When you are traveling from campground to parking lot to campground you start to appreciate the little things. This campground has absolutely the best showers we have ever seen in a campground and would rival most luxury hotels. Ton and I have been really taking long luxurious showers the last two days.
Ton liked this sculpture in downtown Bamberg.
We had a low key pub crawl today. We stopped in 4 breweries/beer halls and craft brew store for one of the largest suppliers of beer malt in the world. We enjoyed the breweries, and did not enjoy the malt company craft beer store due to poor service.
These wrought iron signs have been common everywhere in Germany, this one is for a brewery.
At the second of our brewery stops we saw another couple sitting at a table with no beer. At a lot of the beer halls they do not serve you at the table, instead you go to a window by the bar and order your beer. We heard them speaking English so we explained the process to them. We ended up chatting with them while we enjoyed our beer.
The beer tender at the beer garden. Frequently in Germany the beer is piped directly from the brewery to the taps.
They had lived in Beaverton Oregon for a while before retiring in Florida so we had a nice chat about traveling. Eventually we parted ways to head out on different beer agendas. A couple hours later we were sitting in our 3rd brewery when we saw them walk in. We ended up spending the next couple of hours with them as they planned to visit the same breweries we had picked. They had lived in Germany in the past and gave us some good tips on other good beer towns though they did admit that Bamberg was their favorite beer town Germany.
Number 3 of our brewery crawl.
It was a fun day with lots of good German beer; our faith in German beer and creativity is restored after today. Ton thought I was a little harsh on Würzburg the other day, she thought the scene on the bridge was fun and that my expectations were too high .
Number 4 (6 if you count the two yesterday)and the best of our brewery crawl of Bamberg.
Had a rushed start to the day. Part of our daily routine is for me to get up and make a cup of coffee. When that is done I take a short walk so Ton can have some privacy while she gets dressed and makes herself beautiful. This morning as I was leaving the parking lot we spent the night in I realized that a bunch of people in yellow vests were taping off the entrance to the parking lot and the entrance road. I finally understood that the Würzburg Marathon was going to run right thru the parking lot we were in, so I rushed back to François and hurried Ton to get dressed before we were blocked in for the day.
As we were getting ready to set off we had to decide where to head for the day. We have been having an ongoing debate about whether to go to Nuremberg. We have read great things about it, but it is a pretty big city, and the options for parking François were pretty unappealing. We had continued the debate last night without coming to a decision whether to go to Nuremberg and then Bamberg, or straight to Bamberg. As we were getting ready to roll I asked Ton, and she said Bamberg much to my relief.
The old mill in Bamberg on the Regnitz River.
Bamberg is another World Heritage Site, with the bonus of reportedly having the most breweries per person in the world. Bamberg was a must see for us. Because of our early start, and allowing Greta Garmin to use the Autobahn we arrived in Bamberg before 10am.
The Rathaus (Town Hall) in Bamberg, the story is that the town would not provide land for the Rathaus so the Mayor built it in the river.
We have been struggling with Germany a bit. The cities are pretty, clean, and well organized. The people have been universally helpful and nice. But for us it has been less sanuk (for non-Thai’s a word that speaks to a feeling of fun, and spontaneity) than either Spain or France. As an example last night at the bridge had the feeling of sanuk right up to sunset when everyone packed up and left at once. On top of that; the beer (and this will sound heretical to many) has been mediocre since Munich. In Germany’s defense the weather has not been helpful with days and days of cold and rain. Last night we talked of heading to Poland and cutting Germany short.
The party on the bridge in Würzburg, 30 minutes later it was done.
But Bamberg does have all of the things that we have been looking for. The town is really pretty and easy to move around. The tourist information offered a beer map with 65 breweries listed in English.
One of the 65 Breweries in Bamberg.
They even have a coupon book that allows you to visit different breweries and get their house choice beer. We tried two today, and they were really good beers restoring our faith in German beer The sun was out and we enjoyed walking around and people watching. We even found some more Thai to talk to on the street. There have been a lot more Thai in Germany than in France or Spain.
That’s what I am talking about.
Every place we sat down someone tried to engage us in conversation which was really nice. When we got back to the campground we extended our stay for another day to check out some other breweries that the locals told us about.
Another view of the Rathouse in Bamberg one of my favorite buildings so far in Germany.
We slept well with a natural white noise machine going all night in the form of the Lech River running at near flood stage behind us. The plan for the day was to follow the Romantic Road further north to a town called Rothenburg.
The Romantic Road is quite pretty but it reminded us of hundreds of miles of roads in France without the marketing. As we were driving we could see some flooding from the weather over the past few days.
Ton mentioned that she wanted to stop at a town called Dinkelsbuhl before we got to Rothenburg. I pulled into the parking for RV’s and was checking the pay machine to see how much it would cost for a couple of hours. I noticed the cost for a night was only €6 so I went back and asked Ton how nice was this town supposed to be? We went back and forth for a few minutes when a German couple came over having noticed the French plates and thinking we could not figure the machine out, we told them our dilemma. They were adamant that we should spend the night here as it was cheaper and the town was really special.
The view from our parking lot.
Dinkelsbuhl turned out to be a gem. It is a walled town with many of its towers still preserved.
One of the 18 towers still in place in Dinkelsbuhl. Some of them looked like they were private residences.
It is just big enough to have a lot of interesting things to see, but small enough to manage on foot. It is very well preserved, but still feels lived in.
This is the view as you enter the town thru one of the gates in the wall.
It really helps that the sun was out today, and for the first time in about a week we did not need to be in rain gear, or to have it in our bag on standby. We took advantage of the good weather to sit in a beer garden and try a couple of the local beers.
We have not seen any storks since Alsace. There were several pairs here.Ton really liked the logo of the brewery today.The recording session we were allowed to observe for a few minutes.
We finally headed back for a relaxing dinner, Ton really made a nice chicken and spatzle dish. She is really doing a great job mixing German, Thai, and American cuisines. The day ended with a quick run thru an Edeka to make sure we have the refrigerator full for the next stop. Once again the flexibility of not having reservations and our own house on wheels allowed us to make a new exciting discovery.
Well unfortunately the weather forecast was correct, it is really raining out. We lay around the room quite a while in the morning trying to figure out what to do for the day indoors.
We finally settled on the Munich Residence as the trip advisor said that it was the best place to spend a rainy day as it was only 100 yard walk from the subway to the entrance so you do not even need to open your umbrella.
The Munich Residence is the former palace of the Bavarian royal family the Wittlesbachs. Construction was begun around 1380 and continued in spurts until the mid 1800’s. When finally completed it has 130 rooms and 10 courtyards. It has a full sized concert hall that is still used today. It was very heavily damaged during WWII and not fully reconstructed until the 1980’s. It has been converted into a museum both to highlight the architecture, but to show period furniture, art, and religious relics.
The Antiquarium is a room nearly 200 feet long. It was built to display Roman and Middle-Age statues. It also served for serving royal banquets.An impressive ceiling from the Kings chambers.Artwork from the 1800’s showing a Turkish influence.The Ancestral Gallery lined with portraits of the Wittelsbach family.
We spent most of the afternoon winding thru many of the 130 rooms of the residence. It was a nice dry way to spend the afternoon. When we were finished with the residence we decided we needed to visit the actual Augustiner Beer Hall. A short tram ride later we arrived at a giant beer hall with a huge outside sitting area. It was pouring but we were able to get a good seat in the beer hall.
St. Augustine the inspiration for the beer.
We both enjoyed our meals the night before so we decided to order the exact same dishes tonight. They cost a little less, and we both thought the meals last night were a little better, still we did not leave any food on the table. The Augustiner Beer is much better in our opinion than the Hofbrau House.
The interior of the Augustiner Beer Hall.
Just as we were thinking of leaving a Bavarian Band started up, so we had one more round and enjoyed the band. When we finished up it was raining quite hard, and it looks like the forecast of up to an inch of rain was accurate. Just hope the forecast of 1 to 2 more inches of rain overnight is not accurate.
Last night we discussed our next step. The weather once again is intervening in our plans. The weather over the next three days is forecasted to rain 2 to 3 inches, with periods of high wind and high temperatures in the 50’s. Munich was one of my bucket list items so after a lot of discussion about how to best do it we decided to use some of our hotel points to get a hotel in Munich for two nights. We arranged to park François on the Army base here so he is well secured. Our new friend Scott even offered us a lift into Munich in his rental car.
We arrived in Munich about noon and headed over to our hotel to check in. We had arranged to meet Scott for dinner at Augustiner Brewery later in the day. After we had checked in we began to get our feet wet with the Munich mass transit system. During the trip we ended up using Trains, Subways, Busses, and Trams. We made multiple trips without any major incidents, and whenever we looked particularly confused locals often offered us help to understand what direction or platform to get on.
The spectacular town hall of Munich.
Our first stop was the Marienplatz which is the center of Munich. It is a long and wide pedestrian zone full of restaurants, churches, shopping and museums. The rain that was supposed to already be starting was delayed so the afternoon was sunny and warm. We were enjoying our stroll up Marienplatz when we got a text from Scott asking which Augustiner Brewery as the front desk at his hotel said there were many. We picked one based on our location, and asked him where we should meet. It turns out we were only about 50 yards apart while we were texting each other, and when I looked up I saw him. Having worked out the logistics of meeting each other we decided that since we were also right in front of the Hofbrau House we should have a beer there.
Street scene from the Marienplatz.
The Hofbrau House is probably the most famous beer hall in Munich. Nearly every American who passes thru Munich has to have a beer there including us.
The interior of the Hofbrau House. A tourist must see (and drink) in Munich.
After the Hofbrau house we headed over to one of the Augustiner Breweries. The Augustiner Breweries were founded in 1328, and there really are a bunch of them. The weather was still really good so we found a seat outside.
The Augustiner we ended up picking for dinner, one of at least four we passed.
Ton wanted to try the white asparagus (spargle in German)that Northern France and Germany are famous for, it is regular asparagus but the farmers cover it with dirt so it does not undergo photosynthesis to turn green. This asparagus is a real delicacy in Germany. It has a very short season being available only from late April to early June. It has no fat and 0 calories (before you coat it with Hollandaise sauce), and lots of vitamins.
White Asparagus, a delicacy for Germans.
My choice was a much less healthy schweinshaxe (pork shoulder). It is roasted so that the skin is crispy almost like a pork rind, with the meat under it tender and juicy. Both of our meals were really good.
Schweinshaxen, my favorite German dish so far.
As we were eating and drinking Ton asked me something and I answered her in Thai, the table next to us had three Asian people and as soon as I spoke Thai they perked up and said hello in Thai. It turns out that Ken, Pup, and Ploy were from a solar panel company in Northeast Thailand. They were in Munich for a trade show, but being good Thai they gave us an in depth rundown of the restaurant scene in Munich. After our meal was done they asked us if we wanted to join them for another round of beers, so Scott, Ton and I were off to another restaurant for some more Schweinshaxn, (according to Pup the second best in Munich) and beer.
It turned into a really nice day where we made a new American and three new Thai friends. By the time we finished with the last restaurant the clear skies were gone and it was raining buckets so we dashed for the subway and back to the hotel.
Yesterday when we went into the Army facility near us the guards told us we should have our identification cards registered with US Forces Europe as it would make it easier to get on other bases. So we started the day by walking over to the Military Police Office, the process was quick and efficient. The lady was very nice and told us we could use the facilities. This base is a recreation and conference center so they actually sponsor a lot of tours. After looking at their options we opted to sign up for a couple of tours, so we will be spending several days in the area.
The first tour we signed up for was of the Greisbrau Brewery. It was located about 40 minutes away, and the brewery is from the 1970’s, though the building is a few hundred years old, but was previously a cattle barn. Wolfgang our host walked us thru the brewing process.
Wolfgang enlightening us on the fine art of making beer.
We learned about the German Beer Purity laws which limit Beer to only three ingredients, Water, Hops, and Malt. The talk was interesting and we were all paying extra attention as we had to take a test at the end to earn our Beer Drinkers Certificate. Ton and I passed and we are now an official Bavarian Beer Connoisseur.
Wolfgang giving out samples of the beer to our group of future Bavarian Beer Brewers.My certificate as an official Beer Connoisseur.
We ended the tour with a nice Bavarian meal. It was a late night out so todays post is a little short.
We have been enjoying Lake Constance so we decided to spend another day on the lake at a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Reichenau Island. Yesterday we visited “Flower Island” and today we are visiting “Vegetable Island”.
The drive over was quick and uneventful except for a diversion to the ferry terminal as Greta Garmin decided that was the quickest way to Reichenau, she was probably right but we decided to skip the ferry fee, and after some resetting of Greta, we were on our way by road.
World Heritage Sites are usually pretty spectacular, so when we pulled on to Reichenau it seemed that the emphasis was on vegetables and not memorable architecture. For our friends from Oregon think of Sauvie Island with three small churches. After settling in to the Stellplatz we decided to walk on over to the Abby which is the largest of the three churches that make up the UNESCO site. The walk was thru a bunch of vegetable fields where we played guess the vegetable, Ton won.
A field of different types of Lettuce on Vegetable Island.
We arrived at the Abby and it was a nice enough church but nothing spectacular. We finally figured out that the smaller church called St. George Church had the paintings that were what caused the UNESCO designation, and we had a couple of hours to wait until the next tour.
Part of the Abby which was the center of the religious order on the island in the middle ages.
The island this time of year is really very quiet and peaceful, and we spent quite a bit of time just wandering aimlessly around the streets enjoying the views of the lake and enjoying the ambiance and the greenery, it really reminded us of Oregon. We visited the museum to try to understand the history of the Abby as the tour was in German so we needed to prep.
A reproduction of some of the art that we would see later in St. George Church.
Finally what we thought would be the highlight of the day was the tour of the interior of the church which has artwork from the 10th century that was rediscovered in the 1880’s when the white wash that had covered them was removed. The paintings are in the process of being preserved, access to the church is limited to help minimize the humidity in the church.
An example of the paintings from the 900’s that are being preserved at the entrance to the church.Some of the art inside the chapel, this type of painting is very rare and this is the northern most church in Europe that this style is found.
The explanation of the on going work to preserve the paintings and the meaning of the paintings was quite extensive, but we did not understand much as it was of course in German. But the guide was quite obviously proud of the work and very knowledgeable.
The exterior of St. George Church, sometimes modest structures hide real treasures.
We had planned on taking the bus back to François after the tour, but I was unable to figure out the bus system, and the bus guide we had did not match the one at the bus stop. So being unsure whether the bus was going to take us home, or into Konstanz I talked Ton into walking the 2 miles back. On the way she saw a sign for a grocery so we detoured down a side road where we saw a small brewery.
Being a little curious we crossed the street and were peering in the door when a man waved us in and welcomed us in German. We were a little shy as we do not speak any German, but the man switched to English and asked us where we were from, when we told him Oregon he laughed and his wife smiled. He said he got his Masters Degree from Southern Oregon University! They have been operating the only microbrewery in the region for about 3 years. Thomas insisted on giving us a tour of the facilities and a couple of beers to taste. His beers are excellent. We were also invited to a special event the brewery is having on Saturday including beer making, bands and food. It looks like we may be staying in the far south of Germany for a few more days.
Thomas the owner of Insel Brewery on Reichenau Island.We ended the day by walking down to the beach for a romantic sunset over Lake Constance.
Today we left France for the day. We are parked up in Kehl Germany as it was the best option to visit Strasbourg France. The problem was that when we woke up the weather report had gotten much worst. They were now calling for heavy rain and high winds due to a “Bomb Cyclone’ that was hitting southern France. I think a bomb cyclone is a new more dramatic way to say cold front, but it certainly gets your attention.
As we learned yesterday Colmar was the home of Frederic Bartholdi, the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. All of the guide books said there was a replica of the statue in Colmar, but we never found it. As we were leaving Colmar on a four lane road thru an industrial park, there was the statue in the middle of a traffic circle, so we circled around a couple of times so Ton could get a good picture.
A replica of the Statue of Liberty in Colmar, the home of the sculptor.
We had a quick drive over to Kehl as the roads were mostly freeways, and arrived before the effects of the bomb cyclone. We decided on a quick trip into the town to see what was there. Like many border towns the center seemed to cater mostly to day trip shoppers from France looking for bargains.
Downtown Kehl, mostly consisting of shopping aimed at French day trip visitors.
We did get to visit a Woolworths Department Store which while they became extinct in the US about 25 years ago are still going strong in Mexico, France, and Germany. After a quick walk thru downtown Kehl, and our first visit to a German grocery store, the rain was starting to set in so we hustled back to François.
Some days we tour exotic medieval cities, and some days we hunker down in the back of François. This afternoon we hunkered down and watched a good Netflix Movie with Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.
After a lot of time looking for a good French beer we have now discovered one. We have tried two different types of Fischer Beers and they are both excellent.
The Fischer Three Alsatian Hops Blonde, a really good beer.
The weather had gotten a little better overnight after heavy rain as we fell asleep. While it was still pretty cold and cloudy it was not raining. Today we visited Riquewihr and Ribeauville. They are both listed as must see villages in Alsace.
The first stop was Riquewihr as we could walk there from our campground. As we were walking into town Ton stopped me and pointed at what I thought was a wineshop. It turns out she had read about this excellent microbrewery in Ribeauville and we had found it. We went in sampled their IPA and a Belgian Dark. Both were excellent. Refreshed, we headed into town. The town was as beautiful as the guidebooks suggested, but very tourist oriented.
The entry into Riquewihr.
As we were walking up and down the streets we saw a large group of Asian tourists and presumed they were Chinese. It turns out they were Thai. After spending a couple of hours in town Ton had killed the battery on her iPhone taking pictures so we decided to head back to François for lunch and to charge her phone.
After lunch we headed over to Ribeauville. It was a short drive over in François. Ribeauville was supposed to be larger but less picturesque than Riquewihr according to both of our guidebooks. Since it was Sunday the parking was easy. Our first site on entering the town were two storks nesting on a large timber building.
Storks are a big thing in Alsace. They build these stork nest platforms in towns and fields to keep the storks from nesting on chimneys and utility poles.Ribeauville is in a valley surrounded by vineyards with three castles overlooking it. The combination of colorful timbered houses, the vineyards and the castles make for some great views.
In fact despite the guidebooks Ton and I liked Ribeauville a little better. It had more of the timbered homes, and it felt less like a tourist town and more like a real town that had great views.
A collection of half timbered buildings from Riquewihr and Ribeauville.
As we were walking thru town we came on a different group of Asian tourists, and much to our surprise they were also Thai. It is a rare day when the only Asian tourists you meet in France, are Thai. This time I could not resist and one of the Thai couples were taking turns turns taking pictures of each other so I asked them in Thai if they wanted me to take their picture. They were pretty startled to have a pharang (white guy in Thai) speaking Thai to them.
This little guy was in the field next to where we parked François, who can resist a cute lamb.
Today is Dylan’s birthday so we planned a big day around town to celebrate. We started out with a seafood brunch at Point Loma Seafood. It is part fishmonger and part restaurant, definitely a laid back California experience, but the food was really exceptional, and was a good start to the day.
Our next stop was Cabrillo National Monument on a bluff overlooking San Diego harbor. This was the first day it was open after the government shutdown and a lot of people were coming out to use the facilities. It is an interesting place located on former military property with stunning views of the harbor and the ocean. The monument has exhibitions on Spanish explorers, as it is believed the monument contains the landing place of the Spanish explorer who was the first European to land in San Diego. It also has a whale watching platform, some nice tidal pools, and exhibits on the military uses of the area. We really enjoyed it.
The Cabrillo Monument to the first European to see San Diego Harbor.
Next we headed over to another San Diego brewery located right next to Point Loma Seafood. We had a couple of rounds of really excellent Lagers and IPA’s and were quite impressed with Epigg Brewing. Our next stop was going to be Pariah brewery for Pizza and beer. When we got there Pizza was not available so we headed down the road for a great Mexican meal to wrap up the day. Thanks Dylan for a fun week in San Diego.
Not a very interesting travel day. Both of us have been dealing with nagging medical issues so we decided to use today to go by a clinic and get them looked at. We both had our diagnoses confirmed and got some prescriptions to deal with the issues.
In the afternoon we went to downtown San Diego for dinner at Melvin’s. We had a great dinner of Thai Curry. This brewery is originally from Wyoming and was the house brewery for a Thai restaurant, which is an unusual way to found a brewery. Their beer is considered one of the best micro breweries in the country. We then finished the night by taking a walk around downtown San Diego.
Ron and Dylan in front of a monument to craft beer.
Today we shifted to San Diego to see our other son Dylan. The drive over was pretty uneventful.
Ton and I were talking about the difference in how we treat distances here versus Europe. We decided to take it easy driving on the trip. Taking it easy in the US are 300 to 400 mile drives each day. As an example the drive to San Diego today was 328 miles. Our easy drives here would be 500 to 600km drives in Europe which is much farther than we would ever consider driving there. Some of it is the nature of the country. The next closest town to Las Vegas would be San Bernardino which in itself is about 180 miles, so there would be no short drives. When we come home it is interesting how quickly we can switch to the American sense of distance.
We met Dylan for dinner and went to a nice brewery. We had an interesting conversation about the government shutdown, as the office he works is closed though he is getting paid because he is working thru the University of Montana.
Today we headed into San Diego to spend the weekend with our son Dylan who is working there for the Fish and Wildlife Service. We had a slow start as we wanted to wait for traffic to die down before taking off.
Ton saw a Mexican Grocery next to the hotel so while Ron went to get some fuel for Scout she had a good time shopping for good cheap vegetables and a Mexican pastry for breakfast. She was very impressed with the quality, variety and cost of the vegetables.
The drive into San Diego was thankfully uneventful and we arrived at the Navy RV park we will be staying at around 130pm. Dylan was able to get off work a little early so we knocked off two of Ton’s items from the agenda. The two breweries she wanted to visit in San Diego were fortunately only a couple of blocks apart so we were able to visit them both. The first was Alesmith and we were quite impressed with both the facility and the beer. The next stop was Mikkeller Brewery. Mikkeler is an interesting operation as they are from Copenhagen Denmark. They consider themselves gypsy brewers who work out of different breweries around the world. The brewery in San Diego is the first brewery they have had that is their own. The beer was interesting and the art in the brewery was very nice. When it came down to voting on the best beer Dylan and Ron picked Alesmith and Ton declared a tie.
Dylan enjoying a taster at Ballast Point Brewing.
We ended the day with a nice meal at the campsite.
It was time to finally leave our friends Pae and Supachai. For our going away Pae prepared a great Thai breakfast of Cao dom. Ron really loved it. Thanks to our good friends Pae and Supachai for hosting us and showing us around the bay area.
Ron enjoying a beer at Central Coast Brewing.
Heading south we camped up in San Luis Obispo. We visited a really nice brewery called Central Coast. We enjoyed a couple of beers and were really pleasantly surprised when the bill came as we did not realize it was happy hour and the beers were $2 off. The last stop for the day was the Madonna Inn. It is a hotel that has been the place to be in San Luis Obispo for decades. Trip Advisor describes the decor as eccentric and Ton says they are right. Below are a couple of pictures that prove her point.
The dinning room at the Madonna Inn. That is a lot of pink.
The final day of “Good Brew Hunting” had us dealing with some disappointment. The first two breweries we had planned to visit were not going to open until 4 pm which was too late if we were going to get home at a reasonable hour.
We did visit 7 Devils Brewing in Coos Bay. We enjoyed their IPA a great deal. This is another first class facility. The owner is an artist and has done a class job of decorating the place.
Ton liked the painting of Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy.
We had planned to make Yachats brewing the last stop for the day. The beautiful weather we had been having had finally broken and we had more typical Oregon Coast weather, a mixture of sun and rain. The drive from Florence to Yachats is really spectacular and we enjoyed the views. When we got to Yachats we found the brewery closed despite their website saying they were open, there was a note on the door reflecting limited winter hours that was not on their website.
At this point we punched home into the navigator. As we were driving thru Newport we came to a seafood place we had always talked about stopping at, so we did. We split a Captains Platter of fish, shrimp, scallops, and oysters. After our late lunch we headed to the house.
The “Good Brew Hunting” trip was now over with 11 breweries visited in three states. Ron’s favorite brewery was Arch Rock and his favorite beer was the lager from Arch Rock. Ton’s favorite brewery was Anderson Valley with Arch Rock a close second, and her favorite beer was also from Anderson Valley their Brother Davids Triple.
A rainbow as we were pulling into the neighborhood.
The “Good Brew Hunting” tour was a total of 3818 miles over 20 days and Scout averaged 13.26 mpg. One thing we have noticed that with the heavier tires we put on in Alaska we are averaging almost 1 mpg less, but I think it is worth it for the extra weight capacity.
Our last day in California on this trip was magnificent from a weather point of view. The skies were blue and it was relatively warm at about 60 degrees. The views going up the coast were spectacular.
The coast line of Northern California and Oregon are wild and spectacular.
Todays drive though was not about views but about brews. Let me say that on these beer tasting days we are very careful to only have a small tasting of tray of 4 or 5 shot sized glasses. I do not want anyone to think we are overindulging. Todays first stop was at Arch Rock Brewing in Gold Beach. This was by far the smallest brewery we visited. The tasting room was an alcove inside the door of the warehouse. In addition to tasting the beer we were able to observe a business meeting between the owner/brewer and some suppliers. The beer was truly terrific, particularly their porter and lager.
We continued north to Bandon which is one of the cutest towns on the coast. A brewery had opened there in the last year. The facility is really nice and the beer was good. They were a little optimistic and had the garage door open to the outside seating. But with a light jacket it was fun to pretend like it was summer.
Bandon Brewing.
Ron was still fighting the effects of the flu so we decided to stay in Bandon for the night. Our campsite is at Bullards Beach State Park near the ocean in Bandon.
Good Brew Hunting continued today with two stops as we continue our very slow pub crawl north. After a slow start in the morning we headed towards Boonville California to a brewery that we had targeted called Anderson Valley Brewery. To get there we covered about 25 miles of twisty mountain roads until we dropped into the valley. The beer was delicious, and we debated calling it a day there, but decided to push on north.
Anderson Valley Brewing, one of our favorites.
After another three hours we ended up at the Mad River brewery in Blue Lake. The beer was good but not quite up to the standard of Anderson Valley. However, they were having a sale on cans so we picked up a case of a nice lager for the next trip in Scout.
The coastal mountains of Northern California are really rugged.
Tonight we are urban camping in a casino parking lot near the brewery in Blue Lake.
Ton has dubbed the rest of our trip north good beer hunting. The plan is to move north roughly following US101 through Northern California and Oregon searching for breweries.
With Ron still a little under the weather the plan was to take it easy and only visit one brewery today. We chose Russian River brewery in Santa Rosa. It is famous for two IPA’s Pliney the Elder and Pliney the Younger. They have a national reputation and even though we have tried them both we thought we would go by the brewery to try one on site. When we got there, the line to get in to the brewery had about 300 people in it. It turns out it was the release day for this years Pliney the Younger and also the San Francisco beer festival. When someone from the brewery came by and informed us that the wait to get in would be five hours we decided to go somewhere else.
The Russian River Brewing home of a very sought after beer called Pliney the Elder.
The second place was about five miles away called Bear Republic Brewery. We had a taster tray of 9 beers ranging from a pilsner to a stout. There were several good beers though we thought the lighter beers were better than the darker beers.
Bear Republic Brewing, no four wait, and good beer.
Ron is still a little worn out from the flu, so we headed over to a nice campground in dairy country near Petaluma that came with over 180 channels on their cable. While Ron took a nap Ton was able to watch her favorite hockey team on the TV.
Some happy California cows just across the fence from the campground.
The first job for today was to try to sort out our camera. It suddenly stopped working. We are not sure if the battery has given up the ghost or it is something bigger. It is 6 or 7 years old so it may be just at the end of its’ life despite Ton’s meticulous maintenance. For now we are in possession of a new camera we bought at Costco. While Ton was sorting out the camera and doing some grocery shopping, Ron took Scout for an oil change.
After that we headed out to check out the north part of San Diego county. Once again Ron is shocked that an area he remembers so well from 20 years ago has changed substantially. Oceanside has gentrified tremendously, and Carlsbad is positively upscale now. We really enjoyed checking out the town including the Belching Beaver Brewery, a Pizza place that also brewed beer, and the farmers market. In fact we had such a good time that we decided to spend another night here.
Not sure what Ron is so focused on, a nice brewery called Belching Beaver.
Last night most of the sites around us were empty, when we returned tonight we were surrounded by a bunch of large RV’s. It turns out it is a group of Elks from around Moreno Valley California who are here for the weekend. They seem like a bunch of nice people and invited us to join them tomorrow for a card tournament. We will see.
Today was a small scale pub crawl thru Bend. After a little shopping in the morning we visited three breweries. Monkless Brewing is one of our favorites in Bend. It is a relatively new brewery, but we really enjoy their beer. The second Brewery was a new one for us called Immersion Brewing. It was also very good though it had a tough time following Monkless. We ended the night at the original Cascade Lakes Brewery this time in Redmond. Ton wanted to see the Civil War Basketball game between Oregon State and the University of Oregon. We reprised our favorite beers from last night and while the game was really sloppy the right team won so all is well.
