Do you know how hard it is to read this report and not want a beer? Thankfully DH bought me some Shotgun Betty for the weekend, and I totally forgot about it! (Loneriderbeer.com) Your statement about American craft beers is spot on.

We need to plan a Germany trip. Haven't been there yet. This is a good "hook" to get DH deeply intrigued...

It is hard to write the report and not have a beer

I realized I left something out for Munich though - that's is what I get for writing when jet lagged, it guess.

The last night we were there, we went back out and rode the tram to the Hirschgarten to go to the beer garden there. We loved this beer garden on our last trip to Munich - we actually stayed not far from there, so it was like our own neighborhood place. We didn't want to leave Munich without going there again.

I love the Hirschgarten because of the atmosphere there - lots of families and groups of friends just hanging out and having a good time. The beer garden is very large, but even when it is pretty full, it doesn't feel overly crowded. And they serve Augustiner there, which we really like.

We had intended to seek out some of the other beer gardens around Munich, but there is only so much time - guess we'll have to go back again

For your next trip, I recommend the beer and beer garden at Weltenburg Abbey on the Danube near Kelheim.
http://www.klosterschenke-weltenburg...=95&Itemid=108

We stayed at the Altstadt Molitor Hotel right across the street from the Klosterbräu Brewery on Obere Mühlbrücke. Had dinner there a couple of times on both of our visits to Bamberg.

Sounds like you had a great trip.

Hi, november,

just found this, and read it in one session! i very much liked the beer-based content, not least because we are off to Germany [not Munich area though] in about a month's time, and it's good to have some ideas for what to drink.

a question though - what is this "rauchbier"? I've been to Germany lots of times and never seen it. is it limited to certain areas, or have I just been going around with my eyes closed?

annhig - I am not surprised you haven't seen Rauchbier before. It is a smoked beer - they smoke the hops with beechwood before they use it in the brewing process. It is very dark, but not heavy like a porter. The "weight" of the beer is very light and refreshing. The only breweries that I know of that brew it are in Bamberg and the distribution seems quite limited. Aecht Schlenkerla is the most well-known and our favorite. We can actually get it in our local BevMo, but we learned on this trip that it is MUCH better right out of the keg - and given the rate at which people were drinking it in Bamberg, I am not surprised that not much gets out of Franconia.

vttraveler - I will definitely put that on the list for a future visit.

what a great trip report!

november_moon,

Love the report - excellent work!

Andech’s is THE beer to enjoy - so glad you made the pilgrimage and got to try it.

BTW, for others reading this, you don't HAVE to go out to the monastery to try it - it is available (at only one location) in Munich - a bar/restaurant called Andescher am Dom, behind the Frauenkirche in central Munich, just east of Marienplatz.

http://www.andechser-am-dom.de/

You might think about a 1-2 week beer tour of Belgium for your husband's next big treat. Hard to believe, but there is even BETTER beer out there. Most of the more than 500 different (and quite varied) Belgian beers are "++".

bardo1--any special recommendations for Belgian beers? We will be there for 11 days in late September/early October.

(sorry to highjack the thread november_moon but the response may be useful to you in your future travels)

ok...I'm ready for the Prague portion now. We'll be there for 4 days early in Oct.

november_moon: <i>...then to the Augustinerbrau next to the Frauenkirche. At Augustinerbrau we each had a beer – I got the Helles and my husband got the Dunkel – both excellent as always.</i>

Awesome report so far, nm. I'm no beer connoisseur myself, but I do love that spot and that Augie Helles. I was there last year, enjoying a tall one, when I struck up a conversation with some guy from Chicago. We were both talking travel, talking Chicago stuff, etc. when we both stopped at the same time and said "damn... this beer is really <i>good</i>, isn't it?" Wish I was back there now.

Looking forward to the rest of it!

Vttraveler,

A separate thread might allow for other beer geeks to chime in.

Anyway, the question is like asking <i>"Which (of the more than 500) French cheeses should I try?"</i>.

Not east to answer as there are so many excellent options and individual taste vary.

I can first steer you to the best of the best - which is Westvleteren. Available by the drinking and take-out at this cafe just outside the Abbey (limit one 6-pack per person to go). http://www.indevrede.be/
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/313/1545

If you like a lighter beer, Saison Dupont is a real treat. Available at most beer bars and many restaurants and cafes. Highly drinkable anytime, but especially nice in hot weather.
I usually go for darker and/or higher alcohol but I just LOVE Saison Dupont and never tire of it. Try it even if you think you don't like lighter beers, this will be the exception.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/637/1717
Also available at the better beer stores in the US (in the larger/largest cities).

Lastly, no beer lover can go to Belgium and not visit the <b>Kulminator</b> in central Antwerp. Elected 4 times as best beer pub in the world over the last 7 years and has been listed 2nd place best beer pub in the world also in those 7 years.

A must visit.

...and schedule plenty of time there.

The seemingly infinite variety of Belgian beers available there, including many aged 10, 20 years or more is mind-blowing.
http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1232

Hi, nm! Great report! Have been looking forward to this ever since you posted your planning.

Love themed travels and this beer-laced one is so well written! Oh, weisenbier and Radlers bring back great memories!

On Munich: Agree that the Residenz is worth a visit. Not much to see on the outside but wonderful inside and those porcelain are priceless.

THE place for Augustiner beer apparently is the Augustiner Keller on Arnulfstrasse, although more people end up at the one you went to because it's in the Altstadt. Next time (there WILL be a next time! ), in the Englischergarten, try the Chinesischer Turm beer garden. It's got an om-pah band going at times. Half a roast chicken and a 1L of beer and I'm happy. Love Munich!

Looking forward to more!

bardo1--thanks for the Belgian beer tips. For some reason when we have visited Belgium before we have not concentrated much on the beer (although we enjoyed what we did sample) but this trip with more time we will make more of an effort. You are probably right that I should start a separate thread on this topic. I am sure others will have suggestions, too.

We spent a week in Belgium in 2009 and the beer there was heavenly. The funny thing is that for the 2009 trip, the main reason we even ended up going to Belgium that trip is because we had frequent flier miles and could get to Belgium with them. It was a "we want to go to Europe using miles - what's availible?" kind of thing.

When we were getting ready to head home from this trip, it took all our will-power not to call the airline to change our flights so that we could tack on a week in Belgium, because that Belgian beer was calling to us

Regarding the Andech's beer - we first were introduced to that beer at Andecher Am Dom on a previous trip to Munich and we loved it - in fact, when I was in Munich for a few hours on a layover last year, I made a bee-line for that place. When we learned that the monastery was within easy striking distance of Munich, we knew we had to go there.

Ok - now for the Prague portion of the trip ...

August 21–Sunday - Day 10:

Today we are off to Prague. We took the ICE train from the Munich Hauptbahnhof to the Nuremburg Hauptbahnhof and then the Express Bus from Nuremburg to Prague. The connection time was only about 11 minutes, which I was worried about, but it was fine. The bus was right out in front of the train station and we had plenty of time. The bus was very comfortable, even in 2nd class – 2nd class is upstairs, so the view is better anyway.

We arrived in Prague at the main train station, which is a beautiful Art Nouveau building that time forgot. Below the historic train station is a modern station with shops, restaurants, and the metro. We found an ATM, got money and then went to buy metro tickets – the machines only take coins, so we had to buy something at a shop to get change. Once we got our money and tickets sorted out, using the metro was easy. We stayed at the Hotel U Tri Bubnu near Staromestska, which was only a couple blocks from the metro station. We learned later that you can also buy Metro/tram tickets at the Tobacconist shops around town, which is handy if you don’t’ have change or if you are catching a tram at a stop that doesn’t have a ticket machine.

The Hotel U Tri Bubnu (www.utribubnu.cz) was great – fabulously convenient location and very well run. Our room was spacious with a decent-sized bathroom. We also had a nice large fan in the room to help cool things off. It was hot and muggy for our stay in Prague, but having the fan made our room fairly comfortable. The hotel contracts with a laundry service, and later in the trip we sent out a bag of clothes – next day service for 350 crowns (approx. $20) including service and delivery, which I thought was a great deal. When we did our laundry in Munich at a self-serve Laundromat it cost more than that.

After settling in, we went out to see the city. Our hotel was around the corner from the old square, so we went there first. There were lots of vendors in the square selling food, crafts, and souvenirs. We bought some fried cheese on bread, roasted almonds, and pig roasted on a spit with potatoes. Oh – and beer, of course. We made a dinner out of street-food. One of the vendors overcharged us by 100 crowns (about $6), which we didn’t catch until later.

I don’t know if it was intentional or not, but it was a new currency for us, so we were still trying to get used to it. We figured that if that was the worst that happened during our stay in Prague, we would be golden. And yes, that was the worst thing that happened.

It was a nice night, so we sat out at one of the cafes on the old square (Staromestska something or other) and had a couple beers – Pilsner Urquell light and dark. We figured that for our first night in Prague, we should go with the standard. It was nice to sit out and people-watch for a while. The place was funny though –the waiter was really friendly, even took our picture for us – but the guy out front seating people was a real grump. He was turning people away who only wanted to have drinks – if they didn’t want to eat, he wouldn’t seat them. It was close to 9pm by this time, so not prime-time for dinner and there were plenty of open tables, so I didn’t see what the problem was with seating people for drinks. He and the waiter seemed to be having a disagreement about whether to seat drinkers and not eaters. We had been waved in by the waiter when we showed up, and he didn’t seem to have any problem with us drinking and not eating. The grumpy guy at the front also told everybody that there was a 50% markup on the menu price for sitting outside, and if you wanted to pay the prices printed on the menu, you had to go inside - however when the waiter brought us our bill, it was for the menu prices. It was weird. I don’t’ know if that is normal for the touristy places right on the square, or unique to this place.

Beers for Day 10:
Pilsner Urquell Dark +’
Pilsner Urquell Light +

August 22–Monday - Day 11:

We had breakfast at the hotel, which was fine – nothing spectacular, but decent. Their coffee needs an upgrade though. It was Nescafe out of this little machine that mixes it and puts it into a tiny cup that is only good for a few sips.

Other than the coffee, my only complaint about the hotel was that the shower was chinsy – it was a hand-held shower and the bracket that holds the showerhead to the wall was really loose so the stupid showerhead fell down if you knocked the hose. Lame. And not a difficult thing to fix, which made it that much more maddening – a trip to the hardware store and 30 minutes worth of work and it would be good to go.

After breakfast we went on the Sandeman free walking tour (www.neweuropetours.eu). It was a little chaotic at the beginning when they were figuring out how many people they had and dividing the group into smaller groups and assigning tour guides, but once that was done, the tour was great. Kate was our guide and she was wonderful – very knowledgeable about the history of Prague and the Czech Republic and a very good story teller. We learned a ton and had a lot of fun. The tour covered a lot of the old town area and into the Jewish quarter.

We had so much fun on the tour that we decided to take the afternoon castle tour, which was 300 crowns per person. Amy was our guide for the second tour, and she was good too – not quite as good as Kate, but then Kate was awesome. For this tour, we took the tram up to the castle, wandered around the neighborhood up there, and went through the castle. The tour doesn’t include entrance into any of the parts of the castle that require a ticket though, so a separate visit is required to see those areas. After seeing the castle, we walked down the hill through the Mala Strana, and then back to the old town. Both tours were great, but it was a really warm day and I think that on a hot day, both tours back-to-back was probably overkill. They also have a pub crawl in the evening that you can go on, but we passed. I think we are a bit beyond the pub crawl these days.

Later, after relaxing at the hotel and cleaning up a bit, we went out for dinner. After all the walking and time out in the hot sun, I was pretty tired and my ankles were unhappy, so we decided to take the easy route and have dinner close to the hotel. There is a steak restaurant across from the astronomical clock called El Toro, and after all the pork and beer in Germany, a steak and a glass of red wine sounded wonderful to me. We sat outside and had a terrific view of the clock. I don’t remember how much our meal cost, but it was the most expensive meal we had in Prague – but it still didn’t seem unreasonable to us. That same meal at home would have cost much more, and without the nice view and good people-watching. We both had steak, I had 3 glasses of Malbec, and my husband had 2 liters of Krusovice.

Beers for Day 11:
Krusovice Dark +’

More to come, but I have to say we absolutely loved Prague though and will definitely be back. It is a really neat city. I love the blocks and blocks of great architecture, the way the old buildings are just lived in and used like normal buildings, not something preseved just to preserve it for tourists and the like. I'd like to explore more of the Czech Republic too. This history of the country is facinating.

november moon,
Thanks for the link to the Sandeman free walking tours. These look great. They sound like a perfect introduction to Prague and Copenhagen. Glad you had a great time.

August 23–Tuesday - Day 12:

This was another hot day – we hit a good heat wave. I am beginning to think that I am responsible for global warming because if I go someplace, a heat wave is sure to accompany me.

After breakfast, we went over the Wenceslas Square to wander around a bit and then to the Museum of Communism (www.muzeumkomunismu.cz). We had seen this museum the day before and it seemed interesting – the mascot is a babushka nesting doll with fangs. How could we resist? AND the museum is in between a McDonalds and a casino. Can you say “Irony”?

The museum turned out to be quite interesting, telling the story of the rise of communism in Czech Republic, the reality, and then the resistance and ultimately the fall. It took us about an hour to go through the museum.

In the afternoon we took a bike tour with Praha Bike – we did the River and Beer tour. Oleh was our guide and there weren’t any other people on the tour, so we had a private guide for the afternoon. The ride included more mileage than other bike tours we have done – more riding and less stopping and talking. Oleh was really cool, although generally I like a guide with more commentary. He was talkative when prompted though and it was nice to get out of the city and ride along the river. It was still hot, but felt nice to have the wind in our hair.

We had 2 beer stops along the way. One was at this tiny little place that we never would have found otherwise. It was along the river, down a small path, seemed like someone’s backyard. But there was a small bar there with tables and benches under a corrugated roof. The beer served was Svijany, which was quite tasty. The other beer stop was the beer garden at Letna Park, at which we had Pilsner Urquell. On the tour, we also stopped at Troja Chateau and went to Stromovka park. The whole ride took about 5 hours or so. By the time we got to the end, we were pretty hot and tired, but the ride was good.

For dinner that night we went to a little restaurant around the corner from Praha Bike at Dlouha and Ramova called U Carodejek. It is a little place that serves Czech food at really good prices. For beer we had Kozel Cerny, which was dark and delicious.

After dinner we walked further down Dlouha to the Prague Beer Museum. This is a wonderful place full of a plethora of beers –the menu is basically a small book with quite a bit of information about each of the available beers. We ordered a 10-beer taster, which ends up being 1.5 liters of beer.

Beers for Day 12:
Kozel Cerney +
Ferdinand d’Este – Special Lager +’
Jezek – Pale Lager +
Podkovan – Pale Lager +
Bernard Cerny Lezak – Dark Lager ++
Something Porter – Dark Lager +
Merlin Cerny – Dark Lager +’
Starokladenske Black Miner – Dark Lager +
Vysoky Chlumec Demon – Amber Lager +’
Kvasnicak Opat Chocolate- Special Dark Lager ++
Cerna Hora Velen – Wheat Beer -/+

August 24–Wednesday - Day 13:

This morning we slept in and took it easy. We had planned a day trip to Pilsen, but it was just so darned hot and we had so much sun and beer the day before, we were kind of wiped out.

After resting up, we got some lunch and then went to the Charles Bridge. We hung out there a little while, but it was very crowded, so we walked across and wandered around the Mala Strana neighborhood a bit. We took the tram to the base of the funicular at Petrin park. We rode the funicular up to the top and wandered around the park for a while, then walked down the hill back to the Mala Strana. The views from Petrin park are nice – and the Prague Eifel tower is up there for those who would like to climb it for better views.

While wandering around the Mala Strana very near the German embasy, we saw a sandwich-board sign advertising Pilsner Urquell for 29 crowns. Since that is a price we like, we decided to stop in for a drink and a snack. The sign was for a little place on a small narrow street around the corner with a friendly little courtyard on the front of a small restaurant. We had a great time hanging out there – the people, both working there and the customers, were very friendly and the snacks were good.

Once we were refreshed, we explored the neighborhood some more and then took the 22 tram up the hill to the Strahov Monastery. We walked around there a bit and then went to the brewery restaurant for dinner and beer. Monks pretty much always have the best beer.

Beers for Day 13:
Pilsner Urquell light +
Sv. Norbert Dark ++
Sv. Norbert Wheat +’
Sv. Norbert Amber +’

sounds like you are having a great time. The st norberts at the Klasterini Pivovar is some of the best beer you will get anywhere.Glad you made it to the Beer museum Pub,it has only been open a year now but is getting a great reputation.They are supposed to be opening another place near Charles Bridge.Letna park is great some of the best views of the city from there.
Dis yopu make it to the Pilzen Brewery (is that bit still to come) or did you give up on that trip?

Love the Saint Norbert (VERY!) Dark!

If it's mid-afternoon (or otherwise not a dining time), you can just get a cup of coffee or tea and sit on on the terrace of the overpriced Italian restaurant (next door to the monastery) and enjoy the best view of Prague for 1/2 hour or longer.

Loving the report...