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Early middle of the trip - Munich
Sep. 28th, 2015 01:23 pmSept 21 - We arrived in Munich in the afternoon. While at the Copenhagen airport, we found a pseudo-American sports bar and had beer and lunch. We also found free wireless, so I was able to download an app for the Munich metro system. This is an important, wonderful thing.
Thanks to the app and my guide book, we were able to quickly and easily get from the airport to the hotel. We had to walk a couple blocks, but this meant that we could get a little bit of the lay of the land on our way in.
We were tired, but made it out to a delightful Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Off the beaten path (literally), we were lucky to find a couple of people who spoke decent English. The German lessons I'd been doing on Duolingo paid off in FULL at this point. Since I learned a bunch of animal names and food words, I was able to figure out what was on the menu and order something and get what I thought I was asking for! Win!
Overall, the German that I learned from Duolingo was very helpful. Almost everyone we ran into spoke at least a little English, but the signs, menus, and whatnot are all still in German. Having some German vocabulary helped a TON. Yes, I could have worked harder at it. Yes, finding a real teacher and lessons would have been good. But I got a surprisingly large useful amount of language training out of this free website. Fun and educational and useful. 10/10, will use again.
Sept 22 - Goal 1: Find breakfast. We went to a cafe in one of the main squares that Sis found either in a guidebook or a website. It was amazing. We had apple strudels and seriously strong coffee. Very fortifying.
Side note: Pretty much everywhere we went, if we ordered "Coffee", we got a double shot of espresso. There was pretty much no regular drip coffee to be seen. This is a wonderful, magical thing. I miss it.
Goal 2: Find some cathedrals for Downwood to look at. We found 3 churches and some other interesting buildings. It was gothic and wonderful. We had to walk a bit in between each place, but there was lots of standing and oohing and aahing involved. Gorgeous masonry, wood carving, and stained glass.
Goal 3: Have a beer at Hofbrauhaus. This is the tourist trap beer hall in Munich. It's three gigantic floors of wooden tables and mugs of beer the size of your head. We got some giant pretzels (so good) and each had a liter of beer. Yes, they serve the beer by the LITER. It's ridiculous and awesome. Also, they don't go in for fancy beer there. You have just a couple of choices, but it's still good beer. Munich has no time for bad beer.
Goal 4: Experience Oktoberfest. This was quite a thing. It's basically a combination of the Iowa State Fair (for size, crowds, and shenanigans) and Ren Faire (for costuming - seriously lots of drindls and lederhosen). It's at a big fairground area. There are spinny rides (OH GOD WHY), a ferris wheel, and other state fair deathtrap rides. There are people selling food onna stick and inna bun. There are games and many booths with cheap souveniers.
And then there are the beer tents.
Calling these places "tents" is misleading to anyone who's not been to my Werk Conference of Doom. These are GIANT constructions. They have actual floors and ventilation systems. Most have full kitchens and wait staff areas. Some have multiple levels for seating. They're only tent in that they're not actually fully permanent construction. Also, they're HUGE. My town could fit several times over in a couple of these. Just insane. All the tents had a stage for live music of some kind. Mostly brass band polka, but the last tent we were in greeted us with Polka Elvis and then covers of 80s rock hits. It was amazing and wonderful.
We were there on a Tuesday afternoon. It was very crowded. I have NO desire to be at this place on a weekend. Batshit insane, yo.
Still, we had amazing luck. We ended up visiting four tents and drinking at each. In each tent, we were able to sit at a table nearly immediately. The chances of this are astronomical, but we managed it. We drank SO. MUCH. BEER. The first three tents all served beer in liters. The boys had full liters at each place. After the first one, Sis and I split a beer. The fourth tent was actually the "Wine Tent". Most of the menu was wine, but they had some good beers, too. That place served beers in 500 ml glasses, which actually seemed a little small by that point.
So, for those of you playing along at home, by the time we left Oktoberfest and including our earlier stop at Hofbrauhaus, the boys each had 4.5 LITERS of beer and Sis and I had about 3.5. EACH. I really can't stress this enough.
Halfway through the afternoon, we joined a line that we really didn't understand. Turns out that it was good we didn't understand, since the line was to climb to the top of the Bavaria statue that overlooks the Oktoberfest grounds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria_statue The view was amazing and impressive, but the stairs are...tricky after visiting a couple of tents. It was a neat experience, but one that we didn't expect in the slightest.
Throughout the day of drinking, we didn't actually eat much. We had several giant Oktoberfest pretzels (so, so good) and a cheese plate at the first tent, but no real food. I fell into bed when we staggered back to the hotel, surfacing only to drink a bunch of water and take off my shoes. Sis and BiL went to the Vietnamese place again, where he had yet another beer.
Final tally: BiL - 5 L, Downwood - 4.5 L, Me - ~3.5 L, Sis - ~3.5 L
So much beer. Entry on bucket list checked off. Worth it.
Thanks to the app and my guide book, we were able to quickly and easily get from the airport to the hotel. We had to walk a couple blocks, but this meant that we could get a little bit of the lay of the land on our way in.
We were tired, but made it out to a delightful Vietnamese restaurant for dinner. Off the beaten path (literally), we were lucky to find a couple of people who spoke decent English. The German lessons I'd been doing on Duolingo paid off in FULL at this point. Since I learned a bunch of animal names and food words, I was able to figure out what was on the menu and order something and get what I thought I was asking for! Win!
Overall, the German that I learned from Duolingo was very helpful. Almost everyone we ran into spoke at least a little English, but the signs, menus, and whatnot are all still in German. Having some German vocabulary helped a TON. Yes, I could have worked harder at it. Yes, finding a real teacher and lessons would have been good. But I got a surprisingly large useful amount of language training out of this free website. Fun and educational and useful. 10/10, will use again.
Sept 22 - Goal 1: Find breakfast. We went to a cafe in one of the main squares that Sis found either in a guidebook or a website. It was amazing. We had apple strudels and seriously strong coffee. Very fortifying.
Side note: Pretty much everywhere we went, if we ordered "Coffee", we got a double shot of espresso. There was pretty much no regular drip coffee to be seen. This is a wonderful, magical thing. I miss it.
Goal 2: Find some cathedrals for Downwood to look at. We found 3 churches and some other interesting buildings. It was gothic and wonderful. We had to walk a bit in between each place, but there was lots of standing and oohing and aahing involved. Gorgeous masonry, wood carving, and stained glass.
Goal 3: Have a beer at Hofbrauhaus. This is the tourist trap beer hall in Munich. It's three gigantic floors of wooden tables and mugs of beer the size of your head. We got some giant pretzels (so good) and each had a liter of beer. Yes, they serve the beer by the LITER. It's ridiculous and awesome. Also, they don't go in for fancy beer there. You have just a couple of choices, but it's still good beer. Munich has no time for bad beer.
Goal 4: Experience Oktoberfest. This was quite a thing. It's basically a combination of the Iowa State Fair (for size, crowds, and shenanigans) and Ren Faire (for costuming - seriously lots of drindls and lederhosen). It's at a big fairground area. There are spinny rides (OH GOD WHY), a ferris wheel, and other state fair deathtrap rides. There are people selling food onna stick and inna bun. There are games and many booths with cheap souveniers.
And then there are the beer tents.
Calling these places "tents" is misleading to anyone who's not been to my Werk Conference of Doom. These are GIANT constructions. They have actual floors and ventilation systems. Most have full kitchens and wait staff areas. Some have multiple levels for seating. They're only tent in that they're not actually fully permanent construction. Also, they're HUGE. My town could fit several times over in a couple of these. Just insane. All the tents had a stage for live music of some kind. Mostly brass band polka, but the last tent we were in greeted us with Polka Elvis and then covers of 80s rock hits. It was amazing and wonderful.
We were there on a Tuesday afternoon. It was very crowded. I have NO desire to be at this place on a weekend. Batshit insane, yo.
Still, we had amazing luck. We ended up visiting four tents and drinking at each. In each tent, we were able to sit at a table nearly immediately. The chances of this are astronomical, but we managed it. We drank SO. MUCH. BEER. The first three tents all served beer in liters. The boys had full liters at each place. After the first one, Sis and I split a beer. The fourth tent was actually the "Wine Tent". Most of the menu was wine, but they had some good beers, too. That place served beers in 500 ml glasses, which actually seemed a little small by that point.
So, for those of you playing along at home, by the time we left Oktoberfest and including our earlier stop at Hofbrauhaus, the boys each had 4.5 LITERS of beer and Sis and I had about 3.5. EACH. I really can't stress this enough.
Halfway through the afternoon, we joined a line that we really didn't understand. Turns out that it was good we didn't understand, since the line was to climb to the top of the Bavaria statue that overlooks the Oktoberfest grounds. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bavaria_statue The view was amazing and impressive, but the stairs are...tricky after visiting a couple of tents. It was a neat experience, but one that we didn't expect in the slightest.
Throughout the day of drinking, we didn't actually eat much. We had several giant Oktoberfest pretzels (so, so good) and a cheese plate at the first tent, but no real food. I fell into bed when we staggered back to the hotel, surfacing only to drink a bunch of water and take off my shoes. Sis and BiL went to the Vietnamese place again, where he had yet another beer.
Final tally: BiL - 5 L, Downwood - 4.5 L, Me - ~3.5 L, Sis - ~3.5 L
So much beer. Entry on bucket list checked off. Worth it.
