Munich, day one.

Lunch yesterday at an old 'beer hall' restaurant, Augustiner, I think it's called. It's in Marienplatz, Munich. We had a good feed here a couple of years ago. Given we were tired from travelling to the other side of the planet we'd thought we'd go with tried and true.

My companion had the pork escalopes with French fries and a garden salad. He pronounced it ordinary. The breaded pork was a bit tough, but edible. The fries were hot and like any fries I've ever tasted and accompanied by a handy packet of Heinz Ketchup The garden salad, smothered with a generous squirt of Heinz Mayonnaise from a second handy pack, was quite tasty. Mixed leaves of lettuce and something young, red cabbagey, pickles, grated carrot. Quite substantial despite the small serve. Think Al got one taste. Otherwise, I ate the lot

I chose the 'Asparagus and grilled perch with hollandaise'. The asparagus was, unexpectedly, straight out of Day of the Triffids. It was the feature - about six x eight inch white, fat fleshy 'rods' straddled the plate. My companion pronounced them 'grossen'. They came swamped, at one end, in hollandaise and were accompanied by a lesser sized fillet of perch which was baked to the plate. Imagine being served half a head of boiled celery and you get the picture of the asparagus. Except celery has more flavour.

Ah, it was okay. Nutritious and light. To drink, I had the German dry white and my companion had the German beer.

And in my dad's words, as eulogised recently by sister, Jane: 'Never drink expensive wine. It ruins your palate.'

BTW, it's nearly five a.m. here in our little hotel room in Munich. We arrived yesterday. I've been wide awake since three and I'm wishing we'd brought our travel kettle cos I'd give my right tit for a cup of tea.

Think the theme for the next seven weeks will be my usual: First World Problems.

Tschuss.