7/19
We left Kezsthely this morning after breakfast, amid the usual tears. It is hard when your parents live in a country half way around the world to say good-bye. Z and her folks take it particularly hard this year.
We traveled across Hungary, stopping so that Greg could take a look at a German Tiger tank that they are giving rides in for a fee. I guess they are pretty rare, and were quite something in the war. Other than a half hearted attempt at the “City-Name-Game,” the rest of Hungary was uneventful.
We crossed the border into Austria. The alpine vistas are beautiful, rolling hills, small woods surrounded by green pastures, fields of corn, wheat and barley. Every so often there are cute little villages, each with its fortress or onion domed church. Probably the most famous of these (mostly due to its proximity to the freeway) is Melk. We stopped to stretch our legs.
This church is a huge presence on the side of the freeway. It is still a Benedictine Monastery, so parts are off limits. We choose to just walk the outside. There are many baroque paintings and statues to look at, and the view of the city and the church is amazing. This is probably why so many tour groups stop here (that, and the proximity to the freeway). Yet another reason not to take the tour and move on.
More hills and scenic views surround our journey. We turned and moved down into the flat lands, into Germany, and onto Vilseck without any further muss or fuss.
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Veldensteiner (www.veldensteiner.de), Neuhaus/Pegnitz Brewery
Nice foamy, white head, with a cloudy yellow beer below. A little bit of yeast, a lot of hops, a little bit of malt. A nicely balanced beer, but not too big, a swell session wheat, without really tasting like one. We had a Zwick’l Kellerbier from Bayreuth Brewery that was a lot like this, just a tiny bit darker.
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