So, now that I’m sobered up and rested, I can explain more about Schlenferla.
But first, I needed Euros, I asked the hostess at the hotel but “ATM” doesn’t mean anything here. I said “money machine” but this only got a response about “eine bank” I pulled out my credit card and gestured putting it in a machine. She said something I didn’t quite understand and circled some places on my map. It turns out that you have to go to a “Geldautomat” to get Euros. I found one and got € 100, it was much more convenient that in America. The machine delivered my money in 5, 10, 20, and 50 Euro notes.
I found Schlenferla and I went in and it was a most amazing place, sort of like I imagine a colonial tavern, but several stories tall with huge beams on the ceilings. Only the first floor appeared to be for eating and drinking. The main room was no bigger than the kitchen and dining room combined at my house in Cornish and it was filled with old wooden tables, like picnic tables without the benches, surround with chairs. The bar itself was a tiny area, only big enough for the barkeep to stand and draw glasses of beer and hand them to the barmaid. They washed the glasses by simply dunking them in a bucket of water that may have had a little soap in it and sloshing them up and down and then putting them upside down over a sprayer that rinsed the inside of the glass.
I looked around wondering where to sit as most of the seats were already taken. The bartender suggested a seat but a person next to it said they were holding it for someone who was coming later. Then he asked some other people if I could sit with them and they said sure. Most of the discussion was not in English, what was was very broken. Everyone assumed I was German or at least spoke it, and everyone was very surprised to find that it was my first day in Germany, not the least because this is more of a local secret than tourist spot – though I have since found that it has a small entry on the English Wikipedia.
I ordered Rauchbier and it was not at all like greasy bacon, or if it was I want that bacon! It was more like a very heavily smoked ham, minus the salt, substitute beer for the meat. I have heard that you either love or hate rauchbier, actually, I’ve seen this, as I’ll describe below. I like ham, especially heavily smoked ham, and I love beer, so this was no disappointment. The group to my left pointed to a sign on the wall and mentioned that the place serves another specialty beer, a winter beer called Urbock, which is much stronger than Rauchbier, I tried one. It was very good but very powerful, strongly flavored but not smokey, or at least no where near as much, it was hard to tell after the Rauchbier. Urbock is apparently a kind of doppelbock, which is a bavarian bock of very high alcohol content, 9 or 10%. Both beers were lagers and I wasn’t paying close attention but I think both were drawn from casks, both had a substantial and very frothy head on them, the Rauchbier more so, and were served quite cool, but maybe not so cold as an American pilsner.
After a while I tried to order libercasse (sp?) (liver cheese – a kind of sausage made from pork liver), but the barmaid said that was a bavarian food and this happened to be a Frankish establishment (she said this all in German and one of the people at the table attempted to translate, this is what I managed to glean. She went to get a menu, but I stopped her and asked “Bratwurst?” which got a cheerful “of course” sort of response. She came back later with a plate of three very long thin sausages, somewhat longer and thinner than the average hotdog, on a bed of sauerkraut, the kraut was much sweeter and darker than any I’ve ever had before and the brats were fantastic. I went on to have quite a few more Rauchbiere (the “e” ending is the plural form) and to talk with many patrons as they left and others replaced them. I moved tables once mine was empty, as it was reserved for 1900 and it was after 1800 so I expected no one to join me there.
Before this though, a group of three men sat down at the end of the table and talked to me. They said the beer was aweful and I found that they were from out of town and had come to try it. Apparently one had tried it before and knew it was aweful but told his friends they had to try it since they were in Bamberg. I noticed two of them speaking to each other in broken English and I asked them why. It turns out one of them was French. They were businessmen here “trying to convince people who don’t need it to buy our product at an exhorbitant price” or something like that, they said. They sell steel tubes used for bearings. We talked about the economy. They said the car industry uses their pipes, but they aren’t buying any right now. I asked them about whether they thought the economy was America’s fault. They said no, that British and French and German banks did dumb things too, but they admitted that they cannot understand the U.S. real estate market nor do they understand buying things on credit. They said they think Americans are always hopeful and believe tomorrow will be better, whereas Europeans are always depressed so they would never buy anything on credit because they believe that tomorrow will be worse and they won’t be able to pay the debt. I thought that was a very interesting way to analyze the situation – we’re not irresponsible, we’re just overly optimistic!
At the next table, a couple who had reserved a place and were eating what I suspect was Wiener Schnitzel. I tried to say something to them which they didn’t understand, the man asked if I said “Prost?” and then with a gesture that suggested “whether you did or not I’m sure that’s one thing we can agree on” picked up his glass and said “Prost!”
Between the English of some of the other patrons, a tiny bit of German (I manage to ask “Wo ist die Toilette?” and to say “Danke” a lot – I also found I could generally tell what she was saying when she told me what I owed, though if not I just picked a 20 Euro note and got a lot of change), and the universal language of holding up an empty beer glass and nodding to the barmaid. I was a bit surprised to get my change all in coins as I didn’t realize that they have coins for at least 2 Euro (around $3 I think right now), and they may have larger ones.
I do need to learn how to ask if a seat is taken though.
Oh, BTW, in the post below the ß = “ss” and the ¨ over a vowel equals a following “e” that is no longer written except occasionally on the computer if it doesn’t have the necessary characters.
Time for something to eat: beer is food.