To accept the award, the rules are as follows:

1) Display the Award logo.
2) Link back to the blogger(s) who nominated you.
3) State seven things about yourself.
4) Nominate 15 bloggers for the award.
5) Notify chosen bloggers.

And so:

1) See above.
2) I’ve been lucky enough to be nominated twice, by:

- Central Station tales of a British ex-pat in the Czech Republic, searching for the best places for a cup of coffee in Central Europe; and
- Budget Euro Tours Pedro will make you jealous as he wanders around Europe looking for booze, football and culture.

Thanks to both for the nominations, they’re both well worth a follow for all you Europe aficionados out there.

3) Seven Things About Me:

i) In a few days, I’ll be off to Puglia in Italy, and then I’ll be getting the ferry across the Adriatic to Dubrovnik. This’ll explain why it’s a bit quiet on this blog for the next couple of weeks.

ii) I was once hypnotised by Paul McKenna who persuaded me I was a horse. I woke up in a field off the A45 at 5am, possibly after falling asleep while grazing, but I’ll never know for sure.

iii) I can’t cope with escalators that go down.

iv) I only ever read and comment on blogs on my iPhone, usually on the train to/from work.

v) My first crush was Juliette from Dogtanian and the Three Muskerhounds. Yes, she was a dog.

vi) Some people are surprised to hear my name is Richard, as so few people call me it. I have been known as Fez or Fezza for as long as I can remember.

vii) For my sins, I have supported Aston Villa since I was a kid. My first game was a 3-0 home defeat to Spurs in 1986 – we were awful and got relegated that season, but the damage had been done and I was hooked.

4)

Billy’s Travel Album
Continental Breakfast
Culture Map
The Cycling Scot
Man patinka Lietuva
Beer of the World
Have Bag Will Travel
The Travelbunny
Restless Jo
On The Luce
Ships Cooks Stuff
Living in The Langhe
Waegook Tom
The Urge to Wander
Kindadukish

5) Give me a couple of seconds…

Apologies if you don’t do awards – I don’t either, but it’s a quiet month on aBitofCulture and needs must.

So, if you fancy a go just copy what I’ve done here – it’s just a bit of fun and you might get some new readers. If you don’t fancy it no problems – happy blogging!

10. Palermo

Perfect food and weather, beaches nearby, historical and mafia interest and it’s small enough to fall in love with in a weekend. An offer you can’t refuse.

aBitofCulture tip: Have a drink at the bar opposite the Teatro Massimo opera house at chucking out time to people-watch as sharp-suited possible gangster-types leave with their molls.

Read more of my writing on Palermo here

9. Antwerp

Belgium’s second city is its best – a beautiful main square, bars aplenty and a fashion and diamond heritage make this port city on the River Scheldt the 9th best city break in Europe.

aBitofCulture tip: Thinking of making an honest woman of that someone special in your life? As 80% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through town, Antwerp is the unofficial diamond capital of the world. The Diamond District is near Centraal Station if you’re looking for a ring.

Read more of my writing on Antwerp here

8. Lisbon

Delightfully decrepit buildings and trams, and surprisingly few tourists make Lisbon a great choice for a weekend of fun in the sun. And don’t forget those egg custard tarts…

aBitofCulture tip: Don’t forget the other side of the river. Take a ferry across the Tagus to Lisbon’s own version of Rio’s Christ the Redeemer statue – a lift will take you to the top of it, for great views of the red bridge below.

Read more of my writing on Lisbon here

7. Porto

A controversial choice putting Portugal’s second city above its capital, but Porto just shades it courtesy of its laid-back charm, dirt cheap prices, Port-crawl possibilities and that bridge.

aBitofCulture tip: Climb the 240 steps of the bell tower at Igreja dos Clérigos for stunning views of Porto and across the river to the Port hotbed of Vila Nova da Gaia.

Read more of my writing on Porto here

6. Edinburgh

Stepping out of Waverley Station onto Princes Street with its shops, gardens and castle and then seeing the Royal Mile and characterful pubs, it won’t take you long to understand why this city is so popular with foreign tourists who put it at the top of their UK itineraries.

aBitofCulture tip: Escape the bustle of the city by walking up the extinct volcano, Arthur’s Seat (from where I took the photo above) for peace, fresh air and views.

5. Barcelona

An architecture and football fan’s dream – check out the works of Gaudi and Messi, and soak up the sun on Las Ramblas and the city beach. Guapa!

aBitofCulture tip: Off to the football? It’s at the Camp Nou, not the Nou Camp. And the halftime steak sandwich I had there in 2006 still ranks as the best footie stadium snack I’ve ever had.

4. Tallinn

It’s got a reputation as a stag do hotspot, but go off-season when the snowy weather keeps people away and prices down. A tiny Old Town, but one of the nicest you’ll ever see.

aBitofCulture tip: Like chocolate? Then you’ll love the independent chocolatiers in Tallinn’s Old Town – have a mug of hot chocolate with a plate of hand made beauties from Cafe Josephine.

Read more of my writing on Tallinn here

3. Rome

My love affair with Italy continues, with the peninsula’s capital at number 3. I’ve only visited twice so a return is definitely on the cards soon to experience those thousands of years of history again. With the Coliseum, Spanish Steps, Trevi Fountain, Vatican, Forum, Pantheon, Stadio Olimpico, Piazza Navona, Campo dei Fiori and Castel Sant’Angelo to name just ten, can there be a city with more to see and do in Europe?

aBitofCulture tip: Feeling thirsty after all that sightseeing? Save your money by swigging from one of the many water fountains dotted around the city.

2. Prague

Another of Europe’s great cities to receive its fair share of stag parties, but the cobbled streets of its photogenic Old Town make a visit to Prague a must. Add Charles Bridge, the castle, the Jewish quarter and the best beer in the world and you can see why this city is always full to the brim with tourists.

aBitofCulture tip: The Czech Republic is famous for its beer, but if you’re not a fan give the St. Wenceslas vineyard a go. It’s perfectly located next to the castle, so you can enjoy a glass of Moravian red and a cake overlooking the River Vltava after a day of culture.

Read more of my writing on Prague here and here

1. Venice

Some might say it’s too busy/smelly/pricey. Ignore these fools and see La Serenissima while it’s still with us. There’s nowhere like it on earth – no roads or cars, just canals and bridges split into six districts (known as sestiere) and a handful of outlying islands. With works of beauty on every corner, I was in shock at how perfect the place is and could quite happily live there.

aBitofCulture tip: So many people miss out by only seeing Venice on a daytrip, or staying the night elsewhere on the mainland. Stay the night in central Venice, and have the most gorgeous city on earth almost to yourself as midnight approaches (and the lack of cars and scooters will guarantee you a brilliant night’s sleep).

Read more of my writing on Venice here, here and here

Notable absentees? Paris – never been. Krakow – wasn’t that fussed. Amsterdam and Berlin – can’t remember them!

Just missed out? Copenhagen, Florence, Budapest, Bruges…actually it’s pretty hard to narrow it down to ten. I did want to include a few more hipster choices like Vilnius or Trier but I couldn’t leave some of the big boys out.

Do you agree? Have I left out your favourite? Let me know if I’ve made a howler in the comments box below.

By now you should know what a great place Antwerp is for a weekend break. Arrive in Belgium’s second city in true style by high-speed train, and see one of the world’s most beautiful train stations, Antwerp Centraal Station.

Although Antwerp has its own tiny airport called Deurne, there are very few flights to it – in all of Europe it is only currently connected with Manchester and London City. If the local tourism authority could persuade budget airlines to use Deurne, I’m pretty sure Antwerp would become one of Europe’s more visited cities.

But until that happens, you’re more than likely to kick off your weekend at the train station. Visitors from the UK can take the Eurostar from London St. Pancras, which takes about 3 hours 18 minutes in total and involves a change of trains in Brussels for the final leg of the journey.

Returns to any Belgian station start at around £79 if you get in there when tickets go on sale four months in advance (book at www.Eurostar.com).

Alternatively, you could do what I did if you can’t easily/cheaply get to London – fly from your regional airport to Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, then take the high-speed Thalys train from Schiphol train station beneath the airport to Antwerp.

Eighty miles separate Schiphol and Antwerp, and although the regular train takes 2 hours 30 minutes with at least one change, Thalys (pronounced “Ta-Leese”) takes just 56 minutes and is a direct service.

Thalys trains go from Amsterdam to Paris, with calling points at Schiphol, Rotterdam, Antwerp and Brussels in between. Single journeys start at €29 – book early at www.thalys.com for the best deals.

Thalys’ baseball capped stewards/bouncers will check your ticket before you board the train at Schiphol, and then you’re off on an incredibly fast journey. The train’s first and only stop before Antwerp is Rotterdam, after just 20 minutes.

Loads of Chinese people boarded the train here – a dockers strike in Rotterdam (the world’s second biggest port) was broken in 1910 by bringing over cheap Chinese workers, so the city now has one of the biggest Chinese populations in Europe.

The train really picked up speed after it left Rotterdam – the track runs parallel to the motorway for a while, and we were going twice as fast as the BMWs and Mercedes in the fast lane.

Halfway into the ride, I received my “Welcome to Belgium” text from Mobistar but by this point I was getting a little bored of the view out of the window (flat and marshy), and was looking forward to arriving at Antwerp Centraal.

A 2009 Newsweek story described it as being the fourth greatest train station in the world behind Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji (3rd), New York Grand Central (2nd) and London St. Pancras (1st).

Getting off my train, I could see what all the fuss was about. The station is absolutely huge – the platforms are multi-tiered on three levels, either side of the main councourse, so when you get off your train there are two platform levels above you – crazy!

I’m not sure exactly how many platforms there are, but my return to Rotterdam was from platform 24B. It takes a good ten minutes to reach the train after paying for a ticket at a machine or kiosk in the main concourse, so make sure you leave enough time to descend the three separate escalators.

My mum’s favourite film is Brief Encounter – a love story set at Carnforth train station in Cumbria, where two strangers meet under the station clock. I’ve been to Carnforth station, and it’s a dump – surely the scriptwriter had Antwerp Centraal in mind when he wrote the script?

When you ascend the escalators from the platforms, and see the glass and steel roof and the station clock, with its touches of gold, you realise train travel is the most romantic way to travel out there.

Antwerp Centraal is to the east of the city centre, and it’s a good twenty minute walk to the Grote Markt and the cathedral in the centre, but there’s plenty to see nearby if you get there too early for your train home. The city’s Diamond District can be found in the streets to the right of the station. 80% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through town, making it the unofficial diamond capital of the world.

Antwerp Zoo is to the left of the station with a big square – Koningin Astridplein – which was taken up with a fairground when I visited.

De Keyserlei, the street that links the station to Meir, the city’s main shopping street, is a wide pedestrianised boulevard lined with bars and restaurants – a great place to sit at a pavement cafe with a beer while you wait for your train home.

After spending two days on a stag do in Belgium’s second city, Antwerp, I discovered that it’s far too nice a place for blokes on the rampage. With a beautiful main square and cracking cafe culture, it’s a new entry in my top ten European cities. Read on to find out why it should be your next city break.

Situated on the banks of the River Scheldt in the Flemish speaking part of Belgium, just 15 miles from the border with the Netherlands, Antwerp doesn’t get anywhere near as many visitors as Brussels or Bruges. Which is good for you, as you can enjoy it in peace.

So what’s all this about hands?

Well, according to legend a giant called Antigoon demanded a toll from anyone crossing the river, and those who refused had a hand cut off and thrown away. People had had enough of the bullying giant, so a hero called Brabo cut the giant’s hand off himself, and threw it in the river. The name Antwerp comes from the Dutch words for “hand throw”. Hands can be seen all over the city – the one below is in the main shopping street, Meir.

So what is there to see and do in Antwerp?

For culture vultures

The city’s main square, Grote Markt, is one of the nicest you will ever see, with gold-topped guild houses all around it. Grab a seat at one of the pavement cafes and soak in the culture. There is a statue of the giant-slayer Brabo in the middle of the square – look closely and he is throwing nasty Antigoon’s hand away, with fountains of water rather than blood spurting from it.

Antwerp’s immense gothic cathedral (Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal, or OLV for short) can be seen from just about anywhere in the city, and is a great reference point if you get lost – it’s also handy if you need the time. As well as looking pretty stunning from the outside, I’ve since heard it’s a bit special on the inside too, with works of art by the famous painter Rubens.

I do like a tall building, and at a height of 123 metres, there can’t be too many taller than OLV in Belgium – shame I couldn’t climb the tower.

Alongside the banks of the Scheldt is Het Steen. This impressive looking castle is the oldest building in the city dating back to the Middle Ages, and now houses a maritime museum. Antwerp is the second biggest port in Europe after Rotterdam, so this fortress had an important part to play in protecting the city from invaders in days gone by.

For the men

Drinking beer is great fun in all of Belgium, as it should be anywhere in the world, but in Antwerp – referred to as the City of Pavement Cafes – it is an absolute joy. Find a bar (there are tonnes around the Grote Markt), sit inside or out, and order the local beer De Koninck (“The King”), served in its own distinctive round glass called a Bolleke. They’re very proud of De Koninck in Antwerp, and every bar sells it on draft.

In the unlikely event that you get tired of this 5.2% dark amber coloured concoction, there are hundreds of other beers to sample – fruit beers, trappist beers, wheat beers, Duvel, Stella Artois, Maes, the list goes on…

For foodies

Being a port city, seafood is big in Antwerp and we enjoyed a fantastic meal of mussels in separate trays of white wine, beer and garlic. Other than that, our stag do staple was fries with mayonnaise from the many Frituurs around town, although we did see plenty of intimate restaurants with hand-written menus on black chalk-boards outside.

I missed breakfast in our hotel, so had warm Belgian waffles with chocolate sauce for €2.50 – a heavenly start to the day. These are sold at little shacks dotted around the historic centre, and are not to be missed.

Chocolate and Belgium have become a bit of a cliche, but you can’t leave Antwerp without visiting a chocolatier and bringing a box or two home. There are a couple of magical chocolate shops on Jan Blomstraat near the cathedral. I dithered about which one to choose, before buying a box of the ubiquitous Antwerp chocoalate hands (Antwerpse Handjes), and very nice they were too.

For the ladies

Antwerp has a reputation for being something of a shoppers’ mecca, with a mixture of high street stores and independent boutiques, and is regarded in fashion circles as being on a par with London, Paris and Milan.

The Antwerp Six – six local fashion designers – put the city on the map in the 1980s, when they made international headlines for their innovative designs. The only one I’ve heard of is Dries Van Noten. As I was part of the Antwerp Fourteen on a stag do, the only shopping I did was for beer.

For families

Antwerp has a city centre zoo, right next to the train station. It’s one of the oldest zoos in Europe, but I didn’t have chance to visit – I saw enough animal behaviour the night before with my friends.

For lovers

Over 80% of the world’s rough diamonds pass through the city, making it the unofficial diamond capital of the world. The Diamond District, in the streets around the train station, is a popular place for couples to buy discounted engagement rings.

Staying there

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in the Het Eilandje area to the north of the city centre. This district is a bit like Liverpool’s Albert Dock, with museums, a few restaurants and bars surrounding a marina.

Getting there

Although it has its own tiny airport, there are few flights to Antwerp from the UK. It’s best to get the train there from Brussels Airport (43 minutes), Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (56 minutes on the high-speed Thalys service) or the Eurostar from London St. Pancras via Brussels (3 hours 18 minutes).

Rotterdam’s Erasmusbrug

After two days of beer and fast food on a stag do in Antwerp, I was feeling guilty. So with a late flight home from Amsterdam, I had the perfect opportunity to get a bit of fresh air and exercise by exploring Rotterdam, which is halfway between Antwerp and Schiphol airport.

I arrived by train at Rotterdam Centraal station in brilliant afternoon sunshine armed with a map of the city and three hours to kill. The plan was to wander from the station, ogle at some of the renowned modern architecture along the Nieuwe Maas river, get back to the station and then train it to Schiphol in time for my 21:50 flight.

One thing I didn’t think about in my hungover state was just how big Rotterdam would be – with a population of 600,000 it’s the Netherlands’ second city and the largest port in Europe. It’s a 2.5km hike from the station to the riverbank – a bit of a struggle when pulling a trolley suitcase. My first impression of the city was that it’s not the prettiest city I’ve ever been to, but then again I’m from Coventry so everywhere looks good to me.

Rotterdam and Coventry have a bit in common – they were two of the most bombed cities in WWII, but that’s where the comparisons end. Whereas my hometown was rebuilt in an ugly ’60s architectural style and is now a dull-as-dishwater city, Rotterdam features futuristic skyscrapers and has a reputation as an exciting, ever-changing place to live in and visit.

Almost an hour after leaving the station, I reached the iconic Erasmusbrug suspension bridge which links the city centre to the redeveloped docks on the river’s south bank. Locals call the bridge The Swan for its graceful white angled pylon that supports the cables holding the bridge up.

There are separate sections for cars, trams, cyclists and pedestrians, so off I set across the bridge towards the area known as Kop van Zuid. It’s a long walk across the bridge and it’s also deceptively high, giving the opportunity to admire the skyline in all directions.

To my right was the Euromast – an observation tower with hotel, restaurant and abseiling centre at the top. I love a tall building, but didn’t have the time (or the head for heights) for a visit today, so moved on to dry land.

The Bridge, Unilever’s HQ

I soon crossed another bridge onto Noordereiland, a small island in the Nieuwe Maas from where I had a good view of The Bridge. This is not a bridge at all, but a 133m skyscraper lying on its side on stilts above a margarine factory.

It was time to head back to the city centre now and cross my third bridge of the day, Willemsbrug. This is the best place to take photos of Erasmusbrug, but I realised I didn’t have any photos of this particular bridge which I thought was quite nice – see photo below, which I have taken from wikipedia.

Willemsbrug

Refreshed and relaxed, I moved on to see my final Rotterdam sight, the crazy Cube Houses, which look like giant upturned sugar cubes. 40 of these yellow and grey houses were built in the ’80s as part of a drive to get more people to live in the city centre. One resident opens his house to the public to look around for a few euros – I was running out of time, so had to give this a miss.

Cube Houses – could you live in one of these?

I liked what I saw in my pitifully brief time in Rotterdam – it may not be anywhere near as beautiful as Amsterdam, and you won’t find any canals or old buildings. But I’d like to come back again for a long weekend to do it justice, experience the city at night (I bet it looks amazing with the skyscrapers and bridges all lit up) and to leave that bloody suitcase in the hotel.

There was only ever the one contender for world’s best beer – the original Budweiser Budvar, brewed in the Czech city of Ceske Budejovice. It looks, smells and tastes like a proper beer should do, and I’d be quite happy if I were told it was the only beer in the world.

Beer has been brewed in Ceske Budejovice since the 13th century – the term Budweiser refers to beer from Ceske Budejovice. It’s so good, it was supplied to kings throughout Europe, earning it the nickname “Beer of Kings”. No-one thought to trademark Budweiser (why would you?) or Beer of Kings – a decision that would cost dearly centuries later.

The American Anheuser Busch brewery liked the name so much, they stole it for their piss poor chav-beer, Budweiser. They even stole the slogan and turned it into King of Beers. Anheuser Busch has a massive legal team, and they’ve been wrangling with the Czech people for years now – the result is, in some countries Budweiser Budvar can only be called Budvar, and in North America it has to be called Czechvar.

There’s a lot I could say about Anheuser Busch and those who choose to drink American Bud, but as I say they have a massive legal team behind them and I don’t want them to close this blog down or put a price on my head.

In fairness, all Czech beers are pretty good. On my last visit to Prague in 2009 I struggled to find Budvar sold in many central pubs – no major hardship, as Staropramen, Gambrinus and Pilsner Irquell are always there to fall back on. Fortunately, the nearest pub to our apartment – U Kocoura (“The Cat”), on Nerudova in Malastrana – was one such pub so I could easily get my daily Budvar fix.

On that visit, we had planned to go on a day-trip to Ceske Budejovice so I could taste the best beer in the world in its natural habitat. About 160km south of Prague, I was really looking forward to experiencing another part of the Czech Republic. The city in southern Bohemia has a population of just under 100,000, and I’d read it has a massive old town square – the ideal place to sit down with a pint of Budvar and watch the world go by, I thought.

Unfortunately, we missed the bus there so went back to The Cat to drown our sorrows.

So there we have it, just to re-cap:

Top 10 beers of the world – #10 Hoegaarden (Belgium)
Top 10 beers of the world – #9 Zlatorog (Slovenia)
Top 10 beers of the world – #8 Bia Hoi (Vietnam)
Top 10 beers of the world – #7 Kölsch (Germany)
Top 10 beers of the world – #6 De Koninck (Belgium)
Top 10 beers of the world – #5 Guinness (Ireland)
Top 10 beers of the world – #4 Zlaty Bazant (Slovakia)
Top 10 beers of the world – #3 Kriek (Belgium)
Top 10 beers of the world – #2 Tsingtao (China)
Top 10 beers of the world – #1 Budweiser Budvar (Czech Republic)

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this list as much as I’ve enjoyed writing and researching it. As I could only feature beers from countries I had actually visited, this ruled out anything from Africa, Australia or the Americas. But let’s be honest – would any of these trouble the top 25?

There are a few beers that narrowly missed out on the top ten – Bitburger, Duvel, Singha and most Czech other beers – but stick to the top ten, and you can’t go far wrong.

Na shledanou!

China has given the world many great things – pork chow mein, Lucy Lui, a big wall – but not many people realise it is also home to the world’s second best beer, Tsingtao.

When I picked this top ten, I felt a little guilty at choosing just the one German beer – the 7th best beer in the world, Kolsch – but believe it or not, Tsingtao is pretty German. The brewery was founded in 1903 by German settlers in Qingdao. This port city, on the north east coast of China, hosted the sailing events at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and has always had a German heritage in the same way that Hong Kong has had a British connection from its days of being a British colony.

The German expats mixed their nation’s famed brewing expertise with the finest ingredients in the orient to create a beer primarily for westerners living in China. Despite its traces of rice, locally-produced hops and water from the Laoshan mountains, Tsingtao has the taste of a European lager.

During World War I, disaster struck – the Germans lost control of Qingdao to the Japanese, who stole the secret formula which they used in their Asahi and Kirin Ichiban beers.

It’s now the leading beer in Hong Kong – I fondly remember my first visit there as a poor backpacker. I bought a six-pack of Tsingtao with old-school “tear-off” ring pulls, and settled down with a dim-sum takeaway on a bench overlooking Victoria Harbour. There’s a free light show with classical music every night called Festival of the Lights with lasers shining on the skyscrapers of Hong Kong Island, which I enjoyed while getting merry on the world’s second best beer.

I was reunited with Tsingtao on my honeymoon in Hong Kong – after a day of culture in the intense summer heat and humidity there, a cold and refreshing bottle or two is just what the doctor ordered.

It is a dream of mine to visit the home of Tsingtao in Qingdao one day, where you can buy the beer in see-through plastic bags, and drink it through a straw after piercing the bag.

The only way to get hold of Tsingtao in the old days in the UK was to visit your local Chinese supermarket or restaurant. Now part of the evil Anheuser Busch empire, it’s available in most mainstream supermarkets and bars, and is the perfect accompaniment to Chinese food.

I make no apologies for having another love-it-or-hate-it beer at number three in my top ten. Kriek beer – the third and final Belgian beer in this list – is beer flavoured with cherries, and when it’s done well it is absolutely bloody fantastic. When it’s not done so well, it’s still pretty good.

Kriek beer originated when brewers made beer in the Anderlecht suburb of Belgium’s capital city, Brussels. This area boasts naturally occurring yeast in the air, so beer can be brewed without directly adding it.

The downside to this process, as anyone who has tried the end product (“Geuze”) will tell you, is that it tastes awful. So the brewers came up with the idea of adding fruit to the beer to give it taste, rather than hops. There are raspberry beers, apricot beers, apple, peach and blackcurrant beers but the best by far are the cherry beers.

There are hundreds of different brands of kriek beers. Far from being the original alcopop, the stronger the kriek is, the more it will taste like a beer rather than cherryade.

Some favour Kasteel Rouge at 8%, although my personal favourite is Bacchus – a more sensible 5.8% and served in glass bottles with champagne corks and wrapping paper. Bottles of Bacchus can be found in most supermarkets for around £3, but if you fancy it in a bar you will be looking at paying upwards of £5 for what is only a 375ml bottle.

Some bars in the UK now sell it on draft – dangerous (on the wallet and the liver), as it is the most gluggable beer I have ever had.

Probably the best of the many stag-dos I have been on over the years has been a trip to Bratislava, for two reasons. Firstly the brutality we exerted our stag to (although I can’t go into specifics – what goes on tour stays on tour and all that), but more importantly the local Slovakian beer, Zlaty Bazant, which unexpectedly became the fourth best beer in the world.

Every bar and nightclub that we went to over our two days in town served Zlaty Bazant – a 5% lager-type beer with a golden colour and a delicious creamy aftertaste. It came in its trademark bottles and glasses emblazoned with a picture of a grouse.

I’d never seen the beer sold in the UK, so made sure I stocked up with bottles to smuggle home with me on our last day. As this was in the days before charges for hold-luggage on budget flights, I had to risk putting a dozen 500ml glass bottles, wrapped up in towels and shirts, in my hold-all (I couldn’t find the stuff sold in cans for the life of me).

Predictably, when I picked up my bag from the carousel back at East Midlands airport, it was sodden with Slovakian booze and full of smashed glass, although four bottles of Zlat survived the journey. I rationed these out at one a week for the next month – a huge test of my willpower.

I searched long and hard, but sadly never saw Zlaty Bazant anywhere again. However, a year later I was browsing the shelves of my favourite independent off-licence one day and did a double take when I saw a bottle of beer with a picture of a grouse and a familiar curly font, called Golden Pheasant.

And then it clicked – the grouse is in fact a pheasant, and the word Zlaty must mean gold in many Central European languages. The 9th best beer in the world, Zlatorog, means Gold-horned Goat. (Incidentally, what a cracking name my favourite footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, has).

I walked out with a crate of Golden Pheasant – this is Zlaty Bazant’s name in the export market. I was pleased to see that it tasted just as good as in Bratislava – so often, a drink that you have enjoyed while on holiday can taste awful once back home.

That was also the last time I ever saw Golden Pheasant, as the off-licence closed down shortly afterwards and no-one else seems to stock it. If you ever see it sold, I’d recommend you grab some and then call me.

Cheers!

Into the top 5 now, and the big hitters – these are all seriously good beers. First up is Guinness, the beer I have consumed the most of in my life, although at number 5 because the rules of this top 10 state that I must have drank the beer in its country of origin. I’ve only been to The Emerald Isle for 48-hours, although I must admit I necked my annual allowance of units of black beauty in those two days of debauchery.

In 2007 I was invited to a wedding in Ireland, so travelled solo flying into Dublin before getting a coach to the one-horse-town of Cootehill in County Cavan, ten miles or so south of the border with Northern Ireland.

I only had three hours to spare in Dublin before my coach left for Cootehill, so I had time to verify the first urban myth about Guinness – that it tastes better in Ireland than elsewhere. For those who don’t know, Guinness is a stout beer and is a dark ruby colour because it has roasted barley as an ingredient. Although there are other stouts on the market (Beamish, Murphy’s, Mackesons), Guinness is the leading brand and has been around since 1759.

I headed straight to the Guinness Storehouse at St. James’s Gate, which claims to be Ireland’s most popular tourist attraction. There are seven floors’ worth of Guinness facts – a bit of history, old adverts and logos, the obligatory shop but most importantly a bar at the top where you can sample a drop of the black stuff.

A “complimentary” pint is included in the price of an adult entrance ticket (which will set you back a whopping €16.50 these days), and you enjoy it at the Gravity Bar, with decent views of the Dublin hinterland behind you. And yes, the Guinness in Ireland is much creamier in taste than that sold in England.

I was feeling a bit peckish so popped back to central Dublin and had another pint with a bowl of Irish stew in a busy pub on Temple Bar, serenaded by two old men with tin whistles – when in Rome!

I had less joy proving urban myth number two – that Guinness is good for you. I certainly didn’t think so the morning after the wedding! I remember reading somewhere that Guinness contains no more iron than other beers, and to get all the nutrients from it you’d need to drink 47 pints of it per day. I tried my best to reach that target, but came to the conclusion that the “Guinness is good for you” myth may just be the best marketing slogan of all time.