Autobahn Blues/Beers in Munich

Originally published 6 June 2013

Hofbrauhaus, Munich

​We headed out of Boppard this morning, and headed toward Munich. The A4 did not disappoint, topping out around 114....not due to equipment, but due to traffic. The autobahn isn't like people think.....only a fraction of it has no speed limit. The rest has varying speed limits according to conditions, construction, traffic, etc. I heard no complaints from everyone else in the car as they were sleeping...and the Audi was smooth enough to facilitate this.

Oompah band, Hofbrauhaus, Munich

We came into Munich early afternoon, and dropped the rental car. We hiked a couple of blocks to our hotel, the same one we stayed in last year. Quite serviceable and very centrally located. And cheap! We headed off to wander a bit and wound up at the world famous Hofbrau Haus! We had pretzels and beer.....and enjoyed the oompah band show! It was a lot of fun.

​I remember Rick Steves' remarks about the Hofbrau Haus. He said "it's touristy, it's kitchy, it's crowded, it's hokey, and you MUST go see it". It is an unusual mix of locals as well as tourist. Yes, it's very famous and very touristy, but many locals drink here...and they even have a locker room for locals to lock up their beer stein! I went into the men's room, which was equipped with a few dozen urinals, taking up every inch of available wall space. As David said when I mentioned my trip to the men's room, "well, think about where you are". This is true. You don't buy beer, but merely rent it.

This is the place!

Dinner was at a sidewalk cafe, Italian for tonight. Like all our meals so far, it was quite good. We wandered back towards our hotel near the train station stopping for ice cream along the way. We passed one of the neighboring businesses to the hotel...a topless bar called "Sexyland", knowing we were nearly there. I'm looking forward to sleeping....I've been fighting a cold and/or respiratory infection. It sort of saps the energy from me.

Off to bed. More Munich adventures tomorrow. 

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Munich City Hall

​Today we arrived in Munich.Our trip into the city and to return the rental car was so much easier than last year. Makes a big difference when the place to return the car has an actual address.

Everyone has told me who has been here what an awesome city this is, but last time we were here we didn't have time to explore much so I wasn't sure what all the hoopla was about. Well, this time we got here and walked from our hotel to Marienplatz, the main city square. What an amazingly vibrant and engaging place! The city is what we are finding more and more, an eclectic mix of very modern to very old architecture and sights, high class shopping next to 14th century buildings.. We did not go in any of the big churches but they are magnificent from the outside. It never ceases to amaze me how much beauty was created by the same religion that spawned the crusades and the dark ages. Quite a bit of the area around Marienplatz was bombed so some of the buildings are not the original structures but they are impressive nonetheless.

Art for the masses, even schmucks!

​There are countless outdoor cafes and bier gartens, and of course, street performers. I have never seen a grand piano used by a street performer but there were 2 separate groups using them tonight. And, of course, the music was great. Hofbrauhaus was a touristy as promised but great fun, very tasty beer and people having way too much fun. The oompah band rounded out the experience. We managed to catch the glockenspiel doing it's thing right when we got there. Life size figures telling the story of a wedding, the defeat of the evil baron complete with a joust and keg dancers who danced after the city got over a plague. So we managed to be here for only a few hours and have already managed to experience 2 of our must sees.

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