A couple quick Munich and Bamberg questions

We stayed at Fassla last fall (Spezial was closed ) and enjoyed our stay.Fairly plain accommodations but convenient to the train and a short walk to Mahr's and Keesman. Plus they have a cool little indoor beer garden.Salzburg is worth the trip just for Augustiner, as patto1 said it's truly magical. You can use the Bayern pass to get there, depending on how many are traveling it can make it a lot cheaper.
You might think about going down to Tegernsee. Very pleasant and you can use your BDGM
coupon

 

Have you looked into getting a DB Twin Pass? Depending on how many days you'll be on the train, it may save you some money.

https://www.bahn.com/en/view/offers/passes/german-rail-pass.shtml

 

You buy a pass for a set number of days during (I think) a 30 day period. For example, if you buy a 4 day pass, you can use it any 4 days in that 30 day period. You can get up in the morning and decide to use it that day. If you were planning on using it a certain day and decide not to, that day is still available. No pre-commitment. It's also good for the entire day on multiple trips. I don't know about priority, we never had a problem. We've had both first class and second class twin passes. We just showed up at the platform and got on. You can make seat reservations if you want.

One caveat is that two people are expected to use it together. One person can't travel on 4 (using my previous example) different days than the other.

The first time we bought one I ordered it online and the ticket didn't arrive before we left so we had to buy another one when we got to Frankfurt. We eventually got refunded for the unused tickets. The second time we just waited until we got there. Also, IIRC, these tickets are only available to travelers from outside the EU.

Also it makes sense to use those days for longer trips (or multiple trips with in the same day) and just buy a separate tickets for short rides. Just compare the single ticket price vs. the cost of an extra day on the pass.

 

I am going to spend the weekend - April 21 PM until April 23 AM - in Bamberg.
Is there a good primer on what to look for in Bamberg, or should I just start walking around?
I am at the Best Western, and have a car.

 

Bamberg is easily walkable, save the car for venturing outside the city. I will offer my own favorite itineraries, and hopefully others will do the same:

Itinerary 1: Walk through the Grüner Markt to Schlenkerla for lunch. Stay until they make you leave. Hide under the tables if you can.

Intinerary 2: I am personally a fan of the Schlenkerla-to-Klosterbräu-to-Spezial Keller walk. You will get lost in the back streets. That's OK.

I'd like to say that no matter what you end up doing, stop by Klosterbräu's to see if their Maibock is available - one of the best beers I've ever had although many people here have reported that Klosterbräu has been off their game lately, which is a great shame. Their Schwärzla is recommended, too.

 

I can't recommend Spezial enough. Stayed there a couple years back and loved it. Nice clean rooms and of course the beer and food. Fantastic!

 

Wilde Rose was a fun surprise last August. More close to a Munich Biergarten experience to us. We had been at Spezial Keller the night before.

If one has time, stop by Torschuster. Tomas has Herren Pils and a local bier on tap that the name escapes me. He will play some vintage venal on an excellent sound system. Outstanding place.

 

Vinyl records, is what he plays.

 

You can check out my Bamberg page here to get an idea of the locations and some other places to check out.

Also, April 23 (Tag des Bieres) there is a sort of beer festival in the Max Platz, where all the Bamberg breweries have a booth and serve one of their beers. Might be worth tweaking your departure if you can...

 

Used to be Maisel before they closed. Not sure now.

 

When I was there last April he had Huppendorfer vollbier on draft. He told me no more Mahr's U anymore since the keg pricing increase made it less profitable. There were several bottles available as well. I tried the Klosterbrau braunbier which was not in good shape.

 

Huppendorfer was the other draft, thanks for pointing that out.

I got the same story on the price increase from Mahr's, and no other brewery raised prices.

 

I've had many discussions with knowledgeable locals and none of them have any idea. One speculated Schloßbrauerei in Reckendorf (the "Recken" beers you see advertised all over town) but admitted that was just a W.A.G. They do actually brew a decent kellerbier served at the brewery so it is not a completely outrageous idea...

 

Thanks for all the great replies. Looking forward to a fun weekend between 2 weeks of business.

 

I am there next weekend so will look forward to experiencing this. Has anyone been before? Any idea of price of beers, if it is busy/good?