Where else would you celebrate Oktoberfest but Munich, Germany? We spent a total of two weeks in Europe, enjoying the sights (and snacks!). Check out our pictures and travel notes below.
|
|
|
|
| Arrival - Frankfurt |
Frankfurt was our arrival and departure city. Unfortunately, we didn't get to spend a great deal of time sightseeing here. Frankfurt is a very business-oriented town, with skyscrapers dominating the skyline.
We arrived at the Frankfurt Airport in the morning. That evening, Peter Kluefer (a friend and former Aspect employee who lives in Frankfurt) planned to pick us up at the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station).
We had one whole day to see the city - and that was after a very long flight! We did some walking around, had some lunch, then waited at the train station for Peter. He rescued us, and we all piled into his car for the drive to Munich.
|
|
| Munich and Oktoberfest! |
Our main goal in Munich was Oktoberfest, of course!
The festival commemorates the wedding of Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) to Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen on 12th October 1810. In 2000, Oktoberfest was held for the 167th time. The festival area is called the Theresienwiese (in honor of the prince's bride). Locally, this is shortened to "Wiesn", which is how locals refer to Oktoberfest.
We were there for the first day of the celebration, and quickly made our way to the Hackerbräu-Festhalle, one of the many enormous beer tents. It was too crowded inside, so we found a table in the outside courtyard. Because it was raining, we had no problems finding a seat! The rain quickly stopped, and by then we had so much beer that it could have been hailing - we wouldn't have cared!
As it came closer to closing time, the beer tent emptied out a bit. That was our chance to go inside and celebrate by dancing on tables and singing out loud. Hearing the band play "Sweet Home Alabama" was a riot!
We estimate that we consumed somewhere around 5-6 liters of beer that night at the beer tent. (That's 5-6 liters each, not total!) After the beer halls closed, we headed to a nightclub to dance away all our remaining energy. Besides the Weisn, we did take some time to walk around and see the sights. Thanks so much to Thomas and Bettina for being our hosts in Munich.
Visit one of the links below to learn more about Oktoberfest and Munich.
|
|
| Headed out on the Autobahn - Next Stop, Heidelberg |
Heidelberg was the first stop on our driving tour of Germany. It's about 80KM south of Frankfurt, situated on the River Neckar. Overlooking the town is a beautiful old castle, mostly in ruins. At night, the castle is lit by floodlights.
There is a large pedestrian area in old town, which is where we went in search of something to eat. We had dinner at Bier - Brezel (Beer - Pretzel), a cute little pub-type place with groups of people playing dice. The bartender was very friendly, and recommended a great dish of noodles and cheese, with plenty of beer, of course! As the night wore on, the place became packed with soccer fans, who sang songs well into the night.
The next morning we walked through old town and up a steep hill to Heidelberg castle. We walked through the castle, toured the castle courtyard, stood on top of the biggest barrel ever to be filled with wine, and took a tour of the pharmacy museum. The Belvedere terrace on the side of the castle has some incredible views of the castle and the town.
- e-Heidelberg - many facts about the city, geared for tourists.
|
|
| Bacharach, and an unscheduled detour |
Bacharach is a beautiful little town on the banks of the Rhein river. We stopped here on our drive from Heidelberg to Amsterdam to walk through the town and buy some wine, which Bacharach is famous for. Driving along the river is a great experience. Everywhere you look there are castles and castle ruins on the hills above the river. The river itself is full of barges and tourist boats, and bordered by little towns.
After leaving Bacharach, we finished our drive along the Rhein and headed out toward Amsterdam, with a quick stop to fill up the car with gas (petrol). Our big Mercedes sedan got a nice full tank of premium unleaded - too bad it was a diesel car! This resulted in an unscheduled 5-hour adventure at a tiny rest stop near Düsseldorf. A world of thanks to Stefan, the good samaritan that helped us through the whole ordeal.
We had the car towed to the Hertz center at the Düsseldorf Flughafen (Airport). Instead of the Mercedes, they gave us a gorgeous BMW 540, which was what we wanted in the first place. And, it came with Hertz "Neverlost" navigation system - with a German voice! This was the source of much amusement on the rest of our trip.
The rest of the drive to Amsterdam was mercifully uneventful.
|
|
| Amsterdam, Baby! |
Amsterdam is the only city outside of Germany that we visited. Frans was the only "first-timer" - Jennifer and Christina had both visited before. Being of Dutch ancestry, Frans was extra-excited to visit the Netherlands. We stayed in the Amsterdam Hilton (the same hotel where John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged their "bed-in"). Our time in the city was spent walking through the streets, shopping, and of course - eating.
We spent time shopping in the pedestrian Nieuwendijk area near Centraal Station, browsed in the Bloemenmarkt (the floating flower market on the Singel canal), and found a great selection of used music at an open-air market in the Nieumarkt.
Jennifer also showed us the incredible House of Hajenius - a cigar store that captured Frans' attention for quite a while. And no visit to the Netherlands is complete without purchasing huge amounts of cheese! We snacked our way through town, and enjoyed a few beers at open-air cafes. We discovered that Heineken is much better here!
For dinner, we had a wonderful Indonesian rijstaffel at a restaurant on the Waterlooplein. "Rijstaffel" means rice-table in Dutch, and consists of many different dishes sampled by everyone at the table, with rice of course!
This was one of the favorite cities on our trip.
|
|
| Berlin |
Berlin was the city that had the biggest impact on us. There was such a huge contrast between the sense of history and the drive towards modernization - it was apparent everywhere you looked. We stayed in the Berlin Hilton, just across the street from the Gendarmenmarkt - a beautiful town square with two cathedrals and a music hall. The part of town we were staying in used to be East Berlin. Before 1989, we would have been behind the wall!
Not far from the hotel is Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous border crossing point between East and West Berlin during the war. The museum there is a sobering look at the history of the Berlin wall. Not far from Checkpoint Charlie is a portion of the wall that remains standing.
To see the rest of the city, we took the U-Bahn (subway) from the hotel to the Bahnhof Zoologischer Garten. The "Zoo Garden" station is a huge, busy station in the middle of downtown Berlin, next to the Berlin Zoo. From there, we set out to walk the streets of the city. We took a short walk to the Kurfürstendamm. The "Ku'damm", as it's called, is a beautiful wide lane with upscale shops and restaurants. During WWII, this same street housed offices for some of the most important figures in the Nazi party.
The city is so large, that we decided a bus tour would be the best way to see the sights, and get oriented. We picked up a double-decker tour bus on the Ku'damm, and spent the afternoon snapping pictures of this gorgeous city.
We also made sure to attend a hockey game. The Berlin Capitals are the local "eishockey" team. What a blast! German fans (at least the ones in Berlin) are much crazier than Americans! They bang drums and sing songs all through the game.
|
|
| Back in History - Rothenburg ob der Tauber |
Rothenburg ob der Tauber (Rothenburg on the Tauber River) is a beautiful walled town north of Munich, and the last stop on our driving tour of Germany. The history of the city dates back to 970, and the first town wall was built in 1172.
To learn about the history of the town, don't miss the walking tour hosted by the "Night Watchman". Dressed in the traditional clothes of a town night watchman, he led us through the streets at night, reciting historical facts about town life, the buildings and the town walls.
Rothenburg also has a large annual Christmas festival. There are several shops that sell handmade Christmas merchandise year-round. For once, we finished our Christmas shopping early!
|
|
|
