Oktoberfest in Munich

Phillip and I are back home now, but I want to post pictures from our last weekend in Europe. I'm just now getting to them because of jet lag and a visit to our ranch. Also, we took over 700 pictures that weekend, so it took me awhile to transfer them from the cameras and iPhones and then go thru them for the dozen or so suitable for use.

After we left Prague on Friday, October 5, we returned by train to Becky's house in Lupburg. I walked to the Lupburg castle with her. I've already posted pictures from the castle when Phillip went the prior weekend (while I was working on a blog post!). After the castle tour, Becky offered me the option of a walk thru the countryside or a visit to her local beer garden. No hesitation, beer garden it was! Becky and I enjoyed talking with the proprietor, Hans, who speaks some English and helps Becky with her German pronunciation. Becky called David and he and Phillip joined us, Phillip for a beer, David for a soda (he doesn't like the taste of beer). The beer garden is a two-minute walk from Becky's house, uphill to get to it, downhill to return home.

Becky, David, Ryan and Reese took us on a three-stop tour on Saturday. Our first stop was a chocolate store with an African theme. Reese loved getting chocolate money (coins of chocolate wrapped to look like euros), I got mint chocolate sticks, and all the adults had delicious coffee. Next, we headed for our main destination: Regensburg. Regensburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site, founded by the Romans in 179 AD. Crusaders marched across its Stone Bridge on their way south. As with most of these locations, the Cathedral is worthy of a visit. The main one here was the Cathedral of St. Peters. Although the stained glass was not a spectacular as that from the cathedral we visited in Switzerland, this one had cow gargoyles.

We were in Regensburg during lunchtime, so Becky took us to Historic Wurstkuche, the oldest continuously open public restaurant in the world. On the bank of the Danube River, the building was erected in 1135 AD as a construction office for the Stone Bridge. When the bridge was finished in 1146, they turned the building into a restaurant. Its specialty was boiled meats until 1806 when grilled sausages became the offering. For 3 euro, we had the best wurst on a roll with sauerkraut and mustard that we ate in Germany! Sure glad they switched from boiled meat.

Regensburg's Old Town was picturesque, but some of its appeal was lost to me because of all the modern shops and buildings amid the old buildings. Even more recent historical locations had not been preserved. We left Regensburg after lunch and stopped at Burglegenfeld, another town that Becky had visited and wanted us to see. It has a castle on the hill that, according to Becky, now houses persons with mental illness. Almost every town still has its castle.

Unfortunately, on this Saturday afternoon, almost everything in Burglegenfeld was closed. We walked around the main square area and admired the fountain statue, a man slaying a dragon. Since we had a big day planned for Sunday, we headed back to Lupburg.

Sunday morning, we caught the 8:15 am train for the two-hour ride to Munich. The closer we got to Munich, the more crowded the train became. Standing room only by the time we arrived. Oktoberfest in Munich is held in a specific area of town, about 1-1/2 km from the train station. It reminded me of the Texas State Fairgrounds. No backpacks allowed (I'd left mine at Becky's and borrowed a small purse from her) and security glanced inside any bag or purse as people went in. Unlike the Texas State Fair, no entry fee!

The main walking area was lined with beer halls (called beer tents, but they were actual structures, not tents) and food and souvenir vendors. Paulander, a brand of beer, had several tents like this, but five other breweries, such as Lowenbrau, were represented. Notice in the picture that the walkway doesn't seem crowded. It wasn't then, but after lunch, it became tremendously crowded! This was the last day of the Oktoberfest, with good weather, so many people came to visit. We were joined by Bryan, a co-worker of David's.

Since it was before lunch, we weren't quite ready for a beer yet, but we did walk thru a beer tent soon after we arrived. We walked thru several during the afternoon and they were all decorated differently, but the layout was similar in every tent. Tables with benches that seat about twenty people each filled the huge space. Most of the beer tents also serve food, so people were eating, drinking, and singing. All the beer tents had a band, usually in the very middle of the tent.

The Oktoberfest venue also had a large midway with rides. Reese had been looking forward to riding a particular one, as she had just grown to 48 inches tall. Unfortunately, the minimum height for her selected ride was 1.4 meters, about 55 inches. Reese was heartbroken, but we walked past that ride and found the ferris wheel that she could ride. She rode it with Becky and Ryan and recovered some from her disappointment. After the ferris wheel, we decided it was time to sit down and enjoy a beer. The first beer tent we went into had no available seating. We found seating at the Lowenbrau tent's courtyard area. The drinking age in Germany is 13 years old with one's parents. Ryan is 13 and had never had a beer, so Becky let him have his first drink of beer from her beer.

And, like David, he did not care for the taste of the beer at all! I wasn't sure he'd even be able to swallow the sip he took, but he did and promptly passed the beer back to Becky. Ryan can now say that his first taste of beer was at Oktoberfest in Munich! And speaking of those beers, there's only one size available, called "mass." 33.8 ounces in the mug. Massive is what it is. Phillip, Bryan, Becky, and I finished our beers and we decided we needed more food than the pretzels we were eating, so we left the beer tent and found a sausage vendor. Good wurst, but not as good as Regensburg sausage.

After lunch, we found two more rides that Reese was tall enough to ride. Ryan, such a good big brother (and still with a lot of kid in him even if he was almost the tallest person of our group) rode with Reese as she went several times on the two rides:

Now, time to find a beer tent with room for all of us to sit at one table. The Oktoberfest grounds were becoming more crowded, but we were able to find a place, in about the center back of this tent:

We ordered our four beers and three sodas, as Ryan definitely did not want to drink beer! The noise level was tolerable, fairly loud, but you could still lean in and talk to people around you. The band played American songs -I heard John Denver and Neil Diamond - and a lot of the crowd sang the chorus with the band. It also played more recent American and German songs. The common thread of the songs, like "Sweet Caroline," was the tendency of the song to get people standing on their bench, raising a glass and singing along. 

As you see from the level of beer in Becky and Phillip's beer mugs, we had not been there long when this picture was taken. Becky was not yet standing on her bench, singing. No, I didn't stand on the bench, even after finishing this beer and starting on the next round that Bryan bought for us. 

One of the things that we found amazing was that the atmosphere was truly civil. With the crowded space, you couldn't help but to bump into someone or be bumped into. Groups (not us!) had two empty mugs in front of each member, so they were fairly intoxicated and boisterous, but nobody said a cross word. It was just a fun place with everyone there to have a great time. FYI, the pin that Becky bought for Phillip says "Sugar Daddy." We did not want to Becky and David to be negatively impacted by our visit, so Phillip insisted on paying for the kids' rides, the food, and everything he could. 

Of course, that pin served as a conversation starter with people, like the pretzel vendor in our beer tent! She is dressed in the outfit of the day, a dirndl. Her dirndl, however, is not quite traditional as it is low-cut. The traditional ones don't show any cleavage. The vendors and a lot of the young guests were wearing dirndls that emphasized cleavage. Probably half the women in the beer tent were wearing dirndls and over half the men were wearing the traditional lederhosen (leather pants). Bryan was wearing lederhosen, which he said was more comfortable than he expected, and the traditional gingham plaid shirt. 

The pretzels were sold everywhere at Oktoberfest. They apparently served to soak up the beer in one's stomach. If you are on low-carb diet, don't come to Oktoberfest! Our beer tent also served roasted chicken, which Becky ordered for the kids to eat. After Ryan and Reese ate, she and I picked at the bones of the half of a chicken. Quite tasty and well-seasoned.

As I mentioned, Bryan ordered a second round of beer for us in this tent, but we weren't able to finish it. After all, we did need to be able to walk back to the train and make that two hour ride home! David had planned for us to leave around 2 pm, before the grounds and outbound trains became too crowded, but we were having so much fun that it was the 4 pm train we ended up on. Standing room only for us until its stop in Regensburg, where a lot of people got off to make train connections to other cities. 

About that beer we were drinking, Phillip thought that it might have a lower alcohol concentration since people were consuming so much of it without ill effect. I checked, and it is not lower! By government regulation, beer sold at Munich Oktoberfest must have a minimum 6% alcohol content. Most American lager-style beers have between 4-5% alcohol by volume. Another quick note, the beer tent restrooms were plentiful, clean, and well-stocked. Those Germans know how to throw a beer party!

On Monday, we left the wonderful hospitality of Casa Becky, with lots of hugs for David, Becky, Ryan, and Reese, and took the train to Frankfurt. Tuesday morning, we went to the Frankfurt Airport to head back to DFW. Our plane was delayed by an hour an a half because storms were expected that afternoon in the Fort Worth area. The weather predictions were correct and our plane landed just after the storms cleared the airport. Back home, safe and sound!

 

Terezin and more Prague explorations

I arranged only one tour for this trip because we had Julie in France and Becky in Germany to help us hit the scenic spots of their areas. The tour that I arranged was yesterday, to Terezin, just north of Prague. We learned of Auschwitz concentration camp in high school history, but the Nazis had many more places of evil. Terezin was one of those places, a way station for many who went on to Auschwitz, but a final destination for the 33,000 who died in Terezin.

Terezin was originally a fortress, built in 1780. By the 1800s, it was used as a prison. The man who shot Archduke Franz Ferninand in 1914, setting off WWI, was imprisoned and died there. The Nazis saw its unique value. It is a secure fortress, but does not look like one. The double walls made of stone and earth were impenetrable. 

When the Nazis took over Terezin, they displaced 7000 residents. By 1942, over 58,000 Jews and political prisoners were crammed into the fortress, in addition to the Nazi guards who also had barracks and offices. It is a stark place, with single building blocks that housed dormitories. From 1940 to 1945, over 150,000 people passed thru Terezin. 33,000 died there, 90,000 were sent to death camps, and 17,000 survived.

The first group sent to Terezin was Czech Jews from Prague. Entire families were sent there, but the children were removed from their parents and housed in a separate area. The families were able to have communication. At the first museum, an entire wall was covered with artwork by a 12-year old girl named Helga Weiss. She drew her father a picture of a snowman, the last pleasant thing before they were sent to the camp. Her father didn't want her to be sad about what they had lost and told her to "draw what you see." She did, and before being sent to Auschwitz (she actually survived there and was rescued) several years later, she hid her drawings in a wall. 

Our guide, Pavel Batel, just finished his third book about Terezin, so we were very lucky to get the Terezin expert for our tour. He explained that people died at Terezin from starvation, disease, or beatings. He said that the second group of people sent to Terezin were rich German Jews. They had been told they were just being relocated, so they brought their belongings, belongings that were immediately removed from them. Everyone was forced to write to their friends back home that everything was fine, but in reality, they had little to eat and they were forced to labor for the Nazi war effort.

The German Jews sent here included artists, performers, and muscians. Some of their art, which they hid from the guards, was presented in the second museum we visited. The people were allowed to perform, for each other in exchange for food vouchers, and for the entertainment of the Nazis. 

Those who were late to their work assignment or who drew the attention of the Nazi guards were sent to the Smaller Fortress, run by the Gestapo. Those persons never returned, as the best living condition there was the room pictured, which housed at least 70 people. At least this one had a water source and a small window for air. The most sadistic guards were here. 

Terezin had no gas chamber and its purpose was not to exterminate. The Nazis, even thru 1944, denied the existence of the "Final Solution." Twice they used Terezin as an extraordinary propoganda set-up. The International Red Cross inspected it, but only saw a town billed as a Jewish refuge, with culture and music. (Nazis put fake bathroom fixtures in, for example). A fake film was made to convince the world that the Jews were being treated humanely. After that 1944 filming was finished, 3/5 of the people involved in it were sent immediately to Auschwitz. The people participated in these because, at least for a short time, they got enough food to stave off starvation. Pavel said that even amidst all this Nazi evil, he learned stories of the sharing of scarce food; the secret Jewish synagogues; the work of Fredy Hirsch, the head of a children's block whom many people he interviewed credit for their survival, and other positive tales. 

Yesterday was quite a learning experience, and today was a walking experience... again. On our way to Terezin, we had passed an unusul church, so I Googled "Noah's Ark Church" and we walked to it today. No gargoyles on this Roman Catholic Church built in 1928-1932. It is shaped like Noah's Ark. According to the Prague tourism website, its the most significant Czech sacred building of the 20th century.

We left this area and headed for the train station to familiarize ourselvs with the layout for tomorrow's return to Germany. Near the train station is Wenceslas Square, actually a wide boulevard that stretches several blocks. That's where at lot of the political events happen in Prague. We couldn't get a good picture of the huge statue of Wenceslas because of the sun's location right behind his head at the time we were there.

We took a roundabout way to the Old Town Square, weaving our way downhill. Prague is not steep like Lausanne, but the ground did slope toward the river. On the way, some workers were laying a new sidewalk. So, we stopped so Phillip could watch them for a bit. We had admired the sidewalks here on several occasions. Different colored granite squares, 2" x 2", are layed in a pattern over damp sand, then tapped into place. 

Phillip and I both took lots of pictures of centuries old buildings and towers during this stroll. I'm not sure what all of them are, but I am sure that this is the Astronomical Clock on the square. We just missed an earlier "performance" so we wandered around the shops until 2 pm. The Grim Reaper (the skeleton on the right of the blue part), rings the bell that opens the two doors above the round clock faces and the Apostles show themselves. The whole performance lasts 45 seconds, so it's a bit underwhelming, but... we saw it with over thouand of our close friends, probably the ones from Charles Bridge on Tuesday!

Phillip wanted to go up in the Eiffel Tower. No, not the one in Paris. There's a replica on a hill called the Petrin Lookout Tower. Although this Lookout Tower structure is smaller than the Eiffel Tower, because it is on the highest point in Prague, its peak is actually higher above sea level, and hence, according to some Czechs, taller than the Eiffel Tower. We could see it from all over Prague. 

We did not climb the mountain to get to it, we rode the funicular (cable car on a track, not a cable).  This is a view out the front window as it climbed to the top of the hill. 

Another thing, since we'd already walked a couple of miles today, that we did not do was climb the stairs to the top of the Lookout. We sprang for the 60 KC ($2.72) each to ride the elevator. The top did offer a wonderful view of Prague Castle, and of the entire City of Prague. 

We could also see the Charles Bridge and it seemed more crowded this afternoon. 

We did walk down the hill, taking note of the Hunger Wall. (Nothing to do with "Hunger Games.") It was built in 1362. Charles IV paid the city's poor people with food as they worked on building the wall for him. As we descended, we stopped at a monastery for a beer. Yep, the monks brew and sell their beer. 

Tomorrow, we head back to Germany to spend our final European weekend with Becky and her family. She's planning a trip to Regensburg on Saturday and catching the final day of Oktoberfest in Munich on Sunday with us.

Prague Castle, Lennon Wall and Charles Bridge

guarded exit onto
Hradcany Square

We did our walking today! Prague Castle, which according to the Guinness World Records, is the largest ancient castle in the world. It covers about 18 acres of Prague with its royal palace, cathedral, four courtyards, several museums and towers. A UNESCO World Heritage site, it was founded around 880 by a prince, and added onto and rebuilt several times over the centuries. It still serves as the seat of the Presidency, in the non-historic sections that weren't open to the toursts. We spent about seven hours walking and touring the buildings and museums.

Lucky for us, Zora, the receptionist at our hotel, told us to take the tram up the hill instead of getting off at the first Castle tram stop. Excellent advice: when we left, we walked down the multitude of steps that our niece Becky and her family had walked up when they visited Prague Castle in August. Zora also recommended getting there early, which we did. By noon, we were sharing the courtyards with several thousand of our close friends and the ticket line wait was probably over an hour long.

Thru security (FYI, no drones allowed) and into the second courtyard, and we came to St. Vitus Cathedral.  The foundation stone was laid in 1344, but the cathedral wasn't finshed and consecrated until 1928. Since it's the first major feature after the entrance, the line to get in was already long at 9:30 am. We skipped it, planning to return. However, when we walked back a few hours later, the line of people at the entrance wrapped around the side of the building and almost all the way to the back of the cathedral. So, just pictures of the outside. It has gargoyles, but I've given you enough gargoyle pictures for now. Since most of the construction was done in the 1800s, we've seen older cathedrals in Switzerland and France.

We went into the Old Royal Palace, one of the oldest parts of the Castle, dating from 1135. The Vladislav Hall was used for coronations, banquets, and indoor jousting tournaments. The steps out the back of the hall had a high arch and a wide, shallow set of steps for the horses and knights to enter the hall.  The late-Gothic vaulted ceiling is from 1500. The Old Palace is also famous for the 1618 Defenestration of Prague that started the Thirty Years War in all of Europe. That was when Protestants nobles threw a couple of Catholic councillors and their secretary out the window into the dung-filled moat. (They survived.)

Our next stop was the Basilica of St. George. This one didn't have fancy stained glass, but rather crypts of dead kings. The painted scenes on the walls and ceilings were original, so they were a bit faded.

After the Basilica, we walked down the Golden Lane, actually an alley with tiny cottages. It was built in the 16th century to house the sharpshooters of the castle guard, but later used by goldsmiths, then artists. Franz Kafka lived in House 22 during 1916-1917, renting the house from his sister and writing one of his books there.

Accessed from one of the doors off of the Golden Lane was perhaps our favorite museum, the armor museum. A spiral staircase took us up to two halls of armor.

The displays of armor were labeled as to the time period and empire name from which they came. I walked thru and looked at each one, but none of them had been worn by the Knights who say Ni.

After the Golden Lane, we came to the Dalibor Tower. It had originally been a cannon tower, but it became the Castle's prison in 1496. The displays there were of the torture devices, such as racks and cages. It is named after its first prisoner, a man who backed rebels against a feudal lord. He was imprisoned for two years, then ordered to "forfeit his chattels (property), his honor, and his head." Yep, he was beheaded in 1498. This display isn't him.... it still has its head. The tower also had an oubliette - a word from the movie "Labrynth" (my girls learned to appreciate David Bowie from that movie!) It is a pit. Prisoners were lowered into it and left for... however long the king wanted them left there.

Enough of dungeons and military exhibits, we then walked along the south wall, so here are some pictures of the view.

Phillip and I wandered around looking for the entrance to the Powder Tower and came across a hall with a special exhibit of artwork made by children from around the world. It was a bit off the beaten path and the only exhibit at which we were the only persons viewing it. The kids had used Legos, cardboard boxes, folded paper and whatever they had to create their version of Prague Castle.

Next, we crossed the bridge over the moat (we couldn't see it - it was either overgrown or drained) and walked thru the Royal Gardens.

St. Vitus Cathedral, seen from the Royal Gardens

Two of the many statues in the garden

glassware from the 15th century

Our final stop in the castle complex was the museum under the Royal Palace. We had missed its entry when we were on that side of the Castle, so we walked back over to it. This museum had rooms of glass cases containing the historic items that had been found over the years. King Wenseslas's helmet and chain mail, the grave of a 9-th century warrior discovered during a reconstruction, and items from palace life over the years.

We left the Castle and walked down the hill toward the river. By now it was well past lunch, so we stopped and both had a plate of Czech goulash. Before we crossed the Charles Bridge, we walked a fe blocks farther east and visited the John Lennon Wall. During the 1980s, young people keyed on John Lennon as an icon for their protests of the communist regime. They started putting graffiti on this wall, even after 1989's revolution. The current owners, the Knights of Malta, no longer whitewash the wall, allowing anyone and everyone to write on it. A man was sitting in front of the wall, singing Beatles songs, and making money from those (including me) who donated into his guitar case.

Phillip and I strolled across the Charles Bridge, built in 1390. Over the years, it sustained some flood damage but is mainly intact in its original state after over 600 years. The bridge is pedestrian only, but that change wasn't made until after WWII. Statues adorn the bridge at each end and about every fifteen paces across both sides. The statues are generally religious in nature, but some of them may be famous people from the 14th century.

By the time we got to Charles Bridge, the wind had picked up and the sky had gotten more overcast. It didn't feel like rain, and it didn't rain on us, but I checked the temperature. 49 degrees. So, what does one do when the weather is really chilly? If you're Phillip, you get ice cream. Actually, the ice cream was just to fill the chimney cake, called trdelnik in Czech. It's a yeast dough, formed around a stick, baked, then rolled in cinnamon sugar. Phillip had his filled with ice cream. It was as if a cinnamon roll had been transformed into an ice cream cone. Delicious! After we ate the trdelnik, we walked back to our hotel. Tomorrow, we have a guided tour of Terezin. Thursday, we'll visit the Old Town area of Prague.