Heading for the Hofbräuhaus in Munich, I mention to my Bavarian friend, Friedrich, that I’d love to give this venerable beer hall some significance in my guidebook description. Unconvinced that “significance” is worth seeking at a beer hall, he quotes Freud: “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.” Stepping through its stubby stone arcade, we wade through the commotion of a thousand people — eating, drinking, yelling, and laughing — to the center of the cavernous hall.
The smoke-stained ceiling painting, repaired after WWII bomb damage, is an evocative mesh of 1950s German mod: Bavarian colors, cheery chestnuts, and old-time food, drink, and music. A slogan arcing across the ceiling above the oompah band reads, Durst ist schlimmer als Heimweh (“Thirst is worse than homesickness”). Friedrich explains: “Drink a beer, and you worry no more.”
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