Beer & Final Post of 2023

The last day of 2023. The last chance to reflect on the year while it still exists. I am not sure yet how I feel about 2023. It is the hardest year for me to encapsulate in recent memory. There were a lot of personal challenges in 2023, some of which get handed off tomorrow for 2024 to deal with. Perhaps 2024 will have a lot to do with the verdict of 2023. When I look back at my final post of 2022, it is difficult to read it without thinking just wait, pal… like that person still exists somewhere in a parallel universe about to experience a repeat of 2023. But when I consider that I accomplished 40 posts in 2023, I have to pause and remind myself of how lucky I was. Without a doubt, you will not get any complaints from me. Except about hiking down, but more on that. With that positive mindset, let’s take a look at the State of the Blog 2023.

1. State of the Blog 2023
2. Switzerland is Back, But….
   1. #1 Burg Eltz is King again
   2. #2 Drunken Masterpieces: Rijksmuseum
   3. #3 Hiking Down? Come on people… (eyes rolling)
   4. #4 An Old Stalwart
   5. #5 Winner for the Biggest Surprise of 2023
3. Where the Dickens are Dickens & The Bulge?
   1. #13 Beer & The Bulge: Trois-Ponts-Cheneux
   2. #33 Beer & Dickens: Philadelphia Pt. I
4. Travel Goals for 2024
5. Beer of the Year 2023
6. Final Words

State of the Blog 2023

2023 saw the final shoddy ragged garments of covid get tossed by the wayside. Aside from still catching the damn thing now and then, the way it inhibited our travels is but a distant speck in the rearview mirror, hopefully for good. It seemed the world, besides being a complete mess otherwise, was back into traveling at pre-covid levels. This year, I eclipsed 12000 views for the first time since 2020, not quite reaching 2020 heights but falling about 400 views short of my record. At the same time, I completely obliterated my record of visitors (about 8300 compared to 6300 in 2020). Which means more people are visiting my blog, but they are viewing fewer posts per visit. Not sure what that is telling me. Perhaps, it was like men shoppers going to the mall for their roll of duct-tape and then getting out. So my posts might be like duct tape. That’s a good thing, right? But I don’t write for viewership. If one person of those 8300 came away happy, that is enough for me.

Switzerland is Back, But….

In my 2022 post, I wasn’t sure whether I would be returning to Austria or Switzerland for my annual Alpine hiking. I also noted my surprise that none of my Swiss hike posts finished in my Top 5 posts of 2022. The highest came in at #7. So would 2023 see Switzerland rising back into prominence? The answer is Yes, but with some head-scratching asterisk. In August 2023, I would return to beloved Switzerland for a series of amazing hikes in the Kandersteg area. But it would not be any of these that would make my final Top 5. Who then represented Switzerland in my Top 5? Well, let’s have at look.

#1 Burg Eltz is King again

For the 2nd year in a row, Hiking to Burg Eltz finished as my top viewed post and it wasn’t even close. So, recently I googled hikes to burg eltz and there it was, sitting at the top of the search results. My own little proud Google search results moment.

#2 Drunken Masterpieces: Rijksmuseum

I can’t express how excited I was to see one of my Drunken Masterpiece posts sitting in my Top 5. (Another one finished at #6!) Yes I can… I was ecstatic! These are the most fun posts to research and write. To be #2 tells me that this post has resonated with people and hopefully added a small measure of enjoyment to someone’s visit to this fantastic museum.

#3 Hiking Down? Come on people… (eyes rolling)

A Swiss hike makes its return to the Top 5! But not the one I am most proud of. Readers of my Swiss hike posts know how much I detest the downhill direction of hiking. So I am disappointed to see this one sitting in such a place of honor. Admittedly, this was one of my earliest Swiss hikes. I was inexperienced and was doing this with my 16-year old daughter. So, I can see this being a way to introduce your children to the beauty of hiking in the Swiss Alps without crushing them on the uphill. Maybe I will soften my views on this result as I think about it more.

#4 An Old Stalwart

Mullerthal Trail Route 2 falls down two spots from 2022, but the difference between #2 and #4 was only 9 views. This is one I expect will always hover around the Top 5. It is a classic hike and will be searched a lot on Google.

#5 Winner for the Biggest Surprise of 2023

How do I explain this one? I have featured several more famous cities on my blog. Paris, London, Munich, Bruges, Salzburg, Philadelphia, Prague, Brussels… And the one that comes out on top over all of them is the city of Passau. Perhaps it is Passau’s lower celebrity status that accounts for it. If less is written about Passau, maybe this post is easier to find on Google. But it is undeniably a beautiful city with a great beer culture.

Where the Dickens are Dickens & The Bulge?

I have spent a lot of time over the last couple of years immersing myself into Charles Dickens and Battle of the Bulge lore. So which posts related to them were the most viewed in 2023?

#13 Beer & The Bulge: Trois-Ponts-Cheneux

Coming in at a respectable #13, my Trois-Ponts hike topped the Battle of the Bulge theme. This one did have some interesting character to it, albeit frustrated by the reservoir construction. Trois-Ponts is a busy little crossroads town surrounded by beautiful scenery, so I could see this hike appealing to people.

#33 Beer & Dickens: Philadelphia Pt. I

I never anticipate my Dickens-themed posts will rank very high. They are so niche. (My highest ranked England-based Dickens post was #57 Beer & Dickens: Rochester Pt. II) Of course there is a lot more to them than just Dickens but I don’t expect these to pop up in Google searches or to lure clicks on random encounters. I am sure it was the Philadelphia theme that was more influential in the results than the Dickens part.

Travel Goals for 2024

Nothing is written in stone at the moment, but here are the ones clanking around in my brain.

• Normandy and William the Conqueror
  I have been wanting to go back to the Normandy beaches for quite some time to feature them in my blog. The beer and war theme there is an exciting prospect. At the same time, I can kill two birds with one stone by adding William the Conqueror as a guest celebrity to a post or two.
  
• Hiking some Bens and Glens in Scotland instead of Switzerland
  Dare I? I have several cool hikes planned in Scotland which are gathering dust. I have also wanted to get back and focus on the whisky and craft beer culture, something I touched on ever-so-briefly in some of my very first posts back in 2016. But I never had the chance to do them properly. If you want to see Baby Me Blogger, then check this out from the very beginnings of my blog in 2016.

• Dickens England
  I am still missing a lot of Dickens lore. Portsmouth, Broadstairs, Aylesbury, West Malling to name a few. 
  
• More Battle of the Bulge
  St. Vith tops my list of towns. I still haven’t made it to the Belgian border yet so there are lots of great Bulge-themed hikes and some cool beer pilgrimages still to do.
  
• Krakow and Warsaw, Poland
  I keep coming back around to these cities which I haven’t visited since 2015. Between their WWII history and their unique beer cultures, both would be exciting to revisit for the blog.

Beer of the Year 2023

Westmalle Tripel. See last year’s post.

This was the year that I started to understand the IPA. Not all of them. Most I can do without. But I discovered what I really like is the Hazy Double New England IPA. Bitter, fruity, cloudy, with a gorgeous color and quite strong (usually 8% or higher). In my opinion, the Double NEIPA is to American beer what the Tripel is for Belgian beer. Ironically, the one that stood out to me the most was not American, but Belgian. The Hazy Double NEIPA from Brasserie L’Ermitage in Saint-Gillies. Just look at that gorgeousness. So it gets my Beer of the Year 2023 award since I can’t always give it to Westmalle Tripel… or can I?

Final Words

There we have it. Now I can kick back and wait for the ball to drop and then hopefully remember the password for my work laptop by Tuesday morning. I want to thank everyone who has visited my blog in 2023. While I don’t strive for numbers, I am touched by seeing that there are people out there who deliberately visit or who stumble upon it and take a moment to have a look. People sometimes ask me where I am going with all of this. I have amassed well over 200 posts now. To be honest, I hope one day, years from now, to have a grandkid or two that reads my posts and enjoys following the adventures of their granddad. Beyond that I don’t know. I have been asked to condense some of them into a book. We will see. Right now, I just want to be out and about on the trail of the blue butterfly and writing my adventures down along the way. I wish everyone a healthy and happy 2024!