Today started with waking up at 9:30 after about 10 hours of much needed sleep. I wandered downstairs to the dining room and the continental breakfast was out and ready for me. Fresh baguettes, fresh jam, yogurt (not sweet yogurt...be careful! :)), and cereals. I had some of the baguettes with jam and a little fruit...and as my Mom asked me today, no, french baguettes don't taste the same as back home...they are SO.MUCH.BETTER!
After breakfast, I took a nice hot shower and was extremely happy to find that the water pressure here is great! I was able to get all of my conditioner out without fuss and the water was hot for the whole shower. I don't think I could go a month without a nice, hot shower!
I chose what to wear based on how cold the air felt from my open windows in my room. The temperature was in the mid-60's today with a nice breeze. Not humid at all. So, Lexi, Krista, and I walked into town (about 15 minutes) and went to the Atac (the local supermarket). GUESS WHAT I FOUND, Reva, Jenn, Sara, and Mom??? WEIGHT WATCHERS MEALS! I'm not kidding. I took pictures to prove it so go check them out on Flickr. The funny thing, though, was that the majority of the WW meals were with seafood. I guess chicken is not as popular here as in the U.S. I found a ravioli meal and had that for lunch with some Coke Lite. It was filling and fun to eat because I can tell my story when I get back home! :) Also, I've started to notice things that are very different here versus back home. At the supermarket, you don't get bags to put your groceries in so we all walked back to the Chateau with arms full of goodies (France is big on recycling, Mom! :))
Anyway, we walked back to the Chateau and pretty much immediately boarded the van. Our itinerary--go to the Kronenbourg Brewery and then take a boat ride around Strasbourg. We arrived at Kronenbourg (in Cronenbourg, France) about 30 minutes later and started our tour. Our tour guide spoke very good English and was very nice. We first went to "Beer School" where we learned that beer is made up of. Of course, the recipe varies but this is the base of all recipes to produce 1 liter of beer:
- 5-6 liters of water--needed for all of the process
- 200g malt--Gives the beer color...Also, malt is actually barley (or corn, etc...barley makes wheat beer) at the beginning, it is then germinated in water and when the enzymes appear, it is dried and cooked. There are three types: pale (heated at 60-80 degrees celsius and is used for lager beers), caramel (heated at 80-120 degrees celsius and is used for amber beers), and dark (heated at 120-200 degrees celsius and of course makes the dark beers)
- 2g hops--"Spice of beer" (interesting fact: 70% of the Alsatian (the area in France) hops harvest is exported and 50% of that is exported to the U.S.
- 10g yeast--This is the most kept secret by brewers so our guide couldn't even show us yeast. Yeast is a HUGELY important part of the beer-making process because it adds the actual flavor of the beer. There are 40,000 beer brands out there in the world and every single one uses a different type of yeast. The yeast transforms all of the sugars from the malt into alcohol and CO2 which also releases the flavor. You can have bottom fermented yeast that gives the fruit flavors to beer or you can use top fermentation yeast that is used in most of the dark and wheat beers to add the almost spicy aromas.
I know that is probably more than you wanted to know about beer but I took detailed notes because I know that a particular someone would like to know all of this information or at least find it interesting! :)
After beer school, we headed into the Kronenbourg brewhouse that was built in 1847. Since it was built so long ago, the equipment for brewing the beer is made of copper. So, the brewhouse isn't in use anymore but it is stunning to see the copper from floor to ceiling. In fact, there are only 3 brewhouses in France like the one at Kronenbourg and only 10 in Europe. We then went from the brewhouse to the house of Jerome Hatt and his family, founders of Kronenbourg Brewery in 1664. The house was full of older advertisements and the main point was that the law in France now forbids all alcohol from TV and cinema advertising. So, they wanted to display their old advertisements.
Finally after a short movie, we headed to the "bar" in the brewery and were introduced to about 10 different beers. We were allowed to sample as many as we wanted but we didn't stay very long. I tried the Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc. It was a sweeter wheat beer. I sipped a few others that were GROSS but I don't enjoy dark beers. After our tasting, we got back on the van and headed into Strasbourg again.
We walked around and killed time for about 30 minutes before our boat ride. I needed to use the restroom and so did Jessie. So, we walked into a restaurant and said "Bonjour" and Jessie asked if the lady spoke English. She said "yes" but then had trouble understanding us. We asked, "do you have a bathroom we can use??" and she looked at us with a funny look on her face. We asked again...and she said, "what do you want to do?" And I said, "Umm, pee." She then explained the funny look on her face. In France, a bathroom is where you take showers. So, she thought we were asking her if she had a shower that we could use! Hilarious! She let us use her bathrooms for free, though. I guess she needed a laugh! A group of us then headed to the Cathedral that was stunning and then back to the riverside.
We took about an hour long boat ride on the Ile River that goes around the center of Strasbourg. It was beautiful and relaxing and we even got some history by listening on our headphones. I also fell in love with a little French girl named Carola. She was 2 and adorable and put up with me trying to speak French to her. She blew me a kiss when we got off the boat! I love kids anywhere I go! :)
(I promise I'm almost done...we just had a lot to do today...)
We then had a few minutes break and then we all headed to a restaurant named Gurtlerhoft there in the middle of Strasbourg. We ate salad, tarte flambee (similar to a pizza...a thin bread with sour cream and then onions baked on top...Sara, it was AMAZING!), and a little ice cream for dessert. And, I can now officially say that I have eaten........LIVER! The salads came with liver on top and Lexi encouraged me to try a bite. I sort of wish I hadn't but I wanted to tell all of you that I was a brave soul!
Anyway, we headed back to the Chateau where I am now writing this. It was a long day but quite enjoyable and much better than yesterday's sleepless day full of activity.
It is 11:21 pm here so I better head upstairs to bed. Thanks for sticking through to the end of this monstrous post! 2 days down, 23 to go!
You're making me really bummed that the internet was barely invented when I graduated high school and spent three months in Europe! I have a handful of detailed hand-written journals, but MAN it would've been cool to have a blog back then.
Posted by: Amanda | May 12, 2007 at 10:09 PM