Oktoberfest and then a very sobering day

Although we hadn't planned to be in Germany specifically for Oktoberfest, it was a very nice coincidence. We had a great day (and night there) with Karen and another ex-flatmate Sebastian. Now I never knew this before, but it turns out that Oktoberfest isn't just drinking tents, it's like a giant royal show with rides and other amusements and stalls. What more could you want? Beer plus rides?

We had lunch with Karen and her workmates. It turns out that her department from work goes every year as a social event. So we went too. There was plenty of beer, lederhosen, durndls and oompah to go around. And if you thought this was an even primarily supported by aussies and kiwis, think again - there were a lot of Germans there!

Our beer tent for the afternoon - Paulaner - not so much a tent as a solid building with flagging on the roof!
The oompah goes on

The beer tents from the ferris wheel
We were asked what we'd like for lunch. Upon hearing that chicken was traditional, we agreed to that. This is what we were given. Half a roast chicken. Just like that. With some pretzel if you like
In the evening, we met up with Sebastian and checked out the HB tent. The tent was chockers but we did manage to find a table. And make a few friends and sung a few songs! It was a lot of fun! (And yes, Sebastian is wearing lederhosen - heehee)
And we seemed to make it home safely all in one piece!


The next day, our last day in Germany and last day in Europe, we did something a little different and paid a visit to Dachau Concentration Camp. It was a harrowing experience - I was on the verge of tears quite a few times - but really something worth doing. The camp has been turned into a giant memorial and it is extremely well done, allowing you to take in as much information as you want to and giving you a very clear idea of what things were like there.

The entrance
The parade grounds
The memorial to all who suffered

And so ended our time in Europe. That evening we jumped on a plane bound for Hong Kong and then on to Auckland. A really fabulous trip and a wonderful time catching up with so many lovely friends.

Stay tuned for the next adventure, where ever that may be!

Last stop, Munich!

We arrived in Munich, tired and grumpy after a less than comfortable overnight train ride, to be met at the station by the lovely Karen - an ex-flatmate of mine from Rotorua who now lives just outside Munich. After a relaxing morning, we set off to explore Munich. Well, at least that's what we told Matt. Actually, we had other plans afoot - a surprise visit to a football game at Allianz Arena. Matt didn't cotton on until we were in the line for the tickets - let's put it down to him being so tired! It was a great game though - the stadium holds 90 000 people and even though it was only half full, the crowd were very entertaining.
After the game, we actually did go and have a look around Munich, and our first beers of the week!
The next day, after another well needed relaxing morning, we visited Schloss Schleissheim, a palace near Karen's house, and then headed to Munich to the Deutsches Museum (which is brilliant!) and then more beer.
Do you think Matt was sick of castles and palaces by then?
The Deutsches Museum was fabulous - full of all sorts of displays from aeronautics to musical instruments. I could have spent weeks there, but alas, there was beer to be drunk!

And pretzels the size of my head to be eaten....
Lots of sausages in Germany, yummy sausages - don't think I've eaten so many sausages in my whole life as I did that week...
That night, after a beer at an outdoor market, we went to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner, some oompah music and the making of new and exciting friends.
Me with my first ever mass
Karen wearing Matt's Oktoberfest hat
The schweinhaxe and dumplings that got Matt through the night...mmmm. Strangely enough I had sausages.
The band
Beers finished
The next day, we took a road trip down within a few hundred meters of the Austrian border to visit the fairtale castle Neuschwanstein. It was really pretty, although a real tourist spot.
It was a day of adventures and on the way home, Karen's muffler parted company with the car...
And the adventures weren't over yet! That night, it was my turn to be surprised with tickets Matt bought to see a production of Romeo and Juliet in Munich. Although at the time, we didn't realise is was going to be in German, it turned out to be the most brilliant Shakespeare I've ever seen and a fabulous evening full of enthusiastic German spittle, fake blood, wonderful modern sets, nudity (lots), great music and wonderful acting!

Germany: Bremen and how I could live in Berlin

The last country we visited on our trip was Germany. We flew into Bremen and spent a couple of hours looking around there before hopping on a train to Berlin to visit my friend John.

Bremen was a cute little town. It is obviously benefiting from having a Ryanair service flying into it - it seems like almost everyone had just flown in with us that morning.
Some pics of Bremen:
There are apparently a few stories about these animals and they've made Bremen a bit famous:

We had an absolutely brilliant time in Berlin, thanks primarily to the excellent tour guiding we had from John. On our first night he took us to a gorgeous little wine bar near his house which made excellent pizza and had a great wine selection. And a really lovely cosy atmosphere. The next day, after a slow start and some serious relaxing in the sun at a cafe having brunch, we did a whirlwind tour of Berlin. It's a fabulous city - a really interesting contrast of very modern and very old and they have done an excellent job of turning lots of the historical monuments, like the Berlin wall, into outdoor museums. We could have spent weeks there, really.

This is some of the wall
And this is Checkpoint Charlie - still set up the way it was before the wall came down
Through the city, there is a line of bricks in the pavement showing where the wall went
This building has lots of bullet holes in it from WWII
This is Matt in the middle of the Monument for the Murdered Jews of Europe - a whole block of grey stone pillars of different heights
A pretzel stall with pretzels the size of your head - yep, definately in Germany now!
The Reichstag
This is the ceiling of the Sony building
The book burning monument (empty book shelves under ground)
More scenes from Berlin

This was a great little outdoor bar John took us to - it was inside an artists' commune
John, being a dag

The weekend we were in Berlin, the Berlin marathon was on. We were lucky enough to see the in-line skating marathon - they were so quick! This pic was taken only minutes from the end of the race - and they were still all in a bunch!

And to top off a great day, in the evening John took us to a fantastic French restaurant with food to die for. And then we hopped on an overnight train to Munich....