"Where in the world can I find a drink?" We've been pretty thirsty as we've been on the road, and we've found many awesome spots to quench that thirst! Similar to how we define our Favorite Meal Experiences (which we had to update after making this list since we discovered a lot of overlap - check out the revised list here), we considered several criteria when coming up with our list of Favorite Drinking Experiences. Among those are the atmosphere of the place, the quality of the drinks, the people watching entertainment value, and the people we met. It's a combination of these things that frequently made us turn to each other and say, "Man, I love this place!" So while these spots may not mean much to other people, they sure are special to us! Here are our favorite places to enjoy a cold beer or a glass of wine!
The pretzels and beer at the Chinese Tower Beer Garden in Munich were so tasty!
Laughing with our new friend John Meenan at Peadar O'Donnell's in Derry, Northern Ireland.
- Chinese Tower Beer Garden, Munich - We originally thought, "Let's just stop by for a beer real quick", and ended up staying for 5 hours and many liters of delicious weiss beer, pretzels, and pork knuckle. Amazing beer, great people watching, delicious food, perfect weather…it just doesn't get any better.
- Gaffel Am Dom, Cologne - Joined by the Dobles, we loved the electric atmosphere of this crowded beer hall, the way the servers kept track of the number of tiny kolsch beers we drank (tally marks on a coaster), and the added bonus of live music and jolly crowds yelling the words to folk songs and dancing by their tables.
- Chic's House, Stirling, Scotland - 5 bottles of wine per night with the most interesting man in the world - need I say more?
- Peadar O'Donnell's, Derry, Northern Ireland - We walked into this bustling bar with no idea of what to drink or where to stand, still processing the history we had taken in on our walk around Bogside. Within minutes, two hilarious men made room for us at the bar and we started chatting. We spent the next few hours getting to know our new friends, the Meenan brothers, and trying desperately to understand their thick Northern Irish accents, which got heavier the more they drank, and hard to decipher the more we drank!
- Belga Sorozo, Budapest - With our friends, Arni and Inez, in charge, we knew we were in for a wild night! They introduced us to "dinner for the beer", and many delicious Belgian beers! In fact, we drank more Belgian beer in Budapest than we did in Beligum!
- Prater Garten, Berlin - Sitting under the big shady trees with two of our best friends, Tom and Beth, enjoying local brewed weiss beer and nibbling on pretzels, we couldn't help but think, "Life is good."
- Guinness Store House, Dublin - We loved walking through the well-designed museum, smelling all of the ingredients in the misty white room, and learning how to pour the perfect pint. Neither one of us had ever really enjoyed Guinness before, but THAT Guinness, fresh from the store house, was perfectly delicious! If only it would taste like that in the States!
- Grand Bohemian Beer Tasting, Prague - Learning the science behind how water from around the world affects what kinds of beer each region can successfully produce, and tasting nine different kinds of Czech beers made for an educational and fun experience with the Schaals! See? We're learning on the trip too! We can Czech that off the list!
- Cave St. Charles, Chateauneuf-du-Pape - Comparing Old World styles to New World styles, tasting wines we would never otherwise dare to purchase, while sitting in 13th century cellars as a somm teaches us about the famous Chateauneuf du Pape wine is an experience I will never forget.
- Sparkle Horse, Glasgow - There's nothing terribly exciting about this bad. It's just a just a low key place where Barney, the bartender, knows regulars by name, board games line the shelves, and good beer is served. We loved chatting with Barney, learning about Scotland's favorite soda (Iron Bru), and drinking the local wheat beer by West Brewery. And with a name like that, c'mon, of course it was going to make our Top 10!