Looks like I'll be back in Bamberg for the above dates. Anyone want to come and drink some beers -- and maybe help create a buffer zone between myself and my Prussian in-laws.
I had lunch at Schlenkerla with 2 Berliners… and they were greatly enjoying the food and beer! It was they who introduced me to the Bamberg Onion… and things have never been the same.
Once we were sitting in a Biergarten outside of Bamberg. I was having to place all the orders for the family, because they had never heard of -- much less had -- things like Schaeufele (and were worried it might be too fatty) and Kellerbier, and they were also a bit bothered by having to drink out of a Seidla (because beer doesn't taste as good out of a clay mug as it does from a pils glass ). So off the American went, explaining everything on the menu while they rejected one thing after another as quickly as I could explain them. The locals sitting next to us kept glancing over, which eventually caught my mother-in-law's attention. She struck up some small talk with them, explaining that this was all a bit new to them, since they were "from up North." To which the locals ironically replied, "Noooo...really?" Pretty classic. @Stahlsturm: do you know the Amberg-born author Eckhard Henscheid and his short story "Die Wurstzurueckgehlasserin"? If so, you know exactly what I was dealing with. If not, you should definitely check it out. Probably my favorite German short story of the last 30 years.
herrburgess, it seems you have planned your trip to perfectly coincide with both the Annafest in Forchheim and the Kulmbacher Bierwoche. If you have not been to them yet, I hope you go.
