Doppelbock serendipity

Today should be a sight-seeing day but we just aren't organised. We've not really got a list of sites penciled in, so it will be a wander round down-town Munich hopefully avoiding the drunken hordes.

Liz had found a fabric shop selling authentic local fabric used for making traditional dirndl skirts. By coincidence it is close to one of the few slightly less well know tourist sites. The cinema at Sedlinger Tor doesn't use commercial poster bills to advertise films but paints its own. One man has been doing this for over 25 years, the huge posters are normally completed in one evening and give the cinema a wonderful olde worlde look.

On to the fabric shop. The assistant couldn't have been more helpful. They had a good range of fabulous material but at over £30 a metre Liz eventually decided against getting anything. Not so much the cost but too much choice when she has no firm idea exactly what she will do with it. Shame.

On to the food and flower market for a wander (and a cake) and then a little shopping. As usual Karstadt have sales and Liz found far too many 2m lengths of cotton on sale. Not the trachten she was looking for but nice printed cottons. And I bought some Brio on offer and the 2 player version of Carcassonne for just €4.99

Oh for goodness sake, this blog is bo-oring!! Here's a picture of the Viktualienmarkt maypole to liven it up

Two other photo opportunities escaped us. As we rounded a corner a cyclist passed us - on a penny-farthing. The weird thing was it was obviously a modern made bike not an antique. He passed by too fast to photograph - and one thing I know, you can't ask a penny-cyclist to stop and pose! The other sight was the magnificent HofBrau dray making its way through the traffic.

Talking of beer, we wandered the back streets, briefly looked in at the Frauenkirche and then by complete accident stumbled on the Andecsher am dom brauhuas. Kloster Andecs is a monastery that has been brewing since 1455. So even by Bavarian standards it's 'quite' old. Their speciality is a 7% abv doppelbock. It's dark, it's strong, it's malty sweet and it is VERY good. We order food and the beer washes the meatloaf down so well I just have to have a second!

Back to the van, cuppa a then down to the on-site bar. Be rude not to. That's where this blog is coming from!