We had a big day of driving on the autobahn and through castle road (more on both of those in the previous post!) and were looking for some delicious, authentic German food.
What we found was not only authentic German food (thankfully still being served at 10pm) but authentic Germans, authentic German songs, a staff that spoke only German, a German accordion player, and lots brewed-in-house German beer.
This place was tiny, loud, and packed. We followed a waitress — definitely a Woman In Charge —through the crowd. I figured if she was pushing through, we had free reign to push, too, and we found ourselves looking at a table with another couple already there! They let us squeeze in and we ordered a couple of beers by pointing at their beers and smiling really big. (Lucky for us the Woman smiled back!)
We figured out how to order some food (chicken & beef? Or maybe pork? With mushrooms and delicious gravy, plus some pasta thing. Schnitzel? Again, pretty big language barrier at this point!) and took in our surroundings: loud, German pop music was playing while big groups of friends talked/yelled/laughed around their tables. Sometimes singing along, usually ending in a toast to whatever the song was about.
About the same time our food arrived, Hardy and Anka did, too, and slid into the table with the four of us — pretty much the only two seats left in the place. They spoke English! Yay!
They were an older couple — maybe in their late 60s? — but you could tell they refused to acknowledge that. We soon learned they live in Texas, and sometimes California, and sometimes Germany or Austria. And according to Hardy, Anka used to be a cop but according to Anka, she works at an antique store in Houston. And according to Anka, Hardy is a famous singer in Austria! Whatever it is they do, they were both delightfully drunk when we met them, an had no intention of stopping anytime soon.
When the accordion player started, Hardy would sing along and Anka would grab his and whosever hands she could (usually mine!) to sway left to right with the music. The guy from first couple at the table was, according to Anka, from Berlin, which "explained why he didn't know how to enjoy himself" when he chose to sit and enjoy the music and didn't also grab Britton's hand to sway like a drunkard through every song.
So, in between bites of food and acting like I knew what was going on by yelling syllables along with these German accordion tunes, and the swaying and the talking, we had a really good, how-did-we-get-here time, even though we couldn't speak, sing, or understand ANY of what was going on. (Turns out the Sinatra song, "bona sera, señorita, kiss me good night" is almost the same in German!)
They were thrilled that we knew how to play along ("most Americans are so stiff!") and that we just got married ("We just got married, too! In 1966!") and about their new grandbaby, which was either the second or third. The story was a little different each time.
As we walked back to the Best Western (ha! Travel across an ocean to stay at a Best Western!) we knew Munich was going to be a memorable leg of our journey.
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| Anka (L) and Hardy |
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| PROST! |
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