(quick style note: I'm using the world's worst Wifi connection that kicks me off every two minutes SO this post has a lot of typos -- Sorry, in advance, to all the grammar--um--fiends.)
Ever want to go to exotic places and spend your days eating, drinking and looking at art? Me too!
Ever want to celebrate another decade of life with a decadent vacation? Me too!
I turned 30 in Paris alone, at the tail-end of a European vacation with my
then-husband, so I thought I'd turn 50 someplace fun, alone. I decided on Munich. For some strange reason or another I wanted to turn 50 at the adult-beverage Disneyland of Oktoberfest, at it's birthplace, Munich.
And I guilted Craig Mavis, one of the brewing mucky-mucks at Deschutes into getting one of his German contacts to find me a seat in one of the big Oktoberfest tents.
More on Oktober fest later. For now, let me just report on the food I've eaten and the beer I've drunk in my 2.5 days in Munich.
I've eaten a lot of Weisswurst, a white veal sausage that is locally consumed with beer and a pretzel, preferably before noon. It's true! Before lunch! This is my kind of town...
It's also a place where the building are old -- or at least look old. In WW-II the allies flattened most of the city, so much of it is rebuilt on it's ancient footprint.
At Hofbräuhaus, a brewery that started in the 1500s, I had a
wonderful lunch of crispy suckling pig with a potato dumpling and 'cabbage.' The cabbage is something like coleslaw with just salt, a little vinegar, caraway seeds and bacon. (!) The Germans do love them some pork.
At Hofbräuhaus, one of the largest restaurants in Europe (and maybe the world), they'll sell over 2,000 pork knuckles and 10,000 liters of beer.
The kitchen has a conveyor belt to move food from the individual stations to the expediter -- who has seven micros machines, all spitting out tickets.
For kicks, I spent much of yesterday at an open-air market. Something like the Farmers Market with more food stalls.
This is the central May pole of the market/beer garden (more on beer gardens and a photo essay of the market at a later time).
I must go, Crazy King Ludwig's castles await.
Happy Birthday to Me.
kiss kiss
Nancy
