On Wednesday last week, I left Wintersheim and got to Bammental in the evening, in time for a photo session and feeding time with Gustav.
Why was I going to Bammental in the middle of the week? Early Thursday morning, Tim, Daniel and I left and headed to Bavaria, specifically Munich. Tim had arranged meetings pertaining to MCN work in Munich that also happened to fall in the time of Oktoberfest, sometimes called the world's largest folk festival. My sleeping bag and I were happy to be able to tag along.
We arrived to Munich and promptly walked the 3 or so kilometers from our place of lodging to the Theriesienwiese, where the festival grounds are. Tim's GPS was not needed for the last third of the trip as we just followed the droves of revelers in lederhosen and dirndles. There is a reason why this is called the world's largest folk festival and that is because the three of us were not in the majority of people who were wearing the traditional garb. It was everywhere!
Each of the main Munich breweries sets up a giant tent on the main drag. It was 1 pm and we selected the Spaten tent to find a seat. After walking around for nearly 5 minutes, someone spotted a table with one man sitting at it, so we invited ourselves to give him company. Let's review: giant tent, rows of tables and benches, 1 pm on Thursday, hardly places for three people.
Here's a video of the tent.
As you can see in the picture, in the middle of the tent is a raised stage where an entire band was set up. They played intermittently. They also played a song about every half hour called "Ein Prosete" (my spelling is wrong, I know) where everyone would sing and at the end offer to cheers to one another.
By this time it was 3 pm and we decided to leave and find out what the atmosphere was like in a different tent. Bad idea. We walked into the Augustiner tent and walked around. Then we walked outside and sat in tables set up in front of the tent. Unfortunately it started to rain before we were able to finish. This is a picture, obviously, before it started to rain on our parade.
Most of the next day had been set aside by Tim and Daniel for meetings, so after a lunch of doner kebaps, I bid them farewell for the afternoon and got on the train to go to northern Munich, my destination: Allianz Arena, the home of FC Bayern Munchen and 1860 Munchen. I arrived with no expectation whatsoever. I didn't even know if the stadium would be open. When I got off the U-Bahn and walked to the stadium, there were people walking back to the U-Bahn stop, which was either a good or bad sign. Luckily, there was a gate open and I was able to walk right into the stadium, with the seats barricaded off.
On the train, I had met a guy near my age from London who had the same idea I had. We ended up taking a tour of the stadium in German. Neither of us have had any German education, so we were just along for the visual sights. There were many.
We first went to the corner of the upper deck, which had an absolutely amazing view.
You'll see this place a little later.
Part of the tour included peaking into the FCB dressing room.
Then we were taken into the tunnel the players walk to the field through. Here's that place from earlier in the upper deck.
It was a really fun tour, even if I could only pick out tidbits of info with my limited German.
After touring Allianz Arena, I apparently hadn't gotten my fill of big stadiums, so I hopped on two more trains and went to the Olympia Stadium, home of the terrorist-marred 1972 Summer Olympics. This "self-guided" tour, 2 Euro worth, was mainly just a walk around the top of the stadium. It was all I really needed and had time for. It is always nice, though, to be in the same place where awe-inspiring moments of history have taken place. The architecture was also pretty swell.
Some people chose to go rapelling on the roof of the stadium, then drop (by rope) to the pitch. Not me (too expensive).
On Saturday, the three of us went to a town north of Munich, Freising. In this town is a brewery that makes Huber Weisses beer. Tim's GPS took us to a restaurant where we ordered Huber Beer, Huber Burgers, and Huber Fries. The burger's were excellent and the beer was superb. The fries, though, took the cake, or I guess the potato. First, they brought out a plate for the three of us. When we finished that, they brought out another plate for the three of us. When we finished the second plate, they brought out yet another plate! All you can eat fries, or anything all you can eat, are hard to come by in Europe. We found a place that whenever I'm in the Munich area again, I will be sure to go back to.
I did not get to see everything there is to see in Munich. I will definitely be trying to make it back there sometime. There are many museums and endless parks. The heart of Bavaria, though most times cold and wet, has many memories and many more to be made.
Until next time,
Jon
2 comments:
Did you tell them you were Hubers? Maybe that was the secret password to all-you-can-eat.
I play as that football/soccer team in FIFA 08!
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