Bischofsgrün to Wunsiedel

Bischofsgrün 15.06.2020 10:40

Bus shelter. Just had a walk amongst the oldie people and watched construction of a log cabin. Mike has his Streuselkuchen and I have my Monchshof Bockbier.

Monchshof Bockbier: not particularly full of Bockbieriness. An OK breakfast beer.

The bus ride is fun. Through wooded hills and lush valleys. Very scenic. I'm mostly on the lookout for nice country pubs. Future reference and all that. You never know.

A bloke gets on with a beard to rival Karl Marx's and an open bottle of beer. Bugger. I'd assumed they wouldn't like you drinking beer on the bus. Though the bloke does seem to know the bus driver. And most of the other passengers.



Wunsiedel 13:05

Don't come to Wunsiedel. We've just spent 45 minutes walking around and all that's open are an ice cream parlour and a kebab shop. Every single pub, with the exception of our hotel, is shut. Magic. And the closed pubs either sell shitty Kulmbacher beer, are smoker-friendly, or both. Only one pub has a sign for the local Hönicka beer. But that doesn't open again until tomorrow evening. There is one selling Lang-Bräu from nearby Schönbrunn. Hopefully I can persuade Mike to walk up the hill to the Hönicka brewery after he's stuffed his face.

Tucher Altfränkisch Dunkel: wet, brown, with alcohol, no horrible flavours.


Hönicka Brewery 14:45

I do manage to persuade Mike to climb the hill. After much complaining and prodding. A cattle-prod would have come in handy. As we approach it doesn't look promising. No sign of a brewery tap. I'd found opening hours and hoped they were for a pub. They weren't. For off-sales, unfortunately.

We find someone in the brewery yard. "Which pubs in town sell your beer?" we ask him.

"There is one, other than our Brauerei-Ausschank."

"Just the one?" I only think that. This town is weird.

He describes where their single town-centre outlet is. I remember it from our earlier amble around town. It was shut.

Pfälzer Hof 15:30

A pub has finally opened. Hurray! That was much, much harder than I anticipated.

I spotted this pub from the bus on our way in. Then again, it is pretty hard to miss, what with the bright colour-scheme and "Pfälzer Hof" in huge letters on the side.

Fag land. Nice pub, but full of fag smoke. And we're the first customers.

Mike is talking himself into a no-smoking hole with the landlady. Who's chain-smoking herself. "I'd have no trade at all if I didn't allow smoking."

Did I mention that this is the pub that sells Lang-Bräu. This is the pub that sells Lang-Bräu. At least we've got to try one local beer.

Lang Hell: Fully beer. Good.

Certainly goes down well after that futile walk up the hill. "Kalt oder nit so kalt?" ("Cold or not so cold?") the landlady asks. You can guess which I went for. I hope.

We're the only customers. Until a one-armed bloke in has 60's comes in. He asks if he can sit with us. The landlady joins us We have a long chat, talking of Kohl and Bundesministerpräsidenten. Until the Williams Birne (or Willie, as the landlady calls it) catches up with me. My legs fuction just about well enough to get me to the sausage stand we'd spotted earlier. Where we eat dinner.

None of the pubs tempt us in the evening. What a depressing place Wunsiedel is. Except for the one-armed bloke. He was nice. Don't think I'll be coming back.

Tomorrow is Wiesau, Mitterteich and, hopefully, Zoigl. They can't be as bad as Wunsiedel, can they? Can they?



Hönicka-Bräu
Hofer Str. 31,
95632 Wunsiedel.
Tel.: 09232 / 20 44
Fax: 09232 / 20 42


Lang-Bräu
Bayreuther Straße 19,
95632 Wunsiedel-Schönbrunn.
Tel: 09232 / 21 97
Fax: 09232 / 79 12


Pfälzer-Hof
Kemnather Str. 20,
95632 Wunsiedel.
E-Mail: hp@pfaelzer-hof-wunsiedel.de
Internet: http://www.pfaelzer-hof-wunsiedel.de