A Homesick Nurnberger

Well, this trip hasn't gone exactly as expected.

To start, I had a kissing incident. As you may well know Europeans shun the low class American hand-shake in favor for cheek kisses. What you may not know is that there is a whole unspoken etiquette to the cheek-kissing thing.
1. You aren't really supposed to touch lips to cheeks; it is more of a cheek to cheek thing.
2. You can't make the "MWAH" lip smacking kissy sound too loud. It is considered tacky and would be loud in the person's ear.
3. You always go right cheek first, and then left cheek.

I've been working in Europe for several years now and when I travel outside of the US I am always very sensitive about local customs. I thought I had this one nailed, then on my first night in Munich on this trip I was thrown a total whammy - one of my colleagues went for a triple kiss!!!!! That's right folks, just when I thought I was the master of sophisticated European elegance, I was humiliated.

It started out perfectly....hellos, hand shakes, everyone was happy to see each other and to be sitting down to a nice Bavarian feast....then it happened. Right cheek kiss - fine. Left cheek kiss - fine.....then he went to go back to the right again, and I didn't know the custom or what was happening, so we wound up bumping heads quite hard and I am fairly certain I kissed him smack on the nose. My face lit up like an old-fashioned, red, Christmas bulb. I was horrified. For the next 1/2 hour at dinner the phrase "you're an idiot" kept resonating through my head on replay.


In researching places to go in Munich, I hit Frommers – one of my most favorite travel web sites. This restaurant jumped out at me for very obvious reasons, and the description of the restaurant had me in stitches. That’s me, the homesick Numberger. I had lunch there today. I did not, however, eat sausage.

Nürnberger Bratwurst Glöckl am Dom
Frommer's Review
The homesick Nürnberger comes here just for one dish with those delectable little sausages: Nürnberger Schweinwurst mit Kraut. You can also find such items as crispy roast pork with bread dumplings and cabbage salad, veal breast stuffed with a potato-and-cucumber salad, or boiled ox with diced vegetables and fried potatoes. This restaurant first opened in 1893. It was rebuilt after World War II, and it is now the coziest and warmest of all local restaurants. Chairs look almost as if they were hand-carved, and upstairs, reached through a hidden stairway, is a dining room hung with reproductions of Dürer prints. Tables are shared, and food is served on tin plates. Last food orders go in at midnight. A short walk from Marienplatz, the restaurant faces the Frauenkirche.Read more: http://www.frommers.com/destinations/munich/D42986.html#ixzz0WrkSar8o