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It's what Munich is all about....MUNICH
My first spot to stay in Germany (Berlin is my last in a few weeks - but of course I’m doing things all over the shop - Bradley style). This one is short and sweet I promise kids!
Arrived to a grey looking Munich. Priorities - dump pack, and straight to beer hall number 1 - St Augustine’s. I met up with a few other solo travellers and made our way to St Augustine’s Beer Garden for beer steins and pork knuckle - and was not disappointed - I demolished them. I had a formal lesson in how the locals do their thing here until the thunderstorm decided to piss down with rain and we made it inside the beer hall down into the cellar (which resembled a dungeon). I’m loving these type of beer halls where a wench or lederhosen man brings you your massive beer, dinner and massive pretzel while you sit and talk to your people (no music apart from the occasional oompaloompa band) - we need these back in OZ. These are the type of places where the time gets away from you, so when realising it was pretty late and due to the
torrential rain it was a quick taxi ride home and time for bed.
The next day it was fitting that the weather was drizzling with rain since I got the train out to Dachau and toured the former concentration camp which is now a memorial site. I won’t report much on this given the subject matter, but I found while sombre, it was important to experience it. I was pretty exhausted that arvo but I joined a few roommates in experiencing another beer hall - this time the Hofbraühaus. The journey there took me past the few monuments Munich has such as the Glockenspiel clock, Rathaus (town hall - both new and old and St Peter’s Church). And in the name of research I again sampled their pork knuckle and beer steins (still very good) before chilling out back at the hostel).
I awoke after a decent sleep to a rare sunny day so checked out the city centre , the Virktuelien markets, and joined a Mike’s Bike Tour of cycling around Munich (unfortunately it was full of loud of Americans but what can you do). I love doing the bike tours here in Europe, and although they
Glockenspiel
A pretty tacky display but when in Munich... are not very strenuous, there is a lot of history explained and you get to see a whole heap more than just a few city blocks walking. The best part of the bike tour was that it took us to the 2nd largest beer garden in Europe in the ‘Englishgarden’ for lunch (gave the pork knuckle a rest and tried currywurst sausage - not bad). The Englishgarden is said to be twice the size of New York’s Central Park, and it was funny riding past it’s nudist area (for some reasons the German’s just love getting their gear off), and the surf wave area where there is a permanent wave in a storm drain where the local’s ‘surf’.
A spot of shopping on the walk back after the tour and I found a few friends who had just arrived in Munch (including Andrea my guide from Croatia sailing) so I thought it was my duty to show them a beerhall for dinner (since I had already sampled 3 in 3 days), so given the weather had turned to poo again we went to the closest one. By now I had had way too much food and beer and was
Canal surfing
As you do in the canal in the gardens - but pretty cool kind of glad I was leaving the next day to not be tempted to sample yet another beerhall.
Munich was good, but nothing great if you didn’t appreciate a good beer hall. I don’t think I was missing out on much (from what I was told by experienced people) not being here during the actual Oktoberfest, since that is just large temporary beer halls of what was already on offer but full of messy people writing themselves off and the place being overly crowded. Munich doesn’t seem to have as many ‘things’ to do or see as other places, and I guess I was expecting more from the place, but is a very central and cool place in Europe. I did enjoy continuing my world eating/drinking tour and sampling the local German food and beer (although my waistline didn’t - I have some work to do when I get back Pilcher!). But it’s time to move on.
Next Stop - VENICE!
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