Thursday 17 May 2007

Bier wagen

I was walking along minding my own business the other day, when I heard some music blasting out from the road behind me. It was very D * I * S * C * O in genre. Not wanting to give the source of said music the pleasure of too much attention, I very casually glanced around, trying to give the impression I was looking at something else. (Could be a spy, me, with such skills of suberterfuge...)

I was expecting to see an open topped car with a pimped up sound system. But no. What I saw was a nine person bicycle beer bar. Let’s call it a ‘bier wagen’ for argument’s sake. The vehicle had the following attributes, which you will need to piece together in your head like an imagination photo-fit. (I didn’t have a camera on me...)

• The body of the vehicle was made of a portable long bar with a thatched pitched roof
• The bar had its own beer kegs
• There were four men sitting on one side of the bar; four on the other - all drinking and all wearing hats and lederhosen
• Below the level of the bar all men were pedalling!
• One man at the front end of the bar was pedalling and steering

The motley crew of nine seemed to be having a great time combining the joy of an outside active pursuit with that of daytime drinking. Sums up the stereotypical German, I thought to myself...While the choice of disco music was perhaps very characteristic of Cologne – a town where many have told me, ‘It’s good to be gay!’

2 comments:

Anna said...

Cool! Could I hire the bier wagen to collect me at the airport in Cologne on 1st June when I'm over for the weekend? Far more entertaining than a taxi or the bus.

Can't wait to see you - hope you're around that weekend. x

Rhysickle said...

What I'm wondering is: Did they build it, or can you buy these amazing contraptions?