Soft Pretzels

I love soft pretzels.

Ger & Volker meet our train

Before this summer though, I loved the soft pretzels I could get at Wrigley Field, or at a bar with dipping sauce; I had no idea what I was missing.

National Lampoon's European Vacation (my pet name for our trip abroad this summer) took Chris & me to Munich, Germany. We stayed with my cousin & her husband; perhaps the most gracious hosts in the world. They were waiting for us in the main train station at Munich when we arrived, carrying signs, wearing an Irish flag (the heritage my cousin & I share), and a German one (partly because they didn't have an American flag to wear & the German flag was welcoming us to the their country!).

Obizda - soft cheese with herbs & Camembert. Amazing.

Olympiapark (Olympians need pretzels!)

Breakfast at Ger & Volker's home.YUM.

Brunch at the Hofbrauhaus

Lunch at the Viktualienmarkt beer garden

But back to the pretzels. Perhaps I am the last person on Earth to realize how perfect a fresh made hot pretzel is? This could be the case, but I was blown away by the salt flecked crust that gave way to a chewy center. The pretzels we enjoyed in Germany came in all shapes & sizes- we made an effort to try them everywhere we stopped! Ger (my cousin) would always be awake before her lazy house guests (us. darn.) and go to her local bakery to buy pretzels as part of our breakfast, then we would get a pretzel at a beer garden, and perhaps another as an afternoon snack. And so it went!

The photos give you some idea of how many pretzels I was capable of eating in 5 days..........