WADING THROUGH THE BREW

It has been said that before Europeans came to North America a squirrel could travel tree to tree for the length and breadth of the continent without ever having to go to the ground; such was the thickness of the forests. Today one can cross the United States going from one brewery to another easily holding their breath between destinations. Such is the current popularity of craft brewing.

Okay holding one’s breath is not plausible…perhaps holding your water would be a more apt metaphor?

Actually the stat I’ve read is that 80% of the U.S. population lives within 10 miles of a brewery. There are over 6,000 breweries in the country and the number is growing every month. No longer having to settle for the yellow fizzy beers of our fathers, craft brewing has become big business. Anyone with the desire and patience can become a brew master.

But, is this a good thing?

Even I made a number of batches a bazillion years ago. I had great fun brewing, bottling, designing labels and glowingly watching friends savor my home brew. It’s a lot of work though and I soon discovered it was much more satisfying to taste the craft beer made by others. My passion was in drinking and not brewing I guess.

With this incredible explosion of craft beer, seemingly everyone is trying their hand at it and new places are popping up daily. Many of the beginning stories of those entering the craft brew market are similar with a home brew kit and a big pot. Sadly though, despite the passion, there are no guarantees the results will be palatable. At the risk of sounding like an asshole; because beer really is just a wonderful extension of the day no matter the final brew, some of the stuff that’s coming out is just plain weird, some hedging on bad. Just because you call yourself a brew master and you feel the need to experiment with all kinds of ingredients and flavors, doesn’t mean you should.  And, when should home brewing transcend hobby and become a business?

WHAT IS CRAFT BEER? 

YELLOW FIZZY BEER NO MORE

When I was a young man the only exceptions to the yellow fizzy rice beers were far from me in California or the Pacific Northwest., specifically Anchor Steam from San Francisco, Sierra Nevada out of Chico, CA and Red Hook out of Seattle. Not readily available on the east coast at the time it was impossible to get a cold one unless I traveled out there. Thankfully I had the great luck to travel a bit for work and was able to imbibe. My first Anchor Steam was in the San Francisco airport waiting to board a plane to Japan. As I traveled across the country I always tried to taste the local beers. I guess I wanted to experience the local culture; that is if beer can be considered “culture driven”?

RED HOOK BEER

ANCHOR BREWING

SIERRA NEVADA  

BEER SNOB?

As I look back on the beginning of the craft beer revolution and how I have slowly evolved into the beer snob I fear I may have become, I cringe when I realize how dimwitted I was in my beer knowledge. At one time, I couldn’t find Belgium on a map. The English only drank warm bitter beer. The French only drank wine and the Germany purity laws sounded like National Socialist propaganda. My beer IQ has increased, but, my snobbery dissipates when it comes to all those fizzy beers. Of course there’s a place in this world for all that Bud, Miller and Coors and the people who chug them. You want to drink them… go ahead I won’t be snooty and look down my sparge arm at you. Personally there’s nothing wrong with an occasional PBR on a hot summer’s day, but this is an article about the unwieldy explosion of micro brews and craft beer. Has the movement tilted into haughty arrogance?

THE ROAD TO HELL IS PAVED WITH GOOD INTENTIONS

Graham Greene once wrote that converts to a religion are more devout than those raised by rote. Readers of this humble travelogue know that Team VFH is passionate about a few things and drinking a good beer is an epiphany. While we do like most of the craft, micro and nano beers that are being produced nowadays, we believe the phenomenon has with some brewers become pretentious. To what point is gained by experimenting to the point of silliness. Is it apostasy to question why strawberries, or butterscotch, or kiwi is in our beers?

Brew masters are often overly enthusiastic and try for whatever reason to make something different because they can and think they can walk down supermarket aisles to find things to throw in their beers. I’ve had beer with pronounced tastes of chocolate, strawberry, currants and grapes. Some infuse avocado, honey, pine needles, ham and bull testicles in their beers. Okay, I wouldn’t even ask for a taste for that one, but here’s a list for you to wince through.

YOU PUT WHAT IN YOUR BEER? 

ROCKY MOUNTAIN OYSTERS

YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!

Okay, if you’re still reading I want you to know that I am not alone in my thinking about some craft brewing. Here is a fantastic article about getting it wrong…at least when it comes to brewing Belgian-style beers, including a Tripel.

YOU ARE DOING IT WRONG

TASTE BEFORE BUYING

To avoid a mouthful of yuck sloshing around your palate, the best advice is to get a sample first. Most breweries will happily offer up a sample and some even say if you’re not satisfied with a pour to hand it back. If you are unsure, get a taste before you purchase. I had once ordered a triple at a craft brew pub without tasting it first and it was a big mistake. To me it smacked of lipstick and I’m sure they served it in a clean glass. Even though all the other beers we had at this particular craft brewery were very good this one was off-tasting.

ONE AND DONE

Experimenting with different beer styles is part of the charm of craft brewing, but it can also be frustrating, especially when you find a beer you really like and it is gone when you make a return visit. You can always go to Victory for their Hop Devil, Dogfish for a 60 Minute, Triumph for their Bengal Gold or Iron Hill for their Bedotter Tripel, but those are the exceptions. Too often when a beer kicks, it is permanently gone.

WHERE TO GO?

We are truly blessed here in south east Pennsylvania with the available choices of craft brewing. Even the corner gin mill is liable to have two or three interesting beers on tap and several in bottles and cans beyond B, M, C coordinates of fizzy beers. Nearly half the Pennsylvania craft breweries listed here by Food And Wine magazine are in the general area, but there are many many many more.

30 PENNSYLVANIA BREW PUBS

Here is a quick list of some of the craft brew pubs we’ve visited in our neck of the woods with ratings of Beer, Atmosphere and Food:

APPALACHIAN BREWING COMPANY

Collegeville

Beer: you can drink them. Flagship and Seasonal selections.

Atmosphere: it’s a weird dark building; like an abandoned mall. Inside the pub it’s airy and pleasant

Food: standard fare

(Wish this small chain offered better beers because I can LITERALLY hold my breath and walk here from the house)

APPALACHIAN BREWING CO

ROOT DOWN

Phoenixville

Beer: rotating tap… Lot’s of IPAs

Atmosphere: cavernous, dark but airy

Food: Nice selection of different things… WHEN the kitchen is open. You have to order and pick up food at a window. No table service

ROOT DOWN BREWING 

TRIUMPH BREWING

New Hope

Beer: Rotating tap. Usually the award winning Bengal Gold IPA is available

Atmosphere: Sit outside to watch the steam engine train trundle into the station

Food Small plate half price specials. Excellent burgers.

(When I lived in Lambertville this was my go-to place. Great Happy Hour and Tuesday Brewski specials. Small chain... New Hope is dog friendly)

TRIUMPH NEW HOPE 

IRON HILL BREWING

Phoenxville

Beer: Flagship and specials are all very good. Look for the Bedotter Tripel or the Wee Heavy if on tap, but any will do.

Atmosphere: Lots of sunlight and friendly staff

Food Voodoo Chicken pizza every time for me, Look for burger specials

(Prices have come down a bit with the influx of competition in Phoenixville. It used to be Iron Hill cornered the city market now there’s a lot more to choose from. Originally a New Jersey brewery but there are currently 9 franchises in the commonwealth of PA)

IRON HILL BREWERY 

VICTORY

Downingtown

Beer Some places you can find a beer to drink. At Victory it’s hard to settle on which one! Golden Monkey is my friend and my enemy. Hop Devil on hand pump!!

Atmosphere Vast open noisy and family oriented. Always crowded Located in an industrial park. Friendly staff

Food Pulled Pork sandwiches, grilled chicken and burgers

(Love this place…also located in Kennett Square and Parkesburg)

VICTORY 

CROWDED CASTLE

Phoenixville

Beer Great example of not finding a beer on a return trip. Their Mod Quad kicked and won’t be made again…

Atmosphere Airy, pleasant, pretty. Sit outside and smoke your cigar with your beer.

Food Very limited menu. Can order from area restaurants who will deliver

(Janet and I like this place. The Castle though never seems crowded. We fear it won’t survive….Get out there and support them…Mod Quad be damned)

CROWDED CASTLE

STABLE 12 

Phoenixville

Beer Definitely ask for a taste before buying here

Atmosphere Nice outdoor seating area. Live music, special events like cornhole tournament

Food Very limited menu. Come for the tournaments

(It’s at the southern end of town. It’s okay. But not a steady diet)

STABLE 12 

SLY FOX

Phoenixville (and Pottstown)

Beer 113 IPA is solid. Incubus Tripel when available. Royal Weisse for a hot day

Atmosphere Phoenixville is friendly. Outside seating carved out of the parking lot. Pottstown much busier in an industrial park. Lots of outdoor seating, but no real bar. Wait in line to order food and beer. Hosts a KanJam for Octoberfest. Music and free

Food Great black and blue burger Excellent fries

(One of the original brew pubs…check their website for different events including the Maibock goat something or other)

SLY FOX 

TIRED HANDS

2 locations in Ardmore

Beer DON’T FRUIT THE BEER AND IF SOMEONE ASKS FOR THE ONLY DIPA ON YOUR MENU DON’T CORRECT THEM WITH THE “PROPER” NAME… JUST SERVE IT

Atmosphere Pretty building…beautiful patrons… staff is haughty snooty pretentious and I’ll never go back to this place

Food For Goodness sakes… DON”T ask to alter the menu item…THAT”S how the chef created it…Piss them off ASK FOR KETCHUP

(Beautiful place …I’ll never return)

You want the website…look it up yourself

HIDDEN RIVER BREWING

Douglassville

Beer They never make the same batch twice, which can be frustrating. Still good IPAs and DIPAs. Always a number of good selections

Atmosphere Located in a 300 year old supposedly haunted building. Live music. Outdoor deck. Located on a river. Very pleasant staff … Limited hours… close early on Sundays

Food Limited but interesting selection. Great pulled pork sandwich.

(I can never get the same beer twice. But don’t worry I always find something to drink!)

HIDDEN RIVER BREWING

STICKMAN BREWS

Royersford

Beer Rotating taps Lots of choices DIPA, IPA, Tripel. Everything is good

Atmosphere At best it’s a warehouse with the vats right next to the wooden benches

Food Sometimes there’s someone serving food there…

(A hidden gem. I love this place)

STICKMAN BREWS 

STOUDT’S BREWING

Adamstown

Beer Excellent Tripel and DIPA.  Flagships and seasonals

Atmosphere A bit of a tired country feel, but clean. Ornate bar, great service a lot of dining areas

Food Full menu, raw bar. Cheese plates, black and blue burger

(A little far, but worth the trip. They have an Octoberfest celebration each fall that features lot of lederhosen and people dancing with a roasted pig on the shoulders to the music of an Oompah band.)

STOUDT'S

This is only a very small sample of the brew pubs in the area as well as across the nation My list is far from complete and I'm always discovering new places. If you're looking for an area or a state here are a couple of resources to plan your trip .

If you have a suggestion as to where I should wet my whistle... drop a suggestion here or at greg.dunaj@yahoo.com

Thanks for reading.

50 STATES ... 50 BEERS

FIND A BEER

REST AREA AHEAD?

Wawa Way Station   

For those of you traveling to the Delaware Shore this summer do not despair that all that backed up traffic has you worried you’ll never find a pit stop in time. Get your trusty co-pilot to break out her Waze App and find you a Wawa convenience store, that wonderful place for refreshments like sandwiches and coffee and snacks and often gasoline and (hopefully) bathrooms.

WAZE APP

worth fighting the traffic

Such was the case for your intrepid shoebees yesterday returning from a relaxing Memorial Day weekend at the big house at Broadkill beach in Delaware with our dear friends. Three hours into a four hour stop-and-go cha cha up Route 1 I started that butt clinching wiggle. Thankfully we were able to locate a Wawa in Bear, on the Pulaski Highway, just a bit less than a half mile away.

If you live in central or south Jersey or anywhere in Pennsylvania WaWa is a home away from home. I can eat there; their hoagies are excellent. Great breakfast sandwiches too and a myriad of coffee choices. I can do my banking at the PNC ATMs, buy gas, or take a nap in the usually expansive parking lots if needed. I can buy lottery tickets and even relieve myself in their clean bathrooms before hitting the road again with my coffee and a delightful Tastykake morsel. Wawa is the first choice and sometimes the only choice.

TASTYKAKES!

NO LOO HERE!

But, not all Wawa’s are the same! Don’t expect a way station in a smaller Wawa. Sure they offer food and drink, but no gas or bathrooms. Well, several cars made their way off Route 1 towards the Wawa on the Pulaski Highway in Bear, Delaware only to be severely disappointed. Entering the Wawa myself and looking around for the bathroom I noticed several others doing the same, wide-eyed and desperate, for there wasn’t a loo inside the Wawa. All left burbling about the next Wawa along the way, but Janet and I stayed. We were going to hit the road ourselves but she discovered the port-o-potties behind this particular Wawa. We are not sure if they were placed there by the Wawa as a matter of courtesy to their valued customers, but it certainly saved me from getting arrested for public urination. 

They were clean and necessary and afterwards the traffic seemed less annoying and we sipped our coffees and devoured our Butterscotch Krimpets with sly smiles on our faces, as if we discovered some secret cache of gold to be horded.

WAWA

TERRA DI DIO

STROMBOLI

A volcanic island off the coast of Italy and a gritty town at the end of the Philadelphia Airport will forever be linked. One is named Stromboli and the other is an Italian turnover stuffed with various meats and cheeses named the Stromboli.

"Why" and "Yum" you may ask?

"Serendipity" and "Chance" I say.

WHY SCANDAL?

Recently enamored with the beauty of Ingrid Bergman after a chance viewing of Casablanca at the Movie Tavern in Oaks, Pennsylvania, an interesting concept where wait staff bring you drinks and food during the viewing, the collective mind and palate of Team VFH soon savored Stromboli. That may seem to be quite a stretch, but Bergman later appeared in a film called Stromboli, directed by Roberto Rossellini in 1950. Considered one of the classics of Italian neorealism filmmaking, Stromboli was big news in the United States at that time, but not because of the craft of the film. Instead, Rossellini and Bergman carried on a well-documented and torrid love affair that started during the production and resulted in a child out of wedlock. She had left her husband and daughter and the moral outrage was stinging. They eventually married and had two other children, including the actress Isabella Rossellini, before divorcing in 1957.

THE MOVIE TAVERN

LIGHTHOUSE OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

Stromboli is an island just north of Sicily in the Tyrrhenian Sea and one of the three active volcanoes in Italy. Stromboli is quite active with constant minor eruptions that are often visible from the surrounding sea earning it the nickname the Lighthouse of the Mediterranean. In the movie Bergman is spirited there by a man she married to escape a post war internment camp and she doesn’t fit in with locals at all.

WHY YUM?

Yes the scandal surrounding Stromboli was big news in the United States and though Bergman’s career suffered for a while because of the moral backlash, an Essington restaurateur, Nazzereno Romano, known as Mr. Pizzeria, decided to cash in on the film’s notoriety. Romano had opened his pizzeria in Essington in 1944; a time when this now ubiquitous food was relatively new to the American tastebuds.. Romano had been experimenting with his turnover / sandwich and after perfecting his concoction capitalized on the global headlines and called it “STROMBOLI”.

Now, if the Stromboli was simply mediocre, it wouldn’t have legs. It was Romano’s combination of meats and cheese and peppers and a secret dough recipe that made it a hit. The often imitated but never duplicated Romano's Stromboli has become popular enough to be considered yet another Philadelphia delicacy. Yep, it's right up there with pretzels and cheese steak and the interesting back story has been featured on several television shows like Today and the Food Network. Today, Stromboli, like pizza, can be found anywhere, but it had it's start in Essington, Pennsylvania, at Romano's on Wanamaker Avenue.

SERENDIPITY AND CHANCE?.

I had never had a Stromboli before and never knew the history behind it. I knew Essington though because we park our car there when traveling from the Philadelphia airport and would never consider going there for something to eat. Turns out though honorary Team VFH members Jim and Maria were traveling to Essington just to eat at Romano's after having seen the Stromboli featured on a Food Network program and invited us along. The Stromboli were incredible. Truthfully I was not expecting much, but my "original" hot Stromboli featured a melange of meats, cheese and sweet and hot peppers encapsulated in an Italian bread thin yet crusty and it all worked. Our little group ordered different versions of Romano's Stromboli. Janet had a Philly cheese steak stromboli. As we ate we giggled at our good fortune to have found Romano's. It's still a little pizzeria despite the fame, with a few tables a lottery machine and a friendly staff. The food lives up to the hype and it is worth a trip down to Essington.

WE ARE PLEASED TO SERVE YOU
In fact, the restaurant's proximity to the airport has helped the notoriety of Romano's original version of the Stromboli get spread across the country. Often travelers or flight crews stop by for their "fix" or purchase frozen Stromboli to be savored later at home and they also ship their product everywhere! Janet and I will now make Romano's a regular stopover in our travels in and out of Philadelphia Airport. 

ROMANO'S ESSINGTON

LAND OF GOD
Of course, there are plenty of things to do in Essington Pennsylvania and you don't have to limit a visit there just to eat Stromboli or park the car for the airport. Essington’s fame is not just related to the Stromboli. For example, one can still walk the grounds of the Philadelphia Lazaretto quarantine hospital now on the National Register of Historic Places just a block away from Romano's. Predating Ellis Island in New York harbor, the Philadelphia Lazaretto Hospital was built in 1799 in reaction to a devastating Yellow Fever Epidemic that killed 10 percent of Philadelphia's population.
THE PHILADELPHIA LAZARETTO

If Typhoid fever or leprosy aren't on your to-do list or you'd rather work off your Stromboli with a hike rather than purging you could visit the nearby John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge for a hike, rent a canoe or fish; although it's recommended that you limit your consumption to the Stromboli and not fish plucked from the waters.

John Heinz is America's first urban refuge, established in 1972 and part of the Tinicum Marsh, the largest freshwater wetlands in Pennsylvania. There are 10 miles of hiking trails and several observation blinds and other activities like canoeing and kayaking available within the refuge. Some points of interest seen while one merrily, merrily, merrily ply the waters are according to the official NWS website: The Sun Oil Company Tank farm, the now defunct Delaware County Sewer Treatment plant and the Folcroft Landfill, now thankfully retired and capped and monitored for leakage.  
JOHN HEINZ NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

Team VFH may limit their vacationing to Essington with frequent visits to Romano's. Thanks for reading! 

CHESTER

DEVA VICTRIX BLUR

The logistics of sightseeing with young children can put a damper on this particular hoofer’s scattershot approach to visiting a new place. One needs to worry if the little fellows are tended to, their nappies dry, their bellies filled. I’m kind of a frantic ADD traveler when it comes to new places like the city of Chester and for me it's especially difficult if I have limited time. Janet has taught me to calm down a bit when visiting a new place. We take a tour and figure out where we would like to focus our exploring. That’s usually a good idea, and in the long run we experience more than if we (er, I) ran about like a headless chicken. Sadly though on this particular day trip we really had just a bit more than 4+ hours of parking lot time, a toddler and an infant in tow and the day was dreary and raining at times. So far much of this most recent trip to England has been all about balancing the kids on our knees, walking daily to the Sainsbury’s super market or trundling out to a pub for a beer, so no matter how short the trip was to Chester, it was a welcome diversion and a new experience for your humble chronicler.

So, the tourist city of Chester in the North West of England, not far from Liverpool and just over the border from Wales is 20 miles from our home base of Nantwich. It’s close enough to allow for short day trips and Janet had already been to this ancient city a couple of times before with the kids. On one of their visits they went to the Chester Zoo, which is one of the largest in the UK and the most-visited wildlife attraction in Britain. It was far too cold and dreary for a visit that day though and given the enormity of the zoo there really wasn’t time to enough to explore it all. 

THE CHESTER ZOO

The city started as a Roman fortress called Deva Victrix around 79 AD and became a major city over the ensuing years. The Roman ramparts protecting the fortress were eventually replaced by a defensive stone wall that still exists today and Chester is the best preserved walled city in England. After the English Civil War in the mid-1600s though the wall ceased to have a military function but was kept for leisure and recreation and is maintained to this day. It is perhaps the city’s main tourist attraction.

 

Christmas Tree Festival

Janet had already hiked some of the 2 mile stretch of wall in a previous visit, but because it was raining when we first arrived we decided to stop into the Chester Cathedral for their Christmas Tree Festival and hoped the rain would subside.

CHRISTMAS TREE FESTIVAL

Chester was a Roman stronghold and the site of the Chester Cathedral may have been a place for Christian worship since then. Typical of English cathedrals it has been modified over the years from its initial erection just after the Norman conquest of England. You remember that date 1066. All the major styles of medieval English architecture can be found at the cathedral. Services are held still, but the cathedral hosts events and concerts. As it was raining we scampered up from the parking lot, underneath Eastgate and its ornate clock, to the cathedral to take in the Christmas Tree Festival. Now in its 5^th year the Cathedral’s cloisters were decorated with Christmas trees from area schools and businesses.

CHESTER CATHEDRAL

just below Eastgate

Unlike the Minster in York, where we visited a couple of summers ago, admission to the Chester Cathedral is free, although a donation is humbly requested.

We then strolled through the cathedral waiting out the rain. There was a cafeteria and, of course, a gift shop near the exit.

THE SECOND MOST PHOTOGRAPHED CLOCK IN ENGLAND

Eastgate is the original main entrance to the old Roman fortress of Deva Victrix. The entrance was once guarded by a tower, but after the English civil wars the medieval walls became obsolete for military use and the wall impeded traffic into the city. Thankfully the walls were not torn down, but Eastgate was replaced by an arch and in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee an ornate wrought-iron turret clock was constructed. It is said that the gold emblazoned timepiece is, after Big Ben, the most photographed in England.

Janet at Eastgate Chester

It was at Eastgate that we ascended the stairs to walk much of the wall. Somehow fitting at the foot of the stairs wedged in a little space is a donut shop. As we did not have that much time we did not purchase donuts or dawdle on the wall. I could have spent the entire allotted time strolling the wall and the sights it afforded, but we tripped along at a clipped pace, pausing only briefly to ogle the Cathedral or peer down onto the canal that flowed far below. We made it as far as Chester Racecourse, also known as the Roodee, and the oldest still in use in England, before fearing we’d run out of time and we left the wall and headed straight away into the city. 

WHAT’S BLACK AND WHITE AND ROWED?

Another attraction to Chester that we literally skipped through is the shopping area known as the Rows. The four main streets within the city walls are lined with picturesque black and white Tudor-style buildings. The unique system of shops at street level and covered walkways leading to more shops on the second floor supposedly dates from medieval times although the Black-and-white Revival is relatively new from the 1800’s. It was then that area architects covered the medieval facades with the current Tudor-inspired appearance. With their timbers painted black and the panels between painted white the buildings are strikingly gorgeous as if one had been dropped into a story-book setting. The rows still maintain old names like Shoemakers Row or Ironmongers Row, but the wares have changed to boutique shops, etc. Found mostly on the four main streets; Bridge, Eastgate, Watergate and partially Northgate that intersect at the St. Peter’s Church and the city’s High Cross; we marveled at the beautiful buildings. People milled around the open square before the church and the pedestrian mall taking advantage of the respite from the rain, enjoying street performers, but we could not dawdle. We had lunch waiting for us.

 

Chester Wall

We certainly could have spent much more time in this area. We did clamber up one flight to peer out onto the beautiful streets, but only for a moment before moving on to beer…

Part of the Rows Chester

I still have a flip phone but GPSMyCity.com/tours may aid me in shedding my Luddite ways just so I could download their app. On this visit we had no time to explore Chester, but their app turns a “smart” phone into a personal tour guide using a built-in GPS navigation system. And, because it works offline no data plan is needed when traveling abroad. They offer a black-and-white architectural tour of Chester.  At their website they list a number of other cities around the world.

GPS MY CITY TOURS 

Indeed, though Chester had been mentioned several times over the years as a destination I had dismissed it out of hand. I was wrong and this trip only whetted my appetite to return. There’s much to explore in Chester, including a boat trip on the canal.

CANAL TRIPS IN CHESTER 

BEER!

Well, time on the meter was ticking away and the boys needed to be fed (as well as the adults). With the rain beginning to fall again we ducked into Brewhouse and Kitchen on Love Street, just beyond the Eastgate entrance. A small English chain they were a microbrewery that had a healthy selection of other beers. The food was good and prices were reasonable, although their particular beers were just all right. Service was good and patient with our large group.  

BREWHOUSE & KITCHEN CHESTER

CHESTER UK WALL

RESOLUTION

Some may feel that the start of a new year requires a clean slate and a resolve to begin some new endeavor, as if jump starting a life that had grown stagnant has to begin on January 1. Sure, purging old bad habits is good whenever it begins and if self-improvement needs a starter pistol day of reckoning like today then so be it.

Here at VFH central our resolutions remain firm year after year. They are really very simple and may sound rather bland and simplistic I know, but here they are: Allow love in your life, forgive past transgressions and laugh as often as possible. Nothing has to be so dreadfully serious that it has to ruin your day. Gosh we are only here for a finite amount of time in this glorious Garden of Eden and you might as well just go along for the ride!

Whether you travel near or far fair readers, travel well and cheaply!

love

Janet and Greg 

FOOTBALL ON BOXING DAY

Boxing Day in the UK started as way of giving gratuities or “Christmas-boxes” of money and/or food to servants after Christmas and giving them the day off. That’s close enough an explanation I think for what has now become a bank holiday, where you can find shopping deals that rival the USA’s Black Friday. It’s basically a day off now and a reason to party. It’s also a big sporting event day in the UK. Many of the football teams, from the top tiers down have matches on the 26^th of December. We tried to get tickets this year to our host’s favorite team, Everton. They were playing Chelsea at Everton’s home pitch in Liverpool. To see a game at that level of play in person, with spirited fans all around us would have been quite the experience. Sadly, though we were able to get tickets, they were all singles and our little group would have been scattered around the stadium, so we opted out and instead we went with the next best thing….THE GREEN ARMY!

THE DABBERS

Nantwich Town has their very own football team called the Dabbers. They are a semi-professional squad and currently a member of the EVO-STIK Premier Division and colloquially known as the Green Army because of the color of their home kits. After drinking a few pints at the Vine (of course), we marched down to Weaver Stadium on a raw cold afternoon, to join 337 other hearty souls to watch the match. It was fun to attend and though the level of play is definitely a number of tiers lower than the Premier Leagues, we watched a football match at “the grass roots” level, according to our favorite in-law Colin. Those in attendance were spirited in their cheering and we heard some vociferous curses. “F***ng cabbages,” was somewhat confusing, perhaps referring to Nantwich FC’s colors, but we giggled to ourselves each time the deep gutted harangue was launched into the air and we felt like this was no tourist outing, but a great way to spend Boxing Day . Being immersed in the local culture is what every cabbage traveler should seek. Perhaps next time we'll see a goal. The match ended nil to nil. 

The best part was the price. General admission was 10 pounds, but as old cabbages we got in for 7!

You can read about the match report here:

NANTWICH vs SUTTON COLDFIELD BOXING DAY MATCH