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Published: October 14th 2008
ULM on the way to Munich
The worlds tallest steepleThursday 25th September
Lina - Ulm - Munich
On Thursday morning we packed up the motor home with ALL our gear, including the oil and bread Lina gave us. We threw the doonas, pillows, sheets and the vegetables we’d bought the night before. 1kg of carrots, wine, water, beer and 10kgs of cabbage!!! Lina had lived in Germany for 26 years and in all that time had NEVER used cabbage!!! We love cabbage and use it heaps…besides 10 kg was only 3 head of cabbage.
Cristofolo’s work was open and we went in and saw aluminium being melted and then poured into moulds. When you walked in there was a fine layer of sand everywhere because sand was used to surround the aluminium moulds. (they gave us a cute pair of figurines as genuine one of a kind, made only by Cristofolo as souvenirs of ***)
We drove to the closest camp ground in Munich because with the motor home, we would have to park and use public transport to get around. It would be too hard to drive this motor home in and out of the tiny towns we were hoping to visit.
We arrived late
ULM on the way to Munich
Joshua and myself climbed to the top the rest went shopping at Campingplatz in Munich. The park was in a great location with a bus stop right out front. It was one of the biggest parks that we’d ever been to with loads of places for tents and caravans. In the Lonely Planet, it stated there was no need to book accommodation especially for tents. We realised why the next morning!!
Friday 26th September
Munich
The next morning we all woke up exhausted and the reason was because we’d arrived in Munich during Europe’s biggest feast OKTBERFEST. That wasn’t the problem. The problem was that the party continued long into the night!! Early hours of the morning we could still hear people singing and shouting.
It was only in the morning that we looked around and realised what was happening in this park. I’ve never in my life seen so many men in one area!!! I think it wasn’t until the afternoon that I saw the first woman!! It was incredible. Some of the men looked like they’d drunk a bit too much and walked slowly as if every step hurt.
In all the years we’ve been camping, we’d never seen so many tents…there were hundreds
of them….…in no particular order and in every section of grass. There was another area for motor homes and we’d luckily been sent to a section more suitable for buses where there was more room to reverse. It was also close to the showers and toilets. With regards to the toilets we’d all agreed that the toilet would be fine for evenings and “number ones” but we’d use the public facilities for “number twos”. Since I was never, ever going to empty the portable toilet, I was happy to do whatever the majority agreed with!! There is a good size shower but the motor home carries only 140 litres of water for dishes, bathroom basin and showers. Well that’s barely enough water for my Dad’s showers alone!! So we’ve decided to use the public showers and have enough water to comfortably wash dishes, wash our hands and water to boil and cook with. Showers were 1E for 6 minutes and the pressure was to die for. Washing loads of up to 6kg were 4.50 E and dryers for 7min .50E.
I took the kids to playground and when we walked around, we saw a couple of groups that have
obviously made a pilgrim to the Oktoberfest. One group we later found out were THE FANATICS, an Australian group, who all wore yellow self- titled t-shirts and made soooooo much noise at night.
I spent a great part of the day typing up the blog and everyone did something else. God knows what!
We later came together and decided to go to Ocktoberfest on Saturday morning and Munich city centre in the afternoon.
Saturday 27th September
Munich - Oktoberfest
I wasn’t too keen on going to the Oktberfest, thinking it was just a huge drink up and I’d have to step over drunks on the street and avoid vomit on the ground. Not my idea of a good time!!! But Kurt had heard heaps and he was under the impression that it was a great family event.
So we bought tickets and waited in the bus queue with heaps of other people (men!). We just followed the crowds off the bus and up the road to the train station. There were so many people on the train and so many women wearing cute dresses (little like barmaid’s dresses) and guys wearing leather suede
pants. There were whole families dressed in traditional clothing.
When we got off the train, we were stunned to see the crowds. There were people everywhere…we later read that 6 million people attend the Oktoberfest! 6million people!!! That’s the biggest party every!!.
As we walked thru the grounds, we were amazed to see so many food stalls and souvenir shops and in the distance, heaps of rides. The further in we walked the more amazed we were….every crossroad become a huge sections with loads more people, rides, food and beer halls.
In Bavaria people drink beer, not water or spirits or wine….just beer!! The Bavaria King Ludwig II set up some beer companies and many years later those companies were the only beer companies allowed in the Oktoberfest. Beer companies from other states are not allowed to attend.
These beer halls were amazing. There were about 14 of them and there was a 3-4 hour queue to get in!!! We walked into some of the beer gardens and even then couldn’t get a seat. When we looked through the window into the hall, we saw heaps of people standing on tables, dancing and singing along with
ULM on the way to Munich
Katelyn in at Ikea...ulm the traditional band! They were having a ball and could be heard singing outside in the street over the crowds and rides and mayhem.
Kurt was tempted to sit and have a beer but pots of beer were 1 litre each and you couldn’t walk around with them. By that stage we’d become separated from my parents, so Kurt and my Dad couldn’t share a beer and I couldn’t help him because I don’t drink beer. For the Oktoberfest, all breweries make up the same stronger beer and that’s all you could drink. For one litre it cost 10E!!! (We later spoke to people who’d averaged 5-7 litres each!! The Bavarians are massive beer drinkers and the legal age is 16.)
We started lunch with a ½ metre brathswurst hot dog! Delicious! Followed by a salmon and onion roll. Ugh!?! While we ate we watched some death defying rides and Kurt and I were grateful the kids didn’t ask about rides. I’ve always like going on rides but these ones made me scared!
We bought a souvenir and had “Go Hawks” engraved on it. (We’d realised the day before that Saturday was the Grand Final and
on Friday night we tried frantically to text Rohan, so he’d text us the results!!! Although we were dubious about Rohan’s integrity especially when considering that Rohan is a mad Geelong fan!!!On Saturday morning we got thru to Lisa our neighbour, who told us at ½ time the scores were level….. Kurt was calm but calm like a mad man on the edge. She later texted us with 5 minutes to go, Hawthorn was 30 points up!! Well there was a mini cheer in Munich!! Kurt tried that morning asking anyone with a remote sounding Australian accent if they’d heard the final score)
As we walked around the ground the two groups that stood out as being the loudest and drunkest, were the Italians and the Australian. How embarrassing!!
We chose to have a traditional Bavaria photo taken in full costumes. Oh my god, the Katelyn looked beautiful and Joshua looked so sad like an abused and over worked Bavarian child. Kurt looked very arrogant as a traditional Bavarian hunter!!! It was a great photo!!
As we were leaving there were still hundreds and hundreds of people still arriving and the queues were still so long
for the beer halls.
We caught a train into the city centre which was really pretty with potted flowers and graceful architecture. (After days of seeing women looking gorgeous in skinny leg jeans and boots, I had left behind my comfy Colorado shoes and worn my black boots….big mistake!!!!! Because we walked for bloody hours and by the time we got home I felt crippled… but at least while I limped I looked good!!
Sunday 28th September
Munich - Deutsches Museum
We started out late and decided to head towards the Deutsches Museum, one of the largest science and technmuseums in the world. When we arrived and saw the floor layout, we realised we’d stuffed up. This was one of the best museums we’d ever been to and we only had 5 hours to see it all.
Some of the areas of interest were mining, food technology (best miniature wheat factory, milk production), glass production, astronomy, weights, time, microelectronics, electronic toys, maritime, aeronautics, maths, metal forging and heaps, heaps, more. I am not a technology or science fan but this place was incredible. We arrived at lunchtime and by 2.30pm, my parents were still
on the ground floor and there were 6 floors in total!!!!! We rushed through so much of it and really regretted getting there late. Between 6 of us and we all split up into couples, no one saw everything and there were areas that none of us had seen!!
We raced through the Marine section and I really regretted that because they had reproduced one level of a cruise liner from years gone by. It was so realistic that Kurt and Katelyn felt slightly nauseas walking around its corridors. They had displays of propellers and engines (less interesting!) and old pictures. We really could have spent two days in that place and enjoyed every minutes. The best thing about the museum was that every exhibit was written in German and in English!!!!
The Museum struck us as huge because each floor had so many split levels that on one level alone we would have climbed up and down a few flights of stairs but still have been on the SAME level. It was incredible.
We were virtually kicked out at 5pm, and then referred to our bible the Lonely Planet for somewhere close by to eat. Would
ULM on the way to Munich
Joshua the first to fall asleep in the Campervan! you believe that 4 minutes away was a great Indian Restaurant? Sometimes I think that Kurt secretly scouts out Indian places to eats then works out the closest sights that he’ll know we’ll enjoy!!
It was a bit expensive but worth it because the food was delicious. Kurt was in heaven and while he was hungry loved everything he tasted…..but once he was full, he was more critical. (sound familiar!!) The Butter chicken, Madras Fish curry, Almond Curry and Lamb Curry were great. We left to catch our train full but happy!!!
Another reason why the dinner tasted so good was because technically we hadn’t had lunch. We had arrived late and didn’t want to waste time eating!!! So at the Museum café we had a coffee and cake while the kids had rolls. I’d asked the guy behind the counter about the cakes and the only cake I liked looked like a rich chocolate one. But I had to check that it wasn’t a Black Forest cake because it’s definitely not my favourite. He said ‘no, no not Black Forest… just chocolate” and we bought it!! One bite in and it was bloody Black Forest!!!
Dad’s
foot had started to hurt again, because many years ago he broke his foot and although it healed it continued to gives him trouble during the cold weather and now we were in major cold weather. In the morning it’s very fresh and can be quite chilly.
At different times when he’s cold or when it’s tired it aches to the point he’s limping and out of nowhere he’ll jerk and gasp at the pain. That became a big concern to us because we were just starting to hit cold weather and it would only get worse.
Monday 29th September
Aviation Museum - Flugwerft Schleissheim
On Monday we left the camp site in Munich and said goodbye to all the happy drunks that had kept us awake for the past few nights!!! We were going to visit Germany’s first concentration camp and I was a bit nervous. I wasn’t nervous for myself because like most people Hitler and the Holocaust had always been of interest. But I was nervous because all the literature I’d read had warned that the film and exhibit on display were recommended for children 12 and above.
As we approached the town
of Dachau and made our way to the camp I discussed with Katelyn the possibility of not watching the film and she was adamant that she was mature enough…. old enough…… understood all about the Nazi, blah, blah, blah, I swear she’ll be a litigator or a bloody good nagging wife when she’s older!!!!
When we arrived in the car park gates were locked and Kurt jumped out and had a look around for another entrance. I looked into my Lonely Planet guide and slowly reread the section on the camp that I’d already read about 3-4 times before and realised with mounting horror that the camp was closed on Monday. Even before I asked…. I knew it was Monday……But you have to understand…when you’re on holidays the days just start to blur. And I’m sure that everyone who’s working in Australia reading this is really sympathetic to my cause!!!!!
Thank god I’m married to a wonderful man, because when I told him in my humblest voice, he just looked at me, shook his head and smiled… Doesn’t sound like Kurt at all does it????
In the end, I frantically scrambled to find somewhere and something interesting
to do for the remainder of the day, so as to enable us to return on Tuesday morning and see the camp.
Thank god, I found the town of Schleisshem about 30 minutes away that was the Aviator Branch of the Deutsches Museum. And which section had been my Dad’s and Kurt’s favourite??? You better believe it!!! They spoke about the aviation section all night over curry.
So we headed off to the Aviation Museum with plans to return on Tuesday morning to the camp.
The drive was magically and the countryside a real pleasure. We parked in a big cark park at the back of the museum obviously set aside for buses. I could see Kurt’s eye light up with the idea of free parking that night!! But he still had to convince my parents that parking 3-4kms off the main road, at the back of a Museum, in a cark park was a good idea!!!
The Museum was really big and interesting to the guys, but honestly to me it was just big engines and big planes!!! But I sure as hell wasn’t complaining!!
My Mum had seen enough after a few hours
and decided to go back to the motor home and put the pot on for pasta. Oh, the comforts of travelling in a motorhome. We’d cooked some delicious sauce the night before and now had only to boil some pasta. (When I use the term “we’d cooked”, it should be understood that we work together in the motorhome. Even if I’m not in the vicinity when the sauce if being cooked, I’m still there in spirit! And therefore I can say “we’d cooked”. I just wanted to clarify that up, in case there was any misunderstanding……)
So we had a wonderful lunch in the sun and set up tables and chairs in the car park, just like gypsies do!!! My Dad, Kurt and the kids went back to see the rest… (Kurt actually saw photos of aeroplanes that he’s Dad worked on while they lived in India and so he took some photos)
They kicked the guys out at 5pm and after a little convincing, we decided to spend the night.
The lady at the counter had told us to take a walk to see a beautiful Bavarian castle just around the corner. So we
locked us the motor home and walked through some beautiful country streets and come upon a little town. The castle was called ::::::::;; and was built by a guy who had dreams of being the next emperor and so built a home to reflect his position but unfortunately he didn’t get the job. But the castle and gardens were magnificent. We walked around and through these gardens till it started to darken and then we thought about dinner!!!
After getting directions to a supermarket, which thank god is universally understood, we brought some rolls to have a simple antipasto dinner and walked back to our simple abode for the evening. The hardest part of walking to a supermarket is convincing my Mum and Kurt that we can only buy whatever we can carry!!!! Kurt and my Mum get very excited when we go shopping and have to be reminded of this one very important fact.
After sleeping in a park full of happy drunken back in Munich, this deserted car park, although a bit creepy was so quiet and peaceful and we slept like babies…..
p.s Kurt was started to feel ill.
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