It took a while for me time to recover to be able to write this weekend’s blog, all most a full week in fact. A few weeks back some close friends mentioned that there would be a form of Oktoberfest, a popular festival held in Bavaria, Germany celebrating all things beer, would be held at Cowes Yacht Haven on the 27th of November. Typically, Oktoberfest is held in late September and on occasion the first Sunday of October, so a slightly later festival perhaps or just another excuse to go out and have a few beers and a laugh.
We jumped on the bus to Cowes, the weather had been lousy, so umbrella packed and warm clothing adorned we were prepared for the worst hoped for decent enough afternoon / evening to ignore the stormy rainy weather we had recently be having.
After finally finding the entrance (not being familiar with the Yacht haven) we entered the events tent and found an already busy bar several people deep trying to get their ‘Steins’ of lager. The entrance fee was a relatively acceptable £10, for this you were given also, your own Stein to take home. Several choices of German lager on tap, 2 wheat beer and a more ‘hoppy’ dark lager as well as ciders and typical spirits, further choices of German beers were also available in bottles. I am in no way a beer connoisseur and would never protest to be – I actually prefer cider but this being an exception, I chose one of the wheat lagers. All I can say in my limited experience; it was very refreshing and being a wheat lager, reminded me of Hoegaarden. What wasn’t so refreshing, was the price. Now admittedly a full Stein is 1lt, and at £13 per stein – quick math’s = £7.42 ish a pint! and £26 for two steins? The costs soon added up.
Fortunately, however, by the time I had finished the first stein, being a bit sensitive to the effects of lager, I soon managed to suppress the dent in the wallet for the subsequent round(s).
The band arrived and I was pleased to see it was an old colleague of mine was the front man. I managed to grab his attention at the bar and catch up on a few things, but what really impressed me was the effort the band had gone to, to embrace the German tradition, by wearing a form of lederhosen. Fair play to them!
The band: “Blonde Bombshell” got the crowd of now relatively merry punters going with renditions of Dakota, Gay Bar, Hush and many other awesome covers of music from 80’s to modern day.
Saturday was also the final England rugby Autumn international game against South Africa and while unfortunately there was no coverage of the match at the beer festival, good old Amazon Prime was on hand to show the first half during the final dregs of the blonde lager. It was around that point that we were tempted by some family members to stroll on down to the Pier View for the second half and to catch up on recent events. We left and found the Pier View rammed with England and South African fans and to say that it was wall to wall was an understatement and luckily, the family pulled rank and got us additional chairs in between the throb of people packed into the place. How worth the wait for England to play the second half was debatable, trailing 3-14 at the end of the first, things certainly didn’t improve in the second and we lost by an unimpressive 13-27. Still the atmosphere was infectious and after a minute or two or berating how we did, and how Eddie Jones needs to get a rocket up his backside, we decided to head back to finish off the evening at the ‘Haven.’
With family and friends heading off to meet me once I finished my pint, I ended up staying back chatting to a group of friends, over from the mainland outside the pub to have an evening out in Cowes and with a common interest in the rugby, martial arts and drinking, before I knew it, we were heading off to ‘the yacht.’ It was at that point the weather decided it hadn’t been wet enough during the day and so delighted us with a near monsoon style downpour.
Arriving on the yacht literally like drowned rats, ‘Martino’ made us and his friends a ‘dark and stormy’ cocktail, quite appropriate for what the weather had brought us. Now, I have had this cocktail before, but this simple version is easy enough for anyone to follow with cracking results. Remember drink responsibly!
– 2 Parts Dark Rum of your prefrence
– 4 Parts Ginger Beer
– Ice
– 2 Large slices of lime, squeezed into glass
After after a few of these awesome cocktails and with no sign of the weather improving, the brave decision was taken to try to get home. With buses hardly frequent at all at this time of night, it was once again time to call on the family for a favour and this time to put us up for the night. A short walk to theirs, a coffee to rejuvenate and a few blankets to keep warm, the epic day came once again to an end. New friends found, experiences gained and another reason to keep an open mind for local events and occasions to keep entertained and remember night.
