Our first stop in Germany was the Olympic city, Munich. After a perfunctory look at some kind of historic church we all made a bee-line for the Hofbräuhaus, the enormous Bavarian beer establishment that everyone had been raving about for days. I myself had only heard the name talked about, not seen its spelling, so I was keen to check out this “hopera house” I’d heard so much about, assuming it to be a lame pun related to beer.

Munich is well known for its annual Oktoberfest beer festival. P.J. O’Rourke once wrote of our “dainty little” beer glasses back in Australia, “hardly enough for one serving of fish-fry batter back where I come from”. For those who do prefer their beer in huge increments, the Maßkrug is a whole litre, and it really is possible to drink several of them in one evening without feeling any ill effect. There is probably an explanation of moderate alcohol content or something like that.

Of course, the hopera house was totally packed, and there simply weren’t 50 spare seats for us, so I ended up eating and drinking elsewhere, and squeezing into the hopera house much later on for dessert.

Sadly, it was only an overnight stop in Munich. So, apart from my first taste of German drink and traditional cuisine, which were both delicious, the sight-seeing was brief, and I was unprepared for an evening as cold as a well-digger’s bum. So it is definitely high on the list of cities to return to soon.

Smo