Family-Style Pub Crawl

What a nice, long weekend! Our Saturday kind of went like this:

Picked up tired Viktor early (10 AM) in the morning and left Mannheim heading towards Wiesbaden (where I was stationed for three years from 1994-97).

Meshell hit the Marktplatz (kind of a farmer's market) in Wiesbaden and dropped us off at the Rathaus ("city hall") where we used to hang out.

Note: They call this tradition Fruehschoppen (literally translated "early shopping") and it normally happens on Saturday mornings or on Vatertag (Father's Day). Distinguished gentlemen, such as my self, meet at a local pub for a beer or two, some traditional grub and a nice sense of gemutlichkeit (roughly translates to a warm, easy, friendly environment). American's could learn alot from the social and mental benefits from the occasional beer-related event, like this...

This place used to be a nice brewpub, but now it's an Andechser restaurant / biergarten. [pictures] Normally this wouldn't bother me since Andech's is one of my top 3 breweries in the world and making several of my favorite beers in the respective styles. But in this instance, I was disappointed. The character that the old Ratsbrauerie had, with its dark walls, old wood and cave-like ceilings had been replaced with a well-lit dining area with new furniture, white and yellow paint and poor service. Forunately, the beer on tap redeems this place, barely.

We met up and went across the river, to Mainz, in search of a brauhaus we used to like to hang out at - even before we had kids. It took Meshell about five minutes (and no wrong turns) to find it, the Eisgrub Brauhaus. After a great lunch, tired Viktor was beat (and stuffed - after a plate with two big pieces of schnitzel). [pictures]

Meshell had one more stop to make - at the American Army base in Mainz-Kastel to pick up some bicycle gear for Lindsey's bike. This base is right around the corner from *another* old favorite hangout of ours, the Castel Brauhaus. I couldn't resist, so I took some of the kids to the biergarten and had a couple of biers. [pictures] Viktor rested his eyes in the car...

This was the first time I've been to three (or even two) brew pubs in a single day and I don't know if I'll do it again. I was overwhelmed by the good (and fresh) beer. I didn't think that was possible!