Our time in Germany has come to an end, and as I look back, there are so many things that I will remember always.
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Cornelia Nicodemus and Irina Turner at the Welcome Center of the Universität Bayreuth helped us find an apartment, get settled, and were there to answer all of our silly questions.
Clemens and Suzanne Lukas with their boys Fabian and Fredrick live on the ground floor of the house we lived in. They were always there to give advice, translate a form, letter, or set of instructions, and most importantly offered their friendship. We would drink Schnapps, tell stories, and laughed till late in the evening around their table.
Werner Burr and Iris Schneider Burr. They took us under their wings and showed us the countryside of Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria), and the small pub that only the locals know about.
I especially enjoyed Werner getting me to taste the local Franconian delicacies like, blood sausage, liver sausage, cold fried herring, and lung soup, along with the many beers in the many pubs we visited. A table knock goes out to Werner for his friendship!
Schinner’s Braustuben was our favorite place to have a beer and eat traditional Franconian food.
The restaurant is run by Sindy and Holm Biederman, with Sindy running the front of the house and Holm in the kitchen. In addition to being wonderful hosts every time we visited, they prepared a special meal for us on Thanksgiving Day, served up a memorable Sylvester (New Year’s Eve) dinner, and helped make our last night in Bayreuth, a memorable one.
German language course taught by Thorsten Parchent. The class was made up of students and scholars from all over the world. So in addition to learning German, we got the opportunity to learn about may different cultures while interacting with all the other language students.
And last but not least - The GREAT beer.
One of my favorite things was getting to try all the different beers as we travelled throughout Germany (see Cindy’s picture study of all these beers: A Study of Beer with Paul). Every town has at least one brewery, and in Bavaria every pub brews their own beer that is only available there. This is all done while complying with the oldest consumer law in the world, the Reinheitsgebot or “German Beer Purity Law”, which very strictly spells out what can be in beer. It is quit simple really, you may use only these three ingredients: hops, barley, and water. If you put anything else in it . . . then it isn’t beer. Plan and simple. In Bayreuth alone there are at least 5 breweries, and over 25 varieties of beer. My favorites:
