Mellowing out in Munich

So after being home in Zurich for, oh, less than a week, it was high time to get out of here again. A weekend in Munich, Germany, was exactly what we needed.

Munich is a fun, livable city, especially once you escape the hordes of tourists in the very center. Actually the touristy stuff is fun, too – in a big, drunken, stereotypical Germany kind of way. Pretty much all of the prominent stereotypes about Germany are based on Bavarian culture and traditions: Lederhosen and Dirndls, pretzels, beer served in liter-sized mugs, Oktoberfest, oompa bands…

We spent most of Saturday afternoon in the Englischer Garten, the largest city park in the world and an extremely popular place in the summer. Parts of it feel very similar to Central Park, if you ignore all the naked Germans soaking up the sun. I myself am not such a fan of sun-absorbing (naked or otherwise), so we opted for soaking up some beer and pretzels at the beer garden at the Chinesischer Turm in the middle of the park instead.

Unlike at Oktoberfest, regular beer gardens offer the choice of 1/2 liter mugs, too, which is what we ordered. My excuse is simple: by the time I get to the bottom of a liter of beer, it’s really, really warm, and I’m just not a fan of warm beer. So until I learn to drink faster, it’s wussy little half-liters for me.

It’s fun to people-watch in beer gardens. For some reason it is perfectly acceptable to bring your own food to beer gardens in Munich, provided you purchase your beverages there. Plenty of locals do this, even bringing along tablecloths to make the whole experience more civilized. Of course there were plenty of tourists around, too, notably the drunken American frat-boy type. I didn’t see any of them with tablecloths.

PS – Did you notice the name of the bus company in that second picture? Those wacky Germans…