Bier Trip to the Homeland: Part One
Arrival
After years of muttering about how we "really oughta," we're doing it. We're taking all of the rich first-hand narrative information about our family history and doing a mission of discovery. I along with an assortment of my Bier relatives are spending our first night in Munich.
This trip was about two years in the making, and we set up an itinerary to accomplish several things:
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Go back to Ketzelsdorf (Koclirov) and see the village that our ancestors left behind.
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See a little of the other villages that other relatives came from (more on this later)
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Stop by the nearest big city, Prague
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Take in a smattering of German and Bavarian culture in Munich.
The trip ranges from my parents at the older end of the spectrum to my cousin, Nick Laning, who is 17. Here's a fun little tree to see how we're all related and who's along for the ride. The tree is set up in relation to my great grandfather, Edward Bier. He's the youngest of Valentine's kids, and the most recent common relative of us all. Trip participants are circled:
We spent this first day getting here, wandering around the city in bleary-eyed fascination and taking in a delicious dinner of sauerbraten, bread dumplings and bier at the Augustiner Keller Biergarten, proudly serving Augustiner bier which has been brewed since 1328! Now I'm in bed writing and the younger and heartier of the group are out pub hopping. Also Uncle Jim. For my family, discovering our "German roots" is not proving to be that much of a stretch!
