Schlenkerla Tavern

My favorite time of day to visit the Schlenkerla Tavern in Bamberg is late morning.  About 1 hour or so after it opens works best for me.  My favorite place to sit and drink the beer is in the schwemme (entrance hallway).

You can find the tavern on the right side of this street after a nice morning stroll:

You can order your beer, gravity poured straight from the barrel, from this window.  The price is written in chalk on the side of the window:

You can sit at this table:

You can admire this green tiled stove (kachelhofen) in the adjacent room:

You can watch out the front doorway and watch the tourist groups wander by and gaze inside and laugh that there are people, like me, actually in the tavern drinking beer well before noon (secretly they are jealous):

I love the smell of rauchbier in the morning.  It smells like ...... victory.

And so the adventure begins.

Journey to the Magical Land of Beer

I've been quiet on this blog as of late.  Well there's not been much going on travelwise so really not much to write about.  However it's just the calm before the storm, so to speak, for tommorrow I catch a flight to Zurich then journey northwards to Franconia.  First stop Bamberg.  A lot of hallowed beer ground will be covered on this trip.  I'll start out with 4 days in Bamberg just to get reaquainted again with the beer of that phenomenal beer city.  Then for a few days I'll be wandering the countryside of Oberfranken visiting many kellers and brewpubs that I've not yet had the time to explore.  Each day I'll be staying at a different small countryside hotel giving me a chance to not have to rush and be able to stay long and savor these wonderful places.  On Friday the 15th it will be an excursion to Zoigland to experience that very unique and amazing communal brewing culture and beer.  Following this a tour with my Franconian friend Juergen to hard to reach brewpubs in southern Franconia.  The following week I tour other parts of Bavaria with my daughter and her Swiss friend before returning with them to Bamberg and a two day visit to Annafest.  This blog will be very busy at the end of July and into August.  Until then it's put to bed.  Vacation starts tommorrow!!  See you in a few weeks.