Day 8: Erdinger Brewery and Uncle Manfred

Thursday, September 24, 2015
Blaibach, Bavaria, Germany
Everyone got up early so we could be on the road around 8am. Manu picked me up at her place at 7 am so we could rent the 9 person van. The 7 person van is actually more expensive so I decided to get the extra space. We returned with the Van shortly before 8 am and we got on the road soon after. We will be following Manu as she will be going back to Munich after dinner. The drive to the Erdinger Brewery which is in Erding, Germany, went quickly and we arrived at 9:30 am.    
    We walked to the gift shop as our tour didn't start until 10am . Everything was very reasonably priced. A one liter glass mug was only $6. Carlos and Tom bought Erdinger fleese jackets, Miah bought a beer glass with the top shaped like a soccer ball and I bought an Erdinger polo shirt. A 50 person tour bus arrived and this is the group we would be going with, so we all headed into the brewery for the tour.    
    The tour stated off with a beer! An excellent way to start a tour. It was called Champ, one of their lower alcohol percentage beers. This tour would be in the Germany language only so Manu will translate as best she can. We watched a short video on the history of the brewery while finishing our beers. Next the big group split in two smaller groups so it would be easier to give the tour. We went with the first group and our tour guide started off talking about the different hops used to make beer. We then went onto different sections and ended up at their automated warehouse. The beer sits here and extra 3-4 weeks because they put in a little extra sugar and beer will ferment more during this time
   The ending of the tour ended back where we had the first beer. Now they will serve free pretzels, white brats ( Weiss wurst) and any kind and as many beers as you want. I was driving so I only had one dark beer. After eating and drinking we went back to the gift shop to buy 4 six packs of beer ( $6 each ), mugs, beer openers, pins and several other items.
   Construction on the way to the town of Bad Kötzting, where our hotel is, forced us to take a short detour. We checked into our rooms around 3:30pm and Manu called my uncle Manfred in Blaibach, Germany on a few miles away. Manfred will be meeting us in two hours for dinner at our hotel. We looked around and found a Laderhosen shop so Carlos bought a complete outfit for $230. 
    Bonnie, Tom and I headed back to the hotel to have some drinks and wait for my uncle Manfred. Mandfred and his wife Seglinde arrived so we moved from sitting outside to inside. A short while later the rest of our group arrived and we had a good dinner. Manu translated,but Manfred could understand my broken German. He kindly scolded me on not learning more German as I said I would. This is the same hotel we stayed at in 2013. 
    After dinner we took a short walk to a local Gasthaus Linder Halle ( gasthaus:place to stay, eat and drink ). Manfred walked with us to show us the way and then left with Seglinde. We will see them tomorrow for breakfast. We had several beers and a shot of Schnapps before walking back to the hotel. Bonnie, Tom and I decided to have a couple more beers at the hotel. We met a local couple and the husband was very funny. He was from Australia, but lived nearby. We laughed and talked until 1am... it was another great day and night in Germany.
 

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2025-02-16

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