Brauhaus

The Brauhaus in Ktown is somewhere I would take everyone who visits us! It's a typical german atmosphere with a large outdoor seating area which is great for people watching. And on a nice summer day it's fun hanging out even for a long period of time. & It's right next to the farmers market!

So the bonus of beer and a nice place is they serve some nice grub too. But one of the main highlights is the beer tower! In a 3 or 5 liter option to pour yourself. You can get any beer of your choice in your tower and it's just fun! 

http://brauhausammarkt.jimdo.com/lrk-gastro-gmbh/english/

They have a sampler for 3,50€ or so and you can try their dark, seasonal, lager and wheat beer. Our favorite of the night was the seasonal so we decided on the tower with that one! Runner up for best beer was the lager.

It was a good 6 beers in the 3L in the large glasses they provide. And between the 3 of us it's a good item to share with a group. I wouldn't say it's any better price than ordering one beer at a time but the convenience of serving yourself instead of tracking down a waiter was worth it. 

All the food was delicious unfortunately we we're too quick to eat for me to get any photos and the sun went down. We had the pretzel w butter which was delicious as a snack with the beer! I also tried the spaetzel (a noodle side dish) which was awesome with schnitzel and a mushroom sauce. I also had the pleasure of trying the croquettes and steak a friend ordered. That was delicious!! And the fried potatoes were also something I would recommend. The website shows some great photos of food. I have also heard they have big amazing salads! The dinner entrees come with a small side salad with a nice house dressing. I think anything you order would be good here! They also serve soda and cocktails for the non beer drinkers. Overall a great place!

Riding the Train

Some things can be slightly intimidating in a new country, like riding the train. My initial concerns were what if I go the wrong direction or what if I get lost? The language barrier also adds some hesitancy when taking the leap solo. I wasn't going to let a little intimidation stop me from figuring this thing out. The train stop is about 100 yards from our house! I would say it is the easiest and cheapest, not to mention safest way to travel when drinking!

So how do you ride a German train?

The easiest place to start is on the Deutsch Bahn website (Bahn.de) this is where you can look up time tables for your stop or connecting trains if necessary. At the top right of the webpage it says 'deutschland' if you click this it will give language options, choose 'English version' at the top and wa-la everything is now all English! 

So you have your time & you head down to the station. At every stop is the ticket machine where you buy a ticket BEFORE your journey to legally ride. Again very easy to navigate and to change to english! At the bottom of the touch screen is country flags, I selected the Great Britain flag and wa-la again! ENGLISH! I added two adult tickets to the destination of our choice and we paid. FYI the machine only takes up to 10€ bills at our particular machine I'm not sure if that's universal so have smaller bills just in case. Our total was 7,60€ for one way. We were planning on a different way home so did not do a round trip this time.

The large train stations have information windows or service counter to buy tickets but not at the small stops in the villages. Plan ahead of time if you're using the train round trip it will be cheaper to chose the day pass or round trip when you first buy tickets. A day pass allows you unlimited riding for the day so if you have several plans or want to see all you can that's the way to go! 

So your train arrives! You push the green button on the outside & the door opens for you! Be sure to let anyone coming out go first if it's a busy stop.

It is very simple and depending on the route can be very inexpensive. The more people you travel with the cheaper as well! Group tickets discount each extra ticket after the base price. There are also overnight trains with rooms and meals & speed trains to get you there faster with less stops ! You can drink on the train, bring your bike, or even your pet! 

So next time Paris or Prague is on the agenda consider the train. You can train two people to Heidelberg for half the cost of gas & with the convenience of the train getting you there instead of driving yourself! Something to think about!

Getting Adjusted

I think there comes a time in every military family's move overseas that they question "Why did I move here?" Or rather anyone who moves overseas from living in the States sometime prior. Things get difficult, there are new rules, new laws and everything feels chaotic. Some days it's feels like the new country is against you & Murphys Law moved into your new home with you. On the other hand, other days things fall I to place and you feel comfortable or excited again about living in this new place you will call home for the next few years! 

This is our second overseas base, were two for two so far. We moved from Okinawa Japan to Germany. No visit home in between either. The challenge of taking a pet from one country to another didn't need any added obstacles. From one overseas base to another it can be both easy and also very difficult to transition to a new location.

 

Overall the travel with a pet was exhausting and stressful. The move and settling in requires a ton of patience and a positive attitude. You have to remind yourself on the tough days that things will fall into place! Because eventually... They do! 

Your pet will adjust. Jet lag is temporary. Your stuff will get unpacked. You will find a car.  Driving on the other side of the road gets easier. You will find a job or hobby or volunteer work that you enjoy. Your husband will fall into place at his new squadron and learn the new rules or regs. You may not necessarily learn the language but you will figure out their traditions, culture and grocery stores. 

Living in another country is something that requires time and patience. Don't give up when you're trying to figure things out or are looking for a job. It can take awhile! Ask questions when you don't know what you're doing, you'd be surprised how many are willing to help out! Get out and explore, meet people and don't be afraid to talk to strangers!

Embrace the challenge and enjoy the time, it is once in a lifetime! 

Brussels, Belgium (Belgian Beer Weekend)

Yoshis over night bags packed up and ready to go stay over at the landlords for the weekend and we are ready to hit the road! First on the agenda was sign my contract. We stopped off at Sembach (army base) to visit the bank manager and get me official. Walked out of the bank with a nice new big girl job, full time, supervisor responsibilities, and excellent benefits. Our trip was starting off on the right foot! Let the celebrating begin!! The reason for Brussels... Antonio turning 30!

We got on the road at 11:30am. The drive to Brussels was beautiful! The sun was shining and our sunroof was wide open for the trek! Antonio drove the entire time. Not sure if it's because he doesn't trust me with his baby or he just doesn't like my driving. We may never know.

We stopped off once for gas. Poor planning left us without an esso station to receive our tax free gas and use our Esso card. On the way back we figured out stopping off at Spangdalem AB is the best place to fill up. Not to mention they have a Popeyes!! Spangdalem is only a couple kilometers off the autobahn and it is 2 hours from brussels and about and hour and a half from Ramstein area. If we go again we will stop on the way there and top off our tank and fill up on the way back as well. 

We got into the city right about 3pm. The streets were similar to any downtown city, tons of cars and traffic. There is also a large amount of construction going on so several detours also. You aren't getting anywhere quickly down there. It was slow moving but we enjoyed driving through the tunnels and the scenery to get to the hotel. 

  

The hotel check in started at 1500 so it was perfect timing. We had parking at the hotel which is highly recommended to look for when booking a hotel. It is busy and crowded and I would say a bit uncertain with crime so I would tell anyone to get a hotel with parking. We parked in a locked underground structure that you have to be buzzed in and out of so both your car and belongings feel safe down there. It's also easy access on floor # -1 (haha, yes, negative one!) just a few floors below where we slept. I'm not sure where or how far we would have parked otherwise. 

The hotel was a 3 star so no bells and whistles what so ever. Budget friendly though! Equipped with two twin beds that Antonio and I pushed together to sleep next to each other. There is a breakfast buffet daily but for 12€ per person we rather find gourmet coffee and a croissant down the road for half the price. I don't need a buffet I need to have room for beer! The hotel beds were very comfortable however the shower was atrocious and there was a night club outside our window. I kid you not we watched people leaving men in suits and ladies in dresses and heels when we were going to grab breakfast.... At 8am!!! Hahah Belgians know how to party! By time we returned at about 9am we saw a man locking up the "VIP entrance" and getting in his car. So obviously the noise from our room was rough, you can hear people screaming and bass pounding from at least midnight to 7am. If you drink enough the noise won't keep you up!

Antonio had no agenda and neither did I. The beer festival started Friday so we decided to check that out first. The official event is called Belgian Beer Weekend 2014. There are cashier booths where you must go first to purchase deposit coins (for your drinking glass) and coins to buy beers which are 1€ for one bottle cap with minimum purchase of 10. A large bottle of beer cost 10 of these bottle caps, but you can only buy the full bottle at one tented area. At the larger area with all the brewery tents you can only purchase a glass of their beers and they run from 2-3€ each. You must take their special glass back to that specific tent in order to get your deposit coin back to get a new glass of something. Every brewery and each beer has their own special glass. It's really unique and cool because it's something new and exciting each beer. 

So we got our tokens and headed to the single tent area with a DJ to try some bottles of beer. We asked the young man behind the counter what his favorite was and said 'we'll take it!' There was such an overwhelming spread even at this one place I couldn't make my own decision. Plus we had no real knowledge to make an educated decision on our favorite belgian beer. This was our very first to try! The beer was very cold and crispy the flavors were amazing! It was warm outside the sun was rarely shinning bright so we were told. It was the perfect afternoon. We stood at a cocktail table listening to good music and people watched. All walks of life were coming by. From crackheads to rich looking European travelers (the men with a nice new sweater over their shoulders type). One guy ripped the hops off the side of the barrier and sniffed it so hard it was practically up his nose! Another guy with issues was angrily flipping off the crowd of beer drinkers when he walked by. There was on the other hand very nice and happy people to watch. Guided tour groups, backpackers and excited tourists flashing photos of everything. It's easy to make friends with fellow beer drinkers because you are all there doing the same thing... Enjoying great beer! 

Be prepared it is crowded and there are about 400 beers just at this beer festival. Do research so you don't waste your time or money on the not so popular ones. It's once a year when all the brewers come together so it is a very special event I would recommend any beer lovers attend!

The above photos are all in the smaller beer tent area. The large area was jam packed with people and was quite a claustrophobic experience. We made friends and had a table to put our stuff on and hang out at. But you were still being pushed or fighting crowds to go get another beer when you were ready. This should explain things:

By the end of the festival Friday night (9pm ish) the place was hard to move or even return your glass to get your deposit back. It became a bit overwhelming but the beer helps calm the claustrophobia nerves a bit. The guys dressed up above were telling everyone they were the mayors of Brussels, our Belgian friends (far left and next to me in photo) told us they were lying & just dressed up. Hah! We played along & acted interested in these important political leaders. 

So Friday was filled with beer and people. Saturday we had to spend the rest of our beer tokens because those are non refundable so we had more beers at the tents until we ran out of tokens. 

I highly recommend going early, tents open at 11am Saturday and by 5pm it's sardine status again. Early on about 1300 was very chill only half full inside.

After a couple beers from the oldest brewery still brewing in Belgium, a few of the fruity lindemans classics and a few randoms we were ready to move on. We got more food and explored on foot. This place 'Fritland' has amazing fries and below is the steak sandwich Antonio wanted to try that I ended up wanting my own... It was that good! We shared because it was a ton of food but it was the best! The bread the meat and fries with 2 diff sauces was delicious! Fattening us right up! There had to have been at least 10 sauce choices! Fritland was right between the old stock exchange building and Grand Place. Highly recommend! 

Aside from fries and food and stuffing our face we found an awesome chocolate store. Chocopolis sounded the best but in the end 'Marys' had the best chocolates! There are hundreds of stores claiming the best belgian chocolate on their front windows. The options are endless.

There were several breweries we checked out. Our favorite was Moeder Lambic.

Of course ordered the Moeder Fucker. Pretty good IPA.

Delirium has some 3,000 beers most bottled & maybe 40-50 on tap but the place was old and not the best environment in our opinion. The downstairs bar was packed and smokey. We sat upstairs where it was less crowded but old. The signs and decor was fun but overall I didn't see all the hype. They also have "Little Delirium" which is the same brewery but a small cafe in a location nearby. We walked by it & would rather try there next time.

There was a big parade Saturday.

We did and saw so much this blog could go on for days. Pros and cons of our first trip out of the country of Germany... Overall the food was amazing but the city (streets) was pretty dirty. If you ever visit keep your wallets close. Homeless and beggars are everywhere. It smells of urine on many streets and like other European countries we may visit next, not everyone wears deodorant!

 I'll add a few more photos to wrap up the fun we had.

We had the best time just drinking beer, people watching and soaking in the brussels atmosphere. The waffles, fries, and beer were all as expected! The best in the world!