Munich - Celebrating the Hof

At the beginning of September, I ducked out of the office a few minutes early for a quick Friday night flight down to Munich to see Jerre, an old college friend, and Mike, his friend from law school. As you can probably tell, I've been extremely busy these days - a full on dose of crunch time at work combined with a bit of personal "soul searching." I suppose all I've learned is that the work just keeps coming, and the soul searching often leaves you with more questions than answers (oooh.....sorry - not really "blog-worthy" stuff for me). So a weekend trip to Munich with an old buddy was a fantastic antidote for the grown-up life I've been living lately.


Munich is the capital of Bavaria - the southernmost state of Germany - and embodies the classic laid back southern German tradition that makes the region so distinct. Well known for Oktoberfest (where my brother Chris made me very jealous by attending this week), drinking beer and having fun is seriously important to Bavarians.

We witnessed this very quickly when we headed up to the famous beer garden by the Chinese tower in the English Gardens. The day was a bit chilly, but not too bad, so we celebrated the crack of noon with a stein of Hofbräu beer. After about 30 mins, the clouds rolled in and a bit of rain started to fall. In any other place, that would have sent the people scampering for cover like ants hiding from a kid with a magnifying glass. But not in Munich - instead, the Germans whipped out their umbrellas and just kept on drinking. Brilliant! As we crouched under the shelter of a roof of a nearby building, we were definitely impressed with their commitment.


And our Saturday in Munich just got better from there...

After a quick break to stroll back to the center of town, the rest of the day was spent at the amazing Hofbräuhaus. As you may remember from other travels, I have a strong affinity for tourist attractions that have evolved over the years and that you can join in on, rather than simply being a spectator. A great example of this is punting in Cambridge.

The Hofbräuhaus is one of the most innately social places I've ever been. I've heard people say it's too touristy, but I complete disagree. The huge wooden tables mean that if you are with a small group, there's always someone sitting at the table with you. And people come there to socialize, so you immediately have no qualms about sparking up a conversation with your neighbor.


We chatted with a German/Italian couple who guided us through the 45 types of sausages, a Junior national crew team from Berlin (probably too young to be in there, but hey, who's counting), some Swedish tourists (yikes!), a bachelor party of a bunch of crazy German bankers (exhibit A - above with Jerre), and I even spoke bad Spanish with a young guy and his parents from Madrid ("me gusto hablerieron lo espanol!").

Everyone was friendly (well, drunk) and we had a blast. Sadly, the only people we didn't like were an American couple from Minnesota who just didn't get it at all. They were acting like they were better than everyone, and pretty much got booed out of the bar. The guy told me that my accent sounded like I was trying to be European! I felt so betrayed.


But even some surly Americans weren't enough to ruin our happy Saturday in Munich. On Sunday, we hit up the Alte Pinakothek museum and the Residenz royal palace. Both were pretty impressive and an easy walk from the city center. At that, Jerre and I parted ways again and I was back in London. A pretty good way to spend a weekend, eh?


So I'm back to the warm NY weather again tomorrow to struggle through my co-best man speech at my brother Mike's wedding. Good luck Heather!!

Cheers,
Dan