For the past 5 years, I’ve been lucky to have gone to Europe on someone else’s dime. This past trip was the first time going where I wasn’t going to do any work and it was purely a vacation. I still managed to spend 4 hours in our Belgian office on Friday in meetings but it helps that I love what I do and work isn’t seen as a chore. Another trip is planned to Belgium the first week of May assuming work gives me the time off. This was a quick one and I wanted to share a few photos.
Belgium and Turkey were the two countries I visited and as usual, lots of food (Belgian Stew) and many bottles of very old European beers. Flickr has more if you’re so inclined.
The next trip May 1st – 7th will be to attend the Bi-Annual Belgian Tour de Gueuze celebrating spontaneously fermented Lambiek around Brussels. I’ll then spend 2 days in Champagne France followed by 2 days in Stockholm and one evening in Copenhagen celebrating, you guessed it, great food and delicious aged beers. I’m very excited to visit Champagne as the last year has been a really nice exploration into the world of sparkling wines and my main focus has been Champagne as well as (flat) White Burgundy wines. I’m still very new to the hobby but as you probably saw in my February Beer-Cellar post, the champagne shelf continues to grow (20 bottles had last year with 40 or more cellaring). In Copenhagen, I’m stoked to have the chance to dine at Relae for the 3rd year in a row. It continues to be my favorite restaurant in the world and I hope I’m lucky enough to have the capacity to visit every year for a very long time. Their chefs are doing amazing things as the food it unlike anything you’ve ever had.