Holiday In Bavaria: part zwei.

People are getting that joke, right?

For my last night in München, I dined at the Hofbräuhaus. For the uninitiated, this is the Bavarian hall, the perpetual bastion of Bavarianness in a city otherwise occupied by Turkish immigrants, sex shops and the Olympic stadium. And the Allianz Arena, the football stadium which actually looks like a large, multi-coloured tyre. In any case, for people wishing to see a parody of Bavaria in Bavaria itself, the Hofbräuhaus is the place to be. Although you could easily just go to Hahndorf, it's really not the same thing, is it?

Hofbräu is the grand old Bavarian beer, and the Hofbräuhaus is its dining hall celebration. Every table is incomplete without a stein of Hofbräu, which will set you back as much geld as your meal. It will be served by waiters in lederhosen, and waitresses in fetching Bavarian overalls. You will eat while accompanied by a horn-and-wind band, also lederhosen-clad, which marches from one table to another to play famous German waltzes to a captive, clapping audience. In true German style, the one meal advertised as Vegetarisch was unavailable, but thankfully I was able to get bread dumplings in a mushroom and cheese soup. Yep, that was dinner.

Although the hall is enormous, the popularity of it is such that I had to share my table with a middle-aged couple from Hannover. They spoke neither English nor French, which meant that my conversation with them tested my German to its limits. I still don't know what wissenschaft means. I should look that up at some point.

Incidentally, the large hall of the Hofbräuhaus was the site of the first mass meeting of the Nazi Party, after Hitler took over and renamed it from the German Workers Party. When he arrived in München from Vienna, he made a living selling hand-painted postcards to tourists. That's Bavarian history for you, the kind not advertised as you enter.

So that was my last night in Bavaria. In a matter of hours I'll be on a train to Bruxelles.

And for those of you enquiring as to the state of my health, I'm actually quite alright. I even have a doctor's word on that, who sent me home with nothing more than a topical cream and a letter telling Singapore Airlines that I was fit to fly. However, I am still covered from head to toe in red marks, and will confine myself to single rooms for the time being. Although I intend to see quite a bit more of Europe before the 14th, I'm still absolutely delighted - nay, ecstatic - to be coming home.