Lunch at Augustiner Keller in Munich was probably one of my favorite meals. We each had an Augustiner Edelstoff, a helles lager, mine in a 1/2 liter glass, Jesse's in the full-on Mass. We each ordered sausage, little pork sausages are in the back with sauerkraut, and in the foreground are the käsekraner (cheese sausages) with potato salad. First of all, the potato salad and sauerkraut were life altering. They may look sort of blob-ish in this photo, but were the best tasting sides I've ever had. Secondly, if you've ever read my blog, you know that I love Corralitos sausages, particularly their Cheesy Bavarian. Well, folks, this is the original Cheesy Bavarian and Corralitos is pretty dead on.
We actually ate quite a few pastries along the way, most of which I never bothered to photograph. Overall, the sweets were quite good in both Belgium and Germany, even ones from chains or mediocre train station kiosks were well above average. This one in particular from the Hofpfisterei in Munich's main train station, called Mohnstreusel, was outstanding. The dough reminded me of a king cake, sort of yeasty and only slightly sweet, with a lightly sweet poppy seed paste rolled in the middle, and a sweet crumb topping.
The trip to Kloster Andechs (monastery) just outside of Munich was amazing on so many levels. The hike out to the monastery was refreshing, the chapel was breath-taking, and the food and beer were top notch. We shared a pork knuckle that seemed almost as big as my head and each had two 1/2 liters of beer. I started out with the Andecher Weissbier Helles (a wheat beer) and Jesse jumped right into the Doppelbock Dunkel (a darker beer). We both enjoyed the Dunkel so much that we each got another. It was probably my favorite beer in Germany.
In Regensburg, we stopped at Spital Brewery for a snack and tasty beverage. I was sad that they didn't have pretzels, so we ordered (what I thought was a fresh cheese dip with veggies). As it turns out, the bell peppers were more of a facilitator to the pound of cream cheese stuffed inside. I didn't complain, it was very good fresh cream cheese, although I thought Jesse and I might fight over the lettuce and tomato garnish. By this point in the trip we craved vegetables.
That night we had dinner in the apartment rented for the night. We picked up a cucumber, fresh bread, cheese, and pickled vegetables for a light meal. It was accompanied by two local beers, Wettenburger Kloster Barock Dunkel and Bischofshof Hefeweisbier Dunkel that only cost €.80 each. I love local beer! We found that the hefe went really well with the cheese.
This meal in Bamberg was the straw that broke the camel's back (or my stomach). We rolled into Bamburg hungry and sleepy and headed straight for Spezial Brewery for lunch. Don't get me wrong, it was delicious, but the roast wild rabbit in a delicious gravy with a giant knödel (a potato dumpling) and cooked red cabbage was quite a lot of food to handle at lunchtime. Jesse had a pork roast that also came a dumpling and creamed broccoli. As if the food wasn't enough to knock us down for the afternoon, we washed it back with a 1/2 liter of beer (apparently the smallest glass you can obtain in Bavaria). Jesse got Spezial's specialty, the Rauchbier (smoke beer), and I got a Märzen. The food and drink filled my stomach, legs, and eyelids with sand. We both dragged ourselves around town for the rest of the day. I was officially over German food.
On our long train ride (around 10 hours of traveling) back to Belgium, we had a 2-hour layover in Köln. It was insanely cold there and I really didn't want to have anymore beer for the rest of my life, but we pressed on and found a cafe to try a kölsch -- a local specialty. Thankfully the cafe, Früh am Dom, only poured their kölsch in .2 liter glasses. It was the perfect amount for the hour (just a few minutes after 11am).
Our final destination, Ghent, Belgium was all about relaxation. For two nights we made our own dinner at the B&B, which consisted of a ton of fresh salad greens, fresh bread, cheese, and of course, beer. Kasteel (shown in the photo) was actually one of my least favorites of the trip. It was pretty high-octane at 11% abv, but syrupy sweet to the point of almost being nauseating.
Belgium smelled like waffles (and sometime sewers, but mostly waffles). It's a sweet, buttery, delicious smell and I couldn't get enough. We got waffles from a vendor in Ghent and they were probably the most spectacular waffles that I've ever tasted, or will ever taste again. They're not airy like American waffles, but a dense, slightly sweet, brioche type dough. It's cooked in the waffle iron with sugar on the outside that slightly burns and crisps. With the hazelnut chocolate sauce, I could have died happy right there. 
The last night in Ghent, we went out with a bang by ordering mussels cooked in white wine. Prior to the mussels, we shared an order of shrimp croquettes and another abbey ale. I learned the next morning that 1/2 an appetizer and mussels does not a dinner make, especially when paired with stark Belgian brews. At breakfast my head and stomach were telling me that I might have chugged a glass full of gasoline, rather than that Duvel with our meal. It was a wonderful trip, but I knew right then that I was ready to go home.
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