Tuesday, October 20
Hector and Marg walked into breakfast at the Alte Post Hotel... Hector was greeted with the cry: “look who it is...”
It was Jim Strang and Aileen McKinnon, in the company of the Brocklebanks who were, until then, unknown to Hector. This was becoming like a Paisley Bierfest reunion.
It was agreed that we would meet up at Keesmann that evening.
However, Marg must be entertained and so after a quick walk around a sunny Bamberg, and hence with a perfect five people for a Bayern Ticket, we went to Nurnberg for the day...just the two of us...just like February...
There was a walk through the fine Altstatdt en- route to the castle during which Hector refused to stop for a gluhwein. The castle was excellent, note the increasing use of this word in recent weeks. Lunch at the Hauptmarkt led to a rendezvous at the Altstadthof Brauhaus. Only Steve and Dr Stan were in place. Was Howard at Andechs?
Marg went off for a wander, the rest decanted to Hutt’n. We like Hutt’n, Pyraser is sold there! They have a range of six local biers from a variety of breweries on draught, but this year belongs to Pyras. Steve and Hector had Pyraser, predictably Dr Stan had the Schwarze Ana, one of Neder‘s (Forrchheim) specials....he tells us.
We were joined briefly by Howard who had not been to Andechs! Our next port of call was back through town and beyond the Hauptbahnhof, so we went in search of Marg who was sitting, listening to music, and drinking gluhwein... somewhere. We found her in an enclosed market area: one musician, the audience was a singularity.
Cafe Express took us back to the horrible days when one would walk into a pub and instantly choke to death. To say it was Bohemian in nature would be insulting all those with style. This place made the Ally Arms and its entourage look like Hollywood stars. It was horrible. Faessla/Mahr’s? Kellerbier was served and dispatched. Howard was taking the name of the cafe literally, he swallyed his pint and declared he was going to Andechs! Marg went with him.
At Nurnberg Hauptbahnhof, Howard was nowhere to be seen, he had abandoned Marg... a brave man... We would not see him for many more hours by which time he would have been to Bier Paradies and Andechs! They sell Spezial Hell at Andechs in Nurnberg!
And so it was back to Keesmann where Mr Strang was drinking the Herren Pils...Aileen was drinking tea...we put them right. But not initially for Dr Stan, he had gone straight to Mahrs to discover their Bock was on...guess what Dr Stan thought of their bock...
Eventually Jim joined the party and then retreated to the safety of the mouthwash. It was about this time when we remembered that FC Glasgow Rangers were possibly playing a grossly inferior football team from behind the former Iron Curtain...the score came in, followed by Robin’s text with a Humphrey Bogart flavour...”I kid you not..” Keesmann Bock works wonders..there was no pain...none...bring it on... three own goals? How many balloons?
One should mention The Late Night Bar, a place where Clive has kept me out of bed far too late on too many occasions. Along from Spezial next to the Maisel House is a bar which used to have a music theme, alas our host died last year.
Mention should also be made that Dr Stan received a text from home stating that John Kelly is no longer with us.
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