Beerhalls and Christmas Markets

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Following a few days spent in Prague we made the roughly four hour drive to Munich two days in advance of a flight to Malta. As always we arranged for our accomodation in advance without full knowledge of what exactly we had awaiting us and, as we usually do, we avoided the larger chain hotels in hopes of finding something a bit more "authentic." What we actually had awaiting us in Munich was a bit different than we had expected. The hotel itself wasn't at all bad; it was actually pretty comfortable. What we didn't expect was that our hotel, though centrally located, was situated on a street consiting entirely of strip clubs and kabab stands. This really wasn't that bad a of a deal I guess, as long as you could turn a blind eye to the strippers/prostitutes and the drunken groups of people milling about at the end of the night. I'm just not sure this was the "authentic" experience we had been looking for.

In Munich we did our best to see the typical tourist sights before we left for Malta. We spent some time walking through the Christmas markets drinking hot spiced wine, we stopped by the Hofbrauhaus, watched local children ice skating in the public squares, and saw churches and government buildings.

The one thing that stands out in my mind about the few days we spent in Munich was the number of Japanese tourists in the Hofbrauhaus. I suppose it must be a big entry in Japanese guidebooks, just as it is in American guidebooks, but without exageration I recall probably 4 out of every 5 tables in the Hofbrauhaus being occupied by Japanese tourists. As a corollary many of the Japanese people seemed to be feeling no pain whatsoever after enjoying a liter or two of fine Bavarian beer.

Following a few days spent in Munich we headed to the airport for our 50 Euro flights to Malta.

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