Grenoble: Homage to Beer

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Homage to Beer

I have, perhaps, on occasion, alluded to the fact that, though Munich is a very nice city indeed with numerous benefits and top marks in several categories, when you lay it all out end-to-end, if I could be doing more or less the same thing for the same salary in Grenoble or Lyon or Montpellier, I would jump on that as quickly as you can say Schmetterling!

All that being said, however, one of those top marks earned by this city mentioned above is with respect to a historical beverage known as beer. They really know how to make it here and they know how to enjoy it. This state of affairs presented itself to us quite proliferously recently when we experienced what is known in the medical literature as the Somnium Canadium, or "Canadian Dream", or, broken down into its constituent parts: free hockey and free beer.

It all started when I had the brilliant idea to attend a Red Bull EHC hockey game on a recent Friday evening. Tickets were going for the respectable price of 10 euros a pop and off we went. When we arrived a courteous young gentleman who no longer required the services of his two tickets decided to absolve himself of said magical pieces of cardboard just as we were arriving at the Olympiapark Eisstadion. First bonus of the night. But nothing could prepare us for what happened next...

For those that don't read German and can't make use of a translating helper, let me give you a hand. "Freibier" means "free beer" and !!NUR HEUTE!! means today only. And with that you get the standard Somnium Canadium. Following this most positive happening, it seemed most apt to pay homage to this beverage of the Gods, enjoyed by Monks worldwide.