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Thinking back on my Trip

Posted by Mark Andersen on 2013-07-02 12:48:12

I got so busy as soon as I got home in May I never really posted anything on here about the trip I took in early may to Oberfranken and Eschawo/Neuhaus. From following the trips of other folks on here like Fred, Barry, Don, etc. I realized that I got very lucky with the weather as I had only 1 or 2 rainy/cool days while in Bamberg area and the last day out of three in Eschawo was the only cool one. The morning I walked to the train station in Eschawo I realized the weather had turned for the worse as it was around 40-45 degrees F. In other words, it was cold. What I didn't realize was how long that bad weather would last. So I stayed 8 nights in Bamberg in the Tandem Hotel. I like the hotel and the people that run it very much. By no small margin it was the best breakfast I've had in a Bamberg hotel. It was not buffet style. The very nice women that ran the place would prepare a plate of meat, cheeses, bread, etc. for me each morning and would also offer to cook up some eggs anyway I liked. You can have as much coffee, cappuchino, espresso that you desire and it's all part of the deal and all very high quality. The rooms were very basic and clean. I was on first floor facing the river so it did get a bit noisy at night as noisy drinkers would be walking along the nearby bridge until wee hours. Ear plugs fix that problem though so it's a minor gripe. It's the first time I've visited Bamberg and felt like after the trip that I hadn't really spent much time in the city or visited the pubs or breweries as much as I would have liked. This is a side effect of the good weather that found me out wandering in the countryside nearly the entire trip. A very nice problem to have. Normally I would visit some late night pubs most nights in the city but almost every night on this trip I wound up getting back to the city sometime between 9pm - midnight and was completely spent from all the countryside walking and beer drinking. In other words I got to do exactly what I've wanted to do for years around there but was thwarted by weather or other factors. It was brilliant! Many highlights of the trip include: 1. Getting up on my first full day on Friday and taking the train to Ebing thinking I would be having a nice quite walk and a few beers in the countryside only to find a busload of Swedes in the brewpub and being invited along to join them on their tour. Such a great day and evening. It was great fun talking all things beer with a bunch of very knowledgeable beer enthusiasts and homebrewers from Sweden all afternoon and right up until Schlenkerla closed. Funny thing was I had run into Jan-Erik Svensson out on the street in front of Schlenkerla the night before and just said a quick hello not knowing I would run into them again the next afternoon. 2. Saturday afternoon at Café Abseits talking beer with Gerhard and sampling a few different beers. Thanks again to Herr Schoolman for his great hospitality. That night would turn out to be one of the most fun of the whole trip. I decided to take a cab out to Merkendorf to go to the Bierabend festival being held at Hummel. I wasn't sure I would have the energy to do this but I'm glad I found the energy. It was a blast. Don't miss it if you are there when/if they do this again. Kellerbier right out of the barrel and if it that weren't delicious enough I thought the Maibock divine. Not to mention the band playing and the generally entertaining atmosphere. 3. .... Despite the late night before the next day topped the previous. Met Ronnie and Tony (Jason's travelling companions) at the bus station and we took the late Sunday morning bus out to Tiefellenern and walked from there to Geisfeld enjoying the beer on the way. The weather was perfect and the walk was fantastic. Brauerei Holzein in Lohndorf is a new entry on my personal favorite beer places in the world list. I did finally also make it to the Griess Keller and it lives up to the hype. 4. Monday I was feeling a bit sluggish so I slept late and felt a nice relaxing afternoon at Roppelts would be just the thing. So I took the 265 bus from Forcheim and met Nick there. It was a very nice afternoon and good chat over some kellerbier. Rather than go up to Kruezberg afterwards, which I have done 3 times before, I decided to try something different and walk to Hallerndorf and check out the Lieberth Dorfkeller. Good move as I really liked the place and it was a very pleasant walk. My plan was then to go to the Witzgall pub but I fell asleep on the bus and woke up in Forcheim so I went to Neder instead. 5. Tuesday was another brilliant day out in the countryside. This time bus to Monchsambach with Jason and his mates. Also managed to visit the two kellers in Burgebrach (Hirschkeller and Schwanenkeller - both lovely). We were enjoying so much we decided to take our chances and miss the last bus and hope to catch a taxi back to Bamberg. Jason was on bike so he had already left us. We started to get a bit nervous when the people at the bier kellers couldn't seem to find a cab for us. So we walked down into Burgebrach and snooped around. Everything seemed shut down but we found a little pub that had a nice selection of local beers and got to try the Pils from Grassmandorf while we waited for the taxi from Bamberg that the very nice bartender called for us (he spoke perfect English which helped a lot). Highlight of the day was the accordion player at about 4pm at Brauerei Zehender. He handed out sing along sheets, the place was full, and we sang along to two songs accompanied by accordion and then it was done and we left to friendly goodbyes from the locals. Brilliant! 6. Wednesday might have topped it all off. Met Juergen and Elmar in Ebensfeld. Found the brewpub closed but during the day managed to visit 6 breweries with Elmar driving in the morning then a long walk in the afternoon until well after dark. Visited Uetzing, Lossfeld, Frauendorf, Wiesen, Nedensdorf, Pferdsfeld, then back to Ebensfeld. Counting the walking to and from the bahnhof in Bamberg and then all of the above I estimate I put close to 25km on my feet that day fueled by a lot of terrific beer and food. I think the surreal moment for me was walking through cow fields between Pferdsfeld and Ebensfeld in the dark relying on nothing but the stars, village lights in the distance, and Elmar's GPS to find our way. Yet not feeling the slightest bit nervous or unhappy but rather content from such a great day spent. It could have downpoured while we got attacked by wolves and I still wouldn't have lost the smile on my face. Thank you Juergen and Elmar! 7. Father's day in Bamberg and waiting for my friends to arrive from Hamburg. What a great atmosphere in this city on Vatertag! Also got to meet Fred for the first time for a few beers at Schlenkerla before we went off to eat dinner at the Pelikan and pub crawl for the night. Nightcaps came at Pizzini and glad to have the Krug beers on tap there. 8. Eschawo/Neuhaus was wonderful as well. I could write another page on it alone but I won't. Had a lovely hike along the Waldnaabtal to the Blockhutte one day and spent lots of quality time between Beim Gloser, Wolfram Stub'n, Kack'n, and Schoilmichl those three days. Very much enjoyed time spent with Barry and J. and Jason and his mates there. Lot of fun conversation and laughs. I think Schoilmichl was my favorite beer of the four but Kack'n my favorite place (no surprise). I stayed at Oberpfalzer Hof. I didn't drink there but found the folks running it to be friendly and spoke enough English to make the stay easy for me. I would like to try the hotel up in Neuhaus the next time though and my friends from Hamburg really liked the Weisse Schwan. They had a huge room there for dirt cheap. That pretty well covers it. Sorry for the length and the many misspellings I'm sure I made. Can't wait to go again.

Followups:

Thinking back on my Trip by Doug on  2013-07-02 16:25:10

Thinking back on my Trip by Fred Waltman on  2013-07-02 20:23:20

Thinking back on my Trip by Nick B. on  2013-07-02 23:48:36

Thinking back on my Trip by JohnRatcliffe on  2013-07-03 00:16:18

Thinking back on my Trip by Neil on  2013-07-03 05:19:53

Thinking back on my Trip by DonS on  2013-07-03 06:21:02

Thinking back on my Trip by Mark Andersen on  2013-07-03 06:44:47

Thinking back on my Trip by Mark Andersen on  2013-07-03 06:52:25

Thinking back on my Trip by Barry on  2013-07-03 12:12:40

Thinking back on my Trip by Jürgen Wening on  2013-07-03 23:45:18

Thinking back on my Trip by jason on  2013-07-04 01:35:07

Thinking back on my Trip by Nick B. on  2013-07-04 04:40:55

Thinking back on my Trip by DonS on  2013-07-04 11:39:08

Thinking back on my Trip by Jürgen Wening on  2013-07-04 23:07:46

Thinking back on my Trip by Mark Andersen on  2013-07-05 06:09:26

Thinking back on my Trip by jason on  2013-07-05 16:37:32

Thinking back on my Trip by jason on  2013-07-05 16:50:27

Thinking back on my Trip by Nick B. on  2013-07-06 00:50:15

Thinking back on my Trip by Nick B. on  2013-07-06 00:52:17