Today was a good day. I finally got to link up with my old buddy Moritz and he took me to the Mahr’s Bräu Brewery in Bamberg, one of my old stomping grounds from the days when I was living in Bamberg after the I got out of the Army from 2005-06.

The place has an incredible beer garden – not to mention some of the best beer and food in the city. This is really saying something because Bamberg is considered to the “Beer Capital” of Germany due to it having 9 breweries for 80,000 people, the highest per capita in the whole country. I was told today that there used to be 13 breweries here, which I did not know before.

It just so happened that Moritz knows the owner of Mahr’s and is great friends with one of the head brewers there, Tim. Tim came and joined is for a couple beers after his shift, and to my great delight he brought out a six pack of each of the types of beers they make to give me as a gift. He told me that any friend of Moritz is a friend of his. I love the German people. They may have a reputation of being cold and stern, but when one of them gets to know you there are no friendlier and warmer people in the world! Before we left, Tim offered to take us on a VIP tour of the brewery, which I gladly accepted! It was very cool to see and hear about their process of making their incredible beers.

While at the brewery I noticed they had some sweet looking t-shirts and I wanted to buy one as a souvenir, but unfortunately they were completely sold out of all merchandise and wouldn’t have any for about 2 weeks. Moritz then insisted that I take his gently used Mahr’s hat that he had in his trunk so that I would have something from there, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. German people.

Finally, it was time to go home because Moritz had to go in to work night shift this evening. We were both sad to leave, but that’s the way it goes. When we got back to his house, he said “wait here, I have something for you” and then he came back out with a pony keg of Mahr’s beer that he also insisted I take with me on my trip. German people.

All in all a great day and a great visit with an old friend and new friends. I hope to see him again before I leave for Slovenia on Friday, but if not, definitely when I return to Germany before I go back home!

The other big event today was driving the car I will be using for the trip for the first time in about 7 years. It’s a good little car, a Ford Fiesta, good on gas and should be a good chariot for the many kilometres I plan on driving over the next few months. The funniest thing about it is that Klaus informed me that the heated seat on the passenger side is stuck in the “on” position, so that should be very enjoyable for whoever happens to be riding with me this summer 😀

Ok, that is all I have for today. Tomorrow I plan to go to the music store to hopefully find a battery powered amp for busking/performing this summer in Eastern Europe and in the evening I have plans to meet another old friend, Schneider, at another brewery in Bamberg. I could get used to this life!