We only serve full Lina's here... and she was!

We saw a bit more of Switzerland with our stop in Lucerne and then on to Lichtenstein for a driving break. The Lichtenstein passport stamp is really cool, apparently, so the government set up a booth in the middle of town where you can pay 2 swiss francs and get your passport stamped. We thought it was a bit cheesy but the Busabout guide was raving about how cool the stamp was so we got it but when we looked at in our passports it was a real let down... quite plain really. We asked the lady in the booth and she told us they changed it 2 weeks beforehand but they still have the booth to take your money :)

Next stop Munich, Germany. Apart from Athens, our hostel (two subway rides and a bit of a walk later) tops the list as the worst. We had to pay an additional 4 euro each per night for being over 26 years old and our shared room was a bunk bed that we had to make ourselves with the linen that we eventually found downstairs in the basement. Note to cook: cinnamon and scrambled eggs is NOT a recipe.

Other than our accommodation, Munich has turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip. Our first day we spent on a free walking tour of the city. An excellent tour where the Irish tour guide, Leif (but living in Munich for 7 years) was very knowledgeable. It turns out he set up his own tours in Cork, Ireland in a previous life and he gave us heaps of info about Ireland which has since proven to be very useful. The tour was one of the best we've been on, full of info and many places of interest. We ended up in a biergarten in the Chinese gardens - what a fantastic atmosphere. An oompah band playing in the bandstand, chestnut trees providing ample shade and so much beer. The walk there was interesting too. We passed over a bridge that below it an artificial wave has been created by the careful placement of an underwater wall across a fast running river. Plenty of surfers taking their turns with varying degrees of skill. Around the corner from that we saw some of the local kids jumping in the river and riding the current about a kilometre. Much of Munich was rebuilt in the 60's due to the damage from war. We had our first taste of a biergarten in the Chinese gardens - what a fantastic atmosphere. All the tables are lined up so that often people are sitting together that don't know each other at the time of arrival and by the time you leave, its like you are old friends. During the soccer world cup, this garden sat up to 6,000 people, to imagine it would be incredible.

Next day we had an early climb to the top of the old St Peters Cathedral for some very nice views from the top. We wandered through the market and found a stall that sells a traditional German food - pork knuckle - Yummo!! So bad for you but if you're ever in Germany you've got to have a least one (per day).

Since we were in one of the beer capitals of the world we thought it would be remiss of us not to sample as much of the local produce as possible. So went to a few of the more notable brauhauses. Firstly a quick stop at Andechs for a Doppelbock, bloody beautiful if a tiny bit sweet, and a Dunkelweiss. Then a bit of trip out to Paulaner for 5 200ml samples of their range. Well worth the train ride and walk. Lina was very happy at this stage :) Back into Munich proper to Augustiner, one of the more popular halls but surprisingly not the great beer that was touted by a few locals. Next was off to Weisses Brauhaus for a meal (pork knuckle) and some Aventinus Weizenstarkbier and a couple of Weizeneisbocks. This happens to be one of the worlds great beers in my opinion so you can imagine how happy I was to see it on the menu. It's also one of the world's strongest beers at 12% so after a couple of these you can imagine we were both feeling fine.

Our final stop was the Hofbrauhaus which is also the place where Hilter launched his political career. You can still make out the schwatikas on the ceiling but are mostly covered up. A bit of a shame they have had to do this when you consider they were in the Hofbrauhaus first and Hitler "adopted" the design for his own purposes. We managed to wade through this very packed hall and found a spot near a couple of polite Americans and got chatting with the 10 pommy guys behind us. An old guy took our order and told Lina in a very matter of fact German drill sergeant voice that they only serve full litres here. None of those woosey half litre glasses here! And so began the wrist straining adventure of Lina's first muss. (Pronounced "moos" where the "oo" is as in "book"). They finally kicked us out at midnight and somehow we made it home. An awesome day and night and damn what a hangover for one of us! Can you guess which one could barely function the next day??

Next stop... on to Bamberg

S&L

PS we are actually back in Australia now but over the next few weeks (months?) we'll be continuing the blog and I'll finally have time to put some photos up.