I wake up on the train slightly panicky. We’re scheduled to arrive at Munich soon and I have to take a long phone call for work in a few minutes. How am I going to unload my luggage one-handed while participating in a long and complicated discussion?
Then I find out the train is delayed by more than an hour! In Germany! Can it really be? The attendant bustles around cheerfully with a hey-such-is-life manner and hands out free coffee to whoever wants it. I’m already one-handed so find it hard to stir some sugar into it, but my new Singaporean friend helps me. I also find out that we’re entitled to collect some compensation for the delay after we arrive. Gotta love it! The delay actually worked in my favour but I get some money to boot.
I get to the hostel and check in. More Japanese! Remember what I said earlier about Japanese being great travellers? One of the Japanese guys in the room isn’t just a great traveller, he seems almost European. Lived with a Germany family for a while last year, studied the language, seems to know Bavaria and Austria quite well… Somehow, I've always seen lots of similarities between Germans and Japanese. That's a discussion for another day.
It’s still fairly early in the morning and I decide to take another walking tour. This starts from the old City Hall, the Rathaus. Beautiful building, but then there are so many more just as beautiful. This seems to be a sort of “downtown” as I later find out there are several shops in the area and a mid-sized department store.
Munich's Rathaus
Our tour guide is an American called Eric who’s lived in Munich many years. The group is about 30 strong and seems to be mostly Americans although there are Europeans too, even Germans. Most of them seem to be interested but no one interested enough to ask Eric any questions. I initially feel guilty, thinking that I’m monopolising the scene, but even when I shut up, only one or two others pipe up. I stop feeling guilty. The tour is good-not-great but then it’s a little unfair to compare with Ryan’s tour two days ago. Unfortunately, my camera dies along the way so I have few pictures of the tour and the rest of the day.
Later, I head back to one of the stops on the tour, the world famous Hofbräuhaus, where Hitler made one of the first big speeches of his career. It’s better known for its menu than for the association with Hitler though Germans as a whole seem to me to be willing to confront the horrors of their country's past. The menu is decidedly Bavarian, and the waitresses, true to their reputation, easily lug around several 1 litre mugs of beer at a time. There’s also a band playing loud, lively music and dressed in lederhosen.
Upstairs at the Hofbräuhaus, the hall where Hitler made his speech
The tables are massive like everything else and I feel a little insignificant sitting on my bench. Someone asks me if the bench opposite me is taken and I invite him to sit down. Edmund. Very proud of Munich. Pooh-poohs Berlin when I tell him I was there before this. “Munich’s subway network is better, there’s more culture here, the beer is better (none of that Krystallweizen nonsense)...” All of this in quite jovial fashion, not curmudgeonly in the least. He’s 69 years old this year but doesn’t look it. Born in the northern part of Germany but lived in Munich for 40 years. He’s even been to Singapore a few times for work and reminisces, lips smacking, about seafood he’d once had there.
The beer is so unbelievably yummy, especially the Weissbier. Edmund says there are no preservatives hence. The beer is only good within Bavaria, he proclaims, not even other parts of Germany.
I’ve just started to ask him, “Why do so many Europeans smoke?” when I’m interrupted by yet another long work phone call. I make a wry expression of apology. After I get off the phone, I snap a picture of us with my quite terrible phone camera and we part ways, tottering slightly.
More pictures here (no captions, free to access) or here (with captions but requires Facebook log-in).
This post is the sixth in a series. The full series:
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