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A Tale of Two Cities
by Ian McLaren
There are two cities within a few hours' travel of North London which between them epitomise European beer culture. You can get to either for less than £100 and find accommodation for about £20 a night. And each is an excellent venue for a long weekend of pub crawls.
Physically, the nearer city is Antwerp. I tend to travel out by Eurostar to Brussels from Waterloo. Antwerp Central station is about half an hour further on: The 8.30am train will get you there by lunch time. Cheap accommodation is available near the station, or in the town centre (where most of the decent pubs are found): the main tourist office is near the Town Hall. Bus and tram prices are very reasonable, but I usually walk.
Antwerp itself is an ale town, the best being from De Koninck (a 25cl "bolleke" is usually less than £1), but most of the huge range of Belgian beers (pale, dark, strong, wheat…) are available in a variety of outlets. I suggest avoiding ‘house' lagers (Stella Artois et al). There is a huge range of bars. There are atmospheric cellar food bars near the cathedral – try De Pelgrom in Pilgrimstraat; and ‘brown' cafés where the locals gather from (and to) early in the morning - try Den Engel, next to the Town Hall and Oud Arsenaal, near the Rubens Museum, which its own beer called Arsenaaltje. There is a brew pub ‘t Pakhuis on the harbour front, and several specialist beer bars, the best (although not the cheapest) of which are Kulminator south of the centre and Afspanning ‘t Waagstuck to the north. You could pay up to £10 for a 75cl in Kulminator, but more standard bottles would usually be about £2. For more details, see the Selective Guide to Brussels (etc) Bars, available from CAMRA Brussels (phone 0032 2299 0249 or Stephen.D'Arcy@cec.eu.int).
There is a full range of international cuisine in Antwerp, roughly at London prices. Pub snacks include plates of salami and cheese, spaghetti, toasted sandwiches and omelettes. Chips (frites), the hallmark of Belgian cuisine, are rarely served in bars, and never with fried fish!
The GO flight from Stanstead to Prague airport takes under two hours. There is an office for cheap accommodation at the airport, usually just outside the main tourist area. Getting round the city is cheap, with a seven-day pass covering the Metro, trams and buses costing about £5.
Czech beer culture is based on top-fermenting beers, the most famous being Budweiser Budvar and Pilsner Urquell. The main Prague brewery is Staropramen, owned by Bass, but regional beers are quite widely available in the city. As in Antwerp, there are few foreign beers on offer (ignore Heineken and so forth – always canned). Most of the beers come in two strengths – 10 (about 3.5-4% abv) and 12 (4.5-5%). The dark lagers are certainly worth trying – they often have more flavour than the pale version. Most beer is on draught – very few bars sell bottles. The main divide in pubs is between the type of customers they are aiming for: prices in tourist pubs are at least double those in locals' bars. These latter are found more in the suburbs than in the City Centre, but try U Staropramenu, near the brewery (about 30p for 50cl) and U Cerneho Vola on the Castle Hill. There are a couple of good specialist cafés, with full menus, at the foot of the Castle Hill – U Svateho Tomase and U Kocoura (both about 50p for 50cl). In the (14th century) New Town, you will find U Fleku. This pub has had a brewery on the premises since 1499, when it was a Dominican friary. You must visit, despite the prices, the service and the customers – the beer (strong, rich and dark) is wonderful, even at £1 for 40cl! There is a brewing museum open during the day.
For more details see the CAMRA Good Beer Guide to Prague and the Czech Republic by Graham Lees (rather out-of-date but still quite useful).
Again, you can get international food in Prague, rather cheaper than in London. Or you can eat in the locals' cafés. At U Konvalinek, in the southern suburbs, my lunchtime goulash with bread dumplings and a litre of Gambrinus came to under £1: at Upstrosa II in the inner suburb of Vrsovice, a pork chop with chips and a litre of Pilsner Urquell was well under £2.
Copyright (c) July 2001 - Ian McLaren (i_r_mclaren@hotmail.com)
Reproduced from the Full Pint, Issue 11.
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