Obviously, I was dragging a bit on the morning of Sunday, September 30, 2012. After the Volksfest in Stuttgart and a few liters of beer the night before, not to mention the six hour time difference, it was amazing that I was even functioning at all. But I was. In fact, I actually had very little issue getting myself ready and getting downstairs at the Hotel Traube for our first European hotel breakfast of the trip. By most standards, it would have been outstanding, but up against some of the other ones I’d had before (and would have during the week), it was just fair. It had the meats and cheeses that most of the others did, but for being a morning-after beer meal, it just wasn’t as satisfying as it could have been. I sorely missed the bagels and lox that were enjoyed so frequently in Amsterdam.
Tom makes his breakfast selection at the Hotel Traube
Bryan and Erine had stayed at the Volksfest much later than I had, but were able to peel themselves out of bed, leave their hotel, and pick the rest of us by 8am. I felt sorry for Bryan who had to do all of the driving that day. He told me that at one point during that morning’s travel he looked back and every one of us was asleep. The words “why me” came immediately to his head.
Our destination for that morning was to get to the Bavarian castles of Mad King Ludwig in Schwangau, which was about two and a half hours southeast of Stuttgart. We arrived in Schwangau a little bit before 1am and naturally felt the need eat again. We chose a cute little hotel/restaurant combo called the Waldmann. Not being too terrible hungry at this point, I decided to get in the obligatory sauerkraut, potatoes, and three sausage meal, all of which were incredibly tasty. Taking a brake from ale, I went with a nice small glass of warmish Coke.
Where we ate lunch in Schwangau
German food brings us together
Die Bob und Tom Anzeigen reist durch Deutschland
When I was in Germany in 2008, I visted the Schloss Hohenschwangau and Schloss Neuschwanstein, two staple tourist spots that everyone and their brother is drawn to. Remembering that I couldn’t take photos inside, I saw very little need to go in them once again. I was more than happy to take one for the team and just sit out while they all toured them, even though it meant roughly five hours of just hanging around in the rainy weather outside of the castles. But this is not a bad proposition when one has an iPod full of music.
So we arrived at the castles at around 1:50, visited the ticket center and a couple of the gift shops, and then everyone went into Hohenschwangau at about 3:30. I then hiked back down from atop the hill atop which Hohenschwangau, and then up the mountain atop wich Neuschwanstein sits. It’s about a 45 minute walk altogether, which I enjoyed although I must say I’m not quite in the shape I was four years ago during the last walk. I ended up walking beyond the castle and took the other harrowing uphill walk to the Marienbrück (Mary’s bridge). This time though, taking pictures of the castle from the bridge was futile as the fog was so think that you couldn’t even see the castle at all. Also, this time I walked beyond the bridge into the woodsy area with unpaved dirt (mud) trails for a bit.
A nice view of Hohenschwangau Castle from the parking lot
The tourist in front of the Alpsee
Our fam in Germany
Beautiful scenery sometimes makes me look worse by comparison
Mom and Bob at the scenic overlook over the Alpsee. Nearly invisible in the background is a gentleman blowing on the alpenhorn (ala the Ricola commercials)
The elders on the road to the castle
Entering the castle walls
More of the castle
Desperate for free fresh water in Germany
On the Marienbrücke on an extremely foggy afternoon
Neuschwanstein Castle – hardly visible in the fog
I then walked back to the castle where I soon met up with Bryan and Erine who had walked, while the elders took a bus ride, to the bridge. So I hiked once again back to the bridge area to meet up with them. Bryan and Erine went all the way up to the bridge, while I waited by the bus area, only to find the elders walking down from also visiting the bridge. Eventually we all came together and walked back to the castle again. They went in around 5:30 and I waited again and grabbed a bockwurst on a cheese pretzel. Eventually they came out, and we headed out, walking the path back to the parking lot. We left Schwangau at 7pm.
It was a 90 minute car ride to get to our hotel in Planegg, on the outskirts of Munich – better known to the locals at München, but I’ll be American and call it Munich. It was 8:30 when we arrived at the Park Hotel. Because it was an Oktoberfest week, we were lucky to find a place to stay anywhere near Munich, and we certainly paid for the privilege. We ended up with a three-bed and a four-bed room. Because of the enormous size of the larger room, we actually scooted one of the beds from the small into the larger so Diana and Tom could have their own room. Their room had what appeared to be hot and cold nozzles in the middle of the wall, prompting a search for a shower in the entry way.
Our massive room in Planegg
We had certainly eaten plenty that day, but we decided to go in search of another German meal regardless. We tried a biergarten called Hedi-Volm, but they had closed up shop for the night and the workers were just hanging around outside. We ended up at the only place we could find, a hotel cafe called La Terrazza, and it was plenty good. I went with the Pizza Spinaci e Gorgonzola (spinach and gorgonzola) and a hefeweizen bier. The elders left after dinner, and Bryan & Erine and I stayed on for an extra brew.
Dinner German style… with Italian pizza
The look of well-fed people
Monday, October 1, began with a hearty coldcut sandwich breakfast and some healthy doses of complaining about the snoring going on. This was obviously inevitable with five people sharing the same room.
Breakfast… and the look of people feeding well
Our hotel, seen as we walked to the train station
By 9:30am, we had walked from the hotel to the train station, where we departed Planegg and headed toward the Hauptbonhoff Central station, which was about a ten minute walk to Oktoberfest. It was easy once we go there to just follow the crowd of people wearing lederhosen and drndels.
This was it! The Oktoberfest. The big 16-day beer festival that other cities strive to imitate, and a huge drawing card for visiting Germany at this time of year. We entered the gates at a little bit after 10am, on the prowl for a beer tent that we could call home for an hour or two. There were fourteen large tents, all of them serving beer that was brewed in Munich, complying to the Bavarian Beer Purity Law. We poked our heads in the Paulaner tent, but it was nearly empty and looked to not yet be ready for business. So we decided to walk around the festival for a while, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the biggest festival in the world.
Memorial outside the Oktoberfest, on the site of the terrorist pipe bomb explosion that killed 13 people on September 26, 1980
Entering Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest.
We checkout out the exteriors of the beer tents, the Bavaria statue that overseen the Theresienwiese (the open land designated for Oktoberfest), gawked at the amazingly stomach-turning festival rides and funhouses, browsed the gift stands, and Bryan, Erine, and I even rode the rollercoaster. We chose the Olympia Looping, which is the largest portable steel coaster in the world – and the only one with five loops. They resemble the loops of the Olympic Games. It was a surprisingly long ride for the limited amount of space that it took up, and quite thrilling at that. As a coaster fiend, this was a major find.
Bob sports his new Munich hat
One of the cool displays on the Ammer Hühner & Entenbraterei tent. The spit actually rotated.
The Bavaria, a cast bronze statue erected in 1850 that is the female personification of the Bavarian homeland
Overlooking the Oktoberfest from atop the Bavaria steps
Just think; This field is empty for about 49 weeks of the year.
One of the more colorful funhouses
Erine and me ready to surmount another record-holding roller coaster
Happy prior to the five loops
Trying once again in vain to prove that I can successfully wear a hat and not look funny
Augustiner beer is thought by many to be the best in Germany, so we took a chance on scouting tables in the Augustiner-Festhalle tent around noon. Luckily and amazingly, we found a table that we could share with others that seated all seven of us. It appeared to be the only open table in the place. The ‘owners’ of these seats hadn’t arrived yet, but if they had, we would have been forced to move. As it was, we got to enjoy the tent for a little over an hour before we decided to leave. The elder couples split a liter of Augustiner and Bryan, Erine, and I each had our own mug. Since I had drooled over the roasted chicken at the Volksfest, I got to have my own here for lunch.
Augustiner!
According the our tablemates, the older folks at the next table over were part of the Augustiner family
The illusion of two beers
The same two beers
Dissection of a meal: Unlike the participants of the devouring frenzy of the previous night, I left a bit of meat on the bones.
The first liter of the day
Bottoms up!
Erine’s bottom was much cuter than mine
Mom and Bob as we departed the tent
The Augustiner kids
Mom and Bob with the Augustiner wagon
Me and the horses pulling the wagon
After we left the tent, we continued shopping and I picked up t-shirts for Ashleigh, Silas, Jamie, and one for myself. Mom continued the scarf quest. We departed the Oktoberfest at 1:30pm. It was a major checkmark on my life’s bucket list to have attended this swell affair. Although the Stuttgart Volksfest was more fun by comparison since I was there at night once things had gotten rowdy, this one was really cool too and I’d love to go back. We’d continue our day exploring other areas of Munich…
Goodbye. (If only I knew the German word for that…)
Munich will continue…
‘Goodbye. (If only I knew the German word for that…)’
Isn’t it “Zo Long” ?!
Wow, that really looks like fun! Were the biers as good as they look?
Dave Chasteen
October 26th, 2012