So I woke up at 4am yesterday and Lisa drive me to the train station to get the express train to gatwick airport which I am really grateful for. Plane was delayed an hour and a half because of thunderstorms in Munich. Wouldn't have thought so when I got here because it was clear blue skies and mid twenties at 10:30 when I finally arrived. I have to say travelling with just carry on luggage is so much easier to get around. Got picked up by a driver from the airport and got to john's place not long after. So had a quick coffee and then straight out.

Spent the whole day getting around by bicycle so managed to get a fair bit of exercise done, however that would've been completely negated by the amount of beer I drank. Or maybe I should look at it the other way around.

So on to the first beer garden in the middle of the main park in munich, which is the biggest in Europe and a true wonder to behold. There's a massive river that runs through the middle and at one of the many bridges the force of the water creates a swirl of water that people surf on. It was the most bizarre sight, watching people in wetsuits surfing a small current in the middle of a park. It's the cover photo of this blog entry. Then we kept riding and given the hot weather people in munich like to relax and unwind and get lay about stark naked, not exactly something you see everyday but apparently it's just what people do here, strip and play naked volleyball.

Finally made it the first beer garden and they are truly amazing. Hundreds of tables set up with a single food shop and bar and everyone just walks up buys a bit of food grab a beer and then spends the whole day talking and drinking. So of course the best way to start in Germany is to get a 1 litre stein and just keep going from there.

Finished our first beers and then jumped on the bikes again and rode to the next one which is set up like the queen Victoria market but outdoors with a beer garden, Monday I might wander back here and have a look through the market if I get time.

Then onto the next one after about 20 minutes of riding through the city. The beer gardens just get bigger and bigger this one had a giant screen set up for the football and apparently had 4000 Germans sitting around and watching the game ad just drinking beer the whole time, I suppose to drown their sorrows because Germany lost which is a real shame because it would've been an experience to be in Germany for the euro cup with Germany in the final. But oh well can't have everything go right.

So sat around and drank more beer and ate chicken and potato salad then moved onto one more for a half stein of German wheat beer, which really is something else. The beer here in general is amazing and insanely cheap about €5 for 1 litre steins to put that in perspective that's cheaper than a pint back home so suck it b****es.

Decided by this stage it was probably time to get some dinner so dropped the bikes off and went around the corner to another smaller beer garden/restaurant and sat around drinking more beer. John invited a friend of his along, the daughter of a woman john used to work with travelling around the world, and she brought a friend of hers as well. So stayed there until about 11:30 and by this stage I'd drunk about my own body weight of beer so figured it was time to change things up and go to a bar near by. Changed it up a bit and had a mojito instead and then to the next bar for another one. After that to a club and got there about 1am, the girls split about an hour later as Doro was driving to Frankfurt the next day.

So John and I kept going until about 4am here and then went outside and the sun was coming up which was a bit of a shock considering the time. Then went to another one for a bit and then one final one and collapsed back at home around 6:30am. For those of you keeping track at home that's 26 hours straight for me and around 18 hours of drinking. The crazy thing is even though I'd drunk so much I didn't at any point feel that drunk. The beer here is quite alcoholic but didn't get me really drunk even after mixing drink I still felt in control which made it a lot easier to keep going.

So today going out of Munich to see the lakes, may as well do some touristy things whilst here but ten going to an opening of a club tonight so should be fun.

A la prochaine

E