TRAVEL AND LIFESTYLE DIARIES

It’s winter in wonderland here now in the Netherlands. White and BBRRRRR... Last night it took me 2 hours to get home. It was yet another record breaking statistic—880 kilometers of total traffic in the Netherlands. You see, the Dutch have this strange habit of tallying, they’re statisticians of everything. Anyway, to continue my earlier post about a sneak peak to ‘Brew You Ride’ and ‘Heineken Beer Tasting’ , see below a summary of the tour I did at the Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam. Trivia: Did you know that Freddy Heineken (grandson of the founder of Heineken-Gerard Adriaan Heineken, and former president and majority shareholder of Heineken) and his chauffeur were kidnapped in 1983 and released on a ransom of about 16 Million Euros? The kidnappers were tracked down by police and eventually served jail term. It was said that after this incident Freddy Heineken bought the Dutch Royal Family bodyguards. His daughter is now the current CEO of the company. Check out all my fotos here...

Over the weekend during a family party, we talked about Hong Kong, being one of the easiest cities to travel to for a whirlwind weekend getaway—the airport is conveniently linked with the metro (MTR) to the city and within minutes you are in downtown Kowloon amidst all the shops and restaurants while Hong Kong Island is just another metro stop or a few minutes ferry ride away. And I just realized that I have not really featured Hong Kong in my blog, and that is why I am posting this now to make up for the lack. At the Victoria Peak in Hong Kong Island looking over Central District, taken with a pre-digital camera, roll of film developed and printed, scanned and then uploaded =) I’d really love to visit this bustling city again. Would love to saunter on the busy streets, smell smoked peking ducks hanging from each restaurant’s window and watch the cooks shout at each other in shrilly Cantonese, try one of those Hongkong style tea with milk—an inheritance from the old Britis...

Let me highlight the ‘Brew You Ride’ and ‘Heineken Beer Tasting’ we experienced last September at the Heineken Brewery Tour. This is probably the climax of the tour because here we BECOME the beer and we finally get to TASTE the beer behind the visit, even though we’ve probably drank litres and gallons of it already. Here comes the Brew You Ride. The concept is experiential, it is for the audience (that is me) to BE a beer for a few minutes. So we entered this dimmed studio, that is supposed to be the cistern where we will be brewed =) We are now inside the cistern, er studio, and we have this big panel screen in front of us and a narrator telling us we are now going to be brewed, step by step. I even felt the studio shake underneath me (that explains why the foto is a bit off!) and water was sprinkled on my face! Cool effects, reminds me of Omniversum in Den Haag and Rialto Theater in Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines. Enough of the brewing experience, now the official beer tasting...

For sweet cravings in Utrecht, I am sharing you a café restaurant find in Vismarkt that offers, as many Utrechters would swear, the best Appelbol in town. Oozing caramel with raisins trapped inside the apple, that must be heaven for the sweet tooth chosen ones! As for me I like the caramelized flaky and crunchy dough. Dutchman and I have been going to Graaf Floris for years. We only come here to eat their appelbol (literal translation: apple ball) when the cold weather kicks in. I don’t know why but it’s just heavenly to eat this thing—well, I give half to the Dutchman who so willingly gobbles up everything, when it is cold outside, and lovely when it’s paired with hot black tea. Verdict is 5 stars out of 5! Check out the cafe restaurant here: Graaf Floris (Utrecht). It is located on Vismarkt along Oudegracht near the Dom tower, just around the corner. Travel Period: November 2010 Destination: Utrecht Centrum (Utrecht), The Netherlands Keep in touch and follow me on Fac...