And finally, I am able to start all the European blogs. Once the little guy arrived Europe was just a little more attractive from a flight perspective (7 - 8 hours versus 15 plus for Asia) to fly to Europe. And for some reason it seems that our European travels always went through and used Germany as a starting point. So, we have been to Germany many times, but have spent very little time there.
Our first time was when we decided to do an Austria/ Germany trip. I think it was July (just an absolutely stupid expensive time for tickets from the US to anywhere) so I think an Austria/ Germany trip became a reality simply because tickets were too expensive anywhere else. Initially I was planning something closer to the Swiss border for operas, but I soon found out that taking a to an opera was frowned upon (imagine that).
So, into Hamburg we flew and had our rental car pretty quickly and started heading for the Austrian border. The autobahn is probably one of the most famed roads in the world because you can pretty much go as fast as you want - in theory.
I was really looking forward to this. Well, our first experience was definitely more like the Bahn. Upon leaving Hamburg we immediately got stuck in traffic (I mean immediately). And when I say stuck, I mean stuck. We did not move to the point where we were getting out and walking around for a good hour plus before things finally started moving. Well, this is a bummer.
Fast forward 4 - 5 days to the last leg of our trip (we quickly made it to the Austrian border once traffic started moving) as we were winding our way down the Austrian mountains having just finished the Grossglockner high alpine road. It was a rainy affair but a beautiful little drive as we made our way through rising mountains with waterfalls all over the place running down through a rainy windshield. We stopped in the small towns for coffee and snacks wherever we could. And at long last we made it to Munich for our first real experience of Germany. Hotels were a little harder by (at a reasonable price) so I found the Best Western Plus Hotel Erb on the outskirts of the city. It served our purpose for the
night even though it was way out there and under construction. We checked in, changed and headed into Munich.
Now when you go to Munich, I believe that there is one place you just go to whether you want to or not - the HOFBRAUHAUS AM PLATZL . Probably a tourist trap and probably overpriced but there we were with a in hand having a go at what must be one of the craziest beer halls around. It was a Friday night (even worse - who goes to a tourist trap beer hall on a Friday night), the music was loud, the seating was limited, and the wait staff absent. After waiting and walking and scouting and prowling we finally managed to find a hole on a long bench of seats. There were initial looks of disapproval when we sat down with Everest (again only just over 7 months old at this point), but the neighbors soon warmed up and within minutes we were all drinking side by side. They probably figured we were 1) alcoholics and nothing would stop us from getting a beer (not even a would stop us), 2) as parents the baby is driving
us to the alcohol or 3) we just decided a child is not going to stop us from doing what we do so here we are in a beer hall. You decide which one they picked but I think they were definitely impressed that we came armed with a bottle of milk and our best and most rattler to keep Everest entertained. To be honest the noise and crowd and people were more than enough to keep him entertained and he is just an awesome kid to travel with period. We finally caught the attention of the waitress and put in our order. The BEER was out in a flash and very good. We put in an order for sausages/ sauerkraut and pork belly/ bread pudding. I am a sausage kind of guy and to me it was really good (I could have done with a little less sauerkraut, but I also understand that this is what they do here).
