We arrived at the Munich airport midday and took the U bahn train to the main train station in Munich, Hauptbahnhopf. We rode through the countryside outside of Munich and the landscape reminded me of rural Wisconsin. The leaves were changing colors on the birch, maple and oak trees.

After we arrived at the Hauptbahnhof, it took us 5 minutes to walk to our hotel, the Euro Youth Hostel. You’ll see in the picture of the hotel, the flag with the hostel’s name on it, and to the right of that, the blue and white checkered flag, has the name of Munich’s oldest and most popular beer on it, Augustiner. The beer has been brewed in a monastery since 1328. The majority of the guests I saw were in their 20’s, though there were a few families and older travelers. Brian and I reserved a private room, which was clean and fit into our budget. We dropped our bags in the room and set out to explore. Our hotel was conveniently located where we could walk to all the sites we wanted to see. On the top of our list was having a beer at the Hofbrauhaus, which is symbolic of all Bavarian pubs and the most famous pub in the world. The Hofbrauhaus dates back to 1896 and was originally the royal court brewery, founded in 1598.

Our hotel was only a short walk to Munich’s historic old town, which is also the downtown area. The main street to get to the historic center square, called Marienplatz, or Mary’s Square, is by walking through the pedestrian zone. This area is filled with tourists and locals, enjoying an evening stroll, shopping or enjoying a beer in the many beer gardens. The smell of roasted nuts from a street vendor was in the air.

Upon arrival at the Hofbrauhaus we sat ourselves as is custom at one of the extremely large wooden picnic tables located in a large hall on the first floor, where there is room for 1,000 people. As we made our way to the table we passed a brass band, or ompah ompah band, dressed in lederhosen, playing very loudly. During the night we would hear a few songs we recognized, one being, Country Roads, by the band Alabama. I was surprised to see many people, including Germans, singing along. I was later told that it is a favorite with the Germans.

Due to the lack of seating and because the picnic tables are so big, a couple joined us. They were quietly eating their dinner when the man leaned over with his liter mug of beer and said “Prost”. We all clinked glasses and returned to drinking, Brian with his liter of Hofbrauhaus, and me with my half liter of Weiss, or wheat, beer and one very large salty and warm pretzel. A little bit later, the man leaned over again and said Prost. We clinked glasses and then Brian whispered to me, like a shy schoolboy, “I want to talk to them.” I repeated the expression for “do you speak English” until he could repeat it back to me. He asked, and yes they did speak English, the woman fluently, and the man pretty well. Hans and Jacky were around our age, late 20’s/early 30’s and engaged to be married in 3 weeks. They lived on the outskirts of Munich and came to the Hofbrauhaus for a night out.

Hans, Jacky, Brian and I talked for hours at the Hofbrauhaus; that night turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip and an amazing way to spend our first night in Munich. It was also at the Hofbrauhaus where Brian and I ate our first meal which was, Semelknodel, which is like a potato dumpling but made with bread. Jacky described it as a heartier version of the potato dumpling. I also ventured from my standard Weiss beer and ordered what Jacky was drinking, a raddler. It is a mix of lemonade and beer served in a liter glass. It was too sweet for me and I must have been drinking too slowly because halfway through it was too warm to drink.