Munich

We travelled from Paris to Munich by overnight sleeper train. We were in the cattle class and had the top bunks. Whilst not the best night sleep in the world, we arrived in one piece and after dropping our bags, headed out to see a bit of the city with a "free" walking tour provided by the hostel.

Our tour guide insisted on referring to Germans, Bavarians in particular, as "we" notwithstanding that he had a blatant American accent and acknowledged that he had only lived in Munich a few years. He did however seem to have a pretty good grasp of local history and the three hour tour took us around all of the main sites whilst providing the odd random fact along the way.

Included in the tour, much to Crystal's delight was a set lunch of bratwurst and Bavarian beer (Crystal gave that a miss!). The bratwurst and the beer were delicious and any city where it is legal to wander around drinking from an open beer bottle has the right idea. I also like that as a matter of law Bavarians are entitled to drink a litre and a half of beer during the working day.

The walking tour also took in a visit to Hofbrauhaus, where the Nazi party was formed, and followed part of the route of the Beer Hall Putsch - both very interesting for a history geek (i.e. Simon)!

In the evening, after a dinner of the largest schnitzel I have ever seen in my life, Crystal had a quiet night in because she was feeling a bit under the weather and I headed out with a few scouse guys to Hofbrauhaus to sample a few more Bavarian beers. All in all a very good night which resulted in me feeling considerably more under the weather than Crystal the following day.

Our second and last day in Munich was an absolute stunner. Blue skies and 17 degrees. We had not expected to be able to walk around Munich in November wearing t-shirts. To be honest though, due to my cracking hangover the walking was quite limited and we reverted mostly to our Parisien pass time of coffee and pastries.

We were very impressed with Munich in general. Whilst it is a completely different city to Berlin and does not have the same edginess, it certainly has its own charm (and brilliant beer).