Day 1 - London

The next few blogs will briefly, and I mean briefly, comment on the happenings of my trip to London and Munich with my good friends Chad and his dad, Anthony. The impetus for this trip was to see Tottenham Hotspur v. Burnley as Anthony is a huge fan. Chad and I are really just along for the ride. Somewhere along the line a short jaunt to Munich to attend Oktoberfest managed its way into the itinerary, but more on this later. Keep in mind many portions of this blog were noted but not published so the publish day will rarely match the actual day of the events. Such is life in a techo world.

We arrived safe and sound early Thursday morning having had an uneventful flight (a welcome thing, indeed). After an incredibly long wait through customs we made our way to the Heathrow Express having purchased tickets in advance via the web and were in no time transported to Paddington Train Station in Central London. A short two block walk and we were at our hotel, the Falcon Hotel in Norfolk Square. The staff at the hotel was very welcoming and accommodating and I think we would all recommend this hotel for the budget minded traveler.

Spent the better part of the afternoon at the White Horse Inn in Parsons Green in the great company of James McCrorie, founder of the Craft Brewing Association in Britain as well as a highly recognized Scottish brewing history expert and homebrewer. Needless to say the conversation was entertaining and fascinating. The White Horse Inn is an amazing pub steeped in history and a long time devotee to real ale. It is famed the world over for its cellaring and perhaps the most recognized cellarman of contemporary history, Mark Dorber. Mark has moved on and now Dan Fox capably runs the pub carrying on the great cellaring traditions. Mark was kind enough to give a cellar tour while we were there. Very education and our thanks go out to him and James for an incredible afternoon. Among the beers we tried were Harveys Sussex Best Bitter and Hook Norton's Old Hooky.

A bit of tourist stuff after the White Horse. Stopped in at the Red Lion near Piccadilly Circus for another fix of great real ale and to soak in some more classic pub atmosphere. The Fullers owned Red Lion is a wonderful historic pub with great interior architectural detail, one of the finest in London. This is indeed a well run pub. Chad's pint of Fullers London Pride was a bit cloudy and a staff member took it straight out of his hand and got him another without him saying a word. My kind of pub. All the ales here were perfectly kept. Among the other ales we tried were Fullers Chiswick Bitter - my new favorite ale on the planet!, Fullers Honey Dew, and Fullers Discovery the latter of which Anthony loved.

We moved on to try to stop in at the Dog & Duck as we have a beloved pub of the same name in Austin. The pub was absolutely heaving outdoors and in so we gave up and went for a small Indian meal and then headed back to the hotel.

Tomorrow, off to the Fuller's Brewery for a tour and an interview with Head Brewer, John Keeling.

Yours Aye!
Neil