Blogs from Munich, Bavaria, Germany, Europe - page 102

Germany - what a great country. Unfortunately we didn't really spend all that much time in Germany. But we did get one night in Munich, and lucky for us it was a Saturday night in the middle of Oktoberfest! Before heading out for a night that had the possibilities of ending in disaster, we had a quick orientation of the main sights of Munich. Marianplatz is the main square in the centre of the city. The main attraction is the new, old town hall, that houses the Glockenspiel, an almost larger than life size cuckoo clock. It has moving people and such. It only goes off about 3 times a day. Unfortunate for us, we missed the 5pm performance by 10 minutes! We had about 45 mins of free time, so what did we decide to ... read more

So we only got half an hour in Munich to look around. We went to one of the squares and saw the old and new city hall. The new one was meant to look way older than the old one and it does, it tricked us all. The new one is over a hundred years old, which would be super old in Canada. I got a pin and we were a bit late meeting the group and then me and Shaun got separated so I checked out the subway by myself. We then found each other and then the group (hadn't left yet) and hopped on the metro and headed to... Oktoberfest. That was crazy time. There were thousands of guys and girls all dressed up in traditional costumes, dancing on tables and all singing German ... read more

After a rather eventful night, I finally made it to my bed for a snooze. Half an hour later, the others said they were about to leave to head back into Oktoberfest. I decided that if I didn’t go with them, I’d never find them. So I got up, quickly got ready and we caught the coach in to Oktoberfest at about 10am. We saw the horse and carts bringing more beer into the festival, which was very cool! We spent the whole day and most of the evening hanging out at the Hofbrau tent across a few picnic tables out in the sunshine. By the time the evening came, they were playing some classic beer-drinking songs, which found most of us dancing on the tables. A somewhat reserved middle aged couple sitting next to us ... read more

Day 4 - Hoffheim to Munich via Heidelberg After another sausages and eggs brekkie we headed off to Heidelberg, which is the oldest town in Europe (as well as being a student town). Heidelberg is very picturesque and I loved it. Me and Georgia took a walk up to the Castle Ruins (built from the 13th to the 17th Century). It's rumoured to have beneath it a VAT which holds 221,000 litres of wine, but we didn't manage to find this! Again we were lucky and had a stunning day and the views from the castle were amazing. We then headed back through the castle grounds and had a wander through the Old Town (Altstadt). Besides having its own medieval castle, Heidelberg also has the oldest university in Europe - the University of Heidelberg - founded ... read more

Well firstly I have to say Oktoberfest was fantastic!! So much better than I thought it would be for a non-beer drinker like me! I got up early, quickly packed and caught the tube to Stamford Brook to met Suz and the boys plus Mel outside the tube station. Me and Mel grabbed some refreshments for the long journey ahead of us and then made our way to the Globetrotter Inn to get ourselves signed in. We had a bit of a snack for lunch and the boys started drinking their Strongbow. Before we knew it, it was time to jump on our coach and make our slow journey towards Munich. After a brief health and safety message, and instructions on how to ‘double bag’ if you’re feeling sick, we were on our way to Munich ... read more