Time for dinner. We met in the lobby of the hotel and followed Harald out into town. We went about 2 blocks in the opposite direction of the Dom and we were there. From the outside, it didn't look like much. A plain building with some street lamps on the side and a door on the corner. Good, I thought, this can't be a tourist trap like the others.
I was right! It was a plain, blue-collar type of pub, but it was definitely not a dive.
Once again, they served their own brand of beer, Schreckenskammer Kölsch.
Schreckenskammer, as I learned later, translates into English as fright chamber. I discovered their web site along with a video about the place on the web.
We ordered a couple of rounds and ordered our dinner. Then Harald, who was sitting against the wall where he could see the whole room, said, "Hey, look at that!" We all turned around as saw a large tube filled beer in the middle of a table on the other side of the room. Furthermore, there was a tap at the bottom of the beer-filled tube.
Harald quickly flagged down our server. "What's that?", he asked. It was a five liter tower of beer. How much? The same as a .2 liter beer multiplied by 25. "We need one!", was our reply!
First the server brought out the large black plastic base. Then a few minutes later, he brought out the tower! There were some nods of recognition as eye contact was made with the folks at the other table across the room. Pouring a beer was a little tricky, at first. There was a slight mishandling of the tap, as Jerry sprayed beer in my direction. But before long, we were all pouring beer like a pro!
The Tower of Power
At some point, I dubbed this mysterious device, the Tower of Power! And thus a legend began!
The next thing you know, it kicked! Gone! Finished! "May we have another one, please!" "Coming right up", was our server's reply. Well, he spoke German, so I don't really know what he said. But the important thing was, he brought us another tower!
When the second tower arrived, there was a hush in the room, as the people realized they were in the presence of beer drinking greatness! Well, we can dream, can't we? However, the group at the other table was still only half done their first tower. They looked embarrassed as they realized they were being crushed!
Tower # 2
Well, as you might expect, while were making quick work of the 2nd tower, we started getting silly. The name Tower of Power somehow got changed to the Schreckenskammer Schlooper Schlonger!
Harald started to get camera happy. He thought it would be funny to snap pictures of us when we didn't expect it. Of course, that leads to a lot of goofy looking pictures, since they were snapped while we were talking.
Stop with the pictures!
I tried to retaliate by taking candid shots of Harald. However, I couldn't, since my camera has the red-eye reduction feature that flashes a flicker first before taking the picture. That flicker gave Harald the time to turn and stare at the camera each time. Not a problem, though. I thought of a way to take a silly picture of him. A little changes in the settings and here you go!
Harald, what happened to your face? You look so silly!
Harald wasn't the only one to look silly that night, however. Jerry was sitting there, minding his own business, when some foolish guy bumped the leg of the table and splashed beer down the front of his shirt. Well, that is what he claims, anyway!
I must confess, I bumped the table. It was such a shame the beer splashed on Jerry and not me!
Earlier in the evening, someone asked Harald what an equivalent German word for 'flagged' would be. Flagged means the person has been drinking too much and will no longer be served beer. "We don't have that word", Harald said. That was intersting. So after seeing Jerry with beer covering the front of his shirt, I decided to have a little fun.
On my way back from the WC, I stopped one of the servers and asked him if he would play a little joke on a friend at my table. I asked him if he would go to our table and tell Jerry he couldn't have any more beer. The server thought that was too funny and didn't think he could do it. However, he asked one of the other servers. The other guy said he would do it.
So as he went to our table, I watched from a distance while he had a conversation with Jerry. When Jerry protested, the server could not keep a straight face and busted out laughing. It was a perfect gag. I'm sure I'll pay for that some day, but it was worth it!
The guy on the left is the one who spoke to Jerry
We soon realized we were the only ones left in the bar. The servers were very friendly and snapped some pictures for us. We bought a few of their kölsch glasses to take home as a souvenir. The glasses were gift wrapped with a coaster and a pamphlet explaining how the bar got it's name. Of course it is written in German, so I have no clue. The same info is on their web page.
It was time to go, but it wasn't that late. I convinced Jeff and Marty to go with me to another bar somewhere. Originally, Harald had declined, but had a change of heart. So we left. The Carneys went back to the hotel and we followed Harald. Harald led us around a block and then back past our hotel and around another corner. He was looking for another brewery he had seen on a brewery list. We went under a train overpass and up about a block where we saw a building with big glass windows in front. It looked like it might be a brewery, but we didn't see any recognizable equipment inside. It was apparently the Gaffel Brewery, but we didn't see any signs saying that was it. Right next door to the brewery was a pub, so we decided to go in.
The name of the pub was Eigel-Treff. It was small, but looked nice. We noticed something strange, however, when we walked in. Everyone in the bar turned to see who we were as we came in. So, we went in, found a spot at the bar and ordered some kölsch.
It wasn't long before Harald said there was something not right about this bar. All the women here are hookers! This is a hooker bar! I asked if we should leave, but by then Harald was starting to relax and enjoy his beer, so he didn't want to leave. At least that is what he said. So the four of us carried on a conversation amongst ourselves and it was obvious we had come there by mistake.
It was interesting to observe the behavior. Someone would enter, everyone turns to look, then when the new person was recognized as a regular, everyone went back to their own conversations.
We thought it was funny that the bartender didn't know they were right next door to the Gaffel Brewery, even though that is the kölsch they served. We asked her if that was the Gaffel Brewery next door and she had to ask one of the guys she knew in the bar. It was apparent that kölsch wasn't the primary thing they were serving in this bar.
Then I recognized a song on the jukebox. It was the same song that Philipp was doing dance movements to in the car on our way back from Weimar! What was it? No problem, I'll just look on the jukebox to see what is playing. As I went over to the jukebox, on of the girls came over to help me find the song. I thanked her and focused my interest on the music. The song was Aserejé (The Ketchup Song) by Las Ketchup. That's a strange name for a song. I asked Harald what the lyrics were about and he told us it was a silly children's song about a tomato that was talking to some other vegetables. He was pulling our leg. The song was actually in Spanish, but it was a very catchy tune. As it turned out, that song was number one on the charts all across Europe and South America. I read many articles that proclaimed it would be the next Macarena. We'll see about that.
After having a couple of rounds, Harald decided it was time to go back. Apparently, a girl sat down next to him and was trying to start a conversation with him. That was not a problem, until she started to rub his leg. That's when he insisted we leave!
So out we went. Then I realized I hadn't taken a picture, so I went back inside. Once again, everyone turned to see who I was. When I went to take a picture, the bartender and several other people franticly insisted on no pictures! I laughed and quickly went back out. I did get a picture of the outside, though.
So we took the short walk down the block, under the train bridge and around the corner to our hotel to crash.
Next, Brewery Museum Tour!
