[hopfenundmalz]

Bonus London edition!

So I went to visit a friend in London. I know a week is hardly enough time to make a decision about a place, but here are my initial thoughts: I found a bunch of "craft beer" pubs here, but they were all super trendy, and crazy expensive. Like 6-10 pounds per pint, and quality was pretty middling, compared to "craft" beers in the US. But, maybe of the dozen or so I tried, I just got all the bland ones.

Also, a lot of the pubs are owned by chains now. Nicholson's pubs are decent, as far as selection and price (more like 4-5 pounds per pint), but my favorite were the Samuel Smith pubs. Many of them have the Old Brewery Bitter on cask/hand pump, and they all seem to have the Extra Stout on nitro. Their Dark Mild was good too. The pubs seem to be the stereotypical "British pub" of my imagination: 19th century styling, dark wood, and at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese the front door is on a narrow alley, and you can sit in the basement alcoves.

I have been pretty impressed by the ciders here. I had a handful of them at one of the craft places, and they were really good, although most tend to be pretty sweet.

I went to Craft Beer near Farringdon Station a couple years back, and did not remember prices like that. Yow!

Euston Tap was pretty good, you could find some US beers on tap there, I drank the real ale though.

I remember the prices per pint about like my town in MI, except a little better when you were getting 20 oz. pints vs 16 oz. it would be sad to see those prices when we go back.

There is a guys in Burrough Market that sells cider from his farm in the new Forrest. You can get varietal ciders like ones made from Kingston Black.

[nateo]

I got a head-flu yesterday, so that's put a damper on my drinking. Hopefully I'll rally enough to make it down to Borough Market before I leave on Monday!

[hopfenundmalz]

I got a head-flu yesterday, so that's put a damper on my drinking. Hopefully I'll rally enough to make it down to Borough Market before I leave on Monday!

Foodie paradise. Buy enough for a lunch.

The Rake is a new craft bar. The Market Porter is on Stoney St. By the Market, great selection of ales, but it can be crowded. Not far, across Bourough High St is the. George Inn, where Shakespeare is said to have put on plays. A ways south is the Royal Oak on Tabard St, a Harvey's Pub. Their line of beers should be tried.

[raphi]

I don't really want to go to Oktoberfest. I'm not an agoraphobe or anything, but I'd rather have a quiet beer with friends than get black-out drunk with a million people. I mean, if I'm in the area, I might go (once).

It's definitely cheaper to go in the off-season. I found a one-way plane ticket for $600. I've been staying with a friend, which makes it cheap too, but there are cheap-ish hotels(found at hotelscheap.org) in the suburbs if you don't mind the train. The big hostels are actually kind of expensive, if you want a single or double room. There's an OK hotel in Maisach that's 25 euros a night for a single room. Even if you have to spend 8 euros a day for a train pass, it's a better deal than the hostels in the city. Plus I just like taking the train.

I went to Andechs yesterday. There are tour busses that can take you to the monastery, but I suggest taking the walking path (Pilgerweg). It's a really nice walk through the forest. It's maybe 4km, and it's uphill, so going there felt like it took a while, but coming back went fast.

I hung out with a retired Swiss army guy, and this group of older people shared their picnic lunch with me. Apparently Andechs is where all the pensioners hang out. It was really cool to hang out with them. That kind of thing is why knowing German is helpful. The day-to-day stuff you can get by fine with no/limited German, but it's harder to make connections like that if you can't talk to each other.

I was at Oktoberfest once, but its definitly not the only reason to go there(I mean, it was fun, really, everybody  who likes beer should go there once). But as you mentioned, the Andechs monastery is a nice place, and there are several old monasterys, churches and really beatiful old castles and ruines in the area, since Munich has allways been a rich and important city back in the days.