Hofbräuhaus

So I thought I would start my blogs about the Munich beer gardens and houses where I started myself. The biggest tourist attraction for beer drinkers (other than Oktoberfest) is the Hofbräuhaus. It is a massive  brewery/restaurant in the center of Munich.

It is also the most touristy of all the brewery/restaurant hybrids, the Bavarians will be the least numerous people in there on a Friday night. There will be many more Americans than Germans in here, but that, I think is part of its charm.

It is the first place that many travelers will have a Maß (the liters of beer). I myself thought of The Lord of the Rings when Pippin says "It comes in Pints!". Only I said liters.

It is also the first place I had the legendary Schweinhaxe (Pig Knuckle), it makes you feel like a Caveman or a Viking. Then there is the potato balls (Knödl) that my friend Sarah dubbed "Gooey Potatoes". It was just so weird the first time and gave me the sense that I was going to enjoy it here. For that reason I always take my visitors there first.

So in order to get some fresh pictures and experience of the Hofbräuhaus I invited my friend Durante (my t-total vegetarian Australian friend) for a Sunday evening of liters of beer and meat on the bone (for me at least!).

A band plays Bavarian drinking songs most nights

Durante and his Alkoholfrei (which Durante may or may not know in German Law can contain up to 0.5% alcohol... weird)

A caveman that eats with a knife and fork

Gooey potatoes

This is not actually dress-up for him

We were met by more people from the Euro Youth Hostel to extend the drinking merriment

Some interesting fact about the Hofbräuhaus:

1) It inspired the worlds oldest food law in 1516; the Bavarian Beer Purity Law saying that only natural ingredients can be used in beer brewed in Munich
2) The beer there saved the city from complete annihilation during the 30 Years War when King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden invaded Bavaria in 1632. After threatening to sack and burn the city he agreed to leave the city in peace if they surrendered some hostages and 600,000 barrels of Hofbräu beer
3) In a poem Wolfgang Mozart revealed that he wrote the opera Idomendo after several visits to the Hofbräuhaus
4) Vladimir Lenin visited the Hofbräuhaus on a regular basis the year after he was released from exile in Eastern Siberia

Viel Spaß Homies!