Munich Beer Garden

Tonight we went to a German Beergarden. This was unlike anything I had ever seen. Literally thousands of people in a park. In good German fashion, all sitting at tables in straight lines. A temporary fence and half a dozen video projectors all showing the soccer world cup live from South Africa. Free entry. Obviously all paid for through sales of food and beer. Everything is big here although without the tag that we tend to apply. Big beer, big pretsels and so on. No big pineapple though. As you can see the beer glasses are big they collect them with a sort of ute golf buggy sized vehicle which drives around with a couple of waiters clearing the tables and puttibg the glasses on the tray of the ute.

About half the people must have come on bicycles though because there was a field of them parked just outside the gate. I assume the police don't breath test cyclists.

A pity such an event could not happen in Australia due to the over regulation we experience. This was a family event with kids, dogs and BYO food all free and all in the one area. In Aus, we would have no dogs, no kids anywahere near the licensed area and you would not be allowed to bring your own food. So what would be left would be kids playing in the park while the 20yo guys get drunk watching TV.

Another thing that is a bit different here is that people eat late. We did not arrive until about 9pm and left around 11pm. It takes a bit of getting used to. I wonder how they manage to work and sleep because they still seem to start work at 7am and yet don't get home until 7pm or so.