When we were deciding which countries we would visit, Emma was pretty enthusiastic about wanting to go to Switzerland. I asked her why, thinking that maybe she had learned something in school about Switzerland that she found interesting, but she just said “chocolate”. So of course, since that was a big reason we were in Zurich, we had to go to the Lindt Chocolate Factory.
There is no denying that the Lindt Factory is a tourist trap. Everyone knows about Swiss Chocolate and Lindt is probably the most well-known Swiss chocolate brand. This tour is very popular and planning ahead is definitely recommended. We purchased our tickets from the Lindt website and reserved our time months in advance since tours sell out frequently. They cost around $15 (depending on the current exchange rate).
No, you are not allowed to jump in the chocolate fountain.
Entering into the building, there is a reception desk and a large chocolate fountain. The smell of chocolate is really intense almost to the point where it feels like you’re breathing chocolate. The lobby is very large and modern with white marble floors, concrete walls and glass. A spiral staircase leads you to the second floor where the tour begins.
The tour is actually much more interesting than I thought it would be. They start out covering the process of growing cacao pods as well as the various steps, like fermentation and roasting, that is required to turn those pods into chocolate.
A room devoted to the history of chocolate
Next there are a bunch of exhibits that cover the history of chocolate. Chocolate started as a bitter drink that had been enjoyed by the Maya and Aztecs. During colonization, of course, chocolate was brought to Europe where it slowly evolved from being a bitter drink to a sweet food.
Interactive exhibit that shows the evolution of the chocolate market in Switzerland
They also had quite a few exhibits specifically devoted to the Swiss chocolate economy. They cover everything from how the chocolate market evolved in Switzerland to how much of that chocolate is enjoyed in countries around the world.
A variety of hands on exhibits are designed to be kid friendly.
There are quite a few hands on interactive exhibits throughout the tour. They were really well-designed to provide a lot of great information about the subject, while giving children something to play with. One example of this was a map of Switzerland where as you move a dial which controls the decade. And for each decade it shows which Swiss chocolate producers were operating and where in Switzerland. It also provides some data about how much sales and exports occurred during that time.
A display of chocolate molds and packaging from 1900-1950.
I was enjoying my time in the exhibits but the rest of the family was not as interested as I was. The main reason for that was that at the end of the tour, you can sample a bunch of chocolate.
Fountain for trying milk chocolate
They’re are three main tasting sections. The first is a series of chocolate fountains where there are a bunch of disposable spoons so that you can taste white chocolate, milk chocolate, and dark chocolate in liquid form.
chocolate square dispenser
The second tasting section is a bunch of over-engineered chocolate square dispensers that invite you to try the chocolate and then guess what the flavor was.
In the plastic cylinders, you are invited to grab as many Lindor truffles as you can eat.
The third section was the a bunch of flavors of the Lindt chocolate balls. This was the part Jenn was looking forward to. For some weird reason, I married someone who rarely eats sweets. When she snacks it’s normally chips or popcorn and only rarely eats chocolate. The Lindt chocolate truffle balls are one big exception and they are a requirement for her Christmas stocking every year.
An elaborate Rube Goldberg machine which distributes a special chocolate at the end of the tour.
Once we were through the tasting section, of course, we had to go into the gift shop. It’s impressive. They have a ton of flavors that you will never find in a store. I came across a Lindor truffle ball made with matcha tea, for example. You can get slabs of chocolate decorated with a message. There was a dizzying array of chocolate bars and gift boxes. It’s a chocolate lovers dream.
You can get these chocolate slabs decoratoned with a message if you like.
In the end, we didn’t buy too much. We had a long trip set up and knowing that we were going to have to travel with chocolate during the summer we didn’t want to risk the chocolate melting. We were able to eat some of it on our next stop in Munich, but then the day we left Munich for Venice we accidentally left the bag in the fridge at the AirBnB. So our loss was probably a nice surprise for the person who had to clean the AirBnB.
This is a fairly insane wall of truffle balls.
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the tour. The tour takes about 45 minutes (Unless your group wants to fly through the exhibits and get to the tastings). It was very well done and designed to be interesting to kids and adults. I also can’t imagine anyone not enjoying the chocolate tasting section and they seem to limit the number of people in the museum at a time to a reasonable amount so it never seemed too crowded. The gift shop is also excellent. This is definitely worth visiting if you are in Zurich.
Sometime this last winter, Jenn was talking about wanting to take a Girls’ trip (with her Mom and her Sister) to celebrate a milestone birthday for her Sister. We had basically just completed booking our European vacation just a couple of months earlier and we had learned a valuable lesson from that booking that we didn’t want to repeat – don’t be dependent on one way to book.
What I mean by that is that when we booked our flights to Europe, all we had was United miles, and that was our only option. If the flights weren’t cheap enough on United, we weren’t going or we were paying cash. So the solution to this issue was to find multiple ways of booking flights on points and make sure that we stockpile points in multiple areas.
The Power of Stockpiling Points
Jenn had already begun to accumulate Ultimate Reward points by taking advantage of two 90k bonuses for Chase Ink cards as well as a 60k Chase Sapphire bonus. Since they were thinking Mexico or the Caribbean, Chase Ultimate Reward points, having the ability to transfer to Southwest Airlines or United Airlines, might make sense.
We also added over 80k points by meeting the the minimum spend on a Capital One Venture card. That’s intriguing because Capital One miles transfers to the Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles program where booking round trip United Airlines saver flights to Mexico and the Caribbean often costs only 20k points .
Jenn also jumped on a 75k point bonus offer on the Delta Business Gold Card. When she did it, I scoffed a little because a lot of people joke about Delta Skymiles as being “Sky Pesos”. It’s a bit of a joke because Delta is notoriously expensive to fly to Europe or in business class on points. That being said, I think people might find that Skymiles could be particularly valuable for domestic and North American international economy award tickets and Jenn found that out.
In this case, Jenn received an email from Delta about a flash sale, and went on to Delta’s website, where she was surprised to find a round trip flight out of Moline Airport to Cancun in January for 26k Skymiles each. Because of the 15% award discount afforded to Delta Gold Card holders, she was able to book it for 22k Skymiles and $116 in taxes each for a total of 66K and $348. Those flights were priced at that time at $631 each, which means that this redemption was more than 2.3 cents per point which is a really good value for airline miles and definitely not worthy of being derided as “Sky Pesos”. This is particularly great, because good award rates out of the Moline Airport are usually hard to find, and typically we fly out of Chicago because of it, which usually means booking a hotel and paying for pretty expensive parking.
Because of the fact that we had significant amounts of Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One Venture miles and Delta Skymiles, we were able to keep our eyes open for special rates with Delta, United, and Southwest Airlines, as well as being able to book Sky Alliance flights through Turkish Miles and Smiles or Avianca Lifemiles. I’m sure that we could get more creative than that, but honestly, it wasn’t needed in this case. Having flexibility in multiple programs allowed Jenn to be patient and wait for a great deal, and then jump on it when she had the opportunity.
The nice thing about a vacation rental is having a working kitchen, and this one looks pretty nice.
Flexibility on Booking Lodging
We had some flexibility built into our points for lodging as well. We had accumulated a decent amount of Wyndham points, and a respectable but not huge amount of Marriott Bonvoy points. However, with Jenn having a nice stockpile of Chase Ultimate Reward points, which transfers 1:1 to World of Hyatt points, that also made Hyatt a good possibility as well. Because of a status match made possible by Jenn’s Wyndham Business Earner card to Ceasars Rewards (visit Upgraded Points for more details), we also had a 4 night “free” stay available at Atlantis in Nassau in the Bahamas. The Atlantis stay would have had a bunch of extra resort fees that would have added up to over $200 a night and was quickly eliminated. Chase and Marriott were definitely possibilities, but the Wyndham-Vacasa partnership is just too good to pass up. We booked a Vacasa with Wyndham points before and got great value for that redemption.
The rental is in a complex with a pool on the beach.
Jenn decided to book a 1 bedroom Vacasa in Playa Del Carmen for 54,000 Wyndham points total for a 4 night stay. That particular Vacasa typically would rent for $1,325 for a 4 night stay in January meaning that those points were redeemed at 2.4 cents per point. This is another ridiculous value considering Wyndham points are generally valued at 1.1 cents per point. Booking a Vacasa rental with Wyndham points is a little weird because you have to call a special line to do it, but the rules are simple. Vacasa rentals cost $15k points per night per bedroom and is bookable with points as long as the cash price is under $500 per night per bedroom. For example, a one bedroom is bookable for 15K points per night as long as it costs under $500 and a 2 bedroom is bookable for 30k points per night as long as the cash rate is under $1000. Having a Wyndham Business Earner card gives you a 10% point discount on those rates. (Update – the ability to book Vacasa vacation rentals with Wyndham points has ended as of December 2025)
Obviously we’ll have to wait until they get there to find out if the Vacasa rental is as nice as the photos, but it looks gorgeous. It looks like Jenn did a great job booking this trip and I really hope they all have a great time (I’m sure she’ll feel sorry for me shoveling mounds of snow out of our driveway while she’s sipping a Bohemia Oscura cerveza on the beach). In the end, this was made possible because Jenn had the ability to be flexible with dates, locations and points programs. It allowed them to book what looks like a great vacation for not a lot of points and cash.
I may Have Created a Monster
When we got started with points and miles, it was pretty much me doing all of the research, listening to podcasts, reading blogs, and doing as much internet research as I could. As we started to have some success, with booking trips to Cabo San Lucas as well as our trip to Europe this summer, Jenn really started to not only get interested in points and miles, but she actually really gets it now. I expected to have to guide her on planning this trip, but for the most part, other than a couple of suggestions, she did this on her own and it was undoubtedly the best trip in terms of redemption value that we’ve made. Going forward, I think with both of us having a solid understanding of points and miles, we should have some great trips ahead, as long as she decides to come back from Mexico, of course.
So we did it! We took our first trip outside of the continent. For the kids, it was the first time they had left the country. As I expected, it was difficult at times, travelling is never easy and travelling to places where English isn’t the primary language is even more difficult. We turned out to be fairly well prepared, however, and were able to get around pretty easily. We had a great time in Europe and we were already talking about how we would return before we even pulled into our driveway. Luckily for us, we’ve figured out enough hacks to do it affordably.
Since both Jenn and I were signed up with the US Bank Business Leverage Card which both required a $7,500 spend in 4 months there haven’t been credit card signups ($15,000 is a lot of spending to meet for us). I did manage to hit my required spend on the Leverage Card and received my $750 cash back sign up bonus and I also had accumulated another $125 or so of cash back on the normal spending. So for what was probably close to $8,000 in spending on the card, getting around $875 in cash back is around an 11% cash back rate and I’m not mad about it. Jenn should hit her bonus in the next couple of months and that should be about the same. We immediately used the cash back from the Leverage Card along with the $425 left from my US Bank Altitude Card for spending money in Europe. That $1,275 did take a nice chunk out of our expenses while we were there and it was great to be able to use the cash back that way.
On to the Point Check!
I spent around $3,600 on my US Bank Leverage Card and earned $54 in cash back and also finished up the $750 sign up bonus. I spent around $200 on my United card and earned 300 United Miles. Jenn Spent $300 on her Chase Ink Unlimited and $600 on her Chase Ink Cash and earned a total of 3,300 Ultimate Reward points. Jenn also spent a little over $200 on her Wyndham Business Earner Card and earned almost 1,800 Wyndham points (I love that 8x on gas!). Jenn spent around $700 on her US Bank Leverage card and earned $11 in cash back. The only redemption was the $1,275 of cash back we used.
We finished the month with around 276,000 Chase Ultimate Reward Points, 83,000 Capital One Miles, 80,000 Delta Miles, 65,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, 26,000 Citi points, 24,000 United Miles, 5,000 American Airlines Miles and 2,000 Hyatt Points. We also were left with an underwhelming $66 in cash back. All of this left us with a total points value, according to The Points Guy of $10,100.
I have a long-term goal to be multilingual. I would like to travel as much as I can and I don’t want to depend on people speaking English to me. In general, I think if you roll into a country and speak the native language you’re going to have a better experience than you will if you rely on people to speak English. The problem is I’m horrible at learning languages and I’m not exactly young. This is going to take a lot of work.
Why become Multilingual?
Certainly you can travel to countries without learning their language, people do it all the time. English is the most commonly spoken second language in the world. That’s great since I’m a native English speaker! However, just because someone can speak to you in English doesn’t mean they want to and I bet if you venture away from touristy cities, the likelihood you’ll find a person who speaks English decreases dramatically. So if you want to get off the beaten path a little, you might want to speak the native language, at least a little.
Why Duolingo?
My wife introduced me to Duolingo a couple of years ago. We were planning a trip to Germany and my idea to learn German was basically to watch German TV with English subtitles. Honestly, I’m not sure how long that would take, but I’m guessing it would have been a significant amount of time. It didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere at all.
She suggested it because she was using it to learn Spanish and she said it felt like a game. I tried it and I would definitely agree with her – they’ve gamified language learning in a way that keeps you learning, which is probably the most important part of learning a language.
Duolingo is Essentially a Game
Duolingo does a great job of tricking you into staying engaged with the app. With social media that’s a bad thing, but when you’re learning a language you need to stay engaged to actually learn it. Like a lot of games, there are hearts that you get on a time basis. In Duolingo, you earn 1 heart every 5 hours, capping at 5 hearts. When you make a mistake while you’re learning, you lose a heart. When you are out of hearts, you can practice to earn more hearts or you can quit and wait long enough that you’ve gained more hearts (the paid version of Duolingo doesn’t use hearts and you can do as many lessons as you want and make unlimited mistakes) There are gems that you earn for accomplishing certain goals, which can be used for buying additional hearts as well.
The top ribbon on the app contains the icon of the language you’re working on, a fire emoji for the length of your streak in days, the number of gems earned and number of hearts remaining.
They also use leagues to keep you engaged. You earn points when you complete lessons. Every week you are placed in a league with 30 other “players” and the top 7 move up a league and the bottom 5 move down. This tricks you into staying engaged because you want to win your league, right? I’m honestly embarrassed to admit how much this little trick works on me.
And then there are streaks. As you progress, the app will keep reminding you how many days in a row you’ve completed at least one lesson. This basically guilts you into logging in. – and Duo (the cute Owl mascot of Duolingo) will remind you in a notification on your phone that you don’t want to break your streak. You are granted freezes that will automatically pause your streak if you for some reason miss a day, but you only get so many of them.
If you don’t do your lesson every day Duo the owl will hunt you down.
This is all to say that what Duolingo absolutely excels at is keeping their users engaged which is probably the most important thing when learning a language because learning a language requires a lot of time and repetition.
How does Duolingo Work?
For the most part, Duolingo’s lessons are quizzes. Sometimes you will be asked to translate using blocks and sometimes you’ll have to actually write translations out (while using correct spelling). Other times you will be asked to speak something out loud into your phone or listen to someone else speaking and write it down. Duolingo does offer quite a few clues along the way, such as being allowed to tap on any underlined word to find the translation.
What are the advantages of Duolingo?
In my experience, Duolingo is very good at helping you learn grammar rules and building vocabulary. When learning new words the app uses that word over and over again to try to get it to stick in your memory, and then will return to remind you of that new word later on, just to make sure it stays with you. The same pattern is generally true for grammar rules, where Duolingo may introduce a concept like gendered adjectives and might spend a series of lessons working on that concept, and then return to it later.
In my experience, so far, what I think Duolingo excels at is teaching people how to translate from one language to another. That’s really important, of course, because as I’ve discovered when you’re standing in a subway station trying to figure out which word means arrivals and which means departures, translation ability does help.
What are the disadvantages of Duolingo?
What Duolingo seems to lack is the ability to get the user to feel comfortable speaking to others. But this makes sense, right? You don’t practice having conversations on the app, you are primarily practicing translation. From what I’ve seen, this is a common complaint about Duolingo and a number of other language learning products use that in their advertising. While I’ve never seen them use Duolingo’s name specifically, it’s pretty obvious who they are targeting with their criticism. It’s an entirely valid criticism, but I don’t think that should stop you from using the app.
Is Duolingo really worth it?
In my opinion, the most important thing you can do to learn a language is expose yourself to it. The best feature of Duolingo is that it keeps you engaged while you are learning the language. Also, by gamifying language learning, it seems like less of a chore. That is really important in keeping you engaged long enough to actually learn the language and not quit because it’s too hard. I really think the best strategy is to use Duolingo for what it’s good for – vocabulary and learning grammar and fill in the gaps with other methods. I have a couple of podcasts that I listen to in order to get more acquainted with the sound of language. I like Coffee Break language series as well as the Easy Languages series. Those you can find by going to your favorite podcast app and searching for Coffee Break German or Easy Spanish, etc. What I haven’t done yet, and I’ve considered it, is to use a language tutor to practice speaking a language with. Italki.com is one service that connects learners with tutors and I’m sure there are many others. Of course, the best method is to move somewhere for a while and immerse yourself in that language, but for obvious reasons that’s not an option for most people.
How much does Duolingo cost?
I’ve been doing the free version of Duolingo which limits the number of hearts you receive and you can do this, but you will be forced to watch a lot of ads. That doesn’t bother me, but if it bothers you then you might want to pay for the service. The paid service is Super Duolingo and it does offer additional features like personalized practice. It provides unlimited hearts and no ads. Super Duolingo costs $7 per month for individuals or $10 for a family of up to 6.
How is it working for me?
One thing that I had a hard time finding online is what I could expect if I got to a certain milestone in Duolingo. I could see I was making progress in the app and thought “I should be able to make it to Unit 75 by the time I go to Germany” but I didn’t know what that would do for me. Would I be able to order food at a restaurant or talk to the person at the hotel desk in German? Below I plan to update my language progress with my travel experiences to show what to expect when learning languages.
Cabo San Lucas – January 2023 (8 Spanish units and around 5000 XP)
I took a little Spanish in High School but that was many, many years ago. I think Americans in general get at least a little exposure to Spanish on a regular basis. Because of that Spanish feels more natural to me than German. I pretty much flew through the first 8 units of Spanish, it all felt like review to me. That being said, when we got to Mexico I really struggled trying to speak it. I wasn’t surprised at all, I was barely into the program – there is 230 units and I had completed 8. That being said, just having some basics at top of mind, like gracias, de nada, por favor, etc. was really important. One thing that I learned really quickly was that I wish I had learned more food vocabulary before we left. When you’re on vacation, food is a pretty big part of your concerns and you want to try the best foods while you’re in a different country. At restaurants in Cabo San Lucas, menus are typically in both English and Spanish but not necessarily at the grocery store, so we probably missed out on trying something really good by skipping over certain things that we couldn’t translate.
Stockholm – July 2023 (2 Units – 1500 XP)
Ok, I basically never used any Swedish while were in Sweden. In the short amount of time that I did spend on Swedish I did start to notice some similarities between German and Swedish as well as English and Swedish. That’s one of those reminders that as you learn languages, other languages get easier to learn.
Beware, Swedish food can be weird
I’m probably not ever going to really learn Swedish for a couple of reasons. The first is that almost all Swedes are really proficient in English. The second is that I’ll probably never spend a significant amount of time there. The climate is not to my liking and frankly it’s a little pricey. It’s a beautiful country and I’m sure we’ll visit, but there is very little incentive for me to spend much energy on learning Swedish. That being said, it would have been helpful when shopping for chocolates as Jenn picked up what she thought was chocolate with coffee and bought black saltlakrits, which is chocolate with salty black licorice. She had saved this chocolate bar for at least a week after we got back from Sweden, she sat down to enjoy it and quickly learned it was black licorice and she was pissed.
Italy – July 2023 (5 Units – 3,000 XP)
I really thought Italian was easier to at least get the basics of. The pronunciation seems fairly predictable and I just love how Italian feels musical. It’s really a beautiful language and it’s definitely a place I would love to live and truly learn the language. That being said, I don’t think Duolingo will get you anywhere near fluent unless they expand this curriculum. There are only 57 units total. I got through only 5, but I did find myself saying some of the basics when we were in Italy, like per favore, grazie, and scuzzi. Much of the vocabulary overlaps Spanish so I had the ability to guess at some words. I hope Duolingo expands the Italian curriculum, because I’ll probably work through it.
German – Zurich and Munich (July 2023 – 77 Units – 65,000 points)
Ok, I put a ton of effort into learning German – to a point where it annoys Jenn. Honestly German is hard. It just doesn’t seem right to me. The word order is odd for an English speaker and it feels like I’m always one step behind when listening to German because of it.
Progress in July 2023
I had made it through 77 of the 137 available units with around 65,000 XP. I was really hoping that I would be able to have basic conversations with people in Germany but that didn’t really happen. The biggest issue was that I wasn’t prepared for how fast Germans speak. While my vocabulary isn’t terrible, it does take a while for my brain to translate what people are saying, not to mention the time it takes to formulate a response. I was able to speak in situations where I was able to anticipate the conversation, such as when ordering food at a restaurant.
Where I found my limited knowledge useful was translating signs, packaging, menus, etc. We visited grocery stores in every place we went in Europe and I definitely was more comfortable shopping in Munich and Zurich. Also, when we were in the Viktualienmarkt in Munich, being able to quickly scan the signs and pick out the butcher shops, cheese shops and bakeries by the signs made the visit easier.
I did notice that the lessons I did immediately after leaving Germany were way easier, which demonstrates to me how much you learn just from visiting a country on a short trip.
Overall Impression of Duolingo
I definitely think there are better ways of learning a language. The fact you’re not having real conversations while learning is a detriment. However, the convenience of being able to work on a lesson or two while waiting virtually anywhere is huge. It essentially allows a user to do some language learning while they’re wasting time and in the end, isn’t that better then doom scrolling Facebook or playing Candy Crush? Yes, you’ll probably need to do something else in conjunction with Duolingo in order to develop true fluency, but at least the knowledge you learn from the app will make it much easier. I’m planning to continue to use Duolingo and I know that it will further me along in my goal to be multilingual.
I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t that excited about going to Hofbräuhaus. It just seemed like something that we had to do to check it off our Munich to do list. I just assumed that it was going to be crowded, kitschy and most likely mediocre. Being a bit of a beer aficionado (perhaps a beer snob), going to Munich and not visiting what is essentially the cathedral of Munich beer culture is almost criminal, so of course, we went.
Germans take their beer seriously. During the Middle Ages, beer was made from any number of ingredients. Beer basically needs 4 things – water, a source of sugar (to ferment into alcohol), something to balance sweetness, and yeast for fermentation. In the middle ages, the source of sugar could be fruit, beets, malted barley or wheat. That sweetness from the sugar would be normally balanced by some kind of bittering herb or flower. I imagine that with brewers using all kinds of ingredients (especially in an unscientific age), beer was probably wildly inconsistent and perhaps even poisonous if the wrong herb was used.
Copper washbasin with a inscription.
William IV, Duke of Bavaria adopted Reinheitsbebot (German Purity Law) in 1516 which regulated beer production to water, barley and hops. Yeast was an unknown ingredient in 1516, since microorganisms were unknown at that time, but was later added to the law once it was discovered to be the engine of fermentation. So why am I mentioning this? Well Germans take their beer so seriously that they have a law regulating the ingredients – they’re not messing around. To be fair, if you violated the law you wouldn’t be executed or anything, but your beer would be confiscated and presumably destroyed.
The ceilings of the beer hall are stunning.
I’ve been a home brewer for over 20 years. I also visit at least one brewery every week, without fail. Many of the beers I drink and many of the beers I have brewed, violate this law. Sometimes, the beers I’ve brewed completely ignore it. Some of my favorite beers contain coffee, vanilla, fruit, chocolate and even chili peppers. American microbrewers treat Reinheitsgebot like a lame suggestion by their parents. They brew big, strong flavored beers pushing the envelope at every turn, squeezing as much flavor into one glass as they possibly can. The results are aggressive, bold and normally not very “sessionable” beers. You will not get any beer like this at Hofbräuhaus, or for the most part, in any typical beer garden in Munich.
Monument to Reinheitsgebot in Viktualienmarkt in Munich
Instead, Munich lagers are delicate, balanced and crystal clear. They are the result of centuries of perfecting just a handful of styles and getting it precisely right, every single time. The traditional Munich Lager is a golden colored and slightly on the malty side of balanced with a hint of floral hops. The Munich Dunkel is similar, except they use some roasted malt to add a dark color and caramel flavor to the beer. Both of these styles were available for our visit to Hofbräuhaus as well as Radler and Dark Radlers, which are when you take the Munich Lager or Munich Dunkel and mix it 50/50 with lemon soda or lemonade (a great way to keep your wits when drinking from a 1 liter mug). There was also a Weissbier on the menu, which is made from wheat, and violates Reinheitsgebot, but for some reason everyone gives wheat beer a pass on the law.
Munich Dunkel is one of my favorite beer styles
When you walk in, it’s impossible not to notice that it is an absolutely gorgeous, and enormous beer hall. Traditional wood tables in rows everywhere, obviously meant to maximize attendance. We were lucky enough to be able to get a table outside in the beer garden, which is essentially a huge courtyard. They sat us down at a table for 8 next to a group of 3. This is something, that as an American, is weird. It’s not unpleasant, but if you go to a restaurant in America and there is an open table for 8 and you walk in with 4, normally they’ll wait to sit you until a table for 4 is cleared. You don’t share tables, ever. In Germany, this happened to us multiple times, and frankly, it was fine, I could get used to it.
KäsespätzelPork Knuckle and Potato Dumpling
We ordered a lot of the traditional German dishes, Käsespätzel, Pork Knuckle and some fried Perch. Both Jenn and Emma got the Käsespätzel, which is sort of like German mac and cheese. They both thought it was pretty good, not spectacular. I had the Pork Knuckle, which I really liked. It had a super crispy skin, the meat inside was tender and the gravy was rich. The side for that was a potato dumpling, which I believe was probably cooked perfectly, but I didn’t care for it. It was just bland with a strangely dense and sticky texture. I asked Alex about his perch and he just gave me a thumbs up and kept eating, which is about as descriptive as he ever gets.
Arched frescoed ceilings, dark wood panels and rows of tables and benches make for a prototypical beer hall.
We, of course, ordered the 1 liter beer, because it’s almost required at Hofbräuhaus. The enormous mugs they serve these in are unique in beer culture. Nearly all beer glasses are designed to highlight a style, whether it be a tall glass for a Pilsner to highlight the clarity of a Pilsner or a fluted glass for a Belgian Dubbel to hold in aroma, glasses are designed to enhance the experience of the drinker. Not the 1 liter beer steins for Munich Lagers and Munich Dunkels. They are designed to be carried, in bulk. They are built for Oktoberfest, when servers are feverishly serving mug after mug after mug of freshly poured beer. If you are at Hofbräuhaus long enough, you will see a server carrying an obscene amount of beer to a table. In all honesty, liter beer mugs are insane, they are heavy and unless you are on a bit of a bender, that beer is going to get warm before you finish it. It is, however, super cool and that’s why everyone orders their beer that way. I mean, who wants to be the loser who only drinks a half liter of beer, right?
So is it really worth it to visit Hofbräuhaus? Well, the beer was really good and were perfect examples of Bavarian beer styles. we also enjoyed the food which from what I can tell were great examples of Bavarian cuisine. However, the real secret here to the success here is the beer hall itself. It’s an absolutely beautiful beer hall with a great beer garden. Even though I was apprehensive about the visit, we enjoyed it so much that we skipped a visit to a different beer garden in order to come back a couple of days later for a liter of beer and pretzel. Its definitely a place you have to visit when you visit Munich.
Newby to Expert Traveler 