Munich, Germany

Munich fits many stereotypes of Germany - famous beer halls, automobile manufacturers and traditional Deutsch wardrobes. On a quick visit we had a chance to see some major sights.

Near the center of town (Marienplatz) you'll find the town hall (Rathaus) and the "world famous" Glockenspiel. If you've been to Munich you already know this is possibly the biggest tourist trap in Western Europe. High above the main square at least three times a day 11, 12 and 6pm you'll get the song and dance of figurines highlighting some Bavarian history. To put this in perspective best, K's little brother watched for about 30 seconds and said "that's it". Yes that's it. The "people watching" was far better as you see others gawking (mouths wide open) and trying to guess who might get their pocket picked.

A far better spend of time was the BMW factory tour. Reserve ahead (we didn't) to guarantee a spot, but this was a very cool display of German manufacturing. Our guide did an excellent job explaining the production, but there were several words where he got tripped up on his accent. For example, throughout the production floor he explained that robots now perform close to 97% of the actual work on the floor. Due to his accent robots actually sounded exactly like "rabbits" which brought chuckles throughout the group. For example when he talked about "programing the robots", it sounded like we might have been on a cloning tour (programming rabits?) rather then one of the top car manufacturers of the world.

No visit to Munich is the same without one trip to the Hofbrauhaus. This legendary beer hall is filled with litres of beer, um-pah-pah bands and many tourists. An incredible scene. The Aberdeen Scotland Football club had a match the next night, so the Hofbrauhaus was filled with Scots. They thrived in the atmosphere. Lots of chanting, toasting and drinking. At our table we had 4 Scots (in for the game), 1 S. African man accompanied by a women from London. Upon the UK women opening her mouth to the Scots, they immediately started making fun of her accent and where she was from. Rather then "taking her medicine" she did not back down and kept egging the quartet on... In any other enviornment, you'd think that this was a terrible idea but this is par for the course.

Our English friend provided two other laughs. She claimed K's brother wasn't properly eating his meal (pig knuckle, potatoes and coleslaw). Not a minute later she had nearly climbed over the table to feed him from his own spoon. This brought many laughs and cheers from other tables. About 5 minutes later she decided to have a couple shots with her S. African friend, which led to a make-out scene that would put Dicaprio's performance in Titanic to shame. That also brought some laughs and cheers. You can get a dose of the atmosphere from the video above. For some the rest of the Munich shots click here.