Munchen

AN INTERNATIONAL PHONE CALL SHOP, MUNICH: I am know in the city that Lonely Planet describes as the Bavarian motherlode. And drinking steins of dark beer with Chinese space scientists in a cavernous beer hall complete with drunken revelers and an oompah band, I was inclined to agree with them.

It was a lucky thing we found the much feted beer hall as we were drinking upstairs and wondering why this place wasn't living up to its expectations. It was only as we went to leave we found this beer hall as big as an jumbo jet hangar. Almost the Kremlin all over again.

Earlier in the day we wondered around downtown Munich checking out some of their beautiful gothic architecture and some more amazing churches. One of them even claims to have the devil's footprint embedded in the entryway. He's about size 10 if anyone is interested! Then we visited the Deutches Museum which is a science nut's wetdream. There was only enough time to scratch the surface of things but we visited the space pavillion, saw displays and interactive things on bridge buildings, walked through what seemed to be kilometres of mine shafts, saw a model train show, learned about asthma drugs and marvelled at the size of jet engines. It was definitely one of the best, and probably the biggest, science museum I've ever visited.

Today we visted the two major art galleries: the Alter Pinkothek and the Neu Pinkothek. The Neu Pinkothek was one of the crappest art galleries I have ever visited. Filled with room after room of totally dull realist paintings, it was only saved by one of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", a nice Bonnard, a nice Degas and a couple of other good Impressionist paintings. The other gallery had room after room of Rubens, including one of the biggest pictures I've ever seen, a couple of nice Raphaels, another two Brueghels, tonnes of Duhrer, a good da Vinci and some average Rembrandts.

Tonight I think it'll just be a couple of quiet pints in the hostel and hopefully some footy on the tv. I've already seen Harry Kewell net an absolute scorched against Spurs this afternoon. Watch out Roberto Carlos.