Yellow is for Tour

Le Tour de France.
Bonjour… Another American won the 2006 tour after the three main favourites had to withdraw due to drugs charges…however the main story is that Cadel Evans finished 5th…and Robbie the freak won the green sprinters jersey… and I was there to see it.

The trip to France was a quick decision based on passion and my love of the tour…The last day started with a good breakfast and a small warm up lap on the Champs Elysees to find a perfect spot to watch…once found all I had to do was wait…and wait…. and wait. Finally the riders completed 5 laps and finish…sounds like a lot of effort for a few men in tights but I didn’t care I loved it!

So back on the brain is a riding trip through the French countryside, a couple of cycling buddies and a car in support…I picture a 5 week trip of riding through remote towns to stop over in bed and breakfasts, enjoying the cheese and wines of the region…Sounds great.

All in all I spent 3 days in Paris, saw what I wanted to see, had a few pints and jumped on the plane back to Dublin. I was a little sneaky with my camera and managed to snap a shot of the Mona Lisa…wondering around the Louvre, got me thinking about the book The Da Vinci Code, I could image exactly what it would have felt like trying to escape in the middle of the night…very eerie.


The city itself is really beautiful, so rich in history and so many exquisite buildings; I almost thought it rated close to Melbourne…. Almost. The French as also really nice people, with my broken language skills I was surprised how much kindness was offered.

So I have cut back on the drinking to a few jars a week…as you can probably see some of the previous posts have had a beer focus… and I’m back in training…I haven’t jumped on a bike for 10 months now and I need to build my fitness up…so running is the key. Hope to be back in time for the Melbourne marathon…but whether I’ll run depends how well the motivation is to stay off the pints.

Mine's a Pint at St James's Gate Brewery

My goodness My Guinness, that’s what I was saying as I enjoyed the taste of a well-deserved pint in the gravity bar at the Guinness storehouse. The drizzle set-in in a timely fashion earlier that morning as I made my way through the back streets of Dublin in search of the home of the most famous pint around.
I finally found the St James Gate at the end of Steven street and it was not to disappoint. Made out of blue stone the brewery was originally bought in 1779 by Arthur Guinness for 20 pounds under a 9000 year lease.
From this early start, the recipe has only improved and still to this day the secret flavour essence is sent out of Dublin to all the Guinness brew houses around the world…The process is very tightly controlled and this is one of the major contributing factors of its success of the Guinness brand world wide.

To prove a point a pint is sent from every brewery from around the world to be tasted by the quality tasting team here in Dublin.

Roasted barley gives the stout its familiar taste and the slow filtering process gives it its creaminess. After a complimentary pint at the end of the tour, the taste buds are dancing, so it was off to the pub for another pint. Ireland is a beautiful country, a patchwork of meadows sprawling across the entire countryside, only to be interrupted by the occasional golf course or one of the many quaint local establishments. I don't really ever believe the press, however I believe this...Good things do come to those who wait!

Heineken Experience

So what does beer, cheese and mustard all have in common…The Dutch love all three of them to be consumed together. That’s right forget beer and nuts and no longer are pretzels going to be making anyone thirsty. Cheese is the way to go and its not really any specific type of cheese, it seems to be just cheese in general. So it was this love of cheese that persuaded me to visit the home of the most iconic beer in the world, Heineken. From the outside the building is quite modest, very similar to the bottle itself. A strong green with a red star to indicate its quality and to also remind the drinker of the brewer’s first gold medal.

It wasn’t until recent times did Heinekens really become a worldwide brand. Okay they have been making beer for a while, however the label and name have gone well beyond the beer itself, distinguishable as the red Coke-a-Cola label however as synonymous with brand quality as Mercedes Bends (and with advertising like this old gem, you can’t blame them) With hundreds of thousands of visitors each week the brewery have developed what could only be described as a 21st century museum dedicated to the Heineken brand and its global domination. The visiting public takes a 2-hour tour through the process of beer making, from the selection of the water to the virtual horse and cart ride through the streets of Amsterdam. (I also found out what is in those big fat metal things). Bars are dotted through out the tour to quench any weary travellers and all the young kids love the hydraulic bottling ride, where you take an exhilarating 3-minute journey as a bottle in the brewery. Once you have passed the Heineken DJ dance floor where you can practice your mixing skills, the tour comes to an end with two free drinks at the brewery’s bar. Beer flows freely here and the brewery has made sure everyone leaves a little tipsy and well informed.

Once the experience has ended Heineken has make it easy to tell everyone how enjoyable the experience was and after a couple of beers, it’s amazing how many of your mates email addresses you can remember, Unfortunately after about 4 beers it amazing how many you forget and I was only able to send myself a email post card (see postcard attached).

Brewed In Big Metal Things

I have made my way to sunny Copenhagen to visit Moochybingo and to check out the bike scene here in Denmark. It's a revolution everyone here rides bikes everywhere even when the weather is -10 degrees and the snow is coming down in drifts. This has many advantages as beer is cheaper than soft drink, so with a culture of biking, no one drink drives. The Danes get tanked up and peddle there way home knowing that the only person they can do damage to is them selves.
Whilst being here I made my way out to Carlsberg town. Carlsberg is Denmark's biggest and best export (Note 1) and is world renowned for good beer in green bottles. Two clips on my train ticket and we are there, just in time as the snow begins to fall again. We arrive at what can only be described as the entrance and here we are greeted with a familiar sight of Elephants. Carlsberg was established some time ago by Mr and Mrs Carlsberg and was handed down to other people when they died. Originally the main force behind the beer producing was the Danish Elephants, these animals were used to crush the barley and move around the huge barrels of beer, however near the closing of World War II, these tireless beasts of burden were summoned to Berlin to defend the capital against the approaching Russian forces and alas only these tributes remain.
We hurriedly made our way through the boring visitors centre which tells you about the history of beer and beer production, one important point to note was the beer counter which was running at a rate of 3000 beers per minute and a current total in excess of 6 billion beers produced which was impressive and reassuring, oh and we saw some ancient beer making wenches get there babs out which also was impressive and reassuring. Final after about 4 minutes we found our way to the beer fridge and were allow to make a couple of selections from the collection, which was quite extensive however we note that they were lacking a VB, so remember to bring a bottle if your out this way. Whist quenching our thirst one had to ponder at ones refection a while in a big metal things and wonder how did they carry around those barrels now all the Elephants were gone?

Note 1: Exports are items which remain at there country of desination, hence Danish women are excluded from this category.