Great Beer In Munich
Back on Busabout's Blue Bus!
Quick Stop Over
It was back on the bus, for a one night visit to Munich. We did the usual small stop, this time at Lucerne. We were then given a bonus stop, and the ability to tick another European country off the list. Liechtenstein is the sixt smallest country in the world, at just 25km in length and 6km in width. It is also the world’s largest producer of dentures, and has had a status as tax haven. The guide on the bus gave us some silly fact, which I will try and verify, but for now, take it with a grain of salt. Apparently, Liechtenstein has more registered companies than it has residents.
Castle on the hill in Liechenstein
It was a quaint little town, where we indulged in a kebab, and took a wonder down the main street. Kelly and I took the piss a little, by posing at the ATM, taking a photo of a ‘local’ (a man reading the financial times), and got our passports stamped at the tourist office. After just 45 minutes, it was time to go, and continue the journey into one of my favorite cities, Munich.
A local in their natural habitat...
The Crawl
We arrived pretty late, just enough time to check in, grab some pizza for dinner, then ‘doll up’ for the pub crawl. The Insider tour’s ‘The Crawl’ is the same tour that I did two years ago, with Inger and Mary. Back then, we had an amazingly cool guide called Ollie, who was from England. Unfortunately he had moved on, and our guide Felix, was no where near as knowledgeable, or funny. We had the hour of power at the Euro Youth Hostel down the road. I had regretted not buying a t-shirt two years ago, so this time took advantage of the opportunity. The shirt reads, ‘The Crawl. The best night you will never remember’.
Random currency in Euro Youth Hostel
Our second stop was Augustiner Keller, and I indulged in a giant stein (1L) of brilliant German beer, and a pretzel. It was nice to wonder along the same streets and it brought back some serious nostalgia from two years before. I may have rubbed it in a little by messaging Inger.
Geordie with a stein and pretzel...
Our third stop was Lowenbrau, a grand old beer hall, with an outdoor garden, which is a particular favorite of mine. We only had a half stein, and it came in a really cool bottle, which I wanted to keep, but forgot to. I managed to get chatting with a neighboring table outside. There were two local German women, one of which was married to one of the guys, who was from New Zealand, and his mate was from London. They were a very stange bunch, and the conversation made it clear that the beers had been flowing.
The beautiful Lowenbrau beer hall...
The Closer
We moved onto our fourth stop, the original home of Augustiner, which was a cute beer hall. To be honest, I don’t remember much about it, but I do know that I had a beer put in front of me, and politely divided it between the others around me. Our Busabout guide, Ben, was heading back to the hostel with one of the other guides, I took advantage of the free directions, and followed suit. I left the others to thrash it out, as the last stop was a return to the first stop, the Euro Youth Hostel. On arrival, you recieved three Jager shots. Not really my cup of tea.
Amazingly good beer, and awesome bottle
In a strange series of events, I actually ended up running into Ollie, the English guide from two years ago. I was so excited and he claimed to remember our group. The only reason was because of the American guy, whose stein he smashed after he didn’t look him in the eye when performing a Prost (cheers). Once again, Munich brings out the surpirses and makes even a one night visit brilliant. Onto the bus again, heading to Venice, with just 4 hours sleep.
Geordie & Ollie, the original Beer Guide
Tags: Augustiner, Busabout, Liechtenstein, Lowenbrau, Munich, Pub Crawl, The Crawl, Travel