Bier Hall Walkabout Part 1

I haven't blogged about Munich yet because, at the time, our first impression wasn't so great. Arriving late in the afternoon during rush hour to a busy city with old buildings and palaces, huge churches, traffic jams, and people everywhere was a culture shock after spending three days in peaceful and scenic Murren. But it didn't take long for us to readjust our attitudes and immerse ourselves into the Bavarian lifestyle - especially since so much of Munich's culture is centered around bier (beer). Since we were here, we might as well enjoy it, right? So Tom and I decided to go on a quest to find the city's best beer and beer hall. We used a point system to determine a "winner."

First, I need to explain the concept of a beer hall. Like most everyone, we'd heard of Munich's beer halls (and Oktoberfest) but until you actually sit down to drink one of the local beers (and perhaps eat a meal) in a beer hall, you can't truly understand what the big deal is. When you pass through the tables set up outside and enter the front door of a beer hall and start walking past tables inside, and keep walking and walking and walking, past more and more tables, and notice tables stretching out on both sides as far as your eye can see, then go out back and see even more tables, and upstairs where there are more tables, and nearly ALL of them are full of people drinking beer, well you figure our real quick what the big deal is. Bavarians really like their beer.

Each beer hall sells only its own brand of beers. The beer is either helles (light or blond in color, not in calories), dunkles (dark) or Radler (half lemon soda, half beer. We don't understand why anyone would mix these two, much less order one.)

And while the decor in each hall varies, they are all essentially the same - very large buildings filled with numerous tables, bar areas with constantly flowing taps, and bar maids who can carry up to six full mugs in each hand to their thirsty customers.

We began our quest during a "Welcome to Munich" group dinner at the Augustiner Bier Hall, a place many Munchners consider to be the best in town (according to things we've read). We both ordered a helles, Tom a large, me a small, with our meal.

I ate liver dumpling soup and spinach dumplings...

and Tom had the schnitzel (the first of many we would eat over the next week).

We sat outside in the "garden" and thoroughly enjoyed the beer, the food and the experience. Ratings: Tom - Beer, 5, Atmosphere 4, Food 4. Devoni - Beer 5, Atmosphere 4, Food 4. That was it for the first night. YOLO!!