Beer and Football...European Style

This past weekend was full of fun activities that kept us busy in Eindhoven and nearby.  Our first stop was De Koningshoeven Brouwerij, located about 20 minutes from us.  Some of you may have heard of trappist beer - beer brewed at Trappist breweries.  Back in the day, it was the monks living at the abbey that did all the brewing.  But now these breweries are quite popular and have high levels of production, meaning the monks couldn't possibly brew it all themselves. Instead, they "oversee" the production of the beer, whatever that means.  In fact, during our trip there, the only monk we saw sold us our collectable glassware in the giftshop.  We have been meaning to make it to the brewery for awhile since we drink their beer, La Trappe, all the time.  So it was quite a treat to make it there, and the place did not disappoint.

We are calling it our new Founders, since we hope to get there often.  Unfortunately, we weren't able to do the brewery and abbey tour this time around, so we just had lunch there and sampled the beer.  The food was great, and the beer was even better.

It also happened to be appropriately foggy on our walk in.

One of the buildings on the grounds.

The tripel, my personal favorite.

Todd with the bockbier.

A monster sandwich.

The beautiful restaurant/tasting room.  So fun!

Their newest addition, the Puur.

This is definitely a place we will be back to soon.  I can't believe we hadn't been before!

On Sunday, we went to check out our very first voetbal match.  That's soccer, for you Americans out there.  Eindhoven has a professional team, PSV.  PSV is currently ranked first in the Dutch league, and they have a shot at making it to the Champion's league.  And that's about the extent of my soccer knowledge, please forgive me.

In order to buy tickets, the easiest way was to order a package, which included money to spend at the fan store and then tokens to buy food and drinks at the stadium.  Todd and I were both eyeing a scarf to wear to the game, so we found those.  And then we even had money left to buy a nice warm blanket.  That came in handy.

Here's a few photos of the stadium and us sporting our new gear:

And, of course, the short bike ride home.

Unfortunately, PSV lost.  But we still had a great time.  The crowd was intense.  Lots of drum pounding, singing, and shouting.  It was very exciting.  These people are serious about their voetbal.  I've never been that into soccer, but being there live was really great.  You couldn't help but get pumped up.  We are definitely planning to get to more games!