Finally, after 4 years... Oktoberfest!

So, as some of you might know, every September the boss goes to New York City for work and I usually go back to the states for the month, since I can't do a whole month without "adult supervision." After her assignment there is done, she typically goes down to Knoxville, or up to Maine to visit relatives. The problem with that is that by the time she gets done visiting wherever, Oktoberfest is over, and it seemed a little silly to live in Germany for four years and not make it to Oktoberfest once!

So this year, we scheduled it so that she finished up with her assignment and flew straight back to Frankfurt, arriving Sunday morning; I'd already flown back, arriving on Friday morning. 

To take a step back, you may remember our Scandinavian Adventure this past summer, with some friends of ours from Texas. They expressed interest in coming over for it, so we timed it all out so that they arrived Sunday morning, within about a half hour of the boss. As a reminder, Brenda is the Assistant Manager, while I usually refer to Todd as my coworker.

Coworker and Assistant Manager for reference.

To step back again, we decided that we were going to go all in, wearing the traditional Bavarian garb, lederhosen for me, and a dirndl for the boss. Before she departed for the states in late August, she purchased a dirndl at a store here in Frankfurt, while I ordered my "costume" piece by piece while I was back in the states and shipped them to Knoxville. Assistant Manager borrowed a dirndl from her sister, while coworker refused to play along. Simmer down, you'll see some pictures of us all dressed up later on in this post if you're just dying to see me in leather shorts.

A quick "programming" note... I'm having some difficulty figuring out which pictures and videos belong to which days, so I'm just going to post all of the pics and videos from Oktoberfest itself down at the bottom of the text about Oktoberfest. But now, back to "present day."

They got in on Sunday and we all had a lazy day. Sunday evening, the boss pulled out her computer to try to get a head start on her work week, while I took our visitors up to my favorite pool, in the nearby town of Bad Nauheim. They really enjoyed all of the different pools in the complex.

Bright and early on Monday morning, the boss went to work, and I took our visitors up to Cologne; Assistant Manager had been through briefly a few years back, but didn't get to see much. Coworker hadn't been there.

I'll be honest, I've told y'all about Cologne a few times before, I'm not gonna go over everything again. I'll just tell you where I took them, and you can click back through previous blog entries and read through them - just pretend I never told you about it before!

We toured the beautiful cathedral; I've done the official tour a few times, so I hope I was able to pass along enough information since there were no tickets available for the English tour. Then we walked to the store for the oldest cologne in Cologne, Farina 1709. From there, we passed through both the Old and Haymarket squares on our way to the Lindt Chocolate Museum. 

After the museum, we took Lime scooters back over to the cathedral so they could fill out the tax paperwork to get their VAT (value added tax, about 19%) back on their perfume purchases. Then we loaded up the car and headed back toward Frankfurt, but stopped on the way by an outlet mall at the Haribo and Ravensburger outlet stores to stock up on candy and for me to pick up a puzzle for the boss (even though she said she didn't need one, I saw one that was screaming her name).

The boss went into the office the next day, getting off at around 2:00, then we picked her up and we headed to Munich, stopping for lunch at our favorite barbecue restaurant in Nuremberg on the way.

We'd had our plans made before our friends decided to join us, so the prices on hotels had gotten outrageous before they had a chance to get a room. They ended up getting an Air B & B, so we headed straight there when we got to town and dropped them off, then headed over to our hotel.

The next morning, we got dressed in our Oktoberfest finest and took the metro straight to the fairgrounds, meeting up with them outside one of the tents.

Now that we're actually at Oktoberfest (in our narrative), let's get the historical stuff out of the way:

In 1809, Therese Charlotte Luise of Saxe-Hildburghausen was on the short list of possible brides for Napoleon Bonaparte, but she ended up marrying the Crown Prince of Bavaria, Ludwig, on October 12th, 1810. The townsfolk appreciated the public celebration for their wedding so much, the decision was made to celebrate each year. In the 216 years since then, Oktoberfest has been canceled 25 times, for wars, disease outbreaks, and twice for economic turmoil (specifically the time around the Weimar hyperinflation). Originally, Oktoberfest was celebrated in (surprise) October, but it was moved to September to take advantage of the longer days and better weather.

So, there's some general information about Oktoberfest. Now, since Oktoberfest is known as a time and place to drink beer, we need to talk about German beer.

Germany has been known for its beer for centuries. In 1516, Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria enacted a law called the Reinheitsgebot (or "purity law"), limiting the contents of beer to 3 ingredients: water, barley, and hops. Once the Germans figured out the science behind brewing, yeast was added to the list. Craft beer has arrived in Germany, but most Germans are purists about their beers and prefer beers from the original breweries who still follow the Reinheitsgebot. In Munich, there are 6 breweries (called the "Big Six") who still follow the Reinheitsgebot and brew traditional beer:

• Augustiner
• Hacker-Pschorr
• Hofbräu
• Löwenbräu
• Paulaner
• Spaten

These six breweries are the only ones allowed to sell beer at Oktoberfest, and they have these huge "tents," which aren't really tents in the traditional sense of the word. They're about the size of warehouses, and just from looking at them, you'd think they were permanent structures, made from real plywood, timbers, and glass in the windows. I think they're just modular, and are stored in warehouses the rest of the year. These tents are filled with hundreds of long tables lined with benches. Outside of the tents are hundreds of food and souvenir vendors, and carnival rides.

You may be thinking "I know our narrator pretty well, and this honestly doesn't sound much like his scene!" You'd be right. I overdosed on all of the people pretty quickly, but I'll relate the narrative that was passed along to me by the more intrepid members of our little band.

Let's talk briefly about the number of visitors to Oktoberfest. According to the organization which runs it, attendance usually runs between 6 million and 6.7 million visitors, but I have no idea how they come up with those numbers - there are no turnstiles to get in or out, and admission to the fairgrounds and tents are free. They can't simply be counting the number of beers sold, as most people buy more than one beer. I personally think they're just making up numbers. Using the higher number of visitors (6.7M), and an average number of days (17), that brings us to a hair under 400,000 visitors every day. I have no idea how realistic that number of daily visitors is - I honestly saw some numbers and just attempted to make some sense out of them. 

As some of you may know, I really enjoy Christmas Markets, and Oktoberfest has most of the same vendors as Christmas Markets (excepting glühwein, of course). Instead of the weather being pleasantly cool and crisp, it was hot. Way too hot. We thought we'd be okay, but the sun beat down on us constantly.

We met up at the fairgrounds late morning on the first day and explored a little bit, then headed into one of the tents - we can't remember which one it was, but we think it was Hacker-Pschorr. We had our own table for a while, then another group was added onto the end of our table, so we had the opportunity to make friends with another group from the states. After a beer there, we left and started walking around, taking pictures and enjoying the atmosphere. We walked for what seemed like days, then I split off from the group and headed back to the hotel... knowing for certain that our hotel room was one of the few places in town where there wouldn't be thousands of people trying to cram into a small space. The rest of the group continued exploring the fairgrounds for a few more hours, but that day was a relatively early day.

The next day we started out a little bit later - didn't feel the need to get there as soon as it opened. We met up and headed into another tent, but on the first day, we'd been seated at a table with no one next to us; this day, the next table over was already occupied, and with the benches touching each other, we would be back to back with another party. I opted out of that tent and wandered around that section of the fairgrounds, trying (and failing) to stay out of the sun. They finished up and we met back up for more exploring. 

We explored for a while longer, and ended up at the gate for "Oide Wiesn," a section set up to resemble more of the "older" style of the festival. Little bit of frustration at this point... everywhere else at Oktoberfest, we'd been led to believe that cash was the only accepted method of payment, so we all had cash. A little ironic that only by purchasing tickets online via a QR code could we enter the old section. Just a little anachronistic. 

There was a single beer tent in the old section, along with a "museum" tent, where we could read a bit about some of the Oktoberfests from ages gone by. One of the main exhibits was about photography at the fest, and how photo booths used to be considered the same way as rides are today, as attractions to draw customers. There was also a section where for €1.50 you could ride old style bikes that supposedly were used in the old days. Coworker bikes quite a bit back in Texas, so I contributed €1.50 to get him to ride some of them around - quite entertaining!

We wandered around the old section for a little while longer, then headed back over to the main fairgrounds. At this point, I was done. Too hot, too many people, and too much time spent outside my comfort zone, so I made my way back to the room. The rest of the troop stayed out quite a bit later, with the boss making it back to the room around 11:00. looking at the videos they took, I'm glad that they got to experience the unbridled craziness, and even more glad that I was able to break off beforehand. They didn't quite shut down the fairgrounds that night, but they stayed long enough that they experienced the craziness of Oktoberfest, which I'm glad I missed.

Now, for the long awaited pictures and videos...

Both of these horses happen to be wearing them, but not all of the horses in the same team(?), herd(?), engine(?) were wearing the metal covers over their muzzles. I'm really not certain what a group of horses pulling a wagon should be referred to. There were a few different teams, and in at least one of the teams, 3 or 4 of the horses didn't have those muzzles on. I told myself that the metal muzzles were for the horses with criminal asocial tendencies, and convinced myself that they were the equine equivalents to Hannibal Lecter.

Fun note about this picture... this was in the old section, and the way this ride was set up, you'd go to the ticket booth and buy a ticket, then crowd around the ride and wait for it to stop moving, then try to find someone who was getting off of the ride to take their seat. There was no restriction on riding the ride multiple times in a row, so it took them 4 complete cycles to get on, waiting until the ride stopped and circling the seats looking for people exiting. There were people who'd bought multiple tickets and just stayed on the ride. Coworker was getting a bit worked up, and I was half expecting him to bodily yank someone off of the ride.

Assistant Manager in front of the "real" ferris wheel. Story time. On the first morning, they arrived on one side of the fairgrounds, we arrived on the opposite side. We were texting back and forth, and they told us that they were at the ferris wheel. While wandering through the fairgrounds (and not seeing this ferris wheel), we encountered a kiddie ferris wheel, closer to about 30 feet tall, instead of 150 feet tall. We couldn't see this ferris wheel from our vantage point (because of all of the massive tents in the place), so it frustrated us to be standing in front of a "ferris wheel," trading texts with them:

"We're right next to the line for the ferris wheel."

"So are we!"

The three "party animals" in the group, on board the real ferris wheel. Not sure what time this picture was taken, but since it's dark outside I was probably 3 episodes into the show I was binging at this point. Also, they look a little "happy" in this pic, so I suspect this was about midway through their tent crawl.

The statue "Bavaria," commissioned by Ludwig I (Therese's husband) between 1844 and 1850. This statue is taller than Germania (the statue outside of Frankfurt which we say is the equivalent to our Statue of Liberty). Ludwig commissioned this statue to make a statement about Bavaria, which at that point was being torn between multiple different empires and being used as a political pawn. It was the first "colossal statue" since antiquity to be cast entirely of bronze. This is the first I've ever heard of different "classes" of statues, so it looks like I've got some more research ahead of me.

EDIT: Evidently, statues larger than two times life sized are considered "colossal." And now you know!

Here are a few videos, in no particular order... there are a couple of videos of coworker riding the silly bikes, some of the organized square dancing type folk dances that were on display, and some of the singalong times which I thankfully missed. There's also something called the "toboggan," which is a big slide... but it was fun to watch drunks try to ride the conveyor belt to get onto it. Also, some sort of demonstration where a handful of guys stand on the tables and crack whips over the heads of the crowd. Not sure what the significance of that demo is.

We hadn't made any concrete plans for the following day, the day that we were (supposedly) driving home; that turned out to be a fortuitous omission on our part, because at some point during their wild partying at the festival, Assistant Manager and Coworker suggested heading to Salzburg the next day. We had nothing going on, so we booked hotel rooms and took off for Austria the next morning. 

We arrived just in time for lunch at one of our favorite places, Stiegl Brauwelt, the restaurant attached to the Stiegl Brewery. On our first visit there, I bought some of their mustard and absolutely fell in love with it, so we buy a few tubes of it every time we visit, since I haven't seen it in any local stores. Since this might be our last visit before we move back to the states, we may have gone a little nuts... over here, condiments are usually sold in tubes, with (evidently) 12 tubes to the case. 

I bought 2 cases, and that's nowhere near a lifetime supply of the stuff. I'll be sad when it's gone.

We wandered around old town Salzburg, and stopped at the Manner store for some of our (my really) favorite candies. Assistant Manager had read about an art installation, so we stopped by there on our way back to the car. Here's what Atlas Obscura said about the installation:

Among the university buildings of Furtwänglerpark in the Old City of Salzburg, Austria, modern public art installations add an air of whimsy to the otherwise historic, quiet setting. As if they could stand, a row of giant gherkins loiter on the sidewalk near the edge of a lawn.

These five, human-sized pickles, erected among prime examples of traditional medieval and baroque buildings, are a part of the Salzburg Walk of Modern Art. Austrian artist Erwin Wurm created the installation known as "Gurken" (or "gherkins") to create the sense that the cumbersome cucumbers sprouted from where they stand. It's not the first time Wurm has expressed himself this way: In 2010, he exhibited 36 small acrylic gherkins in a local art museum as part of a "self portrait" project.

Pedestrians enjoying a walk in the park can revel in ordinary foodstuff presented as surreal, seemingly personified sculptures. The work is open to interpretation, according to the artist.

We took some pictures, but it was pretty dark by that point.

For dinner, we got back into the car and headed over to the Augustiner Biergarten, one of our favorite spots to eat. It was quite crowded in the garden area, so we ate at the tables inside. After eating, they wanted to move outside and soak up the atmosphere, so they moved out... too many people out there for me!

The next morning, we headed back to Frankfurt, stopping in Bamberg on the way home. October 3rd is evidently "Unification Day" for Germany, commemorating the (re)unification of Germany in 1990, when West and East Germany were dissolved and became the unified country of Germany. Most of the stores in Bamberg were closed for the holiday, but the streets were full of revelers. Looked to be a pretty city, but way too many people for me. We stopped at a restaurant in town for late lunch / early dinner before heading back to Frankfurt. 

We got back to Frankfurt in time for them to wash a load of clothes, then they flew out the next morning.

DC to Deutschland without bankrupting the treasury

 A new blog entry, so quickly? Was I making it up when I talked about "inertia" in my last post? Nope, here's that guest author I mentioned... I'm not feeling very imaginative today, so please forgive my use of particularly realistic sounding (yet still completely "fictitious") nicknames: Boss has a cousin, whom we'll call "Sandy." Sandy is married to "Jonna," and their kids are "Riley" and "Aaron." "Sandy" wrote up a blog entry for their recent visit... enjoy!

The Backstory, which will be relevant later:

They say that close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, but maybe we could stretch that into the realm of cartography if we fudge the numbers a bit. At our house we have a world map that is covered in the stuff from scratch-off lottery tickets. Before this trip as a family we had visited 16 states, Mexico, and Costa Rica. We were looking forward to scratching off Germany, and maybe a few nearby countries.

My family hadn’t been to Europe before even though we vacation far above our pay grade thanks to credit card sign-up bonuses. When I researched using points for the flights, the redemptions are atrocious even compared to the cash prices. Fortunately Capital One decided to donate $2,421.87 toward our trip in exchange for two $95 fees and some spending. We don’t normally spend that much, so my electric bill is paid for about the next 6 months and I invested in some precious metal (lead).

I have never written a blog of any sort before, so I thought that a daily synopsis with a wise cliche and picture might be interesting enough to read.

The Daily Synopsis:

Tuesday- We arrived and hadn’t slept well on the plane, so we took short naps before checking out some of the local Frankfurt flavor- a grocery store, cheese store, Paulaner am Dom German dining, and a site where books were burned in the 1930s. 

During her research for the trip Riley had learned about Spaghetti Ice Cream. It’s a shape, not a flavor. We got some chocolate flavored, and learned that in the heat it melts back into a bowl of ice cream rather quickly. As a family we learned that time travel is tiresome work.

Wednesday- Continuing our literary experience, we toured the Brother’s Grimm and Hanau museum. They have several fun activities for the kids while not being overwhelming or too much/long. I like the idea of combining a local museum for things that may not naturally draw in visitors with a separate section for something that is globally known. Without the hook of the Grimm Brothers we wouldn’t have seen the mansion or amazing silver sculptures.

Near the Grimm Brothers statue we visited a farmer’s market and had some almond pastry bread, fruit, and fruit and yogurt parfait. After the heat of the farmer’s market Selgros warehouse store was a very welcome stop due to having a walk-in vegetable chiller. 

We attempted to visit a pool, but due to parking problems we ended up at Rick’s favorite spa, which was Bad. Just kidding, it was fantastic- Bad is German for bath or spa. Rick and I watched the kids while Jonna fled to the fabric-free Sauna experience. This became a problem when it was time to leave and Jonna, along with the locker key that held Riley’s clothes, was nowhere to be found. Had I known that each additional 15-minute block was only €1 we would have stayed in rather than leaving Riley behind. Proper prior planning prevents poor performance, and our performance in leaving the spa was particularly painfully poor.

 

Thursday- Becca escorted us to Cologne (Köln) where we visited the Lindt Chocolate Museum. If you ever need to get buy-in from your kids for visiting a city, a chocolate museum is an excellent first stop. When I tried to buy a chocolate drink (which the tour claims improves cardiovascular health, brain function, and virility) it was time to go to the cathedral. I was hamming up my grievance a bit too much, but it turned out that we just missed a huge downpour of rain by leaving when we did.

The Cologne Cathedral (Köln Dom) is incredible and has to be experienced to appreciate the scale and the grandeur. They claim that they have the bodies of the wise men who visited Jesus, but I’m skeptical. Jonna was very skeptical of the modern art stained glass window, which she let us know about for the whole ride home.

We enjoyed walking around Cologne, and the food at Gilden im Zims “Heimat kölscher Helden” restaurant was very good. Becca and I enjoyed the Kölsch ale. Possibly because we speak English the waiter asked before automatically bringing refills. It’s nice that it wasn’t leveled in WWII like a lot of the city was.

We stopped at Farina perfumes, a museum and store descended from the original producer of Eau de Cologne. Even though this scent is what was later generalized into the word “cologne”, Jonna spent more than twice as long in the Duty Free store at the airport smelling a different brand of perfume. Their longevity is amazing, but being the original doesn’t mean you’re the best.

Friday- Once again continuing our literary experience, we visited the Gutenberg Museum in Mainz. I know that other countries have claimed that they invented the movable type press, but even if they did they didn’t have the impact that Gutenberg did. 

Rüdesheim is a really cool city, and I enjoyed one of their signature alcoholic coffees with lunch. It has similar pageantry as table-side guacamole. After lunch we took the cable-car ride with views of Rüdesheim, the Rhine River, and vineyards. It was very scenic, and Aaron and Jonna each got a picture with car “67” in the background, which I’m sure will age like the fine wine of the vineyards below.

At the top of the cable-car route was the Niederwald Monument featuring the statue of Germania, which was built around the same time as our Statue of Liberty to commemorate the unification of Germany. On the way back down we got gelato and I had the chocolate drink I had missed out on in Cologne. I considered the fact that we haven’t seen the Statue of Liberty even though it is much, much closer. Sometimes what you see highlights what you’ve missed.

Saturday- Any trip to Germany wouldn’t be complete for anyone who cares about history without a reminder of the problems caused by everyone’s least favorite Charlie Chaplin impersonator. Dachau was a stark reminder to appreciate and defend our freedoms. 

In Munich we checked in to the hotel then took about an hour walk downtown to Hofbrauhaus. I borrowed a couple umbrellas from the hotel that came in handy. Riley is not a fan of loud or crowded places, so she was very much not impressed by Hofbrauhaus. 

After a short walk through part of the English Garden Rick showed us to the surfing area. The kids liked watching the surfers, and each had their favorite. It was getting too late for an hour-long walk and our feet were tired anyway. Rick rented some scooters that whisked us back to the hotel.

Sunday- We started with a slow morning in the hotel pool. It had some similar features to Rick’s spa/sauna, but much smaller. For lunch we found a fantastic Croatian restaurant, and Jonna will allegedly start adding diced onions and spice to her ketchup. 

It was a beautiful drive to the foothills of the Alps. We took the horse-drawn carriage ride most of the way to the castle, and the children were in the front row near the horses. The sound of the electric motor for the carriage was a bit distracting, but better than forcing horses to bear all that weight up the steep hill. As we got out of the carriage it began to sprinkle, then when we got to shelter the rain came down in sheets. Fortunately we had enough time to shelter and didn’t get soaked.

Neuschwanstein Castle is amazing and very much worth the trip. It is far larger and much more grand than our previous best, Loveland Castle in Ohio. King Ludwig II of Bavaria spent beyond his means and extended every line of credit to build castles, and was probably killed over it. They don’t allow photography during the tour, but there are pictures in the links below. 

On the way back down the mountain there were dozens of tiny frogs out in the road, and Aaron worked to catch but also release every single one. Even though it was only around 7pm the entire town was closed down- restaurants, shops, etc.

While I was researching for this blog entry I looked up Neuschwanstein Castle on Google maps. It is only 3 miles away from the border of Austria. If you remember, we’re trying to scratch countries off our map and a round-trip into the other country would have been shorter than my one-way commute to work each morning. We were 4,230 miles from home and missed another country by 3. If I had done slightly more research we would be scratching Austria, but we aren’t.

If Ludwig II teaches us nothing else, remember that anyone can outspend their income.

Monday- We spent the morning at the hotel pool/spa/sauna. I wished that the pool Cafe had been open, but then discovered that they had a very good self-service coffee and tea selection.

Jonna was not thrilled about McDonalds for lunch on the road, but it turned out great. They had dishes our McDonalds don’t have, like empanadas and interesting sauces, like Wasabi and spicy Bali. 

In the medieval city of Rothenberg we imagined what it would be like to shoot arrows at the invading Frenchmen from the city walls. That likely isn’t historically accurate, but it was fun anyway. 

We found a bakery that offered the local specialty, a snowball, which is essentially a crumpled up flaky pie crust covered in frosting. We got a large pistachio and a small hazelnut. Riley was salty because the flavor that she wanted was smaller than the other until she learned that they were out of large hazelnut snowballs.

I don’t remember what day, but enjoyed: For stay-at-home dinners Becca made BLT salad, which was Aaron’s favorite meal. Rick made hotdogs and tater tots- I really enjoyed the candied jalapenos and Jonna learned that she likes tater tots when they are properly spiced.

Thank you to the Shores family, it wouldn't have been possible without your hospitality and generosity!

Links: 

Grimm/Hanau museum- https://www.museen-hanau.de/

Neuschwanstein Castle- https://www.gettyimages.com/search/2/image?phrase=neuschwanstein+castle+interior&tracked_gsrp_landing=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.gettyimages.com%2Fphotos%2Fneuschwanstein-castle-interior

https://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/palace/interior.htm

Germania and the Niederwald Monument- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niederwald_monument

Restaurant Croatia- https://maps.app.goo.gl/ibfpCEywYxdRLbdh7

Farina- https://farina1709.com/en/pages/history-1

Loveland Castle, Ohio- https://lovelandcastle.com/

Hotel- https://www.hyatt.com/andaz/en-US/mucaz-andaz-munich-schwabinger-tor

And now, back to your normally scheduled narrator... sorry folks, I will not be including links for the stuff I post. You're gonna have to do your own Googling if you're not happy with my level of research!