Ackermanns Bar

Last night as we were walking home, I had a knock-down-drag-out case of the hiccups. It was so bad. Each hiccup was so explosive that, oh brother.....this sounds so juvenile....every time a hiccup erupted, let's see, how to put this delicatelly, every time I hiccuped, my runny nose......hmmmmm.....let's just say, it ran all the more. It was like a rhythm event....walk, walk, walk, hiccup, sloosh. Oh brother.

It was the first day since I've been here that I didn't take any photos. It was a da.a.a.a.rk and glo.o.o.o.omy day. Oppressive. I drank TWO cups of coffee (mistake #1), I didn't do my outdoor step-climb (mistake #2) and I went to the Art Museum. I'm uncertain whether the Art Museum was a mistake. I'd wanted to go and the building is very cool. But the art......da.a.a.a.ark and glo.o.o.omy. O.p.p.r.e.s.s.i.v.e!

So when Steve came home, we decided to get out for a little change of scene. Staying in all night watching CNN or BBC or a channel where we don't know what they're saying can be, well, of course, you guessed it by now......Oppressive. (Though, I must say, we've watched a lot of good futball....soccer. The announcers, are, of course, all speaking German, but the action is in English. Haha, the funniest thing, the other night we were watching a soccer match and the announcer says the whole game in a stream of German, when right in the middle we hear the only English of the whole match...."Playboy image"! Haha, we know what THAT means.)

So we go to Ackermanns Bar. It's a neat place, always filled, warm, cozy and jovial. We like that the name sounds Jewish. Steve worked for an Ackermann when we were in Charlottesville, definitely very Jewish. Inside the bar, there's a sign that reads, "Guiness is Good for You" and Steve's impressed that they have British beer on tap. The first time we were there they played more Joe Cocker than I'd heard in my whole life put together before that time. Very international flavor.

Last night they had Helles Hefe (hefeweissen) on special. I only had one, though the beers are huge. Oh OK, I had a little bit of Steve's second beer too.

Musta gotten tickeled about something. Laughed hard. Got hiccups. Jolted home.

But the first time we went to Ackermanns.....oh man, oh man, oh man! I tell this story, not to brag or glory in drinking. It wasn't that way at all. And I hesitate to even tell it, given that my daughters might read it and get the wrong idea. But Anna was here anyway, witness to the whole chain of events.

No, I tell this tale to illustrate two points. One, you must be polite in Germany. When given something, say, a beer, or a shot, you can't refuse, or take it home for later. (Plus, Steve says he's never seen anyone leave a portion of drink on the table. It's just not done)

The second point is that, even if people speak a little English, that doesn't mean they understand everything that you say. And pointing is a very inaccurate way to communicate unless you are precise.

The first time we went to Ackerman'ns, I had one beer (a very big beer) and that's all I wanted. Enough. Our waiter, cute, cute and very nice, came to ask if I wanted another. No. But I didn't just say "no", I pointed to Steve's beer and said I'd share some of that. Mr. Nice Cute Waiter didn't understand all that extra information and instead of holding steady, brought me a beer like Steve's.

When my shock registered and I started to protest, Nice Waiter looked so crestfallen and sad, I just said OK, OK, this is fine, thank you. Of course, OF COURSE, not in German, but with my hands and body language.

And then, oh brother, Mr. Nice Cute Waiter comes back with SHOTS! Oh holy cow! Of Underberg. Well, what are ya gonna do? The man next to us asked us how we rated, he'd been coming here for 10 years and had never gotten a freebie....ever. So, what are ya gonna do? Be polite and shoot the shot. And drink the beer.

Oh lordy, things were starting to spin! BUT, we walked home AND, this is big, I walked up those 75 steps to our apartment.

And laid down on the bed fully dressed down to my boots and kept one foot firmly planted on the floor beside the bed hoping that the spinning stayed in the horizontal plane instead of the vertical. Mostly it did.

I made it to Munich the next day, had brat and beer for lunch (not breakfast, oh help!) and lived to tell the tale.

Hefe on special!

If you look really really hard, you can see the "Guiness is good for you" sign. I could, but I'm not gonna, go to Zoombrowser and zoom in on that sign, get past this man's big head and you could see it better. But I'm not gonna. Just imagine it for heaven sake. The sign is about half-way down and 1/3 in from the right if you're going for it. Really, it's there. Another man's big head is covering up the "you". Oh well.

Lively bar scene.....

Pictures of the little Underberg bottles. I set this up to just show the little bottles against the green, using the wine bottles to hold up the backdrop, but then I liked the arrangement so much with the wine bottles in the background.......How appropriate and Haha, we're not hurting for liquid to drink.

I went to the Underberg website to see what that was all about. "Fine and secret herb recipe to aid digestion after a meal" HA! I don't think so!