Hinterbrühl and Brückenwirt (Maybe the most historic and unique biergartens)

Here we biergarten hop to two biergartens in the same night. These two (in our humble opinion) are the most unique and historic biergartens on our top 20 list from indispensable The Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich. They are a bit of a challenge to get to with out a car, so we ventured to find them when we had a rental car with handy GPS on Friday, August 26, 2011. 

Follow us to Hinterbrühl and Brückenwirt. 

First up, Hinterbrühl. This was the preferred haunt of Hitler and his top ranking officials, like Gerhring and Gobbels, before and during WWII when they had to be in Munich, rather than in their opulent mountain chalets. I do feel a little eery walking in.

Here's their website with more great pictures: http://www.gasthof-hinterbrühl.de/

It is right near the Isar River and on weekends between 12 noon and 1:00 pm, you can see people on traditional "floss", party raft, which originated from the times when the loggers in this area floated down the river after logging up river all day. 

Here we go...think we'll find a spielplatz for Colin?!?

It's a perfect warm summer evening and it's a beautiful place to be. 

It's not too crowded tonight...fine with us!

Get your eats and bier here. 

Cool kegs in real wooden barrels and brass taps. 

Scott gets helles. I have a weissbier.  Most foam I've seen on a bier since we've been here...must be a rookie pouring?

They have a trampoline and a pirate themed playground--SWEET! Colin even coordinates with his little pirate shirt on. 

Toys galore to play in the sand too!

Inside the gasthof (restaurant), so warm and cozy with all the wood paneling and banquettes. 

Dining room in the Gasthof Hinterbrühl

The bretze (pretzel) had JUST come out of the oven and was SO GOOD! Best bretze we've eaten in Munich ever. 

Colin was mixing it up with all the other little ones and having a blast!

They had this cool wicker chair decked out with shade cover, foot rest, and a tray for food and drink.
Must look into this thing... The Alabama coast and Florida panhandle could use some of these, I think!

Below: Floß or party rafting.

We drive about 10 minutes on up the river to Brückenwirt.
Here's a link to their website http://www.brueckenwirt.de/wellcome.html

And, here's what "the biergarten book" says about it and a link too: http://www.beerdrinkersguide.com/BDGWebsite/Mainframe.html

Bavarians who know how to mix business with pleasure love Brückenwirt. On the banks of the Isar River and in the shadow of Grünwalder Bridge, this small beer garden is home to one of Munich's most venerable traditions: Floß (Floh-es). The plan is simple: gather together about 60 people on a 22-ton log raft, lay on an Oom-pah band, and a whole lot of beer. Then ride down the river, dip your feet in the water now and then, drink the beer and enjoy the day. What a concept! Of course, if you can't book passage, then you can always enjoy it from the shoreline beer garden at Brückenwirt. This beer Mecca is a little outside the urban Munich area and features a great walk (not that long really) to get there. That's why we've devised two separate routes for this one, coming and going, to add some variety. Brückenwirt gets a top rating of 5 beers.

It's a very romantic place at night with all the lights and flowers.

It's a lovely place and the river is right near the string of lights. We will have to come back here during the day and see all the drunken rafters coming down the river who stop here. I'd love to raft down the river, and though you do get lunch and all the bier you can drink, it's 130 Euro when we checked, plus we've have to pay a babysitter, so it's just not do-able for us here and now. For now, we'll just add it to our combined bucket list! 

Thank you Beer Drinker's Guide to Munich! There are coupons in the back of the book for at least 6 for free beers, and this is one of them! At around 7 Euro per mass bier or Russ/Radler, this book has paid for itself many times! Scott, the tightwad accountant, loves this and reminds me each time we use one. It's also exposed us to many cool places that only locals may know and has been a fun adventure and a list to "check off" with Scott and Colin. 

Prost!

We are drinking Russ'n--half weissbier and half lemon soda. Very refershing and a good way to moderate your alcohol intake!

Sneaking sugar from Colin

Watching Kung Fu Panda. Very serious...

YUM! Almost for got to take the picture before we wolfed this down--warm apfel strudel in vanilla sauce! Best in Germany/Austria that we've had so far!

Guten Nacht! Auf Wiedersehen, Y'all!

We're going to Freiburg and the Black Forest tomorrow so I have to go to bed now!