Shopping on the Glass Road

Snow covered Zwiesel, Germany
The building on the left is the Schott Zwiesel Kristallglas Factory

When we went to Passau, and visited the Glasmuseum, I expected to find all kinds of stores brimming with hand-blown glass, just waiting to be bought. This was not the case. We hiked all over the town and could not find an open glass store anywhere. We also did not see many (any? I can’t remember) open glass shops. So even though we were in the heart of Bohemian glass country, we went home empty handed.

To rectify this situation, I started on the Glasmuseum’s website, where I remembered they had a link to the “Glass-road” website http://www.die-glasstrasse.de/. This site details the cities along a 250km scenic route centered on glass. I then clicked on the shopping tab, and started running through the cities listed as selling lots and lots of glass.

I settled on Zwiesel (sssvy-sel) because it seemed (from online pictures) like it would be the cutest town to visit. It is also well known for its cross-country skiing trails and downhill ski resorts. I was hoping maybe we could find a place to ski, but there was nothing within walking distance of the train. Another perk of Zwiesel was its location, we could pay 29 euro to ride the train there and back. To get there, we rode a train to Plattling and changed trains to ride one into Zwiesel. The train into Zwiesel consisted of 2 engine cars, allowing the train to travel in both directions, but making the whole train not much larger than a city bus.

Regensburg has had relatively mild weather during our visit here. We’ve seen a few snow flurries, but nothing has stuck, and we’ve seen lots of rain. Zwiesel had OVER A FOOT of snow. The town’s webcam did not prepare me for this, and I am beginning to think it may not have been updated in awhile. Luckily, we had work our hats and boots, so we were not frozen solid.

As per usual, it was lunchtime when we arrived so our first priority was getting something to eat. We settled on the local brewery, Dampfbier Zwiesel, and I am so glad we did. The wait staff spoke English, which we did not expect in a town of 9,000 people. Furthermore, the guy was a joker–he had a fake bottle of ketchup he pretended to spray (I tried to dive out of the way before I realized it was fake) and a fake glass of beer, which he pretended to dump on Joe, causing a gasp of surprise from the old ladies sitting behind us. The food was delicious and the beer was unique. Dampfbier is steam beer, and method of brewing that is unique to Zwiesel. According to their website, http://www.dampfbier.de/_dampfbier.htm, they use malted barley because hops and wheat were a rare commodity in the Bavarian forest. It is a very tasty beer, and I always enjoy trying out new brews.

There were plentiful glass shops in Zwiesel, and I would love to go back on a weekday, when more are open (we did a lot of window shopping) but we were able to find hand-blown items to bring home, including some beautiful flowers and a carved bud-vase in which to display them.