Mini Golf and Beer

Ah! Here we are in Holland, and we realized we forgot to write about a lovely afternoon we had on one of our last days in Norway! Quick post about a memory we don’t want to forget.

Dan lives very close to a local brewery with a mini golf course. The three of us walked over and spent at least an hour at the bar. It was early afternoon so we were the only people there, and the bartender Eric gave us a full beer tasting experience. The original goal was to find a beer that Monisha would like. Monisha didn’t necessarily agree to this goal…but was certainly appreciative of the effort. Actually, the fifth or so beer Eric gave her a taste of was a fruity mild tasting lager that shockingly she kind of enjoyed. We also got to taste two different kinds of aquavit (sometimes spelled akvavit?). We could distinctly taste the anise and caraway this time. The more expensive one that Dan and Eric raved about was also the one that we enjoyed less. So I suppose we don’t have quite the full appreciation for the Norwegian specialty yet. Eric was super friendly and educated us extensively on beer’s culture, history, and place in Norway. We learned that the Indian pale ale was made when they realized they needed pale ales to have a higher alcohol content to survive the journey from India to Europe. Thus the IPA was born.

Mini golf turned out to be much more exciting than anticipated. Despite a rocky start for Monisha and a stellar first few holes for Nolan, a few holes put Monisha, Nolan, and Dan on fairly equal footing. However, after Monisha and Dan had quite an impressive 2 or 3 on a challenging mini volcano hole, Nolan shocked everyone (including himself) with the first and only hole-in-one of the day. The final scores ended up with everyone one apart. Nolan came out with the win, and Monisha came in last: 32-33-34.