Day 40 – Munich

We woke to rain this morning so decided to stop a little in a café for breakfast and then a short while blogging too.

Once the rain had stopped we headed into town down the main street to Marianplatz again. On the way we managed to get stuck in a gay parade. The whole city centre was very camp and it was nice to escape all the commotion.

Of course there was nowhere better to escape that Hofbrauhaus! Absolutely packed of course being a Saturday and the day of a Bayern Munich match. It was a really nice atmosphere though with no sign of a football hooligan. The beer hall is huge with hundreds of people sat at long bench tables listening to the brass band, singing and drunkenly quaffing beer from litre tankards. My kind of place! The beer was really good and it was definitely worth the visit.

The so-called museum and ‘traditional’ beer hall upstairs were a bit of a waste of time though.

Feeling a little merry (well I was anyway) we headed for the Englischer Garden in search of some more beer gardens. The garden or park is one of the biggest in Europe and is very peaceful. We saw people surfing on a weir in the river running through the park. Not the sort of thing you expect to see in the middle of a city but they were pretty good for townies.

Unfortunately our (or my) quest for more beer was halted by more rain. We managed to shelter in a subway station but it really did rain an awful lot and for quite some time too.

Dinner was in an Irish Pub (recommended by the ever-wise travel oracle) next to the cathedral. It was very nice to be surrounded by mainly Brits for a while and not to have German food! An early night tonight as we have a very early start tomorrow.