A series of pictures and factoids for Create's NaJoPoMo Challenge.

This isn't your ordinary pub. Oh, no. It's royal. That's the 'Hof' part, for 'court'. The Duke of Bavaria started it in 1589. They take beer seriously in Munich. Pastey would feel right at home there.

As the old song says, In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus, eins, zwei, suffa!, meaning, 'In Munich, there's a royal brewery, one, two, bottoms up!' No kidding. I think you have to sing it when you drink there. It's probably a law, or something. If you don't, they probably stick you upside down in the paternoster at the Polizeipräsidium. You don't mess with the beer.

I can't drink beer these days, due to the gluten business. When I did, I preferred Guinness, or Bavarian Starkbier, which is only brewed by monks during Lent. The beer at the Hofbräuhaus struck me as nothing special. It's served in a stoneware tankard, so you can't see whether it's full or not. There's a lot of foam involved. One suspects the whole experience is more about jollification than about the enjoyment of the beverage.

Apparently, Mozart liked to hang out in the Hofbräuhaus. JFK visited there, too. I don't think Mr Obama's been there, although he did famously visit an Irish pub. Irish pubs have more atmosphere, but they don't have those weight-lifting barmaids. Munich barmaids can carry four tankards in each hand. They're more dangerous than Celtie clippies, too.

Yes, we know. There was once an attempt to putsch the Bavarian government that started in a beer hall. Only in Bavaria. But that wasn't the Hofbräuhaus. That was the Bürgerbräukeller. Hitler didn't even drink beer. He probably thought people showed up there just to listen to him waffle.

There's a moral in there, somewhere, but I'm too lazy to find it. Prost!