Finally! Oktoberfest!

Amy and I, accompanied by three of our german friends (Tobi and Jacob and a friend of Jacobs), hit the Oktoberfest festival around noon. The place was already full of people and surprisingly there were a lot of families with their children (Oktoberfest seems more like a state fair outside of the tents with rides and food stands). One thing that a lot of people don't know as that Oktoberfest is a celebration of King Ludwig IIs marriage in 1810.





We made our first stop at a food tent for their 8 euro snitzel, potato, and beer special. It was so good and gave us a nice base for the drinking that we would be doing for the remainder of the day.


Kurtis and Tobi at lunch!

Yum!

Beer number 1!

Amy tripped on her way out of lunch. ouch!

Topped off with pork and potatoes we went to the Lowenbrau Tent. The tents are designed with a big stage in the middle where the band plays. All around the stage in the middle of the tent are big wooden tables that can seat up to 16. The perimeter has reserved boxes, the kitchen, and the bathrooms. We easily got a seat (it was 1 pm on a Tuesday) and had a mas (what Germans call a 1 liter beer). They run around 9 euro each but you figure you're paying more for the atmosphere then the beer. After hanging out for a bit (and after Amy stuffed a liter mug in her purse) we left the festival to go grab a coffee and to swing by Jacobs place (we had to pace ourselves of course).






First official mass at Oktoberfest!

Caffienated and a little sobered up we headed back. We were greeted at the entrance to the festival with a taste of what the night would offer; a man in lederhosen passed out in the grass. Unfortunately Amy and I didn't get the traditional garb (lederhosen are close to 200 euro for the full get up and Amy wasn't going to dress up if I wasn't).

We stopped in to the Paulaner tent and were unsuccessful in finding a table. We huddled near the end of one and drank another mas before deciding to head back to the Lowenbrau tent.


Hey Selena Gomez, what are you doing at Oktoberfest?

There we grabbed a seat with a man from Nimibia (spoke perfect english and german) and his german wife. With good company and a good table we started indulging in the beer and pretzels.




This describes the rest of the night pretty accurately.

and this.

and more of this!

Eventually, as expected, we were dancing on the tables with the rest of the tent and singing american oldies, thats right, the band played nothing but american oldies and germans, americans, italians, and every other nationality in the tent (regardless of whether or not they spoke english) knew and sang the words. It was a pretty shocking surprise.


It looked so good at night!


Closing time came and we shuffled out into the streets. Amy managed to get another mug and a hat while the boys and I grabbed some leberkase sandwhiches (its like a fried spam sandwhich). We made our way back to Tobi's to rest up before our flight to Ireland.

München (Munich to all of you english speakers!)

We woke up early on Monday morning so that we could catch the train into Munich and spend the day in the city. Just based on the amount of people on the 9am train we knew the city was going to be packed. After about a 1 hour ride, we got into the train station, luckily there were still a few lockers available so we stashed our stuff and headed out to catch another FREE walking tour (love these!) The tour met at 10:45 and the guides had just enough time to tell the 60+ people waiting about the world famous Glockenspiel. Our guide told us about how almost all of the bells are out of tune, but that no one in the city of Munich cares because it is something only for the tourists. Honestly, it was kind of underwhelming and we both liked the astronomical clock in Prague much better!


The carillon (glockenspiel), not actually a very old building, just built to look old.


Munich was a main headquarters for the Nazi party and as such, most of the city was bombed by the Allies. Everything in the city was carefully recorded and photographed by the Nazis before the war so that every detail could be rebuilt. However, in the re-building process, some corners were cut to save money and so there are many details that are simply painted onto the facades of buildings.


St. Peters church: They only rebuilt one of the two original towers and then just painted the clock faces on.

The maypole in Viktualienmarkt (a big market in the city). If you steal someone else's maypole, they have to pay a ransom... In beer! Our guide told us a funny story about the Munich Police department stealing the maypole from the Munich airport, the airport then had to throw a huge party for the police force.


The 6 main beers in Munich: Augustinerbrau, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulanerbrau, Hacker-Pschorr Brau and Spatenbrau. All of which have huge tents at Oktoberfest and of course all of which have been tried by us! The yellow and black symbol in the middle is representative of Germany's pure beer laws.


We got to visit the famous Hofbrauhaus.

Huge beer halls

Practicing carrying the heavy 1 liter mas mugs.

Live bands in every beer hall/tent.

The church the devil made (rumored to have been made with the help of the devil because it was built in only 20 years, in actuality is was built so quickly because it used local, easy to use building materials.

The devils footprint inside the church (actually the architect's footprint).

Weird shrine to MJ all over an old statue.

Painted on facades on the Residenz building.


When we finished up our tour we got word from our host for the night that he was home so we headed out towards his house. We were greeted by friends and beer (of course) and Tobi (our host) took us out for the night.

The Isar river that runs through Munich. We sat by the banks and had a drink.

Kurtis with a Weisbeir, Amy with a Radler.

Second bar of the night with Tobi, not nice Kurtis.

We didn't stay out too late because we needed to be fully rested for Oktoberfest in the morning! We could tell already that we were in for a great day.

Neuschwanstein Castle and an Unexpected Surprise!

We were originally shocked by how many American tourists were in Rothenburg but it was the same story in Füssen where we went to see the famous Castle Neuschwanstein.

We hopped a train from Nuremberg and headed down into the beautiful southern Bavarian countryside, through rolling green fields with livestock and cute little towns along the rail. After 3 hours on the train we finally arrived at the foot of the Bavarian Alps in the town of Füssen.


A picture that pretty much sums up the town, cute buildings with the towering Alps in the background.

Our first stop was to the tourist office to get some information and a printout of local Pensions (bed and breakfasts) to stay at. We had 3 nights free that we needed to book up, so with list in hand and our packs strapped to our backs, we headed off to the first choices on the list. We stopped at the first place and were greeted by an old lady who hardly spoke any English. With my spotty German and her hand gestures we were able to find out that she had one room left and only for one night. Since we needed 3 nights, we headed off to the other places on the list to check their availability. 1.5 hours later and about 6 no vacancy confirmations at the places that the tourist office said had vacancies (great job guys) we decided to head back to the first stop to grab the room for the night. When she answered the door her facial expression said it all, "Die zimmer frei nicht mehr." (The room was taken!).

Having no place available to us we went back to the tourist office right before closing to see if they could help us find somewhere in a nearby town. Nothing was available. As we were about to give up the older lady called the tourist office to let them know that the room that was taken was free again. We rushed out of the office back to the house and came upon a gentlemen unloading his luggage in the driveway! She gave the room away again! We told her that we came right over from the travel office, and I think because she knew she had given us the runaround, she told the guy unloading his luggage that the room was taken (Great Success!).

So finally, we had a place for one night. We dropped our packs, freshened up, and went out to walk around the city. Our first stop (and most important) was dinner and we grabbed it at a local pub.


MMMM... I had fried meatloaf with an egg on top and Amy had a pasta type dish that was a local specialty. Both Delicious!

The night concluded shortly after with us passed out in bed from exhaustion.

We woke up the next morning, ate some amazing breakfast our Pension host prepared (breads, tea, cafe, meats, cheeses, eggs, etc.), got a locker at the train station for our packs and headed off to the castles before the tourist rush that would occur later in the day.

We arrived at the ticket office and bought the "royal ticket" (access to both castles). It was lucky that we arrived when we did because they were already selling tours at 10:50 and 12:55, meaning that the rest of the morning was already booked. Before our first tour, we wandered around the grounds, which were beautiful.





Our first stop was to Schloss Hohenschwangau, the childhood home of King Ludwig II and where the dream to build Castle Neuschwanstein was born! The tours are very regimented and very quick, you don't get to spend a lot of time inside the rooms, but it was still a good tour.


Outside Castle Hohenschwangau with Castle Neuschwanstein in the background.

This time with Kurtis!

View from the window!

Unfortunately we were not allowed to take any photos in the castles, but of course, Amy snuck a few in Castle Neuschwanstein though (see below!). After our tour of Castle Hohenschwangau we hiked up the hill to Castle Neuschwanstein (another big hill, another hike!) We had a little bit of time to check out the exterior of the castle and read up on a little history.


So big!

We entered the castle and were amazed by the interior rooms that were actually finished (the castle remained unfinished when Ludwig II died).


Sneaky picture taking.

This one we were actually allowed to take!

The best parts were the floors and ceilings!



The views out the windows were amazing!


After our tour of Castle Neuschwanstein we walked up to the Marienbrücke bridge which sits above a deep gorge and over looks castle Neuschwanstein.


View of the bridge taken from the Castle.

Views from the hike up:








The Marienbruke was packed when we got up to the top. The view was amazing however and we quickly found a nice spot to snap some pics.





After a few minutes Amy turned to me and asked if I was ready to go. I paused and said "I just have one more thing to do". Naturally Amy´s first thought was that I needed to expel some toxic gas (Uh Huh!). I got down on one knee and proposed! She said yes and then quickly followed it up with "You´re so dumb." Ha.


The ring is vintage (from 1924) with a large round brilliant cut diamond in the center, 8 shiny dark blue saphires and 10 additional smaller diamonds.  It is amazing and was a perfect choice!

We hiked back down the hill and caught the bus back to Fussen.  We knew it was going to be impossible to find a room in Fussen for the night so we just chose another town on the map and got on the train. On the train you could already see the affects that Oktoberfest was having on the whole region.  Tons of people on the train were drunk and many were wearing lederhosen and dirindle (the traditional Bavarian wear). When we arrived in Kaufbeuren, we were originally turned away from a hotel that was fully booked, but luckily we were able to find a nice hotel that put us up in a single room for cheap and it served a pretty amazing breakfast to boot.

We spent two very relaxing nights in Kaufbeuren, there was NOTHING going on in this town and everything was closed because we arrived after closing hours on Saturday and then it was Sunday.  We found a really great restaurant and we ate dinner there both nights... This little two day break is exactly what we needed before heading into Munich and OKTOBERFEST!