Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: Café Vlissinghe, Bruges

Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: Café Vlissinghe, Bruges

  Bruges is one of my favourite cities in Europe. Ethereal cobblestone lanes, canals, medieval Flemish architecture, magnificent squares, a towering belfry, secluded parks, and even a few windmills make for an enchanting ambience you won’t find in many other cities. And there’s no shortage 

Regensburg, Eastern Bavaria’s Beer Hub

Regensburg, Eastern Bavaria’s Beer Hub

  Just ninety minutes from Munich by train, Regensburg is an eminently walkable city where you’re never far from a brewery, beer garden, or Bierkeller. It’s also an ideal base for visiting Kloster Weltenburg and Schneider Weisse in Kelheim, and for exploring the woodlands cradling 

Ayinger, Munich’s Country Brewery

Ayinger, Munich’s Country Brewery

  Ayinger is affectionately known as Munich’s “country brewery,” and it’s easy to see why. When you take the train out from Munich, the cityscape gives way to the industrial margins of the city, and then suddenly you’re on a broad green plain with gently 

Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: De Garre, Bruges

Belgian Beer Café Vignettes: De Garre, Bruges

Clichés about hidden gems aside, there are hidden gems, and then there are true hidden gems. De Garre is a true hidden gem — literally. The address is simple enough: De Garre 1. But it’s a clue more than anything else. You have to look 

Off the Beaten Beer Path near Munich

Off the Beaten Beer Path near Munich

  ~Beers, breweries, and beer gardens in Bad Tölz, Tegernsee, Kloster Reutberg, and Benediktbeuern~   Munich has it all for the beer drinker. And if that’s not enough, breweries like Ayinger, Kloster Andechs, and Weihenstephan fan out at various points along Munich’s regional train network. 

Bamberg’s Beer Gardens: A Bierkeller for All Seasons

Bamberg’s Beer Gardens: A Bierkeller for All Seasons

The broad verdant valley north of Nürnberg gradually gives way to hillier terrain covered in woods. There’s gold in them there leafy hills the closer you get to Bamberg. Liquid gold, that is. And liquid amber, bronze, and copper. The spires and steeples of Bamberg 

The Art of the Beer Garden Food Feast

The Art of the Beer Garden Food Feast

  King Max and the Hungry Beer Garden Patron A refreshing beer and a meal in the cooling shade of the beer garden: It’s a beloved rite of spring and summer that dates back to early nineteenth-century Bavaria. For several years, the citizens of Munich 

Kloster Andechs: And Blessed Be Thy Beer

Kloster Andechs: And Blessed Be Thy Beer

Kloster Andechs occupies a central place in the pantheon of German brewing. Founded by Benedictine monks in 1455, Kloster Andechs has been offering hospitality to weary pilgrims ever since. Now run by the Benedictine Abbey of St. Boniface in Munich, Kloster Andechs is the largest