Munich. Beer. Synonyms? Almost...

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On the advice of a friend, I took the free walking tour of the city this morning. Knowing how the free tours operate, I wasn't expecting much, but it did give me some of the highlights in between plugs for their other, not-free tours. Also met a Brit on the tour, got to chatting as he was from Leeds (not far from York, for those of you who need an explanation - York being where I did my MA). Agreed to meet him later to do the beer tour in the evening. After all, it's Munich. And while I'm not a beer fan, when in Ro... Munich... do as all the silly tourists do, right?

In between, I found some kids' sized jerseys. Sadly, in white, but in my size nonetheless. After a brief consultation via text message with a friend near Frankfurt, this seems to be the best I will manage, so I bought the jersey. Also found a stamp vending machine. Canada Post seriously needs to do this. It was so ridiculously convenient. Just buy one stamp if you need to. Buy 10 if you need to. Stamps for postcards? We've got those specifically labelled! It was brilliant. Small things that amuse me.

I also went to the city museum. Not particularly impressed. The musical instruments section was just a bunch of instruments grouped roughly be geographic area of origin, but with no real linking narrative, just labels saying what they were, and the odd bit on how some were/are played. The puppetry exhibit was a bit more interesting, but again, there didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason as to how it was organized. Perhaps more annoyingly for both these exhibits was that there was no exit. When you were done, you hit a dead end, and had to go back through everything you'd already visited.

The "Typically Munich" exhibit was tiny and not at all informative. The best part was probably the exhibit on National Socialism in Munich, the only thing that saved me from feeling like I'd wasted both my time and my money.

Met up with the Brit about an hour and a half before the tour started, and went to a beer garden for food. And beer. A liter of beer. Which seems to be how people in Munich automatically assume that tourists want their beer sized, and neither of us have good enough German to explain that we'd really rather have only the 1/2 liter. Ah well. Fortunately there were not serving us a liter of beer at every stop on the tour, and it was actually somewhat educational as well. We even went through the beer/Oktoberfest museum, although it was quite rushed. There were also a fair number of people who'd been on the morning tour, so lots of people to hang out with and talk to.

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Photos

Outside the Starbucks.
Which sponsored the free tours. You could tell. The map listed every Starbucks location in town, and three guesses where we stopped for a break on the tour.

Comments

[Pat]

I really wish any of my friends and relatives in Munich had been there when you were. Not a single one was, every single one of them was on holidays...