Friday june 3rd 2005.

Main impression:
London Pub crawling.

Odor:
The hot dogs swiming in fat and full of fried oigions offered by a street vendor at 2 in the morning, yarck!

Color:
London gray sky.

Flavor:
The beers, wow! The hotel breakfast, yarck! Well, on the culinary side it seems that there are very good restaurants in Londres now and I ate an excellant cury on my first meal but if you look for something not too expensive beside cury you will have to look hard. You have to pay price of three starts restaurant to eat not as good as the corner eatery. Ar the hotel it cost 7.25£ (about 18$ CDN) for a "Full English Breakfast", ok you could eat as much as you want but who would like seconds? In Montreal I would never set feet again in a restaurant who would ask $5 for this breakfast, scrambled eggs where tasting more like cardboard than anything else, saucages where fats and had no flavors, bacon was half cooked and croissants where in airtight plastic wrap...
I must admit that I have been spoiled in Belgium on the food side, my deception may in part be due to this but I can say that in genereal it's less good and more expensive than in Belgium.

Sound:
Mind the gap!

Texture/sentation:
The creamy texture of a good cask ale! The sentation it give while going down your throat.

Day summary:
After I had understoud to never pay for 3 breakfasts in advance in an hotel whitout tasting it first and told myself that I certainly could find something better and less expensive aroud the hotel, I whent to "Waterloo International Station". I got time to take a capucino before the meeting time.


"Waterloo International Station".

I go to the meeting place but I see no one, it's 9:50 AM... I begin to worry when I see someone not to far with a beer t-shirt... Ouf, I didn't miss the spot and didn't come to London for notting, in fact visit London is interesting but the main reason I spent more than 500$ in hotel plus train and other spending that are more expensive here than in Brussels was to join this Pubcrawl.

You may ask what I'm doing in England? Flashback, fade-out/fade-in... Since I thinked to do a trip to Europe I always told myself that it was impossible to see all Europe in a single trip (unless it's a year long trip). I wanted then to do many trip centered on a country or region. Since this trip will be my first in Europe I choose to put few days on the side to see something different but not to far. I choose London before leaving and left my mind open if I got time for Amsterdam.

For London, I read on the Babble Belt that there would be a book lunching on june 3rd, in the midle of my trip. The book is "332 originele cafés in vlaanderen" by Bob Hendrickx. Yes, I went to England to buy a book in flemish even if I don't read this language... I must add that this book is an institution of it's kind and that the book pay for itself in a few days in Belgium. This book gather 332 cafés/bar in Flanders, this year edition add five of London's most recognized temples of good beer. The book principle is that the first time you visit a place specified in the book, they stamp or sign the page in question and your next drink is free or half price, if you get 100 stamps you receive a case of beer and if you get them all you receive your weight in beer... in belgian beer! (from Lefebvre Brewery).

So it was a perfect excuse to visit London, get that book who will be quite usefull in Belgium (even if I'm at the end of my trip but it still will be usefull for my next trip I hope), visit five of the best London's beer temples and at last meer many members of the Babble Belt who helped me a lot to find information to plan my trip.

Note: You can read the details of this day as describe by David Kernick in the OBER'tje journal.

Fade-in/fade-out, return to present... I get closer to the guy with the beer T-shirt and present myself, he is here to meet Jeremy Gray and his gang. He also wonder if we are at the right spot, he have a cell phone but not Jeremy number, I noted the number yesterday when I got on the internet at the Vibe bar just in case... Jeremy is on his way and finaly we are about twelve peoples for the begining, others are waiting at the first stop.


The group ready to go.

After about twenty minutes walk, we arrive at the first stop, the Royal Oak, superbe place with wonderfull woodwork. We all took a beer to refresh ourselves after our walk and to put us in the mood for this book launch. Jeremy Gray tell us how he got the idea of a section about London have germed and presents the peoples who helped him in this project. Bob Hendrickx add a few words. I buy my copy 10£ (around 22$ CDN) and profit of the occasion to get my first stamp and to get the book autographed, many peoples do the same after me.


The Royal Oak and the group who get bigger.


Bob Hendrickx write some words in John White book.


Jeremy Gray tell us how the London section idea germinated.


Hummm, cask ale served to perfection. A great art!


On the way to the second stop we pass in front of a plate in the honor of Geoffrey Chaucer, a 13th century author, this give a bit of historical perspective.

Second stop, Utobeer, it's not a pub but a place to buy beer in an open air market. The best place in London to buy Belgian beers. We all taste it's special beer on tap and take the occasion to buy some beers. The majority of peoples in the pubcrawl buy beers from Belgium but myself take the occasion to buy beer from UK, following sugestions from fellow crawels, that are not avalable in Quebec.


Utobeer.

It's lunch hour, we profits of the market to grab a bite, so I must admit that not only cury is good in London, you should not forget that Lord Sandwich was english and the englishs have kept the secret of how to make the most intriguing and surprising sandwich.


In the midle of the market, small counters serve foud for lunch. Some are so populars that the queue was more than 100 feets.


Again, it seems like everyone like to take a beer standing up on the sidewalk.

We get together to go to the Beer Circus, for that we have to take the train since it's in East Croydon a London suburb. Arriving there, evidently my transport ticket does not include this zone, even if I did ask for a three day ticket good to go everywhere, it seems we do not all have the same definition of everywhere. I slow the group but Jeremy and few others wait for me. We accelerate our steps (it's a good thing that I didn't walk too much yesterday, I was able to rest my knee and it's less painfull today) and reach the others in a short time.


We regroup and take the train to the Beer Circus.

The Beer Circus is a very interesting place, it specialise in beers from around the world but mainly Belgium, in fact it's inspired by the Bier Circus in Brussels. I buy a Fantôme brewed specialy for the Beer Circus.


The Beer Circus.

We now go back to London in the train (some peoples decided to stay a bit longer at the Beer Circus and will take the next train to catch us) to go to the White Horse. Another superb place where we can almost smell tradition. Bob Hendrickx pay a round before leaving, he had to take the last Eurostar to get back in Belgium.


The White Horse.


It's a bit foggy after few beers but I think that this sing is quite "British".


Inside, a private room with food was at our disposition, thanks!


On the left, the manager of the White Horse, Mark Dorber who recieved us very well, fed us and even got some old beers from his celar, he also talked about some projects.


London is true to it's reputation concerning sudden rainstorm, this one arrived without warning and lasted less than 20 minutes but during that time... Look at this running down the gutter in the center of the photo, lots of bathroom showers don't have this flow rate.

We then move to the last stop, Microbar. We take a last train and then I got my first run in a london bus, the distance is walkable but it's raining. Contrarely to the White Horse and Royal Oak, this bar has a more modern décor. We all start to feel a bit tired and the alcohol level in my blood is without doubt higher than the legal limit. The pubcrawler leave few at a time, soon only few are left and the atmosphere is more of party thane degustation. I still find excellent UK beers in this bar.


Going to Microbar I made my first trip in a two story bus (besides tourists bus).


Microbar.


The evening is almost over.

Finaly, we are only four, somes talk about going to dance but I prefer to get back to the hotel. We share a cab to the tube (my first London Cab!) where I was able to get a burger before closing time but it was already too late for the subway. I take a bus toward Trafalgar Square who seems to be the turning plate of night bus. A streetvendor stink the area with his hotdogs and onions cooking in an inch of stinking fat or oil, the smell of fried onions and the fat is realy overpowering. I finally find a bus for Liverpool Station.