Ch-ch-ch-checking out Germany (Part 2)

August 10th, 2010

Germany is not known for its love of cider. In fact, you are more likely to come across a dog with three legs rather than a pub or bar selling cider inside. Of course the country is known for beer and wine, so why would you go out of your way to try and find a drink that hasn’t been embraced? When you drink it most nights, that’s when.

Bruno prefers cider to most other drinks. We did our very best to try and find some. We checked online at the nearby bars to see if they had it listed as a beveridge. We looked in supermarkets. It would appear that despite having a word for cider, ‘viez’, it doesn’t get used often. We went into a restaurant half a mile away and asked for a viez only to be greeted by confused looks by the staff. Bruno then using the international sign language for ‘apples’, ‘fermenting’ and ‘the internet’ tried to explain our endeavours. One of the bar staff went away and came back with a very dusty bottle which looked as though it had languished on some shelf for a couple of years. This was apfelwine, a sort of apple liquor / wine that was as popular as a slap across the chops. We made our excuses and left quickly.

In the end, with some of Siobhan’s family travelling across Europe by car, they opted to asking them to stop off at a Tesco before leaving the UK to pick up a crate of Strongbow. Ironically by the time they arrived Bruno had gotten so drunk on vodka the previous night that he couldn’t even bear to eat let alone crack open a couple of cans. They remained practically untouched until I left.

Germany 2, Bruno 0

Entry Filed under: Bedtime stories,Ian,Tragic