Thursday, March 26, 2009

Lots to look forward to...

Perhaps I should have made this plainer yesterday, but I am really looking forward to moving. I always enjoyed the itinerant lifestyle that went with growing up in the army, and although I want to stop for more than while in Virginia, I love moving about and seeing new places, learning about the history of a place and finding good places to go. Unlike some, I am not a crap traveller, I am in fact one of those annoying people who plans in advance and finds pubs to go to and beers to try - I also like to get to the airport on time, and have all necessary documents to hand when needed. Mrs Velkyal puts up with this with commendable grace and only occassional embarrassed looks.

One of the comments to yesterday's post asked me where in the Commonwealth of Virginia we are moving, and the answer is the Charlottesville area; once home to fellow homebrewer Thomas Jefferson, as well as Anna Anderson. Oh and there are a few local breweries to try out, such as Starr Hill Brewery, Devil's Backbone and South Street Brewery. Also nearby there are apparently quite a few vineyards, so I hope to indulge my love of good wine as much as my love of good beer. In my searching for places to go, I have come across a restaurant with a rather impressive beer list, as well as a recommendation from a friend about a pub or two.

Most of July though we will be spending in Mrs Velkyal's home town of Columbia, South Carolina - which will require a couple of return visits to The Flying Saucer, as well as trips to the Thomas Creek Brewery in Greenville and attending the 10 year reunion party thing for her school, whether or not I wear my kilt to that particular bash is up in the air at the moment. We also have a week in Florida scheduled, though I am yet to really research my options on that front, other than hopefully stopping again in St Augustine and re-visiting Rendezvous for some Budvar, or Czechvar as it is in that neck of the woods.

3 comments:

  1. That's a great beer list! There are so many US beers that I want to try but just can't get hold of. Are you looking forward to the new US stuff that you'll have access to or will you miss the Czech stuff?!

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  2. Al,

    Enjoy your blog...

    Glad you are excited about the states. I look forward to your ramblings on the US beer scene. I am not well traveled, but I don't think we suffer at all from a lack of good craft beer.

    I am working on a trip to Prague myself and can't wait to visit some of the places you have wrote about.

    Cheers

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  3. Mark,

    I think it is a bit of both, I know that I will miss some of the smaller brewers like Primator and Kout na Sumave, but I am looking forward to having a far wider selection of styles to choose from.

    Michael,

    Glad you enjoy the blog, if you need any tips and advice about Prague just drop me a line.

    ReplyDelete

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