Previously: 40 Years in Beer, Part Eight: The origins of a European travel (and beer) obsession.
I went to Europe for three months in 1985 thinking it might be the only chance I’d ever have to do it. But during the flight back to Chicago in August, notes already were being scribbled furiously in anticipation of a sequel, which came in 1987.
(“Shout” by Tears for Fears, above, was the Number One song in America upon my return. The year’s box office smash as measured by theatrical gross was “Back to the Future, below, released on July 3 while I was staying in Munich. To this day, I haven’t watched it.)
I’m a very fortunate man, because there have since been 40 such follow-ups, with another on the way in September 2022 that will bring me to Athens for the first time since the inaugural.
For those readers interested in the 1985 travel narrative, I’m spinning if off as a separate feature, beginning here: European Grand Tour 1985, Part 1: Three months that shook my world.
Meanwhile, my “40 Years in Beer” series purports to be an account of my largely accidental career in the drinks business, corresponding with the axiom “do what you love,...
Read more
