Andechs and more Oktoberfest

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We slept in again! This is becoming a habit. Erika’s cat slept with us most of the night. If we didn’t already have such an awesome cat, we’d steal hers. Kidding!

Jer and I realized that we only had one day left in Munchen and had not yet visited Andechs. Not visiting Andechs would have been a failure of this trip. So visit Andechs we must.

Before trekking to the countryside, though, we had to do a couple of things at the Hauptbahnhoff: we needed more cash and we also wanted to reserve seats on our upcoming train travels through Austria. Jer had already writen out our itinerary, which helped a lot. The gentleman who helped us was very kind. He kept saying, “Two window seats for two nice people,” while he plonked on the keys of his keyboard. Our reservations cost us more money, so it was lucky that we’d visited the cash machine first. We then stopped at a bakery for breakfast sandwiches. Jer’s was salami and mine was chicken. We also ordered milchcafes and split a marzipan croissant. Heaven!

A train was leaving in five minutes and so Jer hurried to buy our tickets. The cash machine had given us mostly 50’s and we’d spent all of our smaller bills. Lame! I suggested we visit the drug store to buy Erika some hand soap--since I suspect it was our fault she was all out—and some treats and water for our adventures. We had to wait for ½ hour for the next train. It gave us a chance to eat our breakfasts.

The train trip to Andechs is at least an hour long. Both Jer and I forgot to bring books so we mostly stared out the windows or at each other. Not bad. It’s a good thing we are so good looking! Tee hee.

Once we arrived in Andechs we had a decision to make: bus, taxi or walk? We couldn’t remember what we’d done the last time though I do remember now: we took the taxi there and bussed back. The taxi ride was lovely, actually. We rode past a beautiful looking lake.

We worked our way to the top of the Andechs hill first paying a visit to the chapel, the huge statue of Jesus on the crucifix, and the gift shop. We contemplated buying steins for everyone but then settled on buying one glass half liter one for ourselves. We then proceeded to the café for lunch.

My appetite was not as big as Jer’s. I would have been happy with a liquid lunch. We decided to be conservative on the beer and only had a half liter each. Jer had the pork knuckle—which was HUGE—I ate most of the potato salad, and he ate a couple of cold sausages. We bought a gift pack of baby bottles of booze for the road and were faced with another question: how to return to the train station? We decided to walk, which initially we thought was going to be through a neighborhood but was actually a nature trail through the woods. The sun was blazing as we crossed a huge open meadow; we had the forethought to put on sunscreen before our ascent down the big hill. The 3-mile walk felt like it was longer. Maybe that was due to the variety of terrain.

We did not get lost and eventually made it to the train station. We sat one place in the car, were surrounded by biker types despite the car being empty and decided to move—which was something the group thought was very funny. Mostly it was to escape their cigarette-induced stench. I now appreciate the 25—foot limit in Washington’s no smoking law. These folks were standing on the train car steps, their heads barely out of the opening, puffing away so all of their secondhand smoke could waft in to the contained car. Brilliant.

The train got more full the closer we got to Munchen. Jer was actually kicked out of his seat by an old lady. In our haste to move away from the smokers, we had moved into the assisted/old people seats. Oops. That resulted in him having to stand for about 30 minutes.

We returned briefly to the flat to drop off our spoils from Andechs. We ate a quick meal and headed back to the Oktoberfest grounds. We rode one of the big roller coasters, the indoor roller coaster, the crazy wooden luge, and the ferris wheel. Jer even coerced me into a house of horrors, which was silly and only a little frightening.

Despite being at Oktoberfest, we opted not to drink beer. We wanted to save our Euros for the rides. We split a little food—some of which I detested. While eating crepes, we encountered a fellow having a terrible night. He was clutching the side of a fountain, having already been sick in it. We looked away from him and found him on the ground, passed out when we turned back in his direction. Jer ran to roll him onto his side with the assistance of another bystander. Once a security guard was there, we proceeded to more rides. I’m glad I wasn’t that drunk.

That was then end of the day; we basically stopped when our Euros ran out. We also anticipated a long day of travel and needed our rest.

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