We decided to do an afternoon visit to a nearby Monastery outside of Munich in Andechs, close enough to take the S-Bahn 5.  Several people had mentioned that it was a local favorite and that alone had us willing to check it out! 

The 45 minute journey down to Andechs took us through beautiful Bavarian countryside dotted with houses and lush forests.

Upon arrival in Herrsching, we simply exited out the front entrance of the train station and caught a cab for Andechs, which sits up on the hillside overlooking lakes and beautiful vistas in every direction.

It was definitely much colder here; you could tell we were in the heart of the countryside.  The cab ride took another 10 minutes and dropped us off just at the edge of the little Kloster Andechs. 

It was pretty remote and I was a little worried about finding a ride back to the train station but I figured I would wait to really worry about it until we were leaving.

We walked up into the little village and at the top were given quite the reward for our efforts; a spectacular view of the Alps in the distance, almost glowing with snow.  With the brisk wind they really didn’t seem all that far away.  They were absolutely spectacular.

We wandered around the monastery, checking out the little baroque church and the rest of the village that was once considered quite the pilgrimage.

So the real reason for making this mecca was for the infamous Andechs Brewery, still brewed on site by the monastery, controlled by the Monks and a favorite among everyone in Munich. 

It took us a while to find a seat in the crowded beer hall, probably for the fact that it also was pouring rain outside and everyone was enjoying a beer while finding refuge from the extreme weather.

We were pretty ravenous and they had a self serve area with some pretty delicious delicacies.  By this time in the trip I was REALLY into the "brezn" soft pretzels served with the lovely Bayern sweet mustard that I am so addicted to.  Yum!

The monks are well known for their beer, the most popular being an Andechser Doppelbock Dunkel.  We tried all of them and I can heartily say that hands down, the Andechser Weissbier was the best hefeweizen I have ever had.

Before leaving Keith had to take the always entertaining alcohol level test that was positioned near the bathrooms.

He blew a 0.38 but considering he had only had a couple small beers, I think I can safely say that their measuring system for alcohol is a tad bit different than ours.  Good fun nonetheless.

We were lucky enough to catch the last bus back to the train station, and the second to the last train back to Munich.  Once back we hung out in our room, reviewing picture from the last few days and generally catching up. It was a nice quiet evening after all the touring we had done today!

Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register.

Powered by AkoComment 2.0!