B - double E - R R - UN Beer Run

The 24th was a travel and maintenance day (laundry).  We travelled from Munich to Nuremberg.  

Early in our planning I had seen a picture of an interesting building spanning a river.  We discovered the town was called Bamberg.  This became our side trip from Nuremberg.  

Further research revealed Bamberg is the beer brewery centre of the universe. It contains the highest concentration of breweries in the world, 9 in the old town alone.  We had thought Rothenburg to be the cutest town in Europe but we quickly discovered Bamberg could give it a run for its monies. 

The old town of Bamberg is surrounded by 2 rivers and has many small canals running through it. Very picturesque.

We spotted a brew house with a patio on the river and stopped in to quench out thirst. 

We visited the Frauenkirche at the top of the hill. 

Passing through a narrow lane we came upon a small square and the Svhlenkeria Brewhouse which serves a Bamberg specialty - rauch bier (smoked beer).  We stopped in to taste this interesting brew and had quite possibly the worst meal in Germany so far.  I'm pretty sure everything on our plates was pickled, including the fried chicken.  We went down the street to the Ambrausianum Brewhouse for dessert in the hopes of washing the vinegary taste out of our mouths.  As it was getting late we did a little more sight seeing and headed back towards the train station. 

The entire old town of Bamberg is a Unesco World Heritage Site.  

 

 

Froliche Geburtstag

Kelly's wish was to celebrate her birthday at the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.  At the hauptbahnhof we transferred to the U Bahn, a bright, clean and efficient subway system.  We arrived at Marienplatz, the main square of the old town, which is dominated by the new Rathaus (city hall), the oldest looking building in the square. 

The main feature is the glockenspiel, a clock which performs a mechanical medieval wedding at 11:00 and 12:00 complete with jousting Knights.  The hometown Bavarian is in blue and his villainous French opponent is in red.  

Glockenspiel watching is thirsty work so we headed to the Hofbrauhaus to celebrate Kelly's birthday. This brew house has been a fixture in Munich since the early 1500's.  Following the siren call of an oom pah pah band we entered this vast complex and joined three Italians on a long wooden bench.  

After ein Maß and lunch we headed back to Augsburg, as I wanted to see the Geldener Saal.  The golden room is a fixture of the Augsburg Rathaus. 

Kelly wanted to just chill so she sought out a nice chair in the main square while Jude and I went for a stroll.  Augsburg is a very old town, established by relatives of Augustus Caesar.  Situated on the ancient salt road from Salzburg, it has been wealthy throughout its history.  It contains one of the oldest examples of social housing still in use.  The Fuggerei was built by a wealthy banker in the 16th century and amazingly he has never upped the rent. 

It was getting late and we decided to act on the recommendation from our tour guide yesterday and try the Ratskeller.  The restaurant, located in the basement, provided us with the best meal so far this trip at an amazingly low price. 

That Castle

Up very early to begin our journey to Neuschwanstein Castle, the iconic fairy tale castle that was the model for the Sleeping Beauty Castle at Disneyland. It is almost too pretty to be real and that's because it isn't.  It was designed by a set designer and is of the same vintage as that other famous European tourist magnet, the Eiffel Tower.  Having said that, it is quite breathtaking to behold. The getting there is the problem. 

We had read that the lineups can be ridiculous so we booked a skip-the-line tour back in June.  We met up with our tour group at 9:30 in the Munich Train Station and boarded a train for a 2 hour ride to the town of Füssen, changed to a bus for an additional 20 minute ride to the foot of the hill the castle is situated on.  

After a quick lunch of bratwurst on a bun we hopped another bus which took us up to Marienbrücke, the bridge overlooking the castle.  The bridge is a creaky wooden structure jammed with tourists. My new bionic elbow came in handy getting us a good vista point on the bridge.

 After snapping off a few photos we hiked down to the castle itself.  Surprisingly the castle was never actually finished as another tower and a garden were planned.  

Like good sheep we lined up and proceeded to climb the 400+ stairs to the decorated rooms.  Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside.  

Neuschwanstein's nickname is "Mad Ludwig's Castle" alluding to King Ludwig II of Bavaria who commissioned its construction.  King Ludwig II was a very interesting and controversial King.  He only managed to live in the castle for 2 weeks before he was declared insane and sent off to a family home in Munich. He died shortly thereafter under extremely suspicious circumstances.  He and his doctor went for a walk around a lake and later, both were found dead.  The "official" version was death by drowning but no water was found in their lungs and the lake was only 2 feet deep. The question of Ludwig's sanity involved a considerable amount of political intrigue.  A panel of 4 psychiatrists declared him insane without ever having spoken with him.  In the ultimate example of karma the doctor who drowned with Ludwig was the head of this 4 person panel. 

We repeated the bus, bus, train scenario in reverse and arrived back in Munich.  The big question is, "was the over 10 hours of travel and preparation worth it for a 35 minute tour?"  That's another box checked and like its contemporary, the Eiffel Tower, we've done it and are there is no need or desire to to it again.

We're Having a Party

Our first big mistake - we only booked one day in Rothenberg.   We boarded the train and headed to Augsburg.  Augsburg is about one half to three quarters of an hour from Munich.  It's Oktoberfest in Munich and whatever hotel rooms were available were horrendously expensive.  Dumping our stuff in our hotel in Augsburg, Argie came up with the brilliant idea to head to Oktoberfest today. Finding Oktoberfest was simple - all we had to do was follow the dirndls and lederhosen and if you weren't bright enough to figure that out they painted arrows on the sidewalk. 

I was lukewarm on attending Oktoberfest. You know I don't like crowds and fat drunks in short leather pants and oom pah pah music are not high on my like list.  Oktoberfest began early in the 19th century as a celebration for the wedding of Ludwig I.  It has flourished and grown ever since. Today it is the largest festival in the world attracting seven million visitors in its 16 day run.  These visitors consume over seven million litres of beer.  The site is huge.  There are 14 large tents, each representing a major brewery as well as twenty smaller tents.

 We opted for the most famous Hofbrauhaus tent, medium-sized for the larger tents. It holds 7,000 people and an additional 3,000 in its beer garden.

 Entering the tent you are immediately swept up in the party atmosphere. Everyone is in a joyous mood and very friendly. We immediately found seats at a long wooden table and joined the party.

Seventy-five percent of the people at Oktoberfest are appropriately dressed in either dirndls or lederhosen.  I actually enjoyed the oom pah pah band and I hadn't even had a beer yet.  Kelly and I ordered a maß of beer (1 litre), Judy and Argie ordered Radlers (Shandies).

 Everyone was super friendly.  Kelly hadn't even made it into the ten when a grey haired man in lederhosen wanted his picture taken with her.  Every five minutes someone at our table would yell, "prost" and everyone would join in.   Occasionally someone would climb up on a table and attempt to chug a maß of beer to the encouragement of 6,999 of their closest friends.

We met people from all over the world.

Time absolutely flew by.  Argie heard rumours of a dessert tent so off we went in search of the elusive dessert tent.  Finding said tent we settled in for strudel and cake and enjoyed the serenading by a pop rock band.

Before we realized it, it was getting late so we ambled back through the expanding crown and tight security to the train station and home. 

Grimm Little Town

First an apology.  The Internet service has been crappy at best for the last few days so we will do some catching up for the next few posts.  

We left the surprisingly charming town of Heidelberg and the care of super waiter Dominic.

  We faced a complex day of travel with three changes of trains.  We made one with only seconds to spare.  We finally arrived in the town of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  Our expectations were very high as this town is highly hyped as one of the most adorable towns in Europe.  Our expectations were shattered.  The place is straight out of a story book, so much so that the movie, "The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm" was filmed here.  

We checked into the B&B Klosterstüble, which was was equally charming, complete with a four poster curtained bed.   We quickly dumped our stuff and went exploring. We had been warned that the town was crowded with tourists and tourist busses until 4 p.m. But it wasn't too bad.   After wandering around for over an hour with our jaws open we decided to stop and try the local delicacy, the Schneeball (snowball).  

I half expected these softball pastries to be soft and donut-like but they were as hard as a rock.  But good!   Feeling a little stuffed Jude and I decided to walk the wall of the town while the girls headed off to the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum.

 Erica, our hostess, had recommended a quaint little restaurant, which we tried.  It was delicious.  We wandered back to our inn and tucked ourselves in for the night. 

A Day Without Trains

Today we decided to stay at home and explore the medieval university town of Heidelberg.  First stop the Alte Brücke.  Built in the 1700's, this bridge was the entry point to medieval Heidelberg. 

The bridge is famous for three statues - one of the Prince Elector Karl, one of the Godess Athena and one of a monkey.  

We then headed down the longest pedestrian shopping street in Europe, Hauptstrasse, approximately 1 1/2 miles long.  About half way down we detoured to the university and checked out the Bibliotech.

Heidelberg has been long famous for its prestigious university which has stood here since the 16th century.  One of its more famous deans was Robert Bunsen of burner fame.  Meanwhile, back on the Hauptstrasse we noticed the further we went the cutsie little boutique shops were being replaced by larger international chains.  We headed back to our hotel for an afternoon of relaxing and people watching.  

For dinner we went to a Brauhaus which was extremely popular.  The interior was decorated with real birch trees.  It was like having dinner in a Bev Doolittle painting.