Bamberg

When the Floths came muttering by…

By Steve Thompson

Three years ago Stan and I, both of Dudley CAMRA, visited Bamberg in Germany. Bamberg is a medieval city of Culture, but more importantly a city with 10 breweries. After detailing our experiences several people suggested we make a return visit. In May of this year that visit took place with a total of 13 local CAMRA members joining the holiday.

Everyone was encouraged to make their own accommodation and travel arrangements and the Bamberg Tourist website was useful in providing details of Hotels and Brewery accommodation. Our group, Stan, John G, Julie, Tony H and myself, chose to fly (Lufthansa) to Frankfurt with onward journey via Deutsche Bahn (DB) railways to Bamberg. Bookings were relatively easy with online reservations for flights and train journeys; self printed tickets being a great feature of the DB train bookings. One group chose to travel by car; Tony S, Bridget, Sarah and Mark from Stourbridge CAMRA had an overnight stay in Belgium before arriving. Janet and John D from Wolverhampton CAMRA travelled by train all the way using Virgin, Eurostar and DB ICE trains arriving late Friday evening and Dave and Bill arrived on the Monday via Frankfurt.

Saturday, Day 1, our first beers in Germany were at Frankfurt airport railway station where we had Pils beers from Bitburger and Schofferhofer Weizen

The real Bamberg beers started in Fassla Brewery, our base for the week. Lagerbier and Pils were sampled. We then decided to visit Klosterbrau and I enjoyed a delicious black beer called Schwarzla. Moving on into the centre of the old town we entered Ambrausianum brewery and I sampled their Hell beer. They also do a beer probe in this brewery; here you can sample a small glass of each of the 3 beers they produce. After a most enjoyable first day we wandered back to the Fassla for a nightcap, a very nice Martzen beer was on offer before we all retired to bed.

Sunday, Day 2, saw an early start for breakfast, locals were already in the passageway of the Fassla having their morning beer and reading their Sunday papers, Nine o’clock was a bit early for me, I’m not sure I was quite ready for Cheese, Meat and Bread rolls washed down with a glass of beer. A gentle walk through town and up the hill to the Greifenklau saw us firmly ensconced by eleven o’clock sampling their Lagerbier, Dunkles beer and the Weitzen beer in their beautiful beer gardens with views over the city. This proved to be a really good start to the day with eleven of the party enjoying the sunshine and the beers. We decided to move on the Spetzial Kellar. Someone asked how far it was and Tony S with a brilliant turn of phrase said “as the flow cries” its about 800 metres. I think we all realised at that point what a good week were going to have. The walk through the back streets to the Spetzial Keller was not too demanding and we arrived after about 15 minutes. Spetzial kellar is a large beer Garden with space for a few hundred people, nicely shaded with large mature Chestnut trees. Here we drank the Rauch Lagerbier and the delightful Ungespundet beer. Ungespundet is relatively low in Carbonation and usually quite hoppy. This afternoon brought another classic phrase with Bridget getting annoyed with the “floth that kept muttering about”. From here we moved up the hill to the Wild-Rose Kellar, another large beer garden with space for several hundred drinkers, Wild-Rose Kellerbier and a Maibock were consumed. Unusually here, you need to go to the serving sheds to get a drink or to order food; each hatch offers drinks for adults, food or drinks for children. Leaving the Wild Rose we started back in to town choosing to pop into the smaller of the two Mahr’s Kellers and then back in to the old town.

The party split up, some going into the Schlenkerla for the famous Rauch beer ( I can’t stand it), and some into the Alt Ringlen bar. Most of us got together for dinner in the Schiener Gastaus across the road. An excellent grill platter for €11.50 was consumed. Enough was enough and we meandered our way back to Fassla and a quick nightcap.

Monday, Day 3 was again a hot day 30 degrees and another day for the beer gardens. We set off to the Maisel Keller, a 20-minute walk from the railway station. The keller had been taken over by Fassla since the Maisel brewery of Bamberg had gone out of business the previous year. We had a couple of quick beers here before moving along the road to the Mahrs Keller alongside the brewery. A large selection of beers here and we rapidly got tired of looking at the beer board. Thank heavens for digital cameras, a photo of the beer board was passed around each time we required another drink. I had the Vollbeer and a Festiage beer. Having exhausted the beer list here we crossed the road to Keesman brewery, drinking their Pils and Sternla. Julie pointed out we had been out 6 hours and only been in 3 bars. We returned to the Fassla with a pleasant walk along the riverside. The intention was to freshen up and then visit a couple of bars close to the hotel. Sadly, John’s head touched the pillow and he was no more. The rest of us visited the Spetzial across the road and finished the evening with Ungespundet and Lagerbier.

Tuesday, Day 4 was to be one of our bus days. The local Bamberg transport office offer a 2 day tourist bus ticket €6.60 for use on all local city buses, fold the ticket in half and insert in the machine behind the driver, it will be stamped with the date and time and you now have 48 hours of city transport. Be careful as daytime buses finish about 6 and a limited evening service operates. We decided to visit a small village to the Norrth East of Bamberg that has two breweries. We went first to Memmelsdorf on the Number 7 bus to visit the Drei Kronnen brewery, a village bar offering a Lagerbier and a Pils. We caught a bus about two hours later to Drosendorf (the terminus of the route) and went to Goller brewery enjoying their Lagerbier €1.80 and Hefeweizen. Many village brewery bars close one day a week so be careful and check Holy days when bars are often closed. On returning to Bamberg we decided to travel out to the Buger Hof Inn, a regular watering hole for British tourists. The Bar is alongside the river in the village of Bug, hence its name. Here we met up with a very tired Sarah as their group had enjoyed a gentle stroll from the city to the Buger Hof Inn, further than they thought I think, whilst we had caught the bus. Several beers later and three missed buses we returned to Bamberg but as the bus passed by the Griefenklau it seemed a waste not to visit again. It was here that the new European currency for Black Country folk was invented, the €Yowrrho, we never did work out the rate of exchange but 1 €Yowrrho to the bag of Scratchings was suggested. Finally we headed back to the Fassla for a final drink with Tony S prior to his birthday the following day.

Wednesday, Day 5 started by wishing Tony, Bridget, Sarah and Mark Bon Voyage as they were heading into the Czech republic and an appointment with a beer bath. Dave and Bill went to meet some of the “Friends of Highgate” who were on a coach tour and were having an extended visit to Bamberg. The rest of us decided on an easy start today and we did a bit of shopping and sight seeing. We met at 1245 and caught the Number 6 bus to Bischberg, again a lovely quaint village brewpub. We had the Pils beer and a special Zwickel beer, an unfiltered beer much liked by the locals but also much appreciated by us. Returning to the city we again did a bit of sightseeing by getting the number 10 bus to the Michaelsberg and looking around the Monastery, the Brewing Museum and views over the city. This evening we ate in the Kachelofen, just across the road from Ambrausianum. Beers from the village of Buttenheim were on offer, the same beers that Wetherspoons have been importing for their beer festivals. The Lumberjack Grill €11.50 was excellent and would normally keep me in meat for a month. Tonight was Champions League Football, after a quick freshen up and an alarm call from Stan I resurfaced, ignoring the demands of the football that seemed to only be available in an Irish bar we set off to Klosterbrau, I joined the rest who were busy consuming Braunbeer and a Maibock. It had been a relatively quite beer day, Tony H went to see Man Utd and I returned to the Fassla and finished off with a couple more Marzen beers.

Thursday, Day 6, and a visit to Nurnberg had been planned. 9 of the Party left and 2 Bayern Group ticket for 5 people cost a mere €60, €6.60 each, this gave us return train travel (1hour 12 mins) and trams, buses and underground in Nurnberg. Using the worldwide version of Multimap, most of the brewpubs were on a reasonable walking route. We went first to Tucher-Brau, a beautiful restaurant. I got the impression people who just wanted beer was not that welcome. The Tucher Pilsener was pretty good though. A short walk brought us to Steichele where I had the Lindenbrau Vollbier. We then headed up the hill towards the Castle and the Schwarzer Bauer brewery, unfortunately the service here was incredibly slow. Inside was Geoff from Walsall CAMRA who was still on his coach Holiday. The beers here were good and a Roth beer was eventually sampled along with the Helles beer and the Schwarze beer. Next-door was the Schlenkerla Schranke, here we were joined by Janet and John who had been to the transport museum. Here we learned not to move the table decorations or the pretty flowers when the landlady forcibly returned them to their rightful place in the centre of the table. A short walk away was the Hutt’n a bar free of brewery tie; we had Neder Braunbier from Forcheim and Pyraser Kellerbier. Unfortunately it had started raining but yet another classic comment from John G about “how umbrellas keep your head wet” left us with a couldn’t care less attitude. We quickly found the Barfusser, an underground beer hall, for their Kellerbeer and across the road to the AnDechsher under the Deutscher Hotel, again a large underground drinking hall. Spezial Hell, one of my favourite bottled beers was on draught finishing off with the Spezial Doppelbock.

A short walk to the station and we were on our way back to Bamberg. Upstairs on the train brought a series of silly comments from Bill several unprintable and I must say Julie’s chocolate was very nice.

Friday, Day 7 was to be a quiet day after the previous day’s excesses, a gentle cruise along the river and canal was the order of the day. We were amused by a Children’s play area on a Barge, they looked to be in a Prison along with their toys. Our first beer was in the KaiserDom pub on the Old Bridge. Probably the beer we least enjoyed. We moved on to the Klosterbrau again as we had all enjoyed the beers and the food in this bar. We spent quite a while here talking about the weeks events. The Braunbeer, the Schwarze and the Maibock were all in excellent condition. John G still hadn’t managed a beer in the Spezial yet so we headed back to finish the evening.

Saturday, Day 8, we still hadn’t had beer with our breakfast but it was time to head to the station for our return journey. The boss from Fassla kindly provided us with Fassla brewery caps in recognition of the service we had done to the German economy.

A final beer at the airport and we were on the plane home. Courtesy of Lufthansa, Warsteiner Pils is the beer of choice on their planes so I thought it would be poor manners to refuse.

Thanks to John G, Julie, Tony H, Stan, John D, Janet, Dave, Bill, Sarah, Mark, Bridget and Tony S for a superb week away.

Finally, someone said how about Munich next year.

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