Bamberg Beer Tour

Last weekend Chris and I traveled to Bamberg, which is a 2 hour train ride from our town. We heard that Bamberg was famous for their smoked beer, and we had to try it out! Rauchbier, or smoked beer, has a distinctive smoke flavor because the malted barley is dried over an open flame.

We signed up for the BierShmeckerTour at the Tourist Center. Inside our nifty backpacks, we received 5 vouchers for beers at local pubs, a beer stein, a description of the local beers and "beer mats" from all the local pubs.

Our first stop on our beer tour was to Schlenkerla, which is a pub known for the smoked beer. Chris and I really enjoyed the unique flavor of the smoked beer. Along with our beer, we had a great lunch. I had the ham leg with a knodel and sauerkraut. It was big enough to feed a family of 4! Chris had sausage with cheese inside, with horseradish sauce for a little kick.

After lunch we ventured out into the city. There was a Zaubert festival going on, which, from what we gather, was a festival of street performers and musicians.

We also toured the Brewery Museum, which is conveniently located right next to a monastery. We have learned that there are 2 kinds of monks in Germany....the skinny monk who holds a Bible and a "chubby" monk who is holding a beer. Fun Germany Fact: The Reinheitsgebot (known as the German Beer Purity Law) stated that beer could only be made of malt, water and hops. Yeast was not known to be an ingredient in beer. Germans are very proud to brew and drink "pure" beer.

Below are a few more pictures of the great views we had in Bamberg!

Castles and Bratwurst and Duckies Oh My!

Today we ventured out to Nuremberg. We took a 45 minute train ride and arrived in downtown Nuremberg. We are loving the train system here! For 14 Euro we were able to travel to such an awesome city!

We ate lunch at Bratwursthausle. We both had bratwurst with sauerkraut. Yum! We practiced ordering in German again. Chris is picking up the language much faster than I am!

Our first stop was Kaiserburg (the Imperial Castle). We were able to get a great view of the entire city from the castle wall. Unfortunately the inside of the castle was closed; it will open next week (go figure!) But we were able to walk around all of the gardens. There was even a bride and groom taking their wedding photos there. How lucky for Germans to be able to take wedding photos in real castles!

One of the most unusual sights we saw all day was the Entencup 2013. We were crossing a bridge when I noticed a little yellow rubber ducky floating down the river. I found it very amusing and decided to take a picture. Next thing I know, dozens and dozens of little duckies are floating right on down the river. It turns out, today was the day for this charity event. Donors pay for ducks with numbers on the bottom, and the first duckies to reach the "finish line" are the winners. 

Willkommen to Germany

Willkommen! Welcome to our blog. Chris and I are excited to be stationed in Germany for our first duty station. We plan to travel as much as we can while we are here, and we'd like to share all of our adventures with you.

Our first mini "adventure" was walking to the nearby town of Vilseck. We learned some common phrases in our German language class, and we wanted to test out our skills. We learned about Cola weizen (beer mixed with Coca Cola). We were told that it may sound strange, but not to judge it before we tried it. And sure enough, it was delicious! Especially if you like sweeter drinks. Also, German beer is much stronger than American beer, so starting off with a diluted drink may be a good thing!