Lunner in the Abbey

 

Last week I told you about our stop in Vipiteno/Sterzing on the last day of our short trip. After we had left this charming little town in Südtirol, we crossed Brennerpass into Austria and from there drove via Innsbruck back to Bavaria. It was a lovely drive in splendind weather with gorgeous views. We passed the beautiful lakes Walchensee and Kochelsee which were pretty crowded since it was a public holiday (Ascension Day). We finally reached Kloster Benediktbeuern (Benediktbeuern Abbey) where we decided to have "lunner" - a name that we gave to a warm meal that is between lunch and dinner when we have neither of the two. We often do this while traveling.

Benediktbeuern Abbey is a monastery of the Salesians of Don Bosco, but was originally a monastery of the Benedictine Order. It was founded around 739/740. During the secularisation of Bavaria in 1803 the abbey was dissolved and during the course of the disposal of the library and archives the manuscript of the Carmina Burana was found, a 13th century collection of songs by wandering scholars. This manuscript is now in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in München together with many priceless manuscripts and charters from the abbey's library and archives. 24 of the poems of the Carmina Burana were set to music by Carl Orff in 1935/36. If you're not familiar with this music, listen in to "O Fortuna":

The site is huge and now among others also houses a university, a "Centre for Environment and Culture" and is home to an extended herb garden. The brewery - what is a monastery without its own brewery? - unfortunately was closed in 1925.

I am always very fond of the baroque church towers that you can find in Bavaria with their remarkable onion shape.

There were gates. as well - I always love gates.

But our main reason to stop here was the Klosterbraustüberl, named after the old brewery. It has a restaurant and a big beer garden. Since it was a holiday, the beer garden was crowded and we had to wait for our food quite a while, but spent the time with people watching. And we did see some "real Bavarians" in the traditional Bavarian costume.

The food we had I had already shown you in this post, but since this is for Elizabeth and Bleubeard's T Tuesday, please join me for the wonderful Weißbier we had here.

 After we had eaten our "lunner", we started out to the very last leg of our trip, returning to München through the beautiful Upper Bavarian region.

If you are in the US, I wish you a very happy Thanksgiving. Despite the current state of the world, there is much to be thankful for. We shouldn't limit that to just one day in the year.

What's Wrong with that Beer?

 

I know I know, you have been waiting for this, haven't you? You were starting to ask, when is she finally taking us to the beer garden? She has been writing about München since the beginning of June, but what about the beer??? And what was wrong with that picture in last Tuesday's T post?

Alright then, let's go to the beer garden.

In München you can pretty much go to a different beer garden every day if you want to. There are the big ones by the breweries like Paulaner, but there are also many smaller ones, some really just a bigger garden by the side of the road. 

Beer gardens have long simple tables and benches. Sometimes, when the place is very crowded, you share the table with strangers - a great way to meet and get to know other people. The majority of German beer gardens are in Bavaria, and other than beer gardens in the rest of Germany, you can bring your own food and eat it there as long as you buy your drink(s). We've seen many people who do this - they buy their beer (or whatever they want to drink) and at the table they put out their tupperware and spread their food. It's a great way to spend the evening outside in company without breaking the bank.

Our first evening in Munich, finally spending time with Kaefer again

Of course you can also order food in a beer garden. The food is typical Bavarian dishes and is served cafeteria style.

Kaiserschmarrn, Schnitzel, Weißbier and dunkles Weißbier

Breze, Obatzda (Bavarian soft cheese dish), Radi (radish), Kartoffelsalat (potato salad)

Pretzels are always on offer and they can be very big.

She can be such a goofball!

Weißbier, especially the dark one, is my favorite. It is also often called Hefeweizen and is more popular in the South and Southwest than in the rest of Germany.

Weißbier is served in a special glass that is only used for Weißbier / Hefeweizen. 

A "regular" beer - called "Helles" (light - as in light color) or "Dunkles" (dark) - comes in glasses like this or smaller ones:

But what is "regular" beer anyway? There are so many different kinds of beer in Germany, some are more popular in the areas where thy come from. "Kölsch", a very light, top-fermented brew comes from Köln (Cologne); "Alt" (old) is a top-fermented, dark bitter brew from Düsseldorf; Pilsner or Pils is popular all over Germany, it is bitterer than most beers and must be carefully drawn - usually seven minutes (if you order a Pils and you get it after three minutes, it is not carefully drawn); "Rauchbier" (smoked beer) that is brewed in Bamberg. These are just a few kinds of beers of the rich selection in Germany. And each has its own glass.

Glasses for Weißbier, Kölsch and "Willibecher", a more universal glass 

Glasses for Pils, Alt and the famous Bierseidel which comes in 1 or 1/2 liter

You might have heard about the German Reinheitsgebot (purity law), enacted in 1516 in Bavaria's Ingolstadt. It says that "from henceforth, in our towns, our markets, and in the country, nothing should be used in the making of beer except barley, hops, and water alone." Yeast as an ingredient was added later. In 1987 this ruling was reversed when German brewers lost their case that brewers from countries outside Germany should not be allowed to import any beer if it wasn't brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot. However, brewing beer by only using barley, hops, water and yeast enjoys very high popularity in Germany and brewers proudly announce that their beer is "pure". Weißbier is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley.

German beer "science" doesn't end here. Remember the picture I showed last Tuesday, mentioning that something is wrong here?

When you go out with friends or a group, before you take your first sip of beer you clink glasses. While you clink glasses, you don't look at your glass, but you look into the eyes of the person you clink glasses with. It is very rude not to do that. So far so good. Looking at the picture above, you would think that this looks alright - we're clinking glasses, Kaefer is looking at me... but no. We're not drinking any old kind of beer, we're drinking Weißbier. And with Weißbier, you clink with the BOTTOM of the glasses, not the top as in the picture. This is ONLY for Weißbier, not for any other drink. Why? By clinking the glasses at the bottom, the yeast that has settled at the bottom after pouring is being "shaken up" and distributes throughout the drink. If you happen to pour Weißbier from a bottle, you have to do it very slowly with the glass held almost horizontally, otherwise you get too much foam at the top. Before the bottle is completely empty, you "shake" it in a circular movement so that you get all the yeast at the bottom. I told you it's science! I once even did a Weißbier pouring session at my home with my German class - it was very popular. The fun of teaching adult students!

By the way, we did clink our glasses at the bottom after taking this picture!

Elizabeth, thank you for the opportunity to share this with the T Tuesday gang. Everybody knows now what to do if they find themselves in Germany with some Weißbier (or in a German restaurant outside of Germany).

This has become quite long... so let's lean back and have a beer. Prost!

T is for Taking a Walk along the Lake

 

There are several lakes in the vicinity of München that can easily be reached by public transportation. One of them is the Ammersee, about 40 km southwest of the Bavarian capital. It is the third largest lake in Bavaria and quite low-key when compared to its more famous and cosmopolitan cousin, Starnberger See. One morning, Kaefer had to do some work, so she suggested the Geek and I take the S-Bahn (suburban train) to Herrsching which is right on the Ammersee and spend a few hours there before she would join us later in the day.

Se we did. Riding the S-Bahn is comfortable and fast; we arrived in Herrsching in less than an hour. It takes about ten minutes to walk from the station to the lake.

After we had spent some time sitting on a bench looking over the lake and enjoying the calm and peace, we decided to take a walk along the water's edge.

We first came upon this bronze sculpture of "Die kleine Seejungfrau auf ihrem Waller" (the little mermaid on her catfish) created by Hilde Grotewahl in 2005.

We passed the promenade and walked along the wilder part of the shore. Every now and then we met dogwalkers and people riding their bikes, but despite the warm and sunny weather it wasn't crowded at all. We bought each a cone of gelato and happily trudged along.

The views of the lake and the trail were always beautiful.

We found a small pebble beach where we rested on a fallen tree trunk, listening to the water quietly sloshing on the small rocks. One of us finally got the splendid idea to take a selfie - there really aren't many pictures of just the Geek and myself.

While we sat there, Kaefer sent us a WhatsApp that she was on her way and about to meet us near the Seejungfrau. So we slowly made our way back, noticing a few things we hadn't seen before - like these fungi on a tree. I am not sure whether this is Laetiporus sulphureus - I am not a fungus expert at all.

When we met Kaefer she also got some gelato and we sat on a bench, looking over the lake while chatting with each other. She told us that she sometimes comes out here in the evening just to watch the sunset. Here are her takes (the first shot was taken by her friend from Canada):

We didn't stay for the sunset though. We were getting hungry; our stomachs were grumbling. I remembered a lovely brewery from many many years ago in a village not too far away from München, and after checking whether it had a beer garden and was open (yes to both) we took the S-Bahn to Aying where this brewery was. The beer garden was 15 minutes to walk from the station - I love how you don't need a car if you live in a place that offers fantastic public transportation.

I remember the restaurant of the brewery offering delicious food, but we opted for the beer garden which is cheaper, but also more limited and frankly, not quite as good. The Geek had roast pork with potato dumpling while Kaefer and I chose the cheese Spätzle (a Southern German kind of pasta) with fried onions on top. The beer was excellent - both the Geek and I had a Weißbier and Kaefer enjoyed her huge Apfelschorle (apple juice with mineral water).

I'm linking up to Elizabeth's T party - Prost!