parked at Gent station gave us the the thought that if only we had one we could board ship as vehicle passengers, which reportedly were being accepted only.






An hour in Gent gave time for a Croque Monsieur and a Kriek.










The train to Lille Flandres connected with a super train to Calais. Why `super`? There is a power point, permitting this Blog.



Now we journey into the unknown: is The Ark Royal really en route to rescue us? How many hours await us in Calais?
Lord Clive is working on economical ways back to Scotland...















The shuttle bus from the station to the terminal...how much is it...someone asked...as if we travel this route everyday...

At the terminal we are split in two queues...P&O or Seafrance...no information about schedule or price...the humour is good...
€65 each, next sailing at 17.20.

Crucifixion?






One cross each, first door on the right...










We miss the tickets for the 17.20, we are ticketed for the 18.50 but now will miss overnight buses to Scotland.



Upstairs to cafe to wait...food...no staff...chef appears...Hector does not like his attitude...Hector declares he is buying nothing here. Lord Clive reports a small Hoegarden costs €8...Marg has a coffee, the rest of us watch...now to join the queue for the boat...

A chap on the coach to the boat from the terminal informed us the normal ferry price is €18...corporate profiteering, there should be a law against this.


Calais to Dover, 1 boat, 2 buses...

At 18.30 Hector and co. boarded the Seafrance Rodin. We hope we don't sea France again too soon, except by choice.










The draught Hoegarden was €4.60 which is relatively ok. This was Hector's first ever bier on a boat...the sea was calm, the inevitable did not occur.


Lord Clive and Maggie have arranged a lift to Crawley and a place to crash. Steve has remotely arranged bus tickets from Gatwick to Edinburgh first thing in the morning...

Curry (Curry-Heute) and bier have been promised in Crawley.

The boat cast off at 19.01, like the Titanic lifeboats, there are many empty seats.

Dover to Crawley, by People Carrier.













David, son of Maggie, collected us at Dover after a ridiculous wait to get a bus from the boat to the terminal. We reached Crawley in time to be shown a settee for the night, a pint in the Swan and a Curry-Heute! at the Saffron Lounge (5 Grand Parade,High St, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 1BU).

The long and winding road : Crawley to Clydebank, 1 taxi, 4 buses, 1 car












Tuesday morning, the 06.40 from Gatwick Airport to London Victoria then a wait for the 09.00 to Edinburgh via everywhere with National Express. Hetton-le-Hole was a place visited en route, enough said...£40 is much less than over £100 per passenger in UK rip-off train prices.
The airport bus from Waverley and then the shuttle bus to the car parks where we had left our cars.








Hector and Marg were home at 20.30, 35.5 hours since leaving München on which would have been a 1.75 hour flight.

It's my party...

You will probably have gathered that the main purpose of the trip to Munchen, apart from bier, was for my birthday. Tables for 35 or so had been booked as long ago as New Year. Despite a slight hiccough, we had confirmed the booking. Of course, this was before Vulcan became involved...

The first XI, who had managed to beat the cloud (or more accurately, the ten who had beaten the cloud and Steve the substitute who had been caught in Munchen), assembled at the Augustiner braustuben as arranged, ignoring the minor fact that 24 people were missing. As it turned out, we nicely filled a table. I would like to thank everyone present for making it a memorable evening - I would like to state that I was not embarrassed at all when a cake festooned with candles was brought to the table (thanks to Clive and Maggie). I'm sure nobody has a video to add to the site!

Given the problems caused by the ash cloud, I think the next time I try to arrange a party I will make sure that no air travel is required...

...the Morning After

Saturday dawned bright, clear and plane-free...

As no-one else would be able to make it to München, my first stop was the Augustiner Braustuben to advise that the booking for 34 was now a booking for 11!

From there to Mango, for a curry - full details here.

Everybody was doing their own thing. As it was a nice, sunny day I decided to go to the Hirschgarten - the largest bier garden in München, and I understand the only one remaining where one has to fetch one's maβ and wash it in the traditional style before being served.

After a couple of biers, I went back to my hotel to prepare for the main event...

The Night Before...

Your heroes were last seen heading towards the Augustiner Festzelt, following Marg's suggestion that it had unreserved tables (for those who have not had the pleasure of visiting a German bier festival before, generally one has to have a seat at a table before one is served bier!).

Hector the eagle-eyed spotted some gaps at adjacent tables. We soon filled these, reckoning we would be able to take over one of them in due course. I don't think it is giving much away to say we managed this...

As this was the first night of the festival, the crowd that had taken our place at the Hippodromzelt looked smart. Our new friends were quite the opposite! I suspect the Festzelt was more fun, with the band playing all the classic festival songs.

Reluctantly, I departed to meet 4 new arrivals - Stuart (my dad), Ann, Johnny and May - who had taken one look at the queues for the festival tents and retreated to a nearby cafe for something to eat. After a quick bier with them, I returned to the festival. Undeterred by the queue that had formed, I managed to return to the Festzelt and rejoin the others. More bier followed. I am told some went for a late night curry...

For those keeping score, we are now 11!

Things to do in Munich when you're...

... waiting to find out just how many people will make it over!

Friday morning saw the 7 of us meet up in the morning for hot chocolate...

Fortunately, normal service was resumed and we visited the Fruhlingsfest - only to find that Hector was wrong about it's opening time! Fortunately, the short S-bahn trip to the Forschungsbrauerei in Perlach was more fruitful, although I suspect Dr Stan failed the Standard Grade Physics paper kindly provided by Hector. It would be unkind to point out that it was a multiple choice paper...

Drawing a veil over this, we returned to the fest - which was now open. We started in the Hippodromzelt, serving Spaten bier. Unfortunately, the entire tent was reserved for the evening, so we reluctantly left.

Unlike the Oktoberfest, there are only limited bier drinking opportunities. The next one was outside - a Paulaner biergarten. This was pleasant, until the sun went down... Fortunately, Marg had scouted ahead and reported that the Augustiner Festzelt had unreserved tables - if she was right about this, the night was not done!

She was - it wasn't! I think I'll leave it to Hector to report on the evening...

Life on Mars

Weez The Cleek are quorate in the Hippodrome drinking Spaten Frühlings Festbier.
Where are the rest of The 34?
By this time Jonathan reckoned the missing people should organise a coach to bring over the missing 24 and take the rest of us home, if necessary...


A Right Royal Breakfast then a hot orgasm.


There is one thing about staying at the Royal Hotel (Schiller Str) that everyone agrees about: the breakfast is excellent, worth getting up for. There is something for every taste.

Marg’s new coffee house became the first place of rendezvous on Friday. In our last visit we stumbled across this place in Petersplatz. The Caffe Piemonte (Petersplatz 9,80331) serves white hot chocolate beyond any drink of Hot Chocolate Hector has ever tasted. The others were sold and so one by one we arrived and some were tempted. Maggie loved it.

The Fruhlings Fest was advertised all around the city. It was due to start today. We have always wanted to visit this mini version of the Oktoberfest and so we walked, well one of us did not, up to the Theresienwiese to find it did not open until late afternoon. There was only one thing to do... worship St Jacobus at the Forschungsbräuerei (Perlach): the finest Bier in Munchen. On arrival, Marg went for a walk, some resisted the Blond initially. Dr Stan was given an Intermediate 2 multiple choice Physics paper. It can now be recorded that when Dr Stan visits St Jacobus he leaves all knowledge of his specialist subject behind him. Hector does not believe that double integration is necessary at this level.
We left late afternoon and in a very healthy state, only a Bierfest could get us to leave this early.

The Spaten tent was empty but every table unoccupied was booked. We had an hour, or so. There were fancy steins but no significant Festbier to be had. The photos are great and we all thought we were at a Partick Thistle convention; however there were far too many people for that. Abundant food was being put on display. As the place filled with all those lucky enough to have bookings for the first night, it was obvious we would have to leave.

Next was an open air Paulaner enclosure. The sun was going down and so was the temperature. This would be a ‘quick half. Marg had gone a wandering and returned with the information that she reckoned we could get a seat in the Augustiner tent.
The Augustiner tent had filled very quickly in the minutes it took us to get there. Back in 1978 at my first Oktoberfest, Archie and I searched in every tent for two seats: we never managed single Bier at the site. Hector does not mess about. We were seven, with possibly more joining us – let’s get a seat. I spotted a gap and went for it. Four of us were on one table, three behind. By the end of the first Bier we were Zusammen.

This was Marg’s first experience of the madness that is a festival tent. Having signed up for Hilpoltstein’s Burgfest in the summer, it was important that Marg enjoy this. She did. I believe Marg had alcohol...it does help.
Steve and Hector had eaten little, so a Curry-Heute was in order. The trip to the Indien Express is now reported on the sister site.
Maggie and Lord Clive went for a kebab, Clive had two.

I'm sitting in a railway station...

Early on Thursday morning, at Koln Haupbahnhof, my phone rings. My sister Kirstie, due in Munchen today, has had herflights cancelled, due to some volcano in Iceland. I am assured it is not a problem, as she has been able to re-book for tomorrow morning...

By the time I arrived in Munchen, it was clear that the problem might affect a few more people, particularly those due to leave Edinburgh on Thursday evening. Still, Saturday is a long way off - surely the problem will have resolved by then...

However, those in Munchen (the Koln 5 and Steve (due to fly home on Friday) can do nothing to assist - we might as ell have a drink and await developments. Once we met up in the Augustiner Braustuben, the home of Edelstoff, word came through that the evening flight had been cancelled. Unfortunately, they are not able to re-book, so the numbers for Saturday's party will be slightly down. At the same time, it becomes clear that Friday might be affected as well, but hopes are still high.

Back to the bier...

We managed to find our way to the Paulaner braueri, where Hector notices maibock- sadly not the best of it's style. Not long (in relative terms) was spent there - Andechs was calling!

We answered!

Ashes to Ashes

Being Scottish and therefore sensible, one never books a breakfast at The Ibis. By the time Hector feels like eating on holiday it is early afternoon. Marg and Hector waited in the lobby for Lord Clive and Maggie to emerge from their slumber. We were due to fly with Air Berlin from Köln down to München at 13.30.
There was a tv on the wall with the sound down showing the local news channel. ‘I see that volcano in Iceland is still erupting.’ ‘Glasgow airport and some others in Scotland are closed, I cannot remember a strike being called.’ Hector made no association at all until the BlackBerry burst into life: Howard: ‘UK airspace is closed, because of volcanic ash!’
Hector was imagining a scene of mass asphyxiation back in the homeland. Alas it was not that bad. ‘It will blow over...’
The four of us took the U Bahn and then S Bahn out to Köln Flughafen and boarded our plane with little delay. We checked into the Royal Hotel after 15.00. Dr Stan and Jonathan would come down by ICE and arrive not long afterwards. Steve was in the Augustiner Grossgastatte (Neuhauser Straße 27) enjoying some Edelstoff...for a change. He had been there since after one and so was in a well relaxed mood. He had ordered soup and so Hector ordered soup. We had more Bier, Marg went for a walk.
Jonathan had felt the need to reconfirm his three tables for Saturday night were really booked and so went straight to the Augustiner Braustubern (Landsberger Straße 19) on his arrival, Dr Stan went there too.
By this time we had received texts from back home stating that everyone in the UK had been told not to go to the airport. All flights were cancelled. This was going to be frustrating for Jonathan who was expecting 33 people in all. Never mind, some are coming tomorrow: ‘It will blow over...’
Five of us jumped on the S Bahn, a ticket for 5 – how efficient is this?- the two stops up to our new spiritual home. We dined. We had Edelstoff by the bucket, except for Dr Stan who insists on having the Helles. Jonathan was convinced that someone back home would organise a mini bus to bring the unfortunates over.

The Paulaner Hausbrauerei was the next port of call. Hector was not amused. The bier tastes as if is home made, too much yeast still evident. It may have been a Bock but the accompanying duck (Veniger Ente) was the only worthwhile thing here. Did we go to Andechs?
There was a brief visit to the Cafe Schiller (Schiller Str.), but one really wonders why.

Viva Colonia

Wednesday morning saw an easy trip by Eurostar and Thalys trains to Koln.

Once there, we met Hector and Marg in Fruh. As Craig was not there, we managed to find the exit - where to go when waiting - how about Gaffel?

Thereafter, a trip to Reissdorf to meet up with Clive (again) and Maggie. So far so good - the numbers are increasing as planned. Surely nothing will go wrong...

As we all had early departures in the morning, nobody stayed up in the hotel bar...

If it’s Wednesday it must be Köln.

That was the end destination but Hector and Marg took the opportunity to visit the Gronau Lake: it was on all the postcards, we had not found it. A slight navigation error took us west instead of north and so we did not get to see the Schloss as well. Seen the lake, Gronau is ticked.













A direct train to Köln saw us arrive early afternoon, or in time to check in at the Ibis at Barbarossplatz. We took the U Bahn back to Neumarkt and walked back through the shopping streets of Koln. Stan and Jonathan were due to arrive imminently, Lord Clive and Maggie were on a flight due in the early evening.


It was a case of does the mountain come to Mohammed: Hector and Marg were at Früh (am Dom) first. The smoking ban has seen a rearrangement of the rooms since the last visit. The shop is now a cafe too, but the much needed new polo shirt was procured here before settling into the main room on the right. Jonathan arrived soon and managed to get fee bier. Stan joined us and did not. We did the litre as is the custom. Gravity bier, the correct way to serve Kölsch.

We decanted to the new Gaffel am Dom (Bahnhofsvorplatz, 150667) which for much of the last thirty years was the Alt Köln am Dom, serving Gilden. This was a brief stop and despite an appreciation of the bier, why do they serve it under pressure?
The discovery of this visit is the new Gaffel Limonode: this is comparable to a Ginger Ale, it is quite the best lemonade Hector has ever tasted and hopefully cases will be brought back in the summer.

Marg was permitted to taste her own drink, eventually.

















The U Bahn down to Poststrasse then followed, and the highlight of every trip to Köln: Reissdorf (Kleiner Griechenmarkt 40, 50676 ). Lord Clive and Maggie had just walked in before us and were negotiating a table. The main room on the left was the customary room of choice. However, the smoking ban has not been fully implemented and it is the area to the right (larger by law?) which is the non-smoking area. We basically had this to ourselves the entire evening. We ate. We had over 100 Kölsch between us. The bier is of course gravity dispensed.

Hector spotted a chap at the door wearing a brand new style of Reissdorf polo shirt: I managed to introduce myself and discovered this was the new manager. He brought one over to us later and when Hector stated it was for a future birthday present, a discount was proffered.






Having now made friends with the new management, it was inevitable that Hector would relive the days when he used to walk in to Reissdorf and be recognised by name. This meant getting behind the bar to pour one's own. And yes, it was paid for, I think.


Were we last out? We must have been else the night would not have been memorable, I cannot remember...
Back to the Ibis and the ladies withdrew, as ladies do.
Bad Boys kept Hector up drinking large glasses of Sion until 03.00.

I remember Sion, Marg was not amused.