33.
Heathrow and Stockholm, Saturday 5th July 2003
This particular crawl makes history as the
first to take place in two different countries. The first couple of pubs were
attempted on UK soil in Heathrow Airport, whilst I was making my way to Sweden on business accompanied, not for the first time,
with a monumental hangover fuelled by the Elsevier garden party and some Campari. Unable to accept solids, I opted for a half of
Guinness in Parallel 54, at Terminal 3, landside. As expected there was no real
beer and it was expensive, so not worth bothering with. Once moving to airside,
a branch of O'Neills was visited for a half of Bass -
real beer at least although again there were no redeeming features.
Time to get on the 'plane,
and a swift free can of Faxe Pils
made the trip easier. On arrival at Arlanda Airport, Stockholm, I decided that some refreshment was needed so had
a glass of very bland Falcon lager from the pedestrian range available, though
it was quite nice after the flight.
Once I had settled into the hotel, it was
time to have a quick look around Stockholm, and on the way in I paused at The Spitfire, a cod
English pub doing Shepherd Neame products. The
Bishops Finger tasted very strong, perhaps the
Spitfire would have been a better move. Last time I was here we spent a lot of
money in Hornan's Kok and Belgo bar, and here it was time to get dinner, washed down
with some Hoegarden. There are a number of draft ales
here (Hoegaarden, Leffe, Westmalle, Maredsous, Bel Pils, Grimbergen),
but the real plus point is the splendid array of bottled Belgian ales which
needs a menu to help with selection. Also noteworthy was a super cute barmaid
whom. And each beer was served in its own glass, one of which looked like an egg
timer.
On the way back, I popped into another
Belgian bar, the Duvel Cafe, which had less in
bottles but more on draft, including three sorts of Maredsous,
and a couple of other old favourites. Like Hornan's, this is well worth a visit. It had been a long
day, but there was room for one more, in a bar above Stockholm East railway
station. I had a Pripps Bla
whilst watching the Osbournes as that was all that
there was available. This bar seemed an anonymous locals one, and the toilets
were used by commuters so most unpleasant.
A good crawl all in all, on two
landmasses. The two Belgian bars were streets ahead of anything else visited,
and the quality of the indigenous totty is well above that noted at home!
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Dan
Lovegrove
dan@doctor-lovegrove.com
Last updated 15th July 2003.