Thank you to Penny and John who have been touring Germany and the Republique Checque as they say here in France, looking for the world's best beer. I thought my friends might enjoy their trip, and we are certainly hoping that when Penny gets back to the states she will provide us with some photos from her trip to add to the blog.
Penny writes.....Coming to you live, from a large Internet Cafe in Munich at 9am, Munich time on Saturday morning, which is 3am in Cincinnati, listening to American and British rock music.
Wednesday afternoon--our last day in Bamberg--John and I returned to Greifenklau beer garden for a leisurely lunch and to enjoy the atmosphere. It was another beautiful day and very quiet, with a few local people having lunch. There was a table of about eight older men playing cards and drinking beer--one beer lasts about an hour. Occasionally, there would be loud discussions about some aspect of card playing--a particularly good, or bad hand, I´m sure, and some raucus laughter.
Around 6pm, we headed for Spezial Keller--a beer garden at the top of one of the seven hills in Bamberg. Another lovely spot, with a view of one of the cathedrals and the city. These beer gardens are entirely family affairs, and people of all ages come, greeting neighbors, etc. Many people bring their own food--picnic style. We stayed until almost 8pm--a few members of our group showed up by then--and then found a shortcut to a Tapas Bar--through a residential area (and we were very proud of ourselves for not getting lost!!)--that served another kind of beer. Four more members of our group had been there since around 6:30. They had been sitting outside at 7pm when the bells in the cathedral and other churches began chiming--taking turns. Apparently, that, combined with the beautiful sunset, made for quite the evening. Then we all headed back to our hotel, which has a very nice and comfortable patio, and drank beer, ate beernuts, smoked cigars, and shared stories.
Thursday morning, we drove 3.5 hours to the town of Andechs and had lunch at the Kloster Andechs Brewery--a beautiful beer garden at the monastery, on top of a hill. The food was glorious--the big hit was the medallions of elk with potato and cranberry sauce. The beers were very good--helles, helles bock, spezial, and a dunkel--even a doppel bock. This was another beautiful beer garden, although slightly more touristy--teak furniture and large umbrellas. The weather ws gorgeous.
Back in the bus to the VERY small town of Aying, the location of Ayinger Brewery. Aying is approximately one-half hour southeast from the center of Munich. We stayed in a very nice country lodge. The tour of Aying Brewery featured miles of stainless steel tubing--they just finished a new brewery for 10 million euros. Again, we were able to taste unfiltered beer from the holding tanks. They also had junderdjarbeer (spelling?)--to celebrate their one hundred year anniversary--and all the traditional German beers. Next was a four-course dinner at the lodge, with a different beer for each course. No one left the table hungry!
Yesterday, we arrived in Munich at 10:30 am and had a walking tour of the old part of Munich--very interesting--SO MUCH history here. Then everyone was free to do as they wished. John and I had a beer in the Viktualien Markt, which is a large--and very old--market near the center of old Munich. We had lunch at Spatenhaus and watched people go by. Then a brief stop at Oktoberfest to confirm that it is completely insane.
Today we are off to see Englischer Gardens and a small beer hall about a 20 minute subway ride from the center of Munich. Tonight is our farewell dinner at the Ratskeller, in the old town hall in the center of Munich.
