Booked a 1-star hotel in Munich for the weekend. Mark is coming to visit. The hotel receptionist spoke perfect English, in fact from her accent she must have spent some considerable time somewhere near York I'd say, but she only realised I was English when she asked for my nationality. Apparently, my accent doesn't sound at all English. It sounds definitely eastern European. This isn't a complement in Germany. I've heard people moaning that a lot of the 'repatriated' Germans who moved back to Germany from parts of the old soviet union etc. speak really awful German. Telling me I sound eastern european is all part of the magic of German customer service..

Anyway, one place the service can be a lot better is in the beer halls of München, it's a strict no-Hofbräuhaus rule this time, as we aim to visit some of the more unusual and less tourist-infested places. The daytime plan is to visit the Deutsches Museum, which has lots of exhibits from famous science experiments, and the replica (built by the original inventor) of the world's first computer.