Day 4 - December 13 - Freising and Bruckmuhl

We had a light breakfast in the gasthaus - basically rolls, cheese and a bit of salami. 

Drove up the hill to see our old house and Dr. Mackrodt's house. He was the doctor who treated Ron for asthma when we lived there. Sadly, he has been dead a long time and (according to owner of pension), his children bickered over his estate and his beautiful home sits empty.

We drove on back roads all the way to Ingolstadt - something we had never done before. It was beautiful driving through the snowy forests and meadows. The most interesting thing was discovering the Baroque City of Eichstatt. 

We decided it might be a neat place to visit in warmer weather.I haven't yet figured out why such a beautiful Baroque City sprung up in this rather remote area.  Outside Eichstatte are some archaeological sites where they found prehistoric animals that were the missing link between dinosaurs and birds. There are several museums.

http://www.allgerman.com/eichstatt.htm

We drove through Ingolstadt, which is the home of Audi, and appears to be a very prosperous city. In reading about Ingolstadt, I found that it was the setting for the novel "Frankenstein" (never knew that!) Then continued on back roads - went through all the hops fields surrounding Ingolstadt.

The GPS took us through Freising (where Munich Airport is located). We stopped at the Hofbrau Brewery, and I went in the gasthaus to make sure they were still serving. The restaurant area was down a long flight of stairs and through a series of doors. Long story short - they were serving food throughout the day, so I climbed back up to let Ron know. He wondered why I was gone so long! It was a very pleasant spot. Again, the menu was long on pork choices - so I had fish (zahnder - pike perch) in a brown butter sauce and Ron had pork with mushrooms and potatoes. 

The beer was good!

We reached our pension in Bruckmuhl about 4:30 PM. It was a bit dark and foreboding, but the room (up a flight of wooden, circular stairs) was spacious and pleasant enough. (Ron hadn't asked about stairs or elevators when he made the reservation!) Bruckmuhl is very near to Bad Aibling where Ron was stationed for three years. You might say it is his "old stomping grounds". In fact, he once dated the daughter of the burgermeister of Bruckmuhl.

That evening we had reservations for dinner at 7 PM, and were annoyed that they asked us to sit in the gaststatte room , which was totally empty and had no atmosphere. Ron said we had made a reservation three months ago and expected to have a nice table. They finally put us into the nicer area, but not near the fireplace. Ron asked a young woman working there why we were not seated in the beautiful part of the dining room where all of the tables were set with candles, crystal glasses and up-market table cloths as opposed to the rather sterile gasthaus room, and she said "most Americans like to be in the other room". We think it smacks of a by-gone era when restaurant/gasthaus owners would "segregate" Americans (usually GIs) into separate rooms due to the resentment of the "occupation forces". It left a bad taste in our mouths. 

I had wienerschnitzel, which was much too thick and not very appetizing. Ron had pork again - schnitzel - which was mediocre.

The wireless internet wouldn't work in the room, so we went downstairs to the gasthaus room for an hour or so. Mary had a wine and Ron asked for ice cubes for the scotch he brought with him. The end of a rather uneventful day.