Munich

Checked in late on Friday night with my hosts Tim and Mau-Fu.  Warm welcome and a hot cup of fruit tisane.  In the morning I happened upon a nearby organic bakery in Augustenstraße which Tim later described as the best bakery in Munich.  I bought a “Bayern croissant” – very buttery with a slightly salty taste and sesame seeds.

Walked into the city; it was very peaceful cold but pleasant Saturday morning.  The city was buzzing with red/white clad locals and the black/yellow jerseys of Dortmund fans, all happily mingling in the city bars and cafes.  Such a different feeling from the raw passion expressed in Gelsenkirchen last week.  Here I got the feeling that the two sets of fans feel that together they are part of the larger story, the bigger picture which is football.

I met up with our family friend, Christian Sprecher at Marienplatz and he showed me the way to the Schneider Bräuhaus in nearby Maderbräustraße.  This is a very traditional Bavarian restaurant run by the Schneider brewery which specialises in the making of Weissebier (wheat beer).  For my meal I ordered the Aventinusbierbratl from their traditional roasts menu.  This was a very juicy roast pork dish (with crackling) served with Aventinus* sauce, potato cakes and sauerkraut. 

It was great to catch up with Christian.  We talked about how the world is changing, the spectre that is Donald Trump and our respective views on libertarianism.  Christian also told the story of how his father arranged for his mother to escape East Germany in 1962 after they found themselves separated by the sudden closing of the border between East and West Germany; quite a romantic tale!

And in another surprise he told me about the time, when he was a student, when he went hiking in the US with Larry Page and Larry's brother!

* Aventinus is a strong, dark, wheat doppelbock brewed by Schneider.

The rest of my day deserves another chapter on its own.