Prost!

I have failed to relate our adventures in chronological order. This is the dilemma when the days are brimming with activity and joy.


Last weekend we drove up to Musikfest in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania for the second straight year. http://www.musikfest.org/ This two week event can be enjoyed on several levels. Throughout the picturesque town and along the park stages are set up with free shows of such diverse music that if you don't like something it's a simple stroll over to the next one. We listened to world music, or Soca, German Oompa, Dixieland Jazz, Folk and Zydeco, where Janet decided to dance.... or so she thought. There are 11 free stages and at least two impromptu gatherings of musicians playing on the street.


It's all free, except if you decide to take a shuttle bus in from on outlying parking lot for $4.00. We don't know enough of the town to know where to park, but we saw cars legally parked on the fringe of the Musikfest, so this is possible. It was a joy though to park out near the old steel works moldering slowly and get a quick tour of this rustbelt town as we were shuttled into the fray. Tickets for headliners throughout the two week event are available; few were sold out. Though I would have been interested in Counting Crows or Sublime or the Doobie Brothers, the operative word here is "cheap". What's the point of having fun if you have to spend money for it.

What is a necessary cost though are the mugs of beer. Each year the Musikfest organizers come up with a different design and slap it on a large plastic mug with a lid and make it available for purchase. Some people collect them for display. Any year's mug can be used to drink while strolling through the festival. Throughout the festival there are beer tents that offer very pedestrian Miller/Rolling Rock/Yuengling brews, but if you're interested in craft type brews do not settle for these. Any tavern in the town offer to fill your beer mug for usually just $6.00.A couple of places we visited were the Hotel Bethlehem on Main Street. We went inside the hotel lobby bar for a draught of Yards IPA. We also returned this year to the Bethlehem Brew Works, down the street, though the beers were very pedestrian. A new discovery this year was the Bahnhof, a German beer hall in the Main Street train depot, situated at one far end of the event on West Lehigh Street. The bar was in the station's former ticket booth and though there was a worn dreary feeling in the darkened, dusty place, the people propping up the bar and the bartenders were all were friendly and we chatted with patrons and drank very good German Witbiers. It was very good and we were happy with the find. Evidently it is brand new....except for the decor.

We liked the town enough to return and we plan to explore the area sometime in the future.