Goodbye Munich

After driving back to Munich from Berchtesgaden in the rain, we had another 1/2 day to hang out there before flying to Dusseldorf.  We did a little meandering.

Surfing

We overheard a tour guide say she liked Munich's access to good outdoor activities, including surfing.  Surfing.  Apparently it's possible in the right circumstances.  We ran across some surfers at the south end of the Englischer Garten.

A standing wave is created from the bottom contour of this fast-flowing stream, and surfers can ride it.  They were pretty good.  It's really easy to catch a wave (you just step off the shore and on to your board), but you have to know how to turn quickly.

Surf dog - followed floating surfers as they drifted downstream after their run

Chinesischer Turm (Chinese Tower)

We walked further up the Englischer Garten, by the river Isar, to the Chinesischer Turm - it's a Hofbrauhaus-owned beer garden in the middle of the Englischer Garten, featuring a pagoda-like tower in the middle.  It wasn't all that warm yet, but there were several people out enjoying a beer and a snack - in particular university students just getting out of class Friday afternoon, and people on bike tours.  Its capacity is probably in the thousands - probably a very busy & enjoyable place in warmer weather.

Hofbrauhaus Revisit

We thought the Hofbrauhaus deserved another visit on Friday night.  It was PACKED - and apparently they don't serve anything smaller than 1L mugs in evenings, though I was barely drinking anything due to my cold.  But it was fun.  We sat beside a couple of young guys from Moscow who knew "Canada - hockey - 1972 - nostrovya!" and who hit on Sarah when I wasn't looking.

Apparently they go through at least 5000 L of beer per day even on the slowest winter days.  They have computer-controlled beer taps that autodispense beer from, I'm assuming, really large tanks somewhere in the bowels of the building.

A slow moment at the pouring station.  Each waiter has a key, allowing them to pour their orders 

There was a mix of tourists, locals, and super-locals (in full lederhosen, with their own steins taken from the exclusive lockers on the walls).  The oompah band played as they do all day every day - and they were much better than I expected.  Real musicians (though the songs are generally pretty simple).

Friday at the Hofbrauhaus.  Hundreds sharing tables, eating and drinking

Band is in the background.  Two traditional vest-wearing guys in foreground have their own steins, from the coveted stein lockers

The oompah-band.  More like mariachi than you might think

If you're a total idiot, or just extremely uninformed, you'll probably think it's a better idea to go to the Hard Rock Cafe directly across the street from the Hofbrauhaus, where everything is worse and more expensive.  Fortunately, there didn't seem to be that many idiots around.  :-)

AirBnB

Our last night in Munich was our first night using AirBnB, a service that matches people with spare rooms/apartments with travellers who need a place to stay.  (www.airbnb.com)  We stayed with Heather, and American tour guide who has lived in Munich for 10 years.  The location was great, we got to stay as if we were normal houseguests, and Heather and her boyfriend Steve gave us advice about the area & transit, etc.  I think it's a brilliant service - the only drawback is that it seems to be best-suited to solo travellers.  As soon as there are two people, hosts usually charge another 25% (or more), and together with the AirBnB booking fee, this usually pushes the price well into guesthouse/B&B/pension price territory, so the advantage is lost.  But I hope we can use it more - I like meeting new people & staying at homes, and it's nice to support such people rather than hotel chains.

How to Make a Fine German Motorcar

Monday, Chad and I headed up to the Olympic Park in Munich from the 1972 Olympic Games.  This is the stadium, which I think looks like the set from a 1970's Architects Gone Wild movie, but Chad tells me is cool.

Our real reason for heading up to that area, though, was to visit the BMW Welt (BMW World, we think), which houses the BMW museum, a showroom, and their Munich factory.  The factory was built at the outskirts of Munich in the 1970's, but is now basically in the middle of town.  It's very space age looking.

Although the museum is supposed to be great, we took a tour factory - BMW still builds about 1,000 cars a day (in their 3-series sedan and 3-series touring model) in its six floor factory.  There are also a bunch of different engines manufactured there.  Accommodating this capacity in such a limited space is apparently quite a feat of engineering.

We were not allowed to take any pictures on the tour, just in case we were to sell them to Volkswagen or Audi, but it was a great tour.  It is amazing what they have automated, and I left thinking that robots really could take over the world one day.

Here are a couple pictures from inside the showroom for those who care about such things (Dad):

And finally, somewhat randomly, a couple shots from the lovely neighbourhood in which Chad and I were staying.

A Visit to Dachau

While Chad gets the fun posts about beer pilgrimages and pork poisoning, I will take the ones about the less fun parts of our trip, such as our visit to Dachau on Sunday.

I have been to Auschwitz (near Krakow, Poland), but this was Chad's first visit to a concentration camp memorial.  Perhaps fittingly, Sunday was a miserable day in the weather department - pouring rain, icy wind, damp air, and about 6 degrees.

There is nothing I can say here that will suffice to describe the horrors that went on there.  What I can tell you is that Dachau was the first concentration camp, opened in 1933 until liberation in 1945.  It started as a camp for political prisoners, but quickly expanded with Hitler's reign.  The camp was rebuilt (by prisoners) in 1937-38 to accommodate 6,000 prisoners.  Just before liberation in 1945, it was housing almost 60,000.

The exhibits are very well done, and this is an absolutely necessary visit for anyone coming to Munich.  For now, I'll leave you with one of the few photos Chad took - the entry gate through which all the prisoners marched upon entry before they were stripped of their clothing, hair, freedom, and dignity.  In the words of the audio guide, "It mocked incoming prisoners by telling them that 'work shall set you free'".

Pork Spectacle

Germans, particularly Bavarians, love pork in all its many forms.  (Their beer pairs well with any pork dish - enough said.)  Probably the most classic pork specialty in Bavaria is schweinzehaxen - pork knuckle.  I saw a few others eating it, and it looked pretty good - there's no hoof or anything, just a lower section of the pork leg, with about two bones and a crispy fat cap.  I was determined to try it before leaving.

When Sarah and I arrived at the beer hall in Andechs (monastery), I knew the time had come.  They were serving several Bavarian specialties in high-volume cafeteria style (usual for a beer hall), but they all looked good and were made by beer-swilling monks - what could be better?  The knuckle looked very good when glimpsed from afar, but the line moved quickly and I had to make up my mind in a hurry, so I got a single pork knuckle and one serving of potato salad (warm, made with vinegar - yum). I hesitate to use the term "soup nazi" while in Germany (i.e. from the TV show Seinfeld), but that was the speed/intensity of service.

Anyway, they cut the pork knuckle in half, threw it on a plate, I threw money at them, and seconds later I had my dish.  Except that they gave me two plates under the pork knuckle.  Hmmm.  As I looked at it, I realized it was quite big - much bigger than the ones I have seen people eat in other restaurants.  And it didn't appear to involve bone and gristle like you might expect - it was mostly meat and (admittedly great-looking) crispy pig fat.  And it was pretty expensive.

I see, it's a TWO-person meal.  For Bavarians.  And my wife is a vegetarian.

Well, I can't let it all go to waste - best to roll up my sleeves and see what I can do.

Hmm, moist and tasty roast pork, came right off the bone.  I resisted the urge to eat much of the (admittedly delectable) fat cap/crackle, as there was LOTS of it.  (Note that's a full dinner plate & regular-sized utensils, with 500mL of doppelbock in the top right.)

And... I'm done!  That was great.  Lots of fat/crackle left behind, but I finished off all the meat.

Wait a minute.  That was only the first half.  The SMALLER half.

Hoo boy, I was a little confused at this point.  What was I supposed to do with this?  I couldn't take it with me as I didn't have any refrigeration.  Yet it would be a terrible waste to leave it.

Well, keep calm and carry on, as they say.

I ate a significant amount more pork, but eventually I had to give up.  Tasty or not, I can only eat so much.  The results:

This was the fat/bone leftovers of the knuckle.

And this is the perfectly-good meat I had to leave behind.  Rough estimate, at least 3/4 of a pound.

Thank goodness we had hiked 5km up and would hike 5km down from lunch, in addition to more walking around Aying later.  I was mouth breathing and felt vaguely pork poisoned for the rest of the day (and part off the next) by this excess of riches.

So, my lessons learned:

1. German pork knuckle is good.  
2. Learning food sizes/servings/portions/etc. in the German language is a valuable skill if you want to avoid the meat sweats accompanying pork overload.

Beer Pilgrimage, Part II

Beer Pilgrimage Day, Part II
============================

Making the most of our day pass, we headed back to Munich and caught a different commuter train out to the tiny town of Aying.  It was hard to remain conscious after the pork attack (like I said, more on that later) and the beer, but the bolt-upright seats helped.  Halfway to Aying we passed the Siemens main campus, which is enormous and looks like a huge urban centre made of lego.

Aying is a cute little town, centered around and created for the Ayinger brewery, which is one of the better-known German breweries.  You can walk the town end-to-end in about 20 minutes.  It looks much like other small Bavarian farming towns.  Except for the revealing street names near the brewery:

Malt Way

Hops Way

Brewland (I think) Way

We dropped by the brewery, but it was around 5:30pm so it was closed for the day and we couldn't get a tour and/or sample.  Such is life.

Here's the well where the get the water for the brewery from a couple of hundred metres underground.  They also package and sell spring water from the same source.

We walked around a bit - a very quiet, calm, tiny burg. Probably an expensive bedroom community for Munich.  Starting seeing some nice Bavarian touches to the houses.  (Though this isn't uncommon - it seems like every house in the region has the same classic Bavarian look.)

For Rick - apparently the Germans also have old Lotuses they work on from time to time.

If you're going to make a painting of Aying, might as well put it on a cow statue.

This looks like I've taken a photo of Sarah taking more professional photos.  In fact it was an excuse to photograph the father and son in the background, who are practising soccer in lederhosen.  Yep, people actually do wear it in Bavaria, though usually for ceremonial events or in more rural areas.  These two were probably from the wedding reception next door.

One of the old brewery buildings near the center.

Has the requisite church at the center of town.

The standard Bavarian maypole at the center of town, in front of the main (and one of the few) hotels.  I believe the maypole originated here, though we will be leaving Germany before May Day celebrations.  They usually decorate the maypole with cutouts representing the different services and products available in the town.

We stopped at a restaurant in the center (there are only 3-4 in the whole town) for a bite and an Ayinger beer.  They also served spring water from the Ayinger spring (center).

Ayinger makes Celebrator, which back in Vancouver was my favourite doppelbock (based on limited selection/sampling).  Drinking it fresh less than a kilometre from the source, it is indeed even better - not a drink-it-all-day kind of beer, but one whose big flavour demands attention.  It's much hoppier at the source - I think the bottles we get in Vancouver must be a bit old and musty by the time they reach us.

After the pork attack, I needed something a bit lighter for dinner.  White asparagus (spargle) is a big deal here and it is the peak of the season for it - all the markets are selling it.  And it is indeed very good - like regular asparagus, but without the bitterness and the sulphur flavours, much milder.  Really quite excellent.

Sarah, having only had a pretzel for lunch in accordance with her monastic vows/usual eating requirements, went with the luxurious cheese-and-onion-straw spatzle see earlier (dumpling-like, pasta-like dish), which was excellent & filled her to the brim.

That was about all we could manage that day - it was back on the train & back to the guesthouse after dinner.

Day of Beer Pilgrimages

Apologies for the lack of blog postings. I've had a sore throat for 2+ weeks now that's not going away (I figured beer would cure it, but apparently not), and II haven't felt like navigating the guest house's spotty internet access in the evenings.

Anyway, after our initial tour around Munich, we decided to visit nearby towns for some day-adventuring.  Before we got more than 2 blocks from our guest house, I noticed this in a shop window:

Hey, it's our Vancouver Hockey Riot Makeout Couple!  Famous even in Munich.

We started by taking a commuter train to the end of the line at Herrsching - a small town on a lake (Ammersee).  From the train station you follow (small and infrequent) signs through town to a trailhead, then follow the trail - more like a nice, gently sloping dirt road - about 5 kilometres up a small gorge to... drum roll... a monastery full of brewing monks!  (This is a popular day trip for local Munichers.  I would never have know about this place, but when I was judging the Calgary homebrew competition recently, one of the brewers at Wildrose Brewery, who had gone to brewing school in the area, mentioned it to me.)

Just before the trail starts is a neighbourhood of very lovely, quaint & undoubtedly expensive German homes.

The little Bavarian dude in the garden has his very own miniature version of the main house. He seems excited to see us.

Here's the trail - as you can see, spring has definitely not sprung in Bavaria yet.  I did have visions of Grimm's fairy tales, Hansel & Gretel, etc. while walking - this might be a similar area to where all of those stories are set.

Just poking up above the top edge of the gorge, you can see the top of the abbey steeple.

The gorge is all sedimentary - the river has cut very steep banks over the years & made weird caves and overhangs.

Eventually, you come out at the top of the hill & the grounds of the cloister.  The first thing you see is this big baroque (I think) style cathedral.  With yet another sundial on the outside, but no sun with which to read it.

Pretty decent view of the bucolic Bavarian countryside - you'd normally see the Alps from here, but it's overcast yet again, so we haven't seen the Alps since we flew in.

Yes, this guy is, in fact, carrying an Alpenhorn.  Didn't get a chance to see him play it though.

The Abbey grounds are full of nooks and crannies with shops & beer gardens, etc, though most were closed since it's still shoulder season.  However, the main beerhall was open, and it was jam-packed with hikers/walkers.  Mostly families out for a walk - very few non-German tourists at this time of year.

Andechs isn't really known in North America, but you can buy their beer in stores here, and they have a huge production warehouse on the abbey grounds (which are very large).  So it's not a bunch of robed monks hovering reverently over a wooden fermenter - they produce beer on a commercial scale.  There is also RV parking in their huge lot (so, Rick and Carol, you can bring your motorhome when you visit).

 Alrighty then, FINALLY, I get to have a fresh doppelbock on the Abbey grounds.  This is the classic "liquid bread" brewed by the monks, to sustain them while fasting.  And while not fasting.  Or while serving you food in the cafeteria lineup as it turns out.  This particular doppelbock was very drinkable - not quite as chock-full of thick, chocolately goodness as other versions, but certainly more along the lines of something you'd want to down a litre of after a brisk walk in the hills.  Or before a brisk walk in the hills.  Or during.  Anyway, a good accompaniment for food, and not too heavy.

Here's the beer lineup.  Buy your tickets in one line, then grab your beer at the other.  Clearly capable of handling 10 times the traffic they faced that day.  Same setup for food at the cafeteria, just to the right, beyond.

 One end of one room of the beer hall.  The racks at the end are metal lockers filled with beer steins.  If you're a regular, you might be lucky enough to own one of the lockers, so you can drink out of your own, personalized mug.  They have these lockers in other places too - the Hofbrauhaus in Munich has such lockers, but the keys to them are handed down through the generations & getting one is practically impossible.

Sarah started with a hefeweizen.  Nice logo with a picture of the Abbey on it.

 Sarah had a glass off the doppelbock as well, which you can tell she isn't enjoying at all.  Behind here is an old, unused wood/coal furnace covered in tile, which was a nice touch.

Of note: NO ONE in that place (out of hundreds) was drinking anything but beer.  It was mostly families and groups of friends, but aside from soft drinks for the children there wasn't a coffee/wine/sport drink in sight.  If only North American culture could incorporate beer into it so seamlessly.  Even at the grocery store, people would pick up a few bottles of beer (for CHEAP) to go with their meal, rather than wine.  It's just the norm.

(I had a rather intense episode at this beer hall, involving a ridiculous pork overload, but I'll save that for its own post later on.)

After warming up sufficiently, we walked back down the hill.  We took a different route, involving a stroll through a lovely field - in which Sarah tried singing Edelweiss to the tune of the Spider Man theme ("Edelweiss, edelweiss, does whatever a... um...").  We really need to watch The Sound Of Music sometime so she can learn the correct tune...

Glancing right, you can still see the Abbey - the gorge is just before it.

There were a ton of "nordic walkers" out with their ski poles, pretending like they were engaged in some kind of "sport".  There were even signs for nordic walking routes.  I wouldn't begrudge anyone a nice walk in the woods, but dragging some too-long sticks behind you while you're out on the walk (that don't provide any support or any extra exercise) seems, well, nuts.  But not wanting to jump to conclusions, I fashioned my own 10-foot-long nordic walking poles from some trees branches I found.  Apart from misplaced feelings of superiority and pomposity with respect to my fellow hikers, there was no discernible benefit.

We arrived back in Herrsching mid-afternoon.  Rather than waste our entire-network transit daypass, we wondered if we should go somewhere else, maybe for dinner.  I glanced at the hundreds of names on the transit map, and the first one my eyes fell upon was "Aying."  Hmm, Aying.  As in Ayinger beer?  As in my favorite doppelbock, Ayinger Celebrator?  Yes, yes I do think we should go there!  And that was the second half of our day.