Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

Well, a great deal has happened since my last insertion to the interweb blog. I didn't get to see Austria, but instead spend the weekend wandering around Munich. It's a really nice city, and was snowing the whole time which gave it that added twinge of "awww". It is the second or third largest city in Germany and was the birthplace of the Nazi party. The Hofbrauhaus is the most famous Beer hall in Munich. It's the oldest in the Bayern region (Bavaria) and its beerey goodness was only available to be consumed by the royalty which occupied the region. It wasn't until later when it the commoners were able to consume it. This beer hall was where the Nazi party had their first meeting. There were the typical beer wenches wandering around with seveal litre beers in each hand. It was overpriced though, since it's quite touristy.

What was really nice about all the beer halls that I visited was that people of all ages were in their at all times. Not in there just to drink to get plastered as would seem the most common reason for us, but just spending quality time, obviously getting plastered in the process, but that's not generally the main intention. On Friday night, Munich had won a soccer match against Hamburg, so the city was alight with all sorts of inebriated lads. I remember one guy who stumbled out of Maccas and fell over backward and hit his head on the pavement. After we went in to investigate to see if they were serving some McWhiskey or something, the guy in front of me said to the Maccas order chicky, in a drunken voice:

"Ich habe zwei mal von alles, ausser daß was er hat gehabt."

I bumped in to some random locals there and we went back to one of the dudes' place and had further drinks and danced to techno. This guy loved techno - he'd been all around the world to trance parties and had a constant beat in his head - over when not on something. The next day on Sunday I became aquainted with drinking by oneself. My other companion had returned back to Austria early on Sunday morning, so had the day to wander around and have a few quiets on the way. I visited the Residenz Museum - 188 rooms of royal sprawl in the northern part of the city. Nothing special to report from there, except when you're wanding around the rooms, you're always reminded how destructive the city bombing really was. For example, most of the artwork in the residential palace is reconstructed and there are lots of places where once a painting once was, but couldn't be restored because it was right royally rooted over.

If you get a chance, it's worth vitising the royal crypt under the main church... think it's the Frauenkirche - the one with the two bulbs on top of the towers. Bit gouly, but interesting all the same. Of note, there is also a clock in the town square that, when it goes off at midday, a mechanical display of a re-enactment of the royal marriage between Duke Wilhelm V and Renata of Lorraine is actuated. I headed back in the train to Frankfurt around 3pm on Sunday after a quick last Weizen beer on the way.

Better get back to work now.... Belgium is the next update (so I'll only be two weeks behind).