Of Kings, Cakes and Professional Scroungers
So - time to explore
We three thousand kings of
When we set off in the morning we were met with the sight of some oddly dressed children scurrying ahead of us. Further investigation led us to the town square in front of the Rathaus where they were gathering in front of a stage. It appears that they were engaged in some sort of ‘Three Kings Festival’ organised by the local Catholic churches. There were thousands of them, all dressed in elaborate costumes representing the kings from the nativity. We literally saw coach loads of them arriving!
It didn’t seem to be a particularly exciting event however. All they seemed to be doing was aimlessly milling about in front of the stage whilst some earnest types sang Christian rock songs at them. Several hours later when we were on our way back to the hotel nothing seemed to have changed. They were all still milling aimlessly around in front of the stage ignoring a singer.
Those crazy kids eh?
You’d not get me in a barge on there!
Walking through the old town you have to cross what is described as ‘the canal’. Now I’ve seen plenty of canals, even travelled on some, but I’ve never seen one with rapids on it. Rapids and a very fast flowing current - not a definition of canal that I’ve ever come across!
The bridge is a distinctly ancient one and bizarrely has some old municipal building smack bang in the middle of it. Apparently some local ruler was into the baroque style and the whole thing is painted with figures, cherubs, garlands and fake columns and windows. The oldest part is apparently a wooden bit that extends over the aforementioned rapids. Most of the building is now a museum but this wooden bit looks like it’s still apartments. Now on the face of it this would be an excellently kitsch place to live but on further consideration I decided that the constant sound of onrushing water would only make me want to spend all my time in the toilet!
Lordy that’s a big empty square.
Climbing up the hill into the old town you reach the Domplatz (
Between the dom and the alt rathaus was a massive cobbled square through which the thoroughfare was surreptitiously marked.
Once you got used to looking out for cars creeping up behind you there really wasn’t much else to do here.
You will have your cake and eat it!
Sitting further along the hilltop is another imposing old building - the monastery. Now in the
The major draw here is the terrace garden café which can be found round the front of the building overlooking the town. The big draw in the café is their speciality cake. This cake is the mother of all layered sponges - a full eleven layers of cakeness that covers most of your plate when you have a slice.
Sitting inside (as it was rather too cold to terrace it) we decided to indulge in this marvel of culinary snackdom. The place was pretty empty and that had obviously not improved the waitresses mood any as she snapped and grunted at us. When the fabled cake arrived it turned out not to be all that nice unfortunately. Now I’m sure that in those parts it’s a cakey miracle of taste sensations but to my unashamedly English taste buds it was a bit dry and not sweet enough. There was too much earthy style stuff and not enough chocolate and cream etc.
So grumpy was the woman serving though that we didn’t dare leave half of it so we hid it in a serviette and took it out in a rucksack in case she shouted at us.
Shady goings on at the castle?
The castle is located high on the hill side and looks down on the rest of the town that spreads out below it. It’s about a forty five minute walk uphill from the Domplatz area which is quite steep in places so make sure you’ve got sensible shoes on!
Passing a suspicious looking man reading a paper in a parked car at the bottom of the path our route took us through what was billed as a nature area. (Keep this in mind as he makes another appearance later on!)
This nature area seemed to be little more than an open grassy park with a very steep meandering path climbing the hillside. After traversing this area the path opened back out into a road which led up to the castle itself.
As anyone in
The castle itself is proper castley, with battlements and ramparts surrounding a central keep which now hosts an expensive looking restaurant. It’s much more of the sort you get in
Having had a poke around and decided that there was no way we were going to catch a glimpse of anything that could equate to a view we set off back down to the town. Taking the alternative road away from the castle, who should we come across part way down but the same bloke parked up at a different junction reading the paper once more.
Now in a famous five type manner it was obvious that he was probably some sort of secret agent who was following us around to make sure we didn’t accidentally discover his nefarious plans up at the castle - world domination and all that sort of malarkey.
...With lashings of ginger beer.
Back in the town and we repaired to the Gasthausbrauerie Ambrausianum in the old town for some much needed vitals. Despite it now being mid afternoon it was still quite bustling with plenty of groups enjoying a late lunch. Finding ourselves a cosy little corner we stocked up on wine and a delicious plate of ‘pommes mit rot und weiss’ - chips with mayonnaise and tomoato sauce. Except I didn’t have the sauces - just the chips.
So after a bit of refreshment it was back into action again as we wandered back towards the hotel via the old town. The ‘canal’ looked no less rapids like from the bridge and the king singer children were still wandering around in the town square.
By this time the weather was starting to turn a bit cold and had started to drizzle so we retired to the hotel for an afternoon nap to build up energy for the evenings eating and drinking.
I’ve banged my stick so give me some cash!!
After a couple of hours biddy napping we were all set to venture out into eating territory once more. The rain had eased off and we headed for Zum Kachlofen where we had been told that there was no need to book... which turned out to be a lie.
To be honest they weren’t operating anything looking like a booking system but this meant that there were loads of groups of people cramped around the bar waiting for tables. My family being my family meant that we immediately decided to dispense with this venue and search out somewhere else.
The idea of finding this place the night before had been to cut out the wandering round from restaurant to restaurant looking at the menu to ensure they served at least some vegetarian foodstuff (which in Bavaria is never a given). But here we were again doing exactly that thankfully for not too long as we quickly discovered Gasthaus zum Domreiter.
As per usual for our eating holes this was a very traditional style gasthaus, all dark wooden boards and hearty food. This being the period between Christmas and New Year they still had their decorations up - and there was more stuff in here than there is on Oxford Circus. Every inch of wall was covered in fir trees, there were decorations hanging from the ceiling, the lights, the trees, the tables, the bar - everywhere. On asking we discovered that the whole lot had taken two weeks to set up - the memory of which prompted our waitress to roll her eyes at the thought and suggest we come back next year as they would be doing it all again.
Whilst we were here we were visited by a couple of zimmermen (see relevant review) who went through their usual routine and came round to collect money. Everyone else seemed very pleased by their presence and readily coughed up some cash for the pleasure of a bearded bloke banging a curly stick on the floor and telling some sort of poem. We on the other hand mused that they were just professional scroungers who had probably pulled up outside in their BMW and were ripping everyone off. But we gave them cash anyway...
After a decent meal we headed back to Ambrausianum for some more drinks to finish the evening off.
Rebecca didn’t sing tonight - she obviously hadn’t had enough to drink...
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Unfortunately for my desire to branch out in prose terms Zum Domreiter is all of these things and none the worse for it. We were initially heading elsewhere to eat but as they were busy we ended up here. It's a typically Bavarian restaurant with wood panelling everywhere and the hearty rustic food that you'd expect.
What makes this place stand out was the efforts they had obviously gone to with the decoration. We visited at the Christmas period and every inch of the walls and tables was covered in decorations. There were Christmas trees everywhere (literally every inch of wall space had one attached to it) and baubles and candles hung from every available vantagepoint.
Obviously this was only a seasonal thing but apparently they usually project images of old Bamberg onto the walls in the rest of the year which sounds an interesting idea.
The service was friendly enough although having brought me the wrong main course the waitress commented that as it was vegetarian it all seemed the same to her - typically Bavarian where not eating meat is unheard of!!
Compared to some places here abouts this is a very large place that looks to have been a number of smaller buildings knocked through and converted into one. This means that there are plenty of 'rooms' on different levels and a number of little nooks and crannies hidden away.
The front area consists of small or family sized tables which are presumably aimed at those eating whilst towards the back the tables are much larger and longer with benches down either side - ideal for large groups or getting to know the people you’re sharing a table with!! There also seemed to be a rooftop garden terrace but this was shut in winter.
The main talking point of the place is the way the tables were grouped around around and between a series of shiny brass brewing vessels. These are massive floor to ceiling things which from the look of it were actually busy brewing the very beer that was being served out of the pumps at the bar. Definitely one for the beer aficionados.
The food was plentiful (when is it not round here?) and the standard south German fayre with a decent selection. Visiting the place a couple of times it was obvious that it’s quite popular and was pretty lively later on into the evening.
One such tradition is that of Zimmermen.
What are they exactly?
These guys are basically following the path of rural journeyman trades people - known as being 'Auf der Walz'. They travel from town to town, exchanging work for food and lodging and honing their trade skills as they go (I gather they’re supposed to be carpenters).
This all sounds like licensed scrounging but this being Germany there are very strict rules to follow if you want to take up this life. You have to wear the traditional uniform, travel without anything but the most basic possessions (that you have to carry in a specific backpack) and you have to travel for three years without returning home. Apparently you have to be under thirty and it's seen as a way of taking time out and working your way around Germany (or beyond) and learning a trade.
How can I spot one?
You can't miss them. They usually wander round from bar to bar wearing their outfits - black flared trousers, a white shirt, black waistcoat and top coat and some sort of hat. They also carry a big curly walking cane everywhere. And this isn't any old version of the uniform they throw together. Nope - there are official uniforms that you can buy from department stores.
When they arrive in a bar they basically bang their walking stick on the floor and loudly recite a traditional poem that explains who they are. Then they will wander round the bar, passing their hat round collecting money off each table.
So should I give them money?
Well yes. It's considered very bad form for a table not to give them a couple of Euro or so. I suppose it's a bit like the idea of shaking hands with a London chimney sweep being lucky or something. Unless you're a bar or hotel owner I doubt you'd want them to do any work for you so that’d be about the end of it.
This could only be Germany...
