Sunny Germany

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Oktoberfest

We headed back to the south of Germany once again on the 15^thof September 2011. Our destination this time was the renowned festival in Munich; which we had planned on attending with our Australian roommates. We headed down a few days early to get cheaper flights, and didn't bother making sure we had a place to stay since Dan had family that we could visit. Due to lack of planning (although not lack of intent to plan) we found ourselves checking into a hostel when we couldn't contact them. We decided now was a good a time as any to find the apartment we'd rented in order to find out when we could check-in on our booked arrival date. We were offered the room that night for a reduced rate. With the original rate being ≈€160 we weren't excited to pay what we imagined would be a rate 'reduced' to €120. To our surprise he offered it to us for €60!!! Unfortunatly we weren't sure we could get the money back for the hostel and needed to deliberate; maybe we could just lose a deposit. After discussing that it would be worth it regardless he made it even easier by lowering it even further to €50!!! We headed back to the hostel and grabbed our bags, getting refunded the full amout. What a great day. We had dinner at the well known Hoffbrauhause not far off Marienplatz. Dan got lost, but only a little, and we enjoyed some beer (Ashley's refresing Radler (lager & Sprite equivalent) and Dan's Dunkel (a dark beer he had yet to try)) and food. We shared a table since most are very large and we were a very small group. We shared with two German lads, Chris and Johannes who came to visit Chris' sister and celebrate the festival. On the other side was an Italian man who did a road trip every year and wrote a blog (dictating to his tape recorder as he drove).

We got up the next day and went to find a bakery for breakfast. It wasn't as easy as we'd imagined and we ended up all the way to the Theresienwiese where the festival is held. We wandered around the grounds and poked our heads into a few of the buildings. I mean, they didn't have anyone (or signs) saying that we weren't allowed to look. I was impressive to see how massive the tents were; and how empty. That would change in the days to come. Later that day we met our flatmates at the train station and showed them back to the apartment.

The next day was the start of the festival! We thought (naively) that we would try and get into the Schottenhamel tent which is where the mayor taps the first keg. We thought it would be neat to see all the pomp and circumstance; however, our early arrival at 9am wasn't early enough. The tent was already full and we were at the back of the mob of people trying to get in. We eventually gave up and started looking for other tents to get into but it was too late to get into any tent at that point. But we did find a good spot in to sun just outside the Paulaner tent. Most people around us came prepared: the first keg isn't tapped until 11am but you need to get there early to guarantee a place to sit (and you have to be sitting to be served) so you need to bring entertainment. Lots of people had cards or games to play.We sat there for at least 2 hours soaking up the sun; you see, this was our first glimpse of summer weather since April; it rained most days in Edinburgh.

We eventually got served our Maß (literal translation: litre in German) and enjoyed the atmosphere and food (delicious whole chickens!). We took turns holding our seats and checking out the grounds and indulging in roast almonds and gingerbread hearts. This went on for a few hours until Dan began feeling unwell. It appeared that he had 'heat stroke' from all the sun and excitement (which may I remind you we weren't used to having lived in Scotland for a year). That was the end of the day for us. Once we got back to the apartment and Dan slept for a few hours we went for a walk to find some dinner. The day we met some of Ashley and Angela's friends in the Lowenbrau tent, which is incidentally where we also met Jason and Reagan who were on a trip across Europe. The second day was lower key. We paced ourselves and enjoyed the atmosphere of the tent, including a parade of traditionally dressed men and women, playing music and also carrying axes, which was a wee bit worrying. We spent the evening outside enjoying the rides. One of our favourites was a psychadelic 70's ride that we walked through with blurry glasses and listening the funky sounds of Abba and The Village People. We couldn't help but dance and sing our way through.

We spent the following day exploring Munich, including a creepy church that had all sorts of skeleton imagery, and visiting with Dan's relatives. We had fun keeping the kids busy. We stayed the night on their couch but it was time to leave the next morning, Ashley to London and Dan to Ulm to visit more family.

Bavaria (from the Dan perspective)

As Ashley abandoned me via the Munich Airport, I went to visit Gerhard and Hanne-Lore again; this time to do some all important reconnaissance for Gerhard's grand children. As it turned out, Legoland Deutchland is very close to Ulm. After Hanne-Lore made us boys our packlunch we were off. We went straight to play... work. The parking lot was magnificently empty when we got there, giving us near imediate access to almost all aspects of the park.

After crossing the threshold I was only mildly disappointed to find out not everything was constructed out of Lego. Turnstyles, tickets booths, and building were all still mainly conventional construction materials. It didn't take too long until we ran into the first Lego people who were about 2 feet tall and built out of standard Lego blocks to scale of the common size characters. We decided to go on one ride called "The Hero Factory", after a Lego line I am admittedly rather ignorant of. Normally two people would get strapped into the seats of this robotic arm and be flailed about seemingly hap-hazardously. Since it was sooooooooooooo empty, Gerhard and I each got our own robots; I went all out on the 5th difficulty, but I couldn't tell how high Gerhard's was. From there we went to the Lego Factory where we got to see how Lego pieces would be made, stamped (if there was a design on them), sorted and packaged. Here I got to marvel at some of the high tech and low tech sorting methods. Both were done in closed vats that had ramps climbing up the outside to the sorting methods. Vibrations moved the blocks up the ramps. One method was simply an over hang above the ramp, so that a block on it's side was too tall to fit through and would tumble back into the centre of the sorting bin. On that same ramp was a notch cut out of the ramp so that if the dimple side was down, one side of the dimples would fall into the notch and tip the block back in. In the other bin it seperated blocks by color using a laser eye and a small puff of air to nock the 'undesireable' colors back in. I can only imagine how much use machines like this would have been on "Lego sorting days" back when I was little.

It was then time to head to the miniature land. There were several islands in the walking paths through this area, each containing a different location and some of it's landmarks; it could be a country, a city, and there was even the Munich airport. Some of the more scaled down parts still used the well known Lego people with few moving joints, but the majority called upon much more creativity to build the population out of standard Lego blocks. We passed by the Munich airport, Venice, orchards & vineyards, Frankfurt, Berlin, Hamburg, the Netherlands, and Switzerland. Some of the contructions that stood out to me the most would have been: Neuschwanstein, the freight boat that must have been 6 feet long, the way the boats would get pulled around by the underwater gears, and the cars would travel on the roads (must have been magnets underneath, buth this is unconfirmed as of yet). It was also amazing how they used live plants as part of the exhibits: small berry bushes as trees, tiny hedges as vineyards. Another major part of the miniture land was a section completly devoted to Star Wars!!!! This section had huge scenes, from the battles of Naboo and Hoth, to Mos Eisley and the genosian arena scene where Anikin, Obi-Wan, and Padme fight for their lives.

Once we were finally done with the miniture land, it was time to get to the real kid stuff. We walked around the animal park that had log rides, and pirate ships with water guns. Somemore amazing contructions came through when it came to the animals. There was (what I figured was the actual size of) a baby elephant; it spat water out it's trunk and everything. There were wild cats, birds, classic lego monkeys, snakes, crocodiles, swimming sharks... it was amazing to see all these large (if not full scale) animals. We attended one 4D (3D glasses plus simulated rain, wind, etc.) film that transended language barriers (since there was no language) about a blacksmith who aided a princess and then fashioned the token she gave him as thanks into his sword to fight back the invading, undead armies of an evil magician. It was pretty fun.

After such a full day I headed back to Munich and stayed one more night with Anne and Co before flying to London and metting back up with my love and her mom.

Highlights & Tips

• May be able to save money on accomodation by showing up early to major events where they'll be sold out in the following days
• Oktoberfest can be fun for the whole family; plenty of rides and other fun things to do
• Apparently the Australian Consulate in Germany sets up a tent at the fest (probably they don't want to miss out)
• Legoland is easily a way to spend a day (or 2 with wee ones) if you need to get away from the party for a bit (it was also very not busy during the week while Oktoberfest was on)

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Photos

A dunkel
A dark German beer Dan had yet to try. He did.

Counting down
One day left before it begins.

Let's get this party started
The mayor's parade arriving to tap the first keg.

Beer porter
Carried 10 litres all at once!

Rows of beers
Our first outdoor day at Oktoberfest!

One of 5 a day
Actually, the only greens we ate all weekend

Fun for the whole family
Tons of rides to enjoy if you're too young for the tents (which didn't seem to be possible).

This may look familiar
Neuschanstein, only miniature legoized.

Filled to capacity
The Munich Allianz arena with tradiational sized lego people.

Wee Oktoberfest
Note the half full masses.

143 man hours, 15 000 pieces
That's all it took to build the Millenium Falcon.

Defending the galaxy
against the infamous Sith.

Duhhne, duhhne, duhhnenenenenenene
Lego sharks a' gonna getcha.