World tour kicks off

+In England at least we have now had the most prolonged period of lovely, sunny, blue sky days of the new year. Nature has a cruel sense of humour. Still, if you are able to get out for a walk, it is very pleasant. I’m trying to impose a five metre social distancing rule, which means crossing the road if I see someone else. Although the pavements are pretty much empty, there are still quite a few people driving around. Now it seems that North Yorkshire Police are to set up road blocks, and if you haven’t got a local number plate and a good excuse you’ll be told off. Maybe even fined. Why stop at that? For those who are just driving around aimlessly sightseeing, their cars should be confiscated and crushed. Sounds reasonable. I would of course allow the vehicle’s occupants to get out first.
 
+Yesterday was day one of my Great International Beer Challenge, in which I taste a beer a day from my modest collection of international beers. These souvenirs in most cases have been sitting on my shelves for over a decade, so it will be interesting to see which, if any, have survived in drinkable form. I should have enough bottles to outlast the Coronavirus pandemic, the end of which will be officially confirmed when it is possible once again to personally buy a bottle of beer in Bruges. Here goes.

First up is a bottle of Ursus, a 5% ABV lager from Romania. This was purchased in 2008. I remember this because I was in Bucharest for a training session for local politicos on the subject of climate change, which almost coincided with that year’s NATO summit held in the city. In some spare time I went into town to look around the art gallery. I was the only one  there—apart from two blokes in black overcoats who seemed to be following me round. Given our current circumstances, it seems coincidental that Bucharest was in a form of lockdown. The place was deserted, key routes were closed to traffic. And the beer? Still a slight bit of fizz but probably slightly off (or perhaps the local taste in beer is different to mine). I didn’t finish it, although I imagine it would be fine when on form. There’s not a lot more you can say about a mass-produced lager which is 12 years old. Not a terribly encouraging start to this semi-virtual world tour.

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