355. Sat 17/3/18: Café Central, Seville

Beer: Paulaner Hefe-Weissdier 5.5%
The over friendly bloke who arrived (late) to show us our apartment was, as they tend to be, something of a tour guide – marking places on the map that we should go to/see. We explain that, though we’ve been to Seville a number of times, we’ve never really explored the Macarena area. He points out an excellent tapas bar near Alameda de Hércules, which has prompted this Saturday afternoon expedition in inclement conditions. We’re bedraggled and miserable – but find the place. It looks awful. It looks like a TGI joint, an “all you can eat” diner or summat.

But it’s pissing down. We’re cutting an increasingly forlorn smear through what seems like a potentially trendy area; and Café Cental (the next port in a strorm) seems quite a trendy bar. We don’t feel we belong. It’s way too young and cool for us – but not achingly/archingly so. It’s nice and relaxed, and the beer is very nice – and only twice as expensive as the local brew.

We have a couple. We discuss whether this place (and possibly Alameda de Hércules in general) is another gay bar (in the gay area). We’re not sure. We don’t care. We’re too damp to care (and not in a sexy way). We think on going somewhere closer to our digs – somewhere closer to our budget, and back amongst our trendless aged demographic.

439bb. Sun 24/6/18: Sandy Bell’s, Edinburgh

Beer: Inveralmond Lia Fail 4.7%

Back on the half & half.

The bar is fairly quiet and relaxed. It's known as a folk music venue and, in fact, when we arrive some diddly diddly music (as Christine likes to call the genre) is going on in the back room of the bar.

I call in home and talk to Christine about the Saturday antics and the England match. I try to tell her about the architectural highlights of the pubs and bars we visited on Saturday but she doesn't understand (?) and I find later she's taken the rise out of me on her FB page about this. I guess I didn't explain it properly.

A family group (I assume) who had been sitting at the front of the bar take up the vacated back room space and take out a selection of penny whistles while (again I assume) the dad plucks at a bass-like instrument and the rest of the entourage clap to time. All very much an unaffected bit of fun for them but still nice to watch nonetheless.

At our table, there is an extended discussion about AI, robotics and whether things like Siri and Alexa are the thin end of the wedge that will lead to Skynet taking over. It still seems the plan to have another couple somewhere else and then head back to the flat.

We move on to the Jolly Judge - surely that will be the last blog of the day?

31. Sunday 090417: Bodeguita La Mar de Bueno, Malaga

Beer: Cruzcampo 5.0%

Bar with a shellfish counter. We’ve been to Malaga a number of times and this is a great concept, which we’ve never taken full advantage of… but buying the prawns/langoustine etc is difficult for the non-Spanish speaker.

The service is rather brusque, and they’re ready to close at 4.30pm

We’re served Cruzcampo in nice glasses which state “Cruzcampo Gran Reserva”, to which my notes disparagingly suggest, though they’ve attempted to polish a turd, still tastes like s***. Bit rude that. Cruzcampo isn’t my favourite lager, but on occasion it can be disarmingly refreshing.

I was probably a bit miffed at feeling hurried and/or frustrated that I couldn’t order a serving of great big crab legs.

125. Mon 3/7/17: Bricklayers Arms, Luton

Beer: Canopy Beer Co Hamlet 4.4%, Dow Bridge Ratae’d 4.3%

A week or two late – it’s the Rex Horton Quiz Teams’ Summer Solstice quiz at the Brickies. The starter round is name the pictured young women who have featured in FHM’s Sexist Lady poll. Bad start – and it didn’t get markedly better.

The low point was the question “how many streets are there on a Monopoly board?” What do they mean by streets? Me brother was sure it meant any potentially residential property – whereas I thought it meant those properties which were streets (i.e. Bow, Regent, Bond… Oxford etc). My brother was right, apparently, according to Mary Quizmistress – that caused ructions throughout the quiz playing populace generally, while debating the point stirred an argument within the RHQuiz team. Kingstons and Whitings at each other’s throats. Monopoly has been the cause of family disharmony for generations.

We all made up, in the end. My best contribution was an eight point haul for the answer “Johnny Depp” on clue two (I suggested him on the first – “born in Kentucky 54 years ago” - for 12 points). And I drew a beaver.

Rex Horton finished in 5th place, with a disappointing 90 points (100 being par).

 

232. Thu 16/11/17: Konvikt, Prague

Beer: Pilsner Urquell 4.4%

Our favourite non-Old Gott beerhall in central Prague – selling tankovna PU.

Since our visit this time last year, the Czech Republic has banned smoking in pubs and restaurants – and that’s made a big difference to places like this, which used to be very smoky. Steph is very pleased about this. I’m generally happy but remain faintly nostalgic about smoke filled pubs…

There’s ice hockey on the telly. It’s Sev 2 Avt 4. I have no idea who either team are… but Sev have just scored another.

We’ve been to this pub several times in recent years – it makes a nice change from U Medvícků – the beer is always good, and it’s very rarely packed.

On this particular evening, it’s only 7pm, but we’re already quite drunk.

48. Thu 13/4/17: Bodeguita Cerrillo, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5%

On previous visits we’ve stayed at an apartment just around the corner from this little (acutely angled) corner bar, and have popped in for first and/or last drinks. There’s room for half a dozen folk inside, at a push, and a similar number outside being served from bar window. We’re outside this afternoon and, mercifully at odds with other establishments today, it’s nice and quiet – just a couple of black widows* and their beaus.

It’s not a bad bar – there’s not enough room for it to go too far wrong. Very basic tapas and no religious or bull fighting flim flammery on the walls.

* A costume relating to Semana Santa: the women (of all ages) dress head to toe in black gowns, with elaborate head pieces. It may just be a Maundy Thursday thing – there certainly seemed to be a lot of them about that day.



No pictures

432b. Fri 22/6/18: Thomson’s Bar, Edinburgh

Beer: Stewart Brewing Jack Back 3.7%

The first bar we hit after arriving in Edinburgh for a boozy long weekend with some old friends. Hence, I start with a friendly session beer. It's Friday afternoon and the bar's not that busy. This bar was chosen from the CAMRA Good Beer Guide app on my phone. It's rather a low key start to proceedings (but it certainly picked up the pace as the weekend progressed). We are meeting a friend of Will's later who lives in Edinburgh for a meal at the oldest curry house in the capital. More of the divine Cath and her local guide skills later.

Most of the talk is about our respective trips down here (James and I flew from Luton, Will the train from Manchester). Also about how much we think Steve will have changed (it turns out not much). He is arriving tomorrow from Glasgow and we haven't seen him for 25 years.

As the curry house is a bit of a walk away, we have the one pint here and head off.

196. Thu 5/10/17: Restaurante Ibericos, Alicante

Beer: Alhambra 5%

On the same street at Sento, this place has pretentions of being a restaurant rather than a bar; but they have a couple of bar stools at the window. We sit on them and, eventually, get served (with beer and delicate tomato and anchovy toastie tapas). The beer is served in oversized wine glasses.

It's ok here, but the bar inside is very long – curving round into a restaurant where far more important customers apparently need attending too. Anyway, we very rarely see, let alone catch the eye, of the bar staff so we sup up and move on.

 

245. Sun 19/11/17: U Medvícků, Prague

Beer: Old Gott 5.2% 

After U Fleků it’s good to get to the slightly less cynical tourist trap that is U Medvícků. That said, at least at U Fleků there’s always somewhere to sit. U Medvícků is huge, and largely empty (it’s mid-afternoon), and every table appears to be reserved. There are reserved signs all over Prague – but most give some idea of time, allowing you to sit at a table and enjoy a couple of drinks if the reservation starts in an hour or so's time. The U Medvícků reserved signs only have one word on them. We visit the pub a few times this trip – and every time we’ve been standing outside the brewery bar, drinks on the barrel.

Conversation this time around revolves around how long we’re going to last into early/mid evening at the current rate of imbibing.

389. Thu 12/4/18: The White House, Luton

Beer: Tring Tea Kettle Stout 4.7%

The ongoing shenanigans at the place I live has meant that I’m now a director of a company. The whole thing is absurd and the first meeting is upstairs at The White House. I meet the company secretary. He requests a pint of Abbott. Good man. I’m on coffee, like an idiot.

Once the meeting is over, I bid my… colleague(?) adieu, and have a proper pint myself.

Tring beer is usually very good, and I’ve been very keen on stouts and porters recently. With such heightened expectations, I found the Kettle Stout just about whelming.

Thursday afternoon at the JDWWH is laudably busy – impressive to a blue chip on the shoulder company director such as I – and many of the patrons seem to be enjoying a curry. Smells quite a bit – but being rather partial to a curry myself I took no offence whatsoever.

323. Mon 12/3/18: Casa Lazo, Cádiz

Beer: Cruzcampo 5.0%

From the market environs we carry on in a north easterly direction, at a tangent to our digs; passing a cinema (where we decide against seeing a film). We end up outside Casa Lazo, which appears to be more porcine restaurant than pub. Looking in, though, there is a bar area – so we venture inside.

It’s a thriving little place: the clientele this afternoon seem almost entirely made up of one or two extended families (the youngest members of which are far too noisy).

The bar seems to be trying very hard with its tapas, but nobody seems too interested. We get some complimentary olives, which does for us.

432. Sun 17/6/18: The Strathmore Arms, St Paul’s Walden, Hitchin

Beer: Haresfoot Hoppiness 5%

It’s me birthday, so get to do something a little unusual – and that involves firing up whichever GBG application works on my device, to find a pub we’ve not been to before.

Tow Steph’s folks along for the ride. Roy’s driving and, out in the wilds at the back of the airport, The Strathmore Arms isn’t an easy place to find. The satnav gets us there eventually.

It’s a great place: a ramshackle old local in the middle of nowhere (as far as we’re concerned).

There’s a few old boys sat at the bar. One (wearing an Escape to Victory TOFFs shirt) has a couple of springers – which are set upon by Steph’s Mum. The young dog is very friendly, the older bitch, not so much.

On the bar, on a large serving plate, under cellophane are a few remaining large samosas – selling for £1.30 a pop.

Anyway, yes, as I’ve suggested – this is a wonderfully chaotic place. One gets the feeling these kind of pubs used to be far more the norm, even in town centres, than they are now. Pubs surely benefit from being allowed (and/or left alone) to take on the idiosyncratic character of their landlords and patrons… I can’t really say, on an isolated visit; but the ambience here seems like a breath of fresh air.

We sit round the corner, in a room barely furnished with church pews. I notice a nearby (dusty old) bookcase, piled upon which are a collection of Good Beer Guides going back to 1976. I thumb through a few; the books used to be a lot thinner, the descriptions extremely brief, the artwork often appalling. In terms of Luton pubs, The Brickies wasn’t listed until 1996 and, before then, The Gardeners Call was a 1980s mainstay.

66. Sunday 160417: Enoteca El Arena, Mercado de Arenal, Seville

Beer: Cruzcampo 5%

Just round the corner from the Meeting Point (see no.65), but in the central aisle of the market; where the natural light streams in to illuminate the Rick Stein endorsed fish restaurant and this – the only other bar that’s open. It’s more wine than beer centric; bottled Cruzcampo the only concession to cerveza, but punters can sit up at the bar - which is a bonus.

On the little telly in the corner they’re showing bullfighting highlights. It’s fascinating and appalling in unequal measure. I am impressed by the Spanish peoples’ love affair with it, but the more I see (particularly the gory finales) the more bemusement/distaste increases and empathy fades.