Tuesday 1: An introduction to beer

Laurie's first post. Hooray!

On Tuesday we set out straight after class and had lunch at a little cafe under Altpeter (the old St Peter's church in Munich). Nearby was a shop we thought sold souvenirs but which turned out only to have devotional figurines of various sorts, including very large crosses and statuettes (alongside the customary huge beer mugs with lids). The cafe was good though, having vegetarian and even vegan options (a rarity in dairy-loving Munich so far). Here is Kate enjoying her bunte Salatplatte.

We proceeded to the Beer and Oktoberfest Museum, a funny four-storey building in a little alley way which contains exhibits of the history of beer making and drinking. After finding our way up little twisty staircases they had various objects from early beer makers in Munich, including this surprising six-pointed star exhibit. Apparently the six pointed star was seen (by the very non-Jewish early Munich beer brewers) as a magical symbol whose special powers would prevent the beer from being spoiled while it was brewed. There are also stars on the beer mugs.
They also had a video explaining the history of beer from the early Sumerians to now (complete with entertaining historical reenactments of early civilisations), narrated by an avuncular German man very good at rolling his r's who explained admirably the strange process of creating malt (put wheat on large floor, wet it, sweep it into piles, let it germinate and then dry it out).

I lied a bit because after class, instead of going straight to the cafe, we stayed a little at the language school to get bikes. We paid 50 Euros for two bikes for a week, which was probably a reasonably good deal, but the bikes themselves are the cruddiest piles of metal ever to hit the Munich streets---no gears, wheels slightly off center, foot stands that don't hold the bike up, and tiny handle bars. On the plus side, it's good exercise having to pedal all the way up a hill without gears, and no one is likely to steal these bikes. Here we are at the Isartor, one of the three main gates of the old city remaining (dating back to the 1300's):

Finally we went to a beer garden next to the Viktualienmarkt (huge open air market) and had our first taste of Munich helles Bier (surprisingly good for someone who doesn't like beer):