These past few days have been excruciatingly hot in Germany. While many of you on the East Coast have been enjoying balmy July weather, Matt and I have been sweating it out in our stuffy apartment, trying to position the fans and AC just right so that we don't melt to death.
Luckily, the beer fest was in town, giving us a chance to escape the apartment and venture out for some alcoholic relief. The beer fest itself is a traveling affair, where they go around to different cities in Germany. The stands aren't all your typical German beer, either - there are a lot of stands from Belgium, Asia, and the Americas. Even better - they set it up down by the river, exactly where the wine fest was located in May, which is terribly close to our apartment.
We went both on Friday and Saturday evenings (evenings because what crazy people would be outside when the sun is out???). Anyway, here is Matt trying out some Andechs, a beer that Evan mentioned he enjoyed when he and Kasey visited us last month.
We of course found the Grimbergen stand. Grimbergen is Belgian (you can tell by the shape of the glass), and we actually have several bottles of it at home. However, we don't have their cherry beer, pictured here. I'm a big fan of the cherry Belgian beers - girly, fruity, and bright.... And in order to fully enjoy our Grimbergens at home, I decided to not return these glasses to the stand. Money well spent, I say.
The crowds definitely started picking up as everyone else in town had the same idea as us, to stay cool. (We noticed the beer fest was a lot younger crowd, too).
Matt had been working really hard all week and finally had a chance to unwind. Here he is being silly and trying to drink some of this cardboard monk's beer.
As was expected, there was also a nice concentration of Bavarian/Munich beer to choose from. All delicious.
On Saturday evening we finally made it up to the front of this stand, which was also a ship. It was packed the night before.
Here's my cherry beer I tried to enjoy. There was a very interested bee who insisted on trying some of this, so much so that we had to pour some of it out so he would stop getting into the bottle. He didn't appreciate it.
No matter - I got to eat as well. I think this might be a new favorite - the frikadelle, which is kinda like a smashed meatball sandwich. It's a little onion-y, and doesn't need any sauce, making it really easy to eat with one hand.
I thoroughly enjoyed my dinner while Matt had a big meter-long sausage.
Eating our sandwiches kept us away from the huge Haribo candy stand setup where you could scoop your own. Thank goodness!
While it was a little relief, nothing felt better than returning to our apartment for nice cool showers and barricading ourselves in our bedroom where Harvey the AC was hard at work.
The weather has improved- mostly because I'm blogging right now from the Hilton executive lounge in Berlin, where the AC is perfect and the drinks and snacks keep coming. Matt is doing a conference while I hang out and do homework and hit the gym. I won't have a new post on Wednesday but I'll try to put something together for Friday.
We plan on NOT getting our wallets stolen this time, too. I've made it really easy for myself since my ninja purse has a built-in wallet (take THAT, Berlin!) and I brought one of my pocket scarves to keep things in while I walk around.
Anyway, back to homework! Hope everyone has a great week!
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