Weekend Visit to Andechs, Birthday Party, Spring in Bavaria

Spring is here in Bavaria! We have been enjoying great weather for a while now, and the other signs of spring make a beautiful surrounding.
 
Above are views of our back yard and across the street from our kitchen window. Below is one of the many flowers coming out of the ground in our yard.


During the day when the kids are at school and Cindy is working I have been enjoying the birds chirping with the open windows and the forest area behind our house. The other day I had a special visitor walking around the back yard.

He was not alone!

One of the neighborhood cats was on the prowl, for real. Having nothing more important to do at the time I rolled film on this to see if I could capture some action. No such luck, the feline was literally a fraidy cat. A couple of times he started stalking low to the ground, but never made a charge. I can't blame him too much I guess, the pheasant was bigger than it. The bird stayed back there for a while and I never saw where he went. No feathers or other signs of any action.

One thing we are looking forward to with spring is to get back into some high volume travel and other day trips around the area. Last weekend we spent a day at a new place.

Flashing back to the bus ride from Rome to Pompeii the tour guides went into a very detailed history lesson on Saint Benedict. Along the drive was a very old monastery founded by Saint Benedict. At the time I was not sure why they were spending so much time on this topic, it went on for a huge portion of the drive and had nothing to do with Pompeii. Since then I have become more aware of how influential Saint Benedict was and still is around Europe. It seems like when anyone discusses monks, monasteries, abbeys, etc. they are always prefaced with "Benedictine" or some reference to Saint Benedict.

Our weekend day trip to Andechs in southern Bavaria was another example. It is a well known Benedictine Abbey located on a hill between Munich to the north and the alps to the south. One big reason this place is so well known is due to the massive brewery and distribution of their own beer. It is one of the few church organizations that are completely independent and do not rely on any of the German church tax money. From what we saw, they are doing very well for themselves.

I heard about this place because of the lesser known beer fest happening in Bavaria. The stark beer fest happens from the middle of March into early April. It is called stark beer due to the process they use to make it with a higher alcohol content. There is a whole education that you can get regarding extract percentages, but the end goal is higher alcohol percentage. Most of the beer is around 4-5.5% normally, the stark beer is more like 8-11% and even higher. I think the government has regulated the stark beer production but for some reason allow it for this time of year. Not sure of the detail, but happy to try the beer.

When we arrived we found a HUGE parking lot full of tour buses and cars. It was a Sunday morning and a mass was going on, but there were also a lot of other people. We climbed up the hill and found a playground right off. The kids endured a whole 45 minute car ride so we let them play for a while. The weather was perfect.

We made our way around the large area. It had lots of buildings and various ways to go. Eventually we made our way up to the monastery as mass was ending.

With the morning sunlight I had trouble getting good pictures inside the church, but got a couple that turned out okay. As you can see it was very ornate.

Back outside on top of the hill were some great views. Again the sun was rough on the pictures and they do not capture the alps in the distance all that well. The view was much better in person.

We debated going down the back side of the hill where there were some hiking trails, but it was already lunch time and we wanted to eat. On our way up the hill we had already seen three large biergartens on the property to choose from. Below is a good example of the cobblestone streets going up and down the hill.

By the time we got back to the restaurants we quickly realized we were out of luck. The two large biergartens were completely full with people standing around waiting to grab any table that becomes available. The other place was a counter service thing where you bought your food then sat down. The line for that place was really long. As I said, this place appears to be making plenty of money to sustain operations. Instead of waiting around or standing in line we decided to get back in the car and head down the road to one of the other biergartens that we saw on the way there. Before that I bought some of the beer to sample for myself, and of course a mug commemorating our visit to Andechs. 

We were glad we made the decision to make the move to another restaurant. A few kilometers down the road we found a nice hotel restaurant with a great outdoor biergarten. The kids found a swing set to play on at the back of the area while we sat and enjoyed a nice lunch. It was an easy and quick drive back to the house after that. Good trip. 

With Cindy having a birthday this last week we found out some other traditions in Germany. It seems that the person having the birthday is supposed to bring a cake or other treats to everyone at work. Seems odd that the birthday person has to do all of the work, but okay. Cindy made some of her brownies and took them to work on Friday. That evening some of her co-workers and friends came over to our house to have a little cookout and party.  

When the first group arrived I was the shortest male in the house. Bernhard (German) and Madelon (Dutch) have been over before. He is about 6'3 or 4 and she is very tall too. The other guy furthest away is from France and is at least 6'8, probably more. They started out with coffee when they arrived which quickly led to this scene in the garden (backyard if you are from Texas). Seriously spiking the soccer ball at each other. It was then that I decided Cindy is hanging out with a way too young crowd.

Later on after the rest of the group arrived they were taking penalty shots and trying to stop it, in our little yard. Thankfully sanity kicked in and so did the beer.

The group brought over several varieties of stark beer. We cooked brats, burgers, and chicken on the grill. Along with some sauteed veggies, grilled pineapple, and fresh avocado it was an awesome meal. I thought we were cooking a ton of food but it was consumed in whole. The group hung out on the patio all evening even after it cooled down. Madelon had a friend from Holland in town who came over too. One funny moment of the night was witnessing the reaction from several of the European people who saw a frozen beer mug for the first time. When we handed Maartje her beer it took her a minute to grasp how cool the concept of a beer in a frozen mug was. I pulled out an oven mitt from the kitchen and told her it was a Texas mug holder. I was joking, but she put it on and left it on while she drank her beer.

Everyone stayed until late into the evening. Another big difference that we are not used to yet is the use of buses, bikes, and feet to get around. Several of the people make it to our house via public transportation. When it was time to go most of the group walked to the bus stop and some walked all the way home. Bernhard and Madelon live in Unterschleissheim, but it is still a good 2.5 milometers in the middle of the night. We tried to give them a ride, but they were just peachy to walk.    

Pretty short and sweet post this time. Just wanted to get something out there before I went too long with nothing. David is still in Berlin at his math competition. We have received a few updates and pictures and he seems to be doing fine. We are ready to see him Sunday evening. Soon I will have a full summary of his trip.