the silence of the beers.... and other Bavaria, Germany General Tips

Favorite Thing: Aside from obvious places like Munich and Bamberg, the best thing to see are the small villages. They are timeless gems and life here has not changed all that much since the turn of the century. Eltmann was one such town and the Gasthof Lammbrau at Markplatz 11 is a classic village pub with a great dunkles beer. It's 19 kilometers northwest of Bamberg in the Steigerwald region of Franconia.

Fondest Memory: This was the 13th brewpub in four days, not the last of the trip, and not even the last of the day. It was understandable that Doreen didn’t want to go in with me. We had sorted out which places were suitable for her to enter and which were best for me to “research” on my own. In the former category were those with some kind of food on offer, and ones where perhaps another woman might be present. The latter ones were strictly one-room boozers, set up for men to let off steam after work and maybe play some cards. It was enough of a stir for anyone from outside town to show up, let alone an American with his blond fraulein. So, Clyde did these solo while Bonnie waited in the getaway car, and the idea was to get in and out as quickly as possible, just like in a bank heist. There is a trick to this and it involves paying for your beer as soon as you are served. Just getting served can take a while and paying up, especially when your German is meager at best, can take forever. This particular place was a classic of the example. Though perhaps a nice village restaurant in its day, it seemed to have seen better times and the dark smoky interior had only five or six patrons, taken aback by my entrance. They were all men, sitting apart, and contemplating over their brews. Not a word was spoken between them and I would have just got up and left if I hadn’t come so far. Finally, the barman came over and took my order and on his return I offered up a couple Euros and not too surprisingly got back change. I drank my beer and took some beer notes as quickly as I could, not understanding how anyone could just sit there in silence, even over an admittedly good beer. I certainly didn’t want to wind up in this state in twenty years so I hurried out to my sleeping moll waiting in the car. I got in and we sped away as I told her about the silence, the men, and the beer that brought me there.

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