729a. Sun 16/6/19 Ambräusianum GmbH, Bamberg

Beer: Ambräusianum Bernstein Weizen 5.3%

A second visit, and a second time meeting at Ambräusianum. It’s a great place. I’m with SDK and Candida, who are leaving today. SRW and AW are also off. We’re joined by TPK and SA.

SDK’s set his heart on an Ambräusianum beer glass. He has a token and some wild notion that this token entitles him to take a glass home. He (SDK) was given this token last night as a deposit on a glass which, he explains, can either be redeemed or swapped for a souvenir glass. The server hears him out patiently. 

‘So,’ SDK concludes, having made a watertight case, ‘can I buy this glass?’

‘No,’ the barman replies.

Things go downhill after that. SDK and the barman come to some kind of arrangement viz the procurement of a glass, and there’s much chat about the Six Million Dollar people.

728a. Sat 15/6/19: Klosterbräu, Bamberg, Germany

Beer: Klosterbräu Bamberger Braunbier 5.3%

We’re two hostelries and no more than three drinks in, but already, group cohesion is coming apart. The walk from the Schlernkela to Klosterbräu is successfully negotiated by TPK, SA, JfCTH, Lidia and CJ. I take it upon myself to go back for SRW and AW (we notice silver birches in and chalk etchings above a number of doorways). However, we lose SDK and Candida.

Klosterbräu is high up on the list of places those with lists of places to visit. The beer’s excellent. We take it outdoors, but are soon asked to move indoors. There appears to be a ‘staff only’ pub garden, which is slightly confusing. AW has a book of colours, which I mock. I ask her the colour of happiness. When pushed, she tells me it’s Ketchup Red. Actually, she says ‘tomato red’. Either way, I smell a rat.

We’re soon rejoined by SDK and Candida. They ask for tips of places to go in New York and are interested in my experience of going to see the Mets play. Other than that, I’m useless, although AW comes in and gives them some pretty decent sounding advice.

728. Sat 15/6/19: Klosterbräu, Bamberg

Beer: Klosterbräu Braunbier 5%

Wise John recommended this place; the oldest brewery in Bamberg (established in 1533). It’s also just a stone’s throw from our digs in town. We sit outside the bar and wonder about the monk on the beermats and the great big umbrellas under which we’re sat (see the picture – the monk in mirror image). What, we discuss, is he holding in the hand which isn’t holding a flagon of beer? Nothing… obviously, it’s his index finger BUT we’d had more than a few strong beers. Is it a little sausage? A white chocolate finger?

We get moved from the roadside tables into benches inside the pub courtyard. It’s been a long day, lovely, mind: seeing so many pals turn out for me birthday treat.

The place closes up and we disperse – the others go onto another pub but we, certainly I, have had enough. We go round the corner and retire to our accommodation.

730. Sun 16/6/19: Brauerei Spezial, Bamberg

Beer: Spezial Rauchbier 5%

We see Slim and Candida off at the station, then make our way back. My plan is we have a sneaky beer, then back to the apartment for a kip for an hour or so. We get a bit lost on the way back to town. I keep waiting to cross the river – which never materialises. Surprise holiday, you see, I’ve done no search. We stumble upon the Fässla brewery, the bar of which is closed. Luckily, over the road, is this place, which is open. Naturally, being Bamberg, it’s a brewpub.

The bar is all but deserted, and we take a seat. It’s reserved from 6pm, but it’s not even four yet but NO, a barmaid tells us, we CANNOT sit here, it is RESERVED. Yes, we see, from 6pm, we’ll be gone by then… in the meantime, can we not? NO, we CANNOT.

The one other fellow in the bar explains in broken English that we cannot sit there, as it is a “Special Table”. Fair enough. It’s not really fair enough. It’s presumably, like the table in Prague’s Golden Tiger, with the brass RESERVED plate, for the sole use of the regulars. That’s ok, we can respect that, but why put a 6pm notice on it?

We don’t mind, not really. We deign not to take offence. We like these little idiosyncrasies… but really.

We sit in the next room. I take a picture of the Special Table. It’s a nice table too, and is situated next to one of those old ovens, covered in green tiles, like at The Shot Out Eye in Prague. They can kick out some heat, them ovens. Not that we’ve needed it today.

As we’re preparing to leave we hear outside the heavens open. It’s been a sultry day, and here’s the storm. It’s really belting down, and we’ve got no coat – let alone an umbrella. We get another in. Might as well. This, though, rather scuppers the “taking a break” plan – as we’re getting texts from others to meet in a little while in a pub over the river.

Luckily, and though the torrential rain outside is making rivers of the drains, I’ve used the time in the pub to regain bearings – though we are now two beers more soused than is polite.

738a. Mon 17/6/19: Klosterbräu, Bamberg

Beer: Klosterbräu Bamberger Schwärzla 5.0%

Unlike last time, when we had problems finding the biergarten, this time we are straight round the back. Very pleasant it is too.

BW is on form. He’s quite a thumb wrestler, and beats me and TPK with some ease. I feel a little affronted. BW is, after all, a young’un. I challenge him to a return. He beats me again. I think TPK beats him on one occasion. We’ve been drinking (me and TPK; not BK), but still, this is a major blow to my self-confidence.

Klosterbräu is great, but won’t hold us all night. We enjoy, again, the monk logo, and the sausage the monk appears to be holding up. Someone noticed this last night.

Customer to monk: ‘Do you have a menu?’ 

Monk to customer: “Yes. Here it is. A sausage.’

732. Sun 16/6/19: Das Pelikan, Bamberg

Beer: Monchengladbach Beer 5% (?)

Great place Das Pelikan. Unfortunately it’s pissing down with rain. We’ve only come up the road from Zapfhahn, but we’re pretty soaked. There’s not much room in the bar proper, either; so we go through to the little summer house/log store out the back. It’s nice enough in there. Cosy.

Ceej and me brother, John and Lidia: Steph and I, out.

A few locals also venture out the back – and start playing foosball, noisily. I warn against any of our party offering to take them on for a Germany v England international. We’ve done this before, on tour, in Germany in the late eighties; they know how to play the game in these parts. They’d be passing the ball – while we were spinning our players – around.

It’s a very decent, quite trendy, bar. They’ve got some t-shirts on sale, none of which quite appeal.

737a. Mon 17/6/19: Hotel Alt-Ringlein, Bamberg

Beer: Mahrs Bräu Bamberg U Ungespundetes 5.2%

I’m in Bamberg’s main commercial centre when I get the message and a choice; meet CJ, JtCF and Lidia at Stilbruch, or TPK and SA at Alt-Ringlein.

Alt-Ringlein wins. It’s 30 seconds closer and has a pleasant outdoor aspect rather than the vague C4 red triangle seediness of Stilbruch.

The Mahrs Bräu is exceptional. 

TPK, SA and I are discussing logistics. SA suddenly stares daggers as I explain how AW, MW and BW will arrive after CJ leaves. Oops. AW, MW and BW’s arrival was the sole remaining chance to surprise TPK. I’ve blown it. To make matters even worse, CJ, JtCF and Lidia arrive.

The waiter accidentally spills beer on TPK’s cricket hat. He’s mortified. CJ and I suggest he carry on and pour more, just to even things up. It’s with some relief that we all greet AW, MW and BW, all of whom seem very pleased to be here.

We return after an interlude seeing CJ off at Fassla. I insist, and AW insists on Cheese Spatzle. It’s the business.

727. Sat 15/6/19: Schlenkerla, Bamberg

Beer: Schlenkerla Rauchbier Märzen 5.2%

Huge great pub, and the brewers of the Rauchbier we know and love from the Bamberg Beer Fests in Bedford over the years. It’s fantastic stuff, and that’s not news for the hundreds of folk congregated in here. We can, walking through the many rooms in the pub, only find room for us all in the garden. That’s fine, it’s a balmy evening.

It is, my notes suggest, a bit like U Fleků in Prague, a bit of a one-trick pony. They serve one beer, it’s a very good beer, and everyone knows it. It also, my notes suggest, hits one as something of a tourist trap. Maybe it was a bit like that, at the time. With a tiny bit of research back home, I’ve seen that they do make other beer… but much of it is smoky. So… multi-trick pony.

The beer we have is lovely stuff.

My taking notes and pictures (I say “pictures”, I only took one) are called into question by the brother’s missus. Why do I bother? It’s not a bad question, but I’m too far into the evening to give a coherent answer. This booze is good stuff, but it tends to start at 5%; and we’re knocking it back like we were back home at the Bricks. Anyway, my vague memory is of getting a little poncey and precious about the project.

734. Sun 16/6/19: Hofbräu, Bamberg

Beer: Weizenradler 5%

Last pub of me 40s… and, for Steph and I, certainly at least a pub too far this evening. We got rained in a pub early in the afternoon, and are knacked.

The others haven’t been so foolish. It’s still early.

My notes are a mess. They mention that we listened on CJ’s device to some “Vampire Dungeon Synth”… and that the pub is a nice place.

As happened last night, Stephanie and I take our leave – and the others go on elsewhere.

733. Sun 16/6/19: Scheiners am Dom, Bamberg

Beer: St. Georgen Bräu Keller Bier 4.9%

Oh dear. I’m blaming the rainstorm, early in the afternoon, which had us staying in Brauerei Spezial (#730) rather than taking a couple of hours off and coming out later. As a result, though its only early evening, we’re quite weary… and notable wearier than them friends and family who have come out to Germany.

That weariness may have also informed our fool decision not to have a meal. The others, sensibly, are having a meal. We tend to go for post-pub slices of pizza pie. I put this, our recent dubious aversion to sit down meals, down to tapas in Spain and the sausage vendors on Wenceslas Square. There’s no reason for paying premium prices for pub grub – street food is cheaper. Anyway, had I had a big meal now, I’d be snoring within the hour… and such logic makes sense when one is three quarters cut.

We sit around waiting for the others to finish (rudely, probably), and sup on for another beer too far…