The first order of business on Monday was to head back to Bamberg. The problem was that Monday was a holiday – and a religious holiday at that. Unlike the States where everything is open, a holiday in Germany means everything is closed (except for restaurants we later discovered). By the way, I think the holiday is Pfingstmontag.
So, it was with a bit of worry that we approached Maisel Brau and much to our relief we saw a sandwich board out front – they were open.
But where were all the people? It was another beautiful, sunny day – a holiday and the biergarten was practically empty. Perplexed, we had a beer, Merideth a Pils and myself a Kellerbier, and decided to head into the Aldtstadt and to Bamberger Biertage.
We really weren’t sure what “Bamberg Beer Days” was about, but we figured that there would be beer and maybe that was where all the people were. What we remember about Bamberg from last June was that it was wall to wall people. But when we started walking from the parking garage to Maximillian Platz, where the beer days was being held, it was like walking through a ghost town. Still no people.
We found the plaza and it was completely empty. There were scores of empty tables and each Bamberg brewery had an empty booth. We finally saw a sign and the fun didn’t start until 4pm – four hours away.
But all was not lost. There was a booth selling bottles of beer and we were able to procure four bottles for our beer tasting after assuring the woman we were not going to be drinking them there. And on an interesting note, the beer we purchased was the one we lost last year in the broken bottle disaster at LAX.
Undaunted, we decided to do the only thing one should do on a religious holiday – visit a monastery. Of course, this one had a brewery, Altes Klosterbrauerei. Why else would we be there? Funny thing is that I’m not even sure of the name of the monastery.
After an unexpected long-ish walk up a hill, we found all the people we had been expecting in Bamberg. Granted not everyone was there to drink beer, rather they were there to view the ornate monastery buildings and maybe even buy something at one of the cheesy shops selling every manner of religious object.
But a number of people, like us, found the pleasant beer garden above the cathedral. The brewery only had two beers, a Pils and a Dunkel, but you really didn’t need much more choice than that.
We ordered a couple beers and grabbed a seat overlooking the cathedral. It is hard to describe the peaceful feeling of relaxing in a beer garden; basking in the sun, enjoying the tranquility and a beer. To me, this sums up beer travel in Germany.
Hey guys, love reading about my favorite beer place on earth!! The Kloster Brauerei is Brauerei Trunk and it isn’t a Kloster Brau exactly as it is not connected with the church. And it is a church, the wonderfully pronounced church of Vierzehnheiligen (14 Holy Saints). Opposite the valley from here is Kloster Banz which is similar but perched high up on the hill and can be seen for miles around. Vierzehnheiligen is famous for being designed by the great architect Balthazar Neumann and it is stunning inside, I hope you took a look!! Great beer too, the Truck Dunkel is one of the best dark beers in the region.
Prost
Jason, UK
Thanks for the clarification.
Can’t remember if we looked inside. We should be back in that area in the Fall and will try to check it out.
This area has a lot of breweries nearby, especially around bad staffelstein, which can be reached by train from bamberg. A great walk you can do is to brauerei staffelberg in loffeld, whch is great, stublang for dinkel and hennemann and if you are there on a Sunday between 2 and 5pm the tiny brauerei hetzel in frauerndorf with possibly the most inconvenient opening hours anywhere. I reckon the walk to these 3 villages is 7 km one way and is very pleasant with a little river and some quiet vilages.
Let me know if you want any more info,
Jason