Munich 9-4,6
		Munich is a pleasant surprise. I wasn't planning on spending much time here but I am sure glad I made the stop.  The Alps are close, the town is probably the most cosmopolitan in Germany, they had the book I was looking for for two weeks and they had monster beer halls.  Beer, Beer Gardens, Hofbraus are a way of life here.
		Coming down to Munich on the Romantic Road bus, I travelled with a group of students of Osaka Institute of Technology, we had a fun time on the bus.
					Mental note: spend the 20 bucks and get a good guide book.  Munich (or Munchen or Muuhen to the Japanese) is the first place I travelled to where I didn't have a guide book.  For some reason Rick's book didn't have it in there so I arrived in town a little late and little things like navigating public transportation and finding your hotel can really slow you down.  The good thing was that I made an educated guess to stay in the old city center, when I popped out of the u-bahn station, here's my view.  Nice huh.  This square was pedestrianized for the Olympics in 72.  That's the "new" city hall, only 100 years old.
		The must see sights of Munich are the Residence (royal palace) and the Deutsche Museum which is kind of like a huge Exploratorium.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention the other must see sights....
					The fricken humongus beer gardens.  Beer is a way of life here, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  If you want the normal size you get a huge beer and a huge pretzel. One of the beer gardens holds over 8000 people. They are very relaxed places, you sit with strangers, bring your own food and hang.  This is lunchtime on a Thursday.  The Hofbrauhaus is the most famous and during Octoberfest they go through 200,000 liters of beer a day, all served by these tough beer ladies.
		They start them early here.  I think the lady is trying to keep her newborn from finishing the beer. One time, when the Opera house was burning in the winter, the pipes were frozen so there was no water.  They tried to put the fire out with their next most plentiful liquid, beer, but the problem was that Bavarian beer has a pretty high alcohol content and you can guess what happend.  Bavaria is really different than the rest of Germany and it's the place to plant yourself if you are going to live here.
					I jumped on the subway today and realized that the olympic stadium was only a few stops away.  It was here in '72 that the terrorists killed Israeli althletes and the day I visited, there were many folks memorializing the 30th anniversery.  The stadium itself was a sight and it amazed me that it was built over 30 years ago.  A funny thing is that I was watching the European Championships on TV last month, that were held here and the Germans just couldn't get the scores or times right. For a country known for their precision... must have been too much beer.
		Just cause this is a cool shot that I got last night after a slight sprinkle.  Here is my favorite beer story.  The name Munich comes from the work Monk.  Well the monks were pretty savy. For lent, they were limited to one beer a day, so what did they do? Brewed their own and made bigger mugs.  That's why the Weiss beer here is 12% alcohol and served in a liter mug.  Good thinking and no rules broken!