Bears & Beers: Day 9

Our first full day in Munich was a success! Since the weather was perfect, we decided to take advantage of this and do the one thing we haven't been able to do in previous years - visit a major biergarten. We selected Zum Flaucher, which is locate south of the Altstadt near the Munich Zoo. It's just a few U-Bahn stops away from the city center, and is also located on the Isar.

We walked past some of the events of the second day of the Stadgeburtstag celebration. One of the local Irish-German societies had a tent and stage set up near our hotel. We stopped to listen to the music.

After a short S-Bahn ride and a shorter walk, we arrived at Zum Flaucher. There are about 1500 seats in this biergarten. It is a traditional biergarten, in that most of the seats are self service. It also means that you can bring your own food to the biergarten as long as you order drinks from the bier stalls. Susan and I elected to order food and drink from the biergarten since we weren't really interested in carrying food in and out again.

There was a band playing traditional Bavarian music.

On Sundays, Zum Flaucher roasts a whole ox.

After lunch, we went to walk along the Isar for a couple hours. Under one of the bridges, we found street art that rivaled what we saw in Berlin.

Later that evening, we were meeting up with Bene and his room mates to watch the Germany - Denmark football match. We participated in the Public Viewing at the Munich Olympic Stadium. In addition to being the Olympic Stadium, it was also home to FC Bayern Munich until 2006.

We were there with about 20,000 of our best friends!

With face paint, a flag, and appropriately colored Hawaiian leis, we were officially "'Schlanded." This is the term that the Germans have come up with when someone (German or not) displays great enthusiasm or spirit for the German National Football Team. It comes from Deutchland, the German word for Germany.