Munich: Hofbrauhaus Beer Hall

The day after our Oktoberfest experience we spent the rainy afternoon wandering around the central parts of Munich. We landed upon the famous Hofbrauhaus, but seeing as we had spent the day before downing their wonderful litres of beer we just sneaked inside to check out the interior and the "Vominator" (if you guessed a vessel made for patrons who have overindulged, you guessed Right!).

Munich: Lowenbrau Beer Hall

Our second night in Munich we headed to Lowenbrau after a day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle, an amazing work of architecture and a great day trip from Munich. But if you are thinking about going just consider the two hour train, plus short bus ride, because it will eat up most of your day. The small town, where the castle is located is called Hohenschwangau, and has the most beautiful Alpine lake I have ever seen (this being the first one I had ever seen). We would have liked to stay a while in the town of Füssen where the train station is situated, maybe find a beer garden, but seeing as we had to catch the last train to Munich we had to make a run for it!

Munich: Augustiner Beer Hall

When we arrived at the Augustiner Beer Hall we were disappointed to see the place packed with no place to sit. But, we suppose that that was to be expected only a couple short days away from the beginning of Oktoberfest. After doing the rounds a couple of times desperately looking for a spot we finally nestled up next to some travelers from Australia. They had been travelling around Europe for 6 months and on a whim made their way to Munich for the festival.

Munich Beer Gardens

Arriving in Munich from Vienna at 3 p.m. we quickly settled into our hotel room and headed straight to the Englischer Garten (English Gardens) to catch some beer drinking in the park before the sunset. I had first heard about beer gardens from Jean who had been during his first trip to Germany with high school. It seemed that people from my parent's generation all seemed to be familiar with the term, apparently they used to be popular in Montreal in the 70's. Though in Montreal today we have some good choices for enjoying a beer outdoors like the St-Ambroise Terrace situated behind their brewery along the picturesque Lachine Canal and the huge terrace behind St-Sulpice on St-Denis - just don't go there if you are expecting great beer.