De Belgian Bistro, Weilerbach

Working full time has me spending more time sleeping or with the family then on my blog or iPad lately! But we spent some time this weekend enjoying some good pub grub and brews that are worth writing about!

Not far from our house is a cute bistro in Weilerbach specializing in belgian beers! After working Saturday this is just the place I wanted to spend my Saturday night. We walked in without reservation and almost all of the tables had reserved signs. Without a reservation the staff still gave us an option: the bar or the one table without a tiny place card. We chose the table!

Since Brussels is one of the first and few places we have been in the last 90 days that we have lived in Europe we were pretty excited to put our knowledge and taste buds to the test! 200 beers to choose from?! Yes please!!

I quickly chose a name I knew and beer I loved from our Belgian trip. Antonio chose a familiar name but new type of beer. The beers were served in their respective glasses just like in Belgium! They were cold and fresh and any beer that had extra in the bottle was placed on the side of the poured glass.

We tried a couple ambers too! Everything was delicious! The choices were a bit overwhelming however good Belgian beer is hard to come by. The prices weren't awful, average was €3,70 for 0,33L. Nothing like the shopette or bx prices for a case of Delirium or La Leffe. And they have so many choices you have no choice to go back. For more incentive they have a punch card! After 10 beers you get one on the house!

A quick bit on the food! The orders come with bread and saladand the bread is pretty dang good. A nice French bread with a seasoned herb butter. If you're hungry you will devour it! We put some aside to save room for our order.

The schnitzel burger was by far better than the onion burger! Antonio always asks the waitress' favorite and makes decisions from there. We ordered the schnitzel belgian bistro special it's equipped with this zesty spicy sauce. If you weren't interested just by the name it includes bacon and egg! Overall the sauce made the burger but the thin schnitzel and that flavor combination with Americas  #1 favorite (bacon, duh) made it unique and delicious! I would order it again in a heart beat! If you opt for a burger instead, I'd try the burger bistro special with all the extras. 

Overall the staff was really friendly and the environment was fun. There is a whole lot of beer going on here so I suggest it's a good place for drinks w friends. There are a ton of tables that seat several people so more of a group hang out then a date night w the wife. But there was space at the bar all night for walk ins. & they will gladly sit you there if you didn't know they reserve most of their tables out in advance. Particularly on Saturday nights. 

The salad was decent and Antonio really enjoyed the fries. Regardless, both of us loved the beer selection and since Brussels is 3 hours away this will be our go to for convenience! :) 

Cheers!

Trier

Stepping back in time, claiming title as the oldest city in Germany, Trier is full of Roman and ancient history! Our friends took the wheel and we arrived in Trier in about an hour from their place. They did the research and pulled right into a parking garage. It was right next to our first sight Konstantinbasilika! 

The buildings massive! We didn't even realize it was the basilika right away. The basilika, Constantines throne room, is the largest surviving single room structure from Roman times. Since the 19th century it has been the first and oldest Protestant church in Catholic Trier. Overall it is a sight to see because of its size! The front/back end has some amazing architecture. 

A side view 

The back or front view depending on where you're coming from

Wandering around the city on foot is easy and not strenuous by any means. Everything was much closer than we anticipated! 

Our next stop was the Kaiserthermen Imperial Baths. Also described as ancient ruins. This attraction was never completed as originally planned. The outside courtyard is large and beautiful. The ruins allow you to go down inside several tunnels and unique bath areas and rooms that were in construction. 

The grounds from an aerial view 

Inside

The thing we found most interesting was in roman times they had plans for building heated pools! The public baths had a variety of plans however their plans came to a halt when Constantine the Great shifted his political activities. The site without its installation of baths ever being completed did have one section completed under the rule of another emporer and became a reception hall. Overall it was a neat site. It was 2-3 euro a person and there was a video in the beginning with a small sit down area, and you could roam free outside and up a structure for some great views. The info pamphlets helped us learn about the place in English as many signs were in German. There is another nearby historical bath house called Barbarathermen.

There is a small pond outside of Kaiserthermen and a nice park area. Everywhere around the site was beautiful. 

A quick stroll down the road put us at hauptmarkt. They had a big farmers market going on. A delicious French fry stand and a ton of booths to buy items at. 

The market had entertainment for money on the street as well.

The cathedral was right next to the market which I believe is every Saturday. The cathedral is a sight to see! Massive and beautiful! 

 

The large organs and detailed architecture is something that will have your neck sore from staring up at. For a small fee you can get a candle and go set it and pray. There was no entrance fee into the Cathedral but you must be quiet... Shhh!

Right across from the front of the cathedral to your left if you have your back to the cathedral was a cute wine bar. They had beer as well. Delicious soups and pretzels. We tried the Riesling there that Trier is known for. It was delicious. That's indoor and outdoor seating. I would recommend the place just for a snack or afternoon drink. 

Next on the sight seeing list was Porta Nigra. Not even 5 minutes down back through hauptmarkt. 

Another entrance fee was required, this was the most expensive of the day 3-4 euro a person, I can't remember. The Porta Nigra is known as the gate to the city of Trier. It is their major landmark & has a ton of history dating back decades. This place is cool inside and although there isn't much to see I thought it was worth the few bucks to see inside! 

Porta Nigra overall is a must see. Next stop was Karl Marx house. This was a bit far from Porta Nigra. We would map that stop earlier on our stops if we did this again. Overall it was worth it. The 'Museum Karl-Marx-Haus Trier' is the official name. It was later discovered as the birth place of Karl Marx and turned into the exhibition. Overall the house walks you through an audio tour with different rooms going through the life, work and legacy of Karl Marx. The audio tour gives you a ton of insight on his life and theories. There is a shop where you pay to enter and get the audio tour including in the entrance fee (€4 pp, groups of 10 only €2,5) & you can buy souvenirs here also. Anything from books to a Marx coffee mug. 

The courtyard at the end was very peaceful and serene. It is supposed to be a place to reflect on Marx legacy and all the information you were just exposed to. 

A ton of history had us hungry. Kartoffel is the place to go! It's a potato restaurant and has a ton of other delicious options. A friend told me they have meat dumplings that are to die for. I'll have to try them next time!

 

A nice selection of beers and wines here while potato soup and bread were on our agenda. If you're thirsty try Schlosser Alt beer, it's delicious!! Our friends with us told us a little about the unique & rare German brew. 

Schnitzel and pommes! Amazing!

http://www.kistetrier.de/anfahrt.html 

So overall Trier was a beautiful quaint unique city I would love to visit again! We didn't get a chance to get up to the castle so we will be going back to see it! Until the next day trip... Tschüss!

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!