Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Blockhaus

We're pretty lucky, here in Germany, to have great landlords. They are local farmers; a very close family with four generations living together on their property. I'm sure that there are plenty of other folks who can say the same about their landlords being nice people but how many can say that their landlords also own gasthaus too?

Our actual landlords are Klaus and Hildrud. Their son Bernd and his wife Tonya own Bernd's Blockhaus on the edge of Weilerbach. The Blockhaus sits on a ridge above the family homes and in the middle of their crop fields and pastures. The sign here says that the gasthaus is open Friday, Saturday and Sunday and that from here it's just a five minute walk on the footpath. Inside, the Blockhaus sits about 50 people and on nice days there's seating outside for double that. On those nice sunny days, because of its vista on the ridge, the view is splendid overlooking a herd of horses grazing and fields for miles to the west. The Blockhaus is a leisurely walk from the edge of Weilerbach and also the village of Schwedelbach and, because Germans enjoy a good walk on the weekend, the Blockhaus is a favorite destination.

Here's the Blockhaus from below. You can see that Bernd and Tonya smartly covered their roof with solar panels, a common sight now in Germany.

Bernd and Tonya offer standard German cuisine, schnitzels and rumpsteaks, always prepared excellently, by Tonya, just as you would expect. In the back of the Blockhaus menu, because they are farmers, they offer sides of beef at very reasonable rates. Tonya's family has a vineyard not far from Weilerbach and so the Blockhaus offers their label. The food is excellent, the atmosphere wonderful, the prices most agreeable and the beer is cold. What more can you ask from a landlord?

This is Jeff's attempt at art. An ice cold beer outside at the Blockhaus with the heat of the sun shining through. The cranium of the beer and the sky blend so that you can't see where one ends and the other starts, a true statement of how beer is a magnificent blend of man and nature. Good greif.

3 comments:

  1. I do so intend to make that walk, I do. I will hide under their porch, because I so very much love beer.

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  2. We loved going to the Blockhaus and meeting Bernd. I didn't know they had the solar panels on there, it was dark. Were these pictures taken recently or last fall? I love the artistic beer picture!

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