Happy happy München

I love Munich. It was the first place I landed on my first trip to Continental Europe back in 2002. I was traveling alone at the time, pleased with my formidable arsenal of German vocabulary ('a beer please,' 'yes,' 'no,' 'pretty girl'). Naturally, I quickly found myself perched on a bench in the wonderful Hofbrau House beer hall. I've returned to Munich several times since then, reveling in how quickly friendships are forged when hoisting liter beers.

Anya and her new friends

This time around, with the Christmas markets in full swing, Anya joined me for a few days on an extended work trip and we got to experience Munich in wintertime. The snowy landscape seemed to put everyone in the Christmas spirit and, despite the freezing temps, we shuffled happily along from stall to stall looking at wooden toys, holiday decorations and sipping steaming cups of mulled wine.

One of the many Christmas markets in the center

If you'll indulge my generalizing of an entire country's population for a moment, I've observed a few things about the Germans. First and foremost, this is the only place in the world, excepting perhaps Austria, where I can simply tell my last name to the hotel clerk and he will happily write it down correctly and pronounce it better than I can. Suddenly I have a glimpse into the blissful and carefree world that the Johnsons and Hunts of the world have been living in.


They're a healthy outdoorsy bunch, the Müncheners, and prone to wearing severely euro-styled eye glasses. This can be intimidating.

But probably the most telling observation is watching a German waiting to cross the street. When the sign says 'don't walk' (or whatever it is in German; you'll recall I can only order a beer and decline a pretty girl), they do not walk.

This makes sense on a busy street, but isn't it a given that we ignore the rule when no cars are about? With a car-less view a mile in either direction, and not even the sound of a combustion engine reaching our ears, they will wait patiently.

It was exasperating to say the least and I couldn't give it more than a couple of seconds before I'd stride self-righteously across the street...probably to many shocked looks and clucks of the tongue.

Inside the royal residence, Munich.

Perhaps the Germans follow their rules, because there aren't as many to follow? I'm thinking of liquor laws in particular. In Munich you can stroll around sipping your wine out of a ceramic mug, having paid a deposit and implicitly agreed that you won't be a jackass. In the States, all drinkers would be remanded to a roped off area where there are no children allowed. Glass and ceramic would be banned of course, so, feeling like a social leper in your roped off area, you'd quickly down your beverage from a plastic cup and then toss it in the garbage.

Whatever the reason, in America, we seem to pride ourselves on bucking authority. From what I've seen in Germany, it is quite the opposite. Admittedly, here everything runs on time, everything functions correctly and 6 inches of snow only delayed our return flight by 45 minutes. But I'm still crossing the street when I damn well please.