Mont St Michel

Mont St Michel, France

When Joe finished his work in Belgium, we set off for a mini French vacation; our first stop was Mont St. Michel. I first read about this abbey when I was a little girl, in some book I don’t even remember. I was fascinated by the tides and by this church rising seamlessly from the rock to tower over its surroundings. Mont St. Michel is located at the mouth of the Couesnon River in the English Channel and has some of the most dramatic tides in the world. When the tide is out, the island becomes part of the mainland; just a church on a rocky hill. When the tide is in, the city is surrounded by water and becomes a walled island once more. The tides come in with such speed (17 feet per second) and ferocity that it is dangerous to be outside the walls. 

The mud flats around Mont St Michel
This photo was take at about 4pm

This picture was taken exactly 3 hours later, and the
area is almost completely underwater.
Mont St Michel, France

The tide was out when we arrived, so we took the opportunity to wander around the mud flats surrounding the abbey. There is something amazing about walking on mud barefoot; it just feels so good squished between your toes. Joe was hesitant to join me at first, but eventually he gave in, kicked off his shoes and socks, and strode out onto more uneven ground. Quicksand is prevalent, so our steps were careful—until we found some. It was a small patch of quicksand, and it felt very weird to walk on, but since we weren’t sucked in, we stopped worrying about it. When our feet reached the desired level of muddiness, we decided to rinse them off, and go find a place for dinner.

We returned to the “island” by walking along the shallows of the adjacent Couesnon River. During our stroll, one of the local residents scuttled up to examine me. I think the little crab wasn’t paying attention and just crashed into my toe, but when I looked down and saw him there, I screamed and ran off. I probably scared him more than he scared me, but I’m not looking to get my toes pinched.

A soloist inside Mont St. Michel abbey church

After dinner we strolled along the walls of the abbey and looked at places where we had been mere hours before—now they were all underwater. At the time, the abbey was open at night, so we were at the top of the Mont during sunset. These stunning visuals were accompanied by soloists playing period pieces. It was very moving; the acoustics inside gothic churches make is seem like music is coming from within you. 

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Pictures from Our Trip!

Mont St Michel Visitor Information

Tide Times 

The Best Beer in the World

In August, Joe needed to go to Belgium for work, and before we left, we decided to check out some local breweries. A quick Google search revealed there was a brewery, Westvleteren, about an hour away selling the best beer in the world*; obviously we had to go.

The Saint Sixtus Monastery, home of Westvleteren Brewery
Vleteren, Belgium

Further research only piqued my interest more; the brewery is part of a functioning monastery. The monks brew the beer in small quantities, selling what they don’t consume to the flocked masses. Westvleteren is one of 6 trappist brewers in Belgium, and it hasn’t given in to the lure of capitalism.  Trappist denotes an order of monks that pride themselves on self-sufficiency. The monks brew beer for themselves and the community—excess is sold. They have not increased production since 1946; the monks "brew to be able to afford being monks". Chimay is sold in US supermarkets; Westmalle and St. Bernardus are available at US specialty stores; Westvleteren is only available at the monastery.

To taste the “best beer in the world”, you must make the trek to Vleteren, Belgium. Here, in the café/visitors center, you can order Westvleteren 12 by the glass. If you are interested in buying the beer by the bottle, there is a slightly more procedure to follow.

The road leading to Saint Sixtus Abbey
Vleteren, Belgium

The monks know their product is good, and they know people all over the world are clamoring for it. To deter people from buying it in mass quantities and reselling it, they’ve implemented a system that limits how much beer can be purchased at once, and how often it may be purchased. Beer may only be reserved once every 60 days, and you may only reserve 2 racks of 24 beers each. To reserve your rack, you must call the beer line at least 1 week in advance; don’t worry, they speak English. You’ll provide your license plate and choose a pick-up time, assuming of course they haven’t already sold out for that week. Keep in mind they are a religious organization, therefore they will be closed on Sundays and religious holidays, as well as any federal holidays in Belgium.  

If the reserved racks have all been claimed, or if you discovered the brewery a mere 48 hours before your intended visit like I did, there are other options available. Each day in the café, 6 packs are available for purchase. Of course, this is a long shot, and it requires driving out to the middle-of-nowhere Belgium without any assurances of availability. We went anyway.

In De Verde-the cafe/visitor's center of Westvleteren Brewery
Vleteren, Beligum

We arrived in the afternoon and joined the beer queue. This line was the closest we’ve come to experiencing a “Black Friday” phenomenon in Europe; it was still polite and orderly, despite the rare quantities for sale. It was a very tense line; all of us wondering if we would be among those lucky enough to obtain the elusive brew. Alas! It was not to be; they were sold out. But wait! A ray of hope! Westvleteren makes three beers: Blonde, 8, and 12. Blonde and 8 were still available; we purchased a 6 pack of each.

After buying our sixers and moving away from the throng still waiting their turn, we wandered outside. There are tables inside the café, but on such a beautiful day, the place to be was in the beer garden. We sat at one of the many picnic tables adorned with umbrellas and ordered a glass of 12 and of Blonde. We enjoyed our beers and gazed out at the farmland around us. This place really is in the middle of nowhere—only 1 lane roads provide access. As expected from a monastery, it’s very tranquil.

From left to right; the blonde, the 8 and the 12.
Vleteren, Belgium

Even if there are no racks or sixers to be had, you can still enjoy the 12 and its brothers by the glassful. Here’s some food (or drink) for thought as well; just because Blonde and 8 aren’t the best beer in the world, it doesn’t mean they aren’t good. They’re very, very tasty. The monks at Westvleteren are skilled brewmasters, and it’s worth the trip out there, even if all you take away is the memory of sitting in the sunshine sipping delicious beer.

*As chosen by beer advocate

Useful Links!

The Brewery at Saint Sixtus Monastery 

Current Beer Reservation Calendar

Wall Street Journal Article about the monks trying to remain cloistered

Why the monks brew in such small quantities

In De Verde, the cafe/visitor center adjacent to the monastery

German Graves

My mother’s ancestors came from Germany, so before my parents left, we visited the towns my great-great grandparents came from. My mom was hoping she would be able to find more information from some of the local cemeteries. The towns were up near Stuttgart, and our plan was to drive around looking for cemeteries. 

Driving around Kirchheim am Neckar, we were able to find the cemeteries really easily, once we learned the German word, Friedhof; we just followed the signs. Puzzlingly, none of the graves were older than the 1950s. At the time, we thought collateral damage from WWII had destroyed all the older graves, but we wondered how that could happen to all the cemeteries in this small town. Lacking another explanation though, this was all we had to go on. It turns out the truth is actually stranger. 

Germans lease their grave spaces. The plots are rented in 15 year increments, and after 30 years, if the family doesn’t want to maintain the site, it will be reused for a totally new (dead) person. Usually, the previous occupant has returned to dust before the new occupant arrives. However, in some regions, the soil composition is such that the bodies are becoming preserved. When undertakers dig up the site, they’re finding mummified remains, and are being forced to come up with alternate solutions. 

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German Graves

Pemberley

Chatsworth House
Derbyshire, England

It took all day to drive from Perthshire back to London, but to break up the drive we stopped in the Peak District, at Chatsworth House. This is one of those grand British houses leftover from another time. The house is still owned by the 12th Duke of Devonshire, a peer of the realm. This is the kind of house in which girls dreaming of being Mrs. Darcy want to live. It’s fitting then that the 2005 Pride and Prejudice movie used Chatsworth at the set for Pemberley—Mr. Darcy’s home. There is also rumor that Jane Austen modeled Pemberley on Chatsworth when she was writing Pride and Prejudice.

The library at Chatsworth House
Derbyshire, England

I’ve seen the 2005 movie a lot, so I knew the house would be big, but standing before it, I was still amazed at its size. I couldn’t believe that it all belonged to one family—and I’ve been to several castles and palaces. Maybe that’s the problem; this building was palatial, but it was referred to as a house. At least with all the servants and generations living there, it can’t be called a single family home.

Bust of Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy
Chatsworth House
Derbyshire, England

We were walking through my imagination; wandering the house, grounds, and gardens. It was a welcome break from the car. I particularly enjoyed seeing vistas from the movie, and there was a prop—a bust of Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy—in the gift shop. The staff around the property was all very friendly and helpful; they were well educated on their surroundings and they could answer questions or participate in discussions about the artifacts or their owners with ease. Furthermore, the Peak district is a beautiful area and driving through it was a pleasure.

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Pictures from Our Trip!

Chatsworth House Visitor Information

Pride and Prejudice at Chatsworth House

The Boat Show

For our last day in Scotland, I’d booked us tickets to the Traditional Scottish Wooden Boat Show in Portsoy, Scotland; it seemed like the perfect event for my Dad. When we arrived it was cold and rainy, and since we were on the coast, there was a cold wind blowing in off the North Sea. The weather really diminished our enthusiasm, but the festival looked like it would have been a lot of fun if it wasn’t so cold and rainy. There was an outdoor stage were a group was singing sea shanties, but I couldn’t bring myself to sit in a wet chair in the rain to listen to them.

Yellow Pants doing most of the Work
Portsoy, Scotland

The weather was apparently part of a much larger storm and a lot of the boats were setting sail to try to avoid it. The show was supposed to last until 7pm that evening, but when we arrived at noon, only 2 large boats remained, and they shipped off within the hour. These departures were actually the most interesting part of the festival. The ships were traditional crafts, so the crew used traditional methods to exit the 300 year old harbor—no outboard motors.

Safely exiting the harbour
Portsoy, Scotland

To exit, two lines (nautical speak for rope) were connected to 2 “tie up thingies” (also a nautical term*). The whole crew would pull on the first line to pull the ship away from the harbor wall, and then they would start pulling on the second line to turn and exit out to sea.

The first boat was manned by an experienced crew and they managed a beautiful exit. Some of the men were old and just standing around though; one young guy in yellow pants appeared to be doing the brunt of the work, but he was clearly capable of working alone.

Notice the rope they're tugging on
Portsoy, Scotland

The second ship was crewed by a bunch of newbies, unused to working together as a team. It took them much longer to exit the harbor and their departure wasn’t nearly as smooth. With a few months at sea, they’ll be able to manage turns better in the future.

After the big ships left, there wasn’t too much else going on. There were smaller boats and even some dinghies, but their captains weren’t around for chatting. We also visited some of the shops, but my Dad is full up on lines and buoys, so we didn’t buy anything. My Mom and I did visit a bead shop where a woman was selling beads out of her motor home.  There is a bead store in Regensburg where I get my beads so I was all set. I also wasn’t thrilled that her crystals came from China and were priced higher than the genuine Swarovski crystals I’d been buying. But I guess that’s what happens when you aren’t next door to Austria.

*Thanks to Google, I’ve learned the proper term for the “tie up thingies”. It's bollard.

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Pictures from Our Trip!
Traditional Scottish Wooden Boat Show

Nessie!!!!

Just one of the many vistas through the Cairngorms.
Cairngorms National Park, Scotland

Day 4 in the UK took us up to Inverness and Loch Ness. This was the farthest north we travelled, but I would have loved to go even farther to see some of the northern islands like Skye and Shetland. I think Scotland is the most beautiful country we have visited; our drive went through the Cairngorms National Park, and I made Joe stop the car several times so I could take pictures. It really is a wild landscape with few cities marring the view. The weather reminded me a little of Florida, in that it rained every day, but it was also sunny every day. It wasn’t hot and humid though.

A fresh water plesiosaur obviously lives here.
Loch Ness, Scotland

We arrived on the shores of Loch Ness around lunch time, so we popped into the Clansman Hotel for a quick lunch before our 1 o’clock boat tour with Jacobite Cruises. The food was excellent and we managed to order, to eat, to pay, and to make it down to the docks in under an hour—a rarity in Europe. While we ate though, a storm was gathering.

Our tour was to take us across the Loch to a spit of land where the remains of Urquhart Castle stand. Here we would disembark and explore the Castle and gift shop for an hour before the boat returned for us and sailed back down the Loch.

Top left: could that anomaly be Nessie? 

On our outward voyage, the clouds followed through on their threats and unleashed a storm; the weather was perfect. With rain and wind the surface of the Loch became choppy and shrouded in a thin layer of mist; the exact weather I imagined would plague the Loch on a regular basis. Under these conditions, I easily believed in the monster. Loch Ness is the 2nd deepest lake in Scotland at 755ft and is fed by the River Ness. The river and loch have been stained black by the peat they flow over. The black water limits visibility to about 12 inches, but our vessel came equipped with sonar for detecting any underwater anomalies (Nessie!). In fact, on the way back from Urquhart Castle we observed a curious shape in the sonar screen—perhaps the legends are true.

Remains of Urquhart Castle
Loch Ness, Scotland

As I said before, Urquhart Castle stands in ruins, and in this case, a ruin means almost no roof. Since it was still pouring, we didn’t spend long wandering the castle’s grounds. My parents gave up and went inside, but Joe and I defiantly, albeit quickly, explored all the sections of the castle before joining them in the gift shop. We were soaked, but we got our money’s worth. In the gift shop we sipped hot beverages while waiting for the boat to return. I wish I could say we were warm and dry by the time the boat docked, but damp and chilled is a more accurate description.

A dog in the Loch Ness Brewery
Loch Ness, Scotland

During the ride back down the Loch, the storm cleared up, so by the time we reached our next destination, The Loch Ness Brewery, we were reasonably dry. Breweries are always fun places to visit, especially the smaller ones, as I think microbreweries have more flavor. The Loch Ness Brewery is on the shores of the Loch, and it incorporates this locale into the names of the beers. All the beers end in Ness; HoppyNess, WilderNess, RedNess. The brewpub was small and dog friendly; we met a small, friendly dog inside. The beer was tasty and we were able to mingle with locals—but we still felt like tourists.

Useful Links!
Pictures from Our Trip!
Cairngorms National Park
The Clansman Hotel on the Shores of Loch Ness
Jacobite Cruises Homepage
A History of Nessie from PBS - Back to Roman Times!
Urquhart Castle from Historic Scotland
Loch Ness Brewery

A Very Full Day in Scotland

The remains of Hadrian's Wall near Cawfield's Quarry
Haltwhistle, England

After breakfasting with some Polish athletes we left Newcastle. I think they were soccer players, but they were all so tall and skinny they could easily have been basketball playing gymnasts. We walked off our breakfast while visiting Hadrian’s Wall at Cawfield's Quarry; remnants from the Roman Empire. When new, the wall was 16-20 feet high, but now it’s only chest height. The stones were pilfered after the fall of Rome, but they were reused in the fencing and houses of the locals.

Milecastle 42 at Hadrian's Wall
Haltwhistle, England

The wall was very precise; every mile was a milecastle gate, and every seven miles was a fort, regardless of natural topography. The part we visited skirted the edge of steep incline, but Milecastle 42 was there. The wall functioned as the northern-most boundary of Rome, and there are conflicting accounts as to why the Romans didn’t press further into Scotland. One account claims the Scots were ferocious fighters who held the Romans off; the other maintains that the Romans looked at the sparse, rocky land and said “keep it”. It should be obvious which account the Scots prefer. We paced the wall for a bit, playing centurion, and then we pressed deeper into Scotland.

In April my sister and I rode the train from King’s Cross station in London to Edinburgh in Scotland, and it passed close to the Scottish coast line; we followed a similar route when we drove north.  I love the landscape of Scotland; it feels so open and grandiose. The drive was beautiful, but it was a bit time consuming, and we arrived late for our whisky tour in Edinburgh.

Part of the world's largest collection of Scotch Whisky
at the Scotch Whisky Experience, Edinburgh, Scotland

Luckily tours run all day and we were able to join a later tour. The only apparent downside: we had to share our tour with a stag party. However, it was still early in their night and they weren’t rowdy. The tour started out with a barrel ride where a ghost detailed the instructions for brewing decent whisky. Most interestingly, the size and shape of the still can change the taste of the whisky. There are a few tour options at the Scotch Whiskey Experience; my dad chose Gold but the rest of us selected Silver. Gold tours come with 4 bonus drams in addition to the 1 dram everyone in the Silver tour receives.

Wandering the Beautiful Royal Mile
Edinburgh, Scotland

There are 5 flavor profiles of whisky in Scotland, but Campbeltown Malt is rare and wasn’t really discussed during our tasting. Of the 100 or so brewers in Scotland, only 3 produce the Campbeltown Malt, and rarely is it exported. Since there were 4 remaining flavor profiles, and 4 of us on the tour, we each selected a different style. I do think my Dad and I ended up drinking most of all 4 though. After the guided tasting, we were led into a room with wonderful views of the Royal Mile and Holyrood Park, where my sister and I hiked last time. Here Dad received his additional 4 drams; one of each style. We asked for some dark chocolate, and he and I proceeded to share the drams; cheeks growing steadily redder. Mom and Joe ordered beers, but they didn’t like the one that tasted like caramel popcorn. I found that caramel popcorn beer was a great chaser for the smoky Speyside whisky. Then, in case we hadn’t consumed enough, we went to Whiski for dinner. As before, it was delicious.

Poor guy. He did not see this coming!
South Bridge Vaults, Edinburgh, Scotland

When we finished dinner we wandered the Royal Mile a bit before meeting the Mercat Cross for our Ghostly Underground Tour; the same tour my sister and I were on in April. This time though, our tour was in the final time slot for the evening; no one would be entering the vaults after us. It was still damp, dark, and eerie, but we didn’t feel anything supernatural. We did take some pictures this time, and Joe managed to accidentally blind a guy with the flash; it was so dark we couldn’t see him until it was too late.

That night we stayed in the Edinburgh Hilton which was a labyrinth of passages and stairways. It felt a little like Hogwarts; I kept waiting for the staircases to move. The bed was giant and old, and it’s creaking was a little scary after the ghost tour, but we managed to sleep well. The weird thing is, the rooms on their website look nothing like the historic room in which we stayed.

Useful Links!
Pictures from our Trip!
Hadrian’s Wall an English Heritage Site
Hadrian's Wall near Cawfield's Quarry
The Scotch Whiskey Experience in Edinburgh, Scotland
Learn more about Whisky from the Scotch Whisky Association
Edinburgh Tourist Information Site
Holyrood Park from Historic Scotland
Whiski Bar and Restaurant: Whisky on the Menu and in the Fare
Ghostly Underground Tour from Mercat Tours
Book a Room at the Edinburgh Hilton

Read about my previous Adventures in Holyrood Park with my Sister
Read about my first encounter with Whisky

Read about our first ghost tour!