Munich and Oktoberfest
Matt having a brew at the Hofbrauhaus
The view from Peterskirche
Jill in the traditional wear at Oktoberfest
Last Saturday morning, Matt and I took a train from Zurich to Augsburg. Most of our 4 hour train ride was spent surrounded by a group of young French (or at least French speaking) men and women on their way to Oktoberfest. They began their party shortly after 10 am, cracking open bottle after bottle of wine on the train, and even offering us some. I sure hope they had a good time in Munich!
Augsburg has been around since 15 B.C. It's the second oldest city in Germany (first being Trier) and was an important trade town on the way to Rome. Matt and I enjoyed a gorgeous afternoon taking in the sites. We got to do some shopping for Halloween supplies, since only the expats celebrate that here in Zurich. We ate a nice dinner in the town square and turned in early for the big day ahead.
Sunday morning, we crowded on a train with leiderhosen clad men to make our way to Munich. We dropped our bags at the hotel and went straight to the grounds, which cover roughly 103 acres. It was amazing. The festival draws in 6 million people over the 18 days (sometimes is 16 days, depending on when the first Sunday in October falls) where a half million chickens are consumed, along with a million gallons of beer. We spent most of the day there, back to the hotel for a short rest, then out again for more of the festivities. There are many carnival rides and games, some of which we've never seen before!
Monday we used the better part of the day touring old town Munich. Most of the city has been rebuilt since it was almost completely bombed out in WWII. However, they took great pride in trying to reconstruct as accurately as possible some of the structures such as their churches. Some of the highlights were seeing the crypt of Mad King Ludwig, catching a view from the Peterskirche tower, and having lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. Monday night was back to the grounds for more beer.
Tuesday morning we woke to drizzly weather. We took the train to the Olympicpark area constructed in 1968 for the purpose of housing the 72 Olympics. The construction was phenomenal. We plan on going back to this area as we saw an enormous building project underway for the new BMW Museum.
We had a fantastic trip, but it's nice to be back home in Zurich again.
posted by Jill Nachtman at 6:31 PM
4 Comments:
I love your outfit!! That made me laugh. Sounds like you had a good time and Matt looks drunk in that picture. Did you guys catch the Hawkeye game on Saturday? Tell Matt that Drew Tate is a cry baby. Anyway, have fun in Italy. You'll love Cinque Terre. We miss you. Love, April and Kent and Baby X
People weren't as drunk as you'd expect. They know how to pace themselves since a lot of the people come to stay for 10-12 hours. Though, we did walk past a hill on the edge of the festivities where people would go to pass out, or sometimes just to make out!
Jill you look super foxy!!
Love,
Em
I miss you guyz like crazy!!! I am excited to come visit you both! I will call you soon, my new co-worker showed me a site called pingo.com that charges 3cents/min or i'll get a phone card. Hope your card makes it for your bday, I am new with this overeas shit! take care and I hope all is well with the both of you! Love, ~D
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