Category: Trips

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Oktoberfest

Oktoberfest.

Just the word conjures up visions of giant soft, chewy pretzels, liter steins of beer, and throngs of Germans clad in lederhosen and dirndls.

Well, it’s all true.

Oktoberfest TentsSarah and I took the kids to Munich to experience Oktoberfest, since we had held an Oktoberfest celebration at our house every year for the past three years. Sarah wrote about how we took the kids for a day of carnival rides and cookies, but the next night, Sarah and I got a babysitter (a saint from Canada named Chantal who had just moved to Munich), dressed up in our best trachten and grabbed the U-Bahn to the Theresienwiese to experience Oktoberfest first hand. And let me tell you, the U-Bahn stop at Theresienwiese during Oktoberfest is wall-to-wall Kraut. You must lose all sense of personal space to brave this crowd.

Like most things, Oktoberfest is now a mutated, bloated, exorbitant continuation of what once was intended as a commemorative celebration of the marriage of Crown Prince Ludwig (soon King Ludwig I) to his bride, Princess Therese of Saxony-Hildburghausen. The marriage took place on October 12, 1810 and the people of Munich were invited to participate in the festivities including horse races. As the horse race was repeated annually, the tradition of Oktoberfest was born.

Oktoberfest features only beer brewed by the six major brewers to brew within the city of Munich (known as the Big Six by me, if no one else): Hofbrau, Spaten, Paulaner, Hacker-Pschorr, Löwenbräu, and Augustiner. You can usually get Weizenbeir, Helles, and of course, the special Oktoberfest beers at the festival. Liter mugs (ein Maß in German) are mandatory and rarely is anything else sold (or tolerated).

ProstSarah and I found our way to several tents that all claimed to have reserved seating (though I argued that present paying customers were much better than customers yet to come). You see, at Oktoberfest they will not serve you unless you are seated. So it is not uncommon, if you have a table, for a waiter to escort a pretty young fräulein to your table, sit her down momentarily, exchange beer for money, and then she will get up and walk away. This works with one or two people, but larger groups must find a table to sit at.

Eventually we found our seats in the outdoor biergarten of the Schottenhamel tent, a Spaten establishment (one of Sarah and my favorites, and widely available in the U.S. in case you would like to try). We were seated with a group of biology researchers from Munich, across from some Italians from Rome, and a table from some highly inebriated Scots.

We ate, drank, and sang to our hearts delight. Eventually, two nice older couples from Rome were seated next to us. They spoke no German, but understood some of my Spanish. I almost had a seizure trying to translate their Italian into English, and back into German in order to help them order food for the night. They were very appreciative of our efforts, anyway.

Sarah and Joe doing OktoberfestAfter we drank a few liters we went on to the notorious Hofbrauhaus tent. It is known as the place where loud, obnoxious foreigners (i.e. Australians) go to party. I don’t know where these people were from, but as soon as Sarah and I hit the dance floor everyone seemed to want to take pictures with us. We felt like celebrities (but knew we weren’t).

We finally made it back to the U-Bahn and headed back home. We knew we had gotten the full Oktoberfest experience. If only King Ludwig himself could see the party he’s started.

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Lunch on the Alpsee

Sarah is going to kill me for posting this; I’m supposed to be writing about our time at Oktoberfest, but when something occurs like this, you have got to get it down before the moment passes.

We have moved on to very southern Bavaria where we planned to take the kids to see Schloss Neuschwanstein. The morning was decorated with horse-drawn carriage rides, King Henrya castle tour, and a lovely wooded hike, and will be covered in another post. We had decided to go to lunch on the Alpsee, and found the perfect little café with outdoor seating. We ordered delicious food, ate and drank in the shadow of King Ludwig II, and decided to let Emily and James go play on the shores of the lake.

Then we noticed Henry had a look on his face. This kind of look, when given by a two-year-old, is often accompanied by a smell. And this was no exception. Only parents will understand what I mean when I say that, what we noticed next indicated that the situation had gone from an unpleasant inconvenience, to an all out emergency. Henry had boiled over.

I raced him upstairs to the woefully unequipped bathroom by the idyllic shores of the Alpsee, stripped him naked and proceeded to bathe him in one sink while washing his clothes in the other. After a heroic effort of cleaning and drying him, he found his mother outside the bathroom with a warm jacket and lots of hugs. I proceeded to clean the walls, floors, and counters and we took him downstairs (strategically washing stairs along the way).

Back on the terrace we found, to our surprise, that we had forgotten about Emily and James. And now, they were nowhere to be found. Sarah scoured the shoreline while I raced Henry back to the hotel. Fortunately the cleaning lady found me in the hallway and told me that my two kids had come home early and she let them in.

I found Emily and James in their room playing with their new Lego sets, and they told me what happened to them. Emily said they thought we were coming down to the water to throw stones with them, but when they looked up, we were both gone. They talked about it, and decided to walk back to the hotel to find us (a very smart move on their part), but were stopped, “by a group of black-haired people who just wanted to take pictures with Emily.”

Asian tourists. They can’t get enough of blond children.

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Getting to Legoland Deutschland

No one ever said traveling with kids was easy, and we have had our fair share of challenging travel days. Our kids have really gotten to be very good travelers, but our trip from Munich to Legoland felt like Chevy Chase trying to get to Wally World.

We left our Munich apartment at 10:15am, and took the bus to the Ostbahnhof (East train station) because it went straight there and we figured it would be less crowded than the central Hauptbahnhof. Joe got our tickets for Günzburg, Germany, home of Legoland Deutschland. Estimated time of arrival: 12:50

Unfortunately, when we got the itinerary for our tickets, the first leg of the trip took us to the Hauptbahnhof. Oh well, no problem. We grabbed some food for breakfast and went over to the S-Bahn (Strassenbahn or street level tram) to the Hauptbahnhof. The train’s departure time came and went, but the train didn’t move. The conductor was making announcements in German that we didn’t fully understand until a friendly passenger told us that there had been a derailment at the Marienplatz, and that the train would be delayed for quite a while. It was recommended that we take the U-Bahn (subway) to the Hauptbahnhof instead.

This was a little frustrating, but we gathered our things and walked quickly through the train station to the U-Bahn platform. After waiting nearly 10 minutes, the train pulled into the station so completely packed with people going to Oktoberfest that there was no way we could fit our family of 5 with luggage. A few other people pushed past us to get on, and the train left the station, leaving us standing on the platform, and taking with it our last chance for catching our train at the Hauptbahnhof.

A nice gentleman suggested that we take the U-Bahn in the opposite direction for a few stops in order to get on the right train before all the other people got on. So we did. And about 25 minutes later we were back at the Ostbahnhof, only this time we were already on the train packed with people going to Oktoberfest. About 5 stops later, we squeezed our way out of the train at the Hauptbahnhof having long since missed our train to Günzburg.

Joe figured out when the next train was, and we settled onto the platform for the 30-minute wait. Amazingly, this train was a more direct route, and even though we had wasted an hour trying to get to the Hauptbahnhof, we would only arrive at Legoland 30 minutes later. Our new estimated time of arrival: 1:20pm. We boarded the train, and the kids got out their books satisfied that we were finally on our way to Legoland. The rest of the train ride was uneventful, even enjoyable.

They announced that the next stop was Günzburg, and we started collecting our things again. The next few minutes are a blur. There was a stuck train door, too many things that didn’t get repacked, kids that were a little slow… Joe was taking off the luggage while I corralled the kids, and as he came back on the train to grab more bags, the doors slammed shut and the train started pulling out of the station. We were banging on the doors, pushing buttons and yelling “Stop!” knowing full well that there wasn’t anything we could do, as the whole car of passengers looked on in horror. Emily finally lost it when she saw her suitcase sitting on the platform as we raced away toward the next station.

Each member of our family handles stressful situations in a different way. There was some yelling, some crying, some whining. It was like we all went through all 5 stages of grief, from anger through acceptance, in about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, a well-meaning passenger and a ticket-taker helped us figure out a plan. We got off the train at the next stop and went over to yet another platform to board a train going back the other way. Remarkably, when we got back to the Günzburg station 40 minutes later, our luggage was sitting on the platform right where it had been left.

Now we just had to get from the train station to Legoland. But, when Joe checked the bus schedule, he discovered that the Legoland bus doesn’t run for several hours in the middle of the day. LegolandSo, we waited at the taxi area for about 15 minutes before a taxi came and dropped us off at Legoland Deutschland at 3:05pm.

Legoland is just 120 kilometers outside of Munich, but it took us 6 hours to get there. (That’s an average of 12mph). And for the next two days, I had this song stuck in my head:

 

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Munich with munchkins

Swiss schools have a three week Fall break that started last weekend. Not only do the kids have off of school, all adult groups also take three weeks off, and even some family run shops are closed while the whole country goes on vacation. So, like all the other Swiss families, we took off for a trip in southern Bavaria. First stop: Munich, Germany.

Dinner in MunichIt is Oktoberfest season in Munich, and we were told it would be crowded and touristy. But, as we have thrown a home-town Oktoberfest party for the past several years, we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to the real thing! Amazingly, we found a cute, affordable apartment in the city for the family. We packed up our liederhosen and dirndls and we were ready.

Our apartment was right by a bus stop, so once we were settled in, we hopped on a bus to explore the city. We all got pretty good at navigating the Munich public transportation system, to the point that the kids knew which U-Bahn (subway) stops we got off at to make our transfers and when to push the button on the bus to let the driver know we wanted to get off. The first night we went to the Odeonsplatz, a pretty and posh area of the old city. We ate dinner in an outdoor café and reacquainted ourselves with wonderful German food. Then we walked down Theatinerstrasse to the Marienplatz, Munich’s famous central square, to show the kids the major landmarks of the city.

In the mornings, we took the kids to some less crowded, more peaceful areas of Munich. We walked through a small part of the huge Englischer Garten where we watched surfers on the Eisbach river, talked to the ducks by the Japanese Tea House, and ate lunch at the beer garden by the Chinese Tower. The next morning, we went to Max Weber Platz, which is another nice park by the Isar river, Lunch at Augustinerkellerwhere we found a spielplatz and just played with other local families. After working up an appetite, we went to the Augustiner Keller for lunch. It is Joe’s favorite place on the planet. This was his third visit, but his first time eating outside in the beer garden, and he said being there “made his soul feel good.”

Tuesday afternoon we took the family to Oktoberfest. We got all dressed up and headed over to the festival grounds on a very crowded train full of people wearing trachten. In fact, this is probably the one place you actually look out of place if you aren’t wearing liederhosen or a dirndl. At the festival, we bought the kids the traditional heart-shaped gingerbread cookie necklaces to wear, which they promptly ate. We rode on many rides,including the large ferris wheel, the haunted roller coaster, the little train (for Henry), and the grand finale –

Oktoberfest Kids– the swings that spun and rose up several stories in the air. Everyone had a good time, though for being a beer festival, we didn’t have a single beer. But not to worry, we fixed that later.

We got a lot of great pictures in Munich. Check out the gallery here.

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Thun, the Tanzschiff, and Ten years

So, as I noted before, September 1st, 2011 was our tenth wedding anniversary. Sarah and I decided to get a babysitter this weekend (no small feat in Switzerland), and go out for the evening. Sarah had been looking forward to this weekend for quite some time, as she had already decided where we were going for our anniversary.

Lord and Lady of Schloss ThunWe took the train down to Thun, a lovely city just 10 minutes south of us by train, that also lies next to the Thunersee (Lake Thun) right where the Aare river exits. In fact, a portion of the old city is essentially an island in the middle of the Aare river, connected to the rest of the city by pedestrian and motor vehicle bridges. On one side of the old city is the bahnhof, and on the other lies Schloss Thun.

Covered Bridge in ThunSarah and I walked around the old city, visited Schloss Thun, and had drinks at several outdoor cafes while strolling through the town. We also saw preparations for a festival in the middle of the old town called the Langer Tisch, a festival that involves one long eating table that meanders through the old town.

While this was all lovely, it was by no means the highlight of the day. Sarah had a special plan in mind. There are a number of boats that sail on the Thunersee, “cruises” if you will, that have any number of themes associated with them. There are simple tourist boats, lunch boats, fondue boats, fish boats, wine boats, almost any kind of boat you could imagine. And Sarah had her eye on one particular boat for some time: the Dinner-und-Tanzschiff (Dinner and Dance Boat). She had made reservations for us on this boat, which only rides about once every two weeks or so, when she noticed that one set sail on our anniversary weekend.

The boat itself was beautiful. The M.S. Berner Oberland is one of the largest tourist ships to sail on the Thunersee. The dinner was delicious; we had apparently been upgraded to a First-Class dining area reservation. The view of the lake shore as daylight faded, and lights lining the lake as darkness crept in was fabulous, and made for a romantic evening.

And what could be more romantic, than two 300-lb guys in plaid shirts, unbuttoned at least half way down, singing German folk music with a pre-programmed Yamaha keyboard? Well, that pretty much describes Duo Barbados, our entertainment for the evening. The beginning of every song sounded like Boney M singing “Rivers of Babylon,” which Sarah got tired of me singing until at one point they actually WERE playing “Rivers of Babylon.” Sarah kept referring to what they were playing as “Muzak,” but to me that seemed like an insult to Muzak.

And if they weren’t entertaining enough (and the video below should clear up any confusion there), most of the other boat patrons (many of whom likely got their tickets as a half-price deal through their local ballroom dance studio) sent the entertainment value soaring into the hilariousphere. Among my personal favorites were: creepy guy who sat alone all night without dancing, The Elizabeth Taylor lookalike (at least from about 1 week after she died) and her “partner” who took turns “dancing” with a man in a boat captain’s uniform, and Mr. Bolo Tie and his lovely companion, who were actually very good dancers and enjoyable to watch.

There are times when sitcoms seem unbelievably contrived, but there are definitely times when you can’t believe that your life has turned into a sitcom. The only thing missing from last night was a laugh track, or a live studio audience. But when you are celebrating 10 years of marriage, you don’t let something like a ridiculously surreal Dinner-und-Tanzschiff ruin your evening. Sarah and I toasted the night away, laughed at ourselves, and, most importantly, hit the dance floor a few times just to say we did it all!

See our photos from our anniversary adventure.

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Barthelmarkt in Oberstimm (part 2)

So, this is just a brief follow-up to yesterday’s post. Mostly I want to share our pictures from our time in Ingolstadt (including our time at the infamous Barthelmarkt in Oberstimm). I also want to put in a small plug for “backdoor traveling.” Basically, you can find the big tourist attractions, the must-see festivals and cities, and the can’t miss tours, but there is nothing that beats being off the beaten path. The best way to do it is to know someone who is passionate about an area and have them show you around. We’ve had just as much fun in small-town festivals and exploring castles in hamlets no bigger than a city block, as we have had seeing all the big sites.

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Barthelmarkt in Oberstimm (part 1)

When people think of Bavaria, they imagine men decked out in lederhosen and women clad in dirndls clutching liter mugs of beer, downing sausage after sausage, standing on wooden tables and spouting local dialects over the boom of an Oompah band.

Now don’t you feel just the least bit bad about stereotyping these people? Well, you should. In fact, the German people are a sophisticated culture with Bavaria being a center of high finance, manufacturing, avant-garde arts, and international relations. Chancellor Angela Merkel was recently voted the most powerful woman in the world by Forbes Magazine (apparently beating out Oprah and Lady Gaga).

And lest we forget Germany’s rich history. One of the most richly historic celebrations in Bavaria, in fact, the oldest annual Bavarian festival is the festival known as “Barthelmarkt.” While this festival has certainly been going on for the last 450 years, there is clear documentation of the festival from the mid 1300s, and precursors to the festival go as far back as the 1st century B.C.E.

It gets its name from St. Bartholomew, the patron saint of fisherman and shepherds. The feast of St. Bartholomew is August 24th, and was a gathering time for villagers to buy and sell horses (and other animals). Over the years this gathering began to involve a festival as old friends and horse traders converged on the area just south of Ingolstadt, Germany known as Oberstimm. Eventually it settled on the format of a four-day festival, beginning on Friday, and ending on Monday when animals and money are exchanged.

So this past weekend, we took the kids to Oberstimm, Germany, to meet up with our friend Kristina, and immerse ourselves in the rich history of this German festival. And that is how we found ourselves, Joe, James and Henry decked out in lederhosen and Sarah and Emily clad in dirndls, the adults clutching liter mugs of beer, downing sausage after sausage, standing on wooden tables and spouting local dialects over the boom of an Oompah band.

Barthelmarkt in Oberstimm
What a handsome family!

Damn stereotypes.

This festival features, among other attractions, a man who stands on a small bench, the bench held aloft by fellow festival-goers, while he chugs a liter of beer. There are mechanical rides, pony rides, food galore, large inflated bubbles containing your children that float on water, and multiple tents with bands playing music all day and night.

The highlight of the whole festivities is the singing of the Barthelmarktlied (it’s kind of an anthem). Below is a video from the very tent we were in showing the crowd getting worked up by the band as they sing the anthem. For those of you interested in following along at home with your own hymnal, download the text here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0yew9eelOI

As a quick postlude, Kristina just sent me the picture below, found on a German website. Enjoy!

Kristina and Joe at Barthelmarkt
Kristina and Joe at Barthelmarkt
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Just Keep Swimming

For those of you who don’t have young children, this title is a quote from the movie “Finding Nemo” that I thought was appropriate for this post for two reasons. First, in the movie when things get difficult, Dory (the blue fish) says, “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming…” I’m certainly not complaining, but lets just say that the first week of school was an adjustment for everyone.  Secondly, we have had some of the most beautiful and hot weather of the summer. During a whole week of sunny, 80-degree days, we spent a lot of time in our swimsuits.

By the creekWe went one afternoon to the local, outdoor swimming complex. We have been there twice before, but this time the kids found some friends from school to play with, which was great. We spent another afternoon at our little creek down the road. It’s small and shallow, but still cool (okay, cold), clean and refreshing. There are rocks for throwing and a rope ladder and swing.

Over the weekend we took an day trip to the town of Murten. It is a fantastic, medieval town a little west of Bern on the Murtensee (Lake Murten). We swam in the lake, Lake Murtenwhich was some of the warmest water for swimming that we’ve found in Switzerland (though that’s not saying much!). We also played at a park near the lake, watched the ducks and the fish, walked through the town, and Emily and I walked along the top of the ancient wall enclosing the old city. We forgot the camera, but I snapped a few shots with my iPhone.

On Sunday, we slapped our suits on once again, and headed to the Aare river. We biked further down the crowded trail along the river past many beautiful outcroppings until we found one that was not claimed and had some nice shallow places for the kids to swim. It’s beautiful, and fun to watch all the swimmers and rafters floating down the river. Joe jumped in again (this time without his glasses) and glided a little further down the river, enjoying the view of the blue water flowing off to the horizon with mountains in the background.

We’ve been told that this kind of weather is rare in Switzerland, so we plan to continue enjoying it as long as wek can!

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Small accomplishments, big mountains

The early part of this week was a bit slow. After waiting a week for the local bike store to open, it was closed again on Monday. So, we went there bright and early on Tuesday morning, only to find out that he didn’t have any used kids bikes. He told us those are pretty hard to come by. He did, however, have a cheap used bike for an adult, which we bought and immediately took to the grocery store to pick up several heavy items we’ve been needing to tote home.

The kids’ spirits were a little crushed. The weather wasn’t helpful either (cool, cloudy, and a little rainy again). But, on Tuesday night there was a beautiful rainbow right over our house and our luck began to change. Wednesday morning, Joe went into town with Emily to go to Bern and to find the hospital he’ll be working at. Right outside a shoe store by the train station, there were two used kids bikes! He bought them, and by that afternoon the kids were riding two wheel bikes with no training wheels. There were a few bumps and bruises along the way, but they are both doing great.

Thursday morning we woke up to a beautiful day for the first time in a while, and decided it was time to get to the mountains. We took the train to the city of Thun (only 10 minutes from Münsingen), which is a beautiful city on Lake Thun. Then we took a bus, a funicular, and a cable car to the top of the Niederhorn. The view kept getting better and better the higher we went. This really is a beautiful country!  At the top there was a restaurant and an area for the kids with a zip line, dragon slide and sandbox.  Most stunning playground location I’ve ever seen.  After making it down the mountain, spending a little more time in Thun and getting home in time to make supper, we realized how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place.

Don’t miss the photos of our first mountain adventure.

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Heading to Switzerland

For those of you playing along at home, we will be leaving Germany today and heading to Switzerland. Tonight we stay at a hotel in Bern, and tomorrow we hopefully move into our permanent home for the next year. Tomorrow is Switzerland’s national day so we will be greeted with parades and fireworks.

Unfortunately it does mean that for the next few days, at least, we will likely be without reliable Internet access. For those of you who have been kind enough to email or Skype us with your comments, we will be hard to reach over the next few days. We’ll post an update as soon as one is available.

Wishing you all well as we roll into August!