Munich, Germany - September 19-21

Our first trip together out of the United Kingdom was to Munich, Germany. It just so happened that the trip coincided with the huge annual festival in Munich - Oktoberfest. As we were walking around the squares on Saturday morning, we happened upon the Oktoberfest parade of bands walking through the streets and horse drawn carriages carrying large numbers of kegs of beer to the Oktoberfest grounds (Theresienwiese).

As enticing as it was to follow the kegs of beer at 11am on Saturday morning, we had some sightseeting to do. First, Marienplatz had a famous clock tower (the glockenspeal). Can you find Waldo in the second picture? In addition to seeing a bunch of Munich, our mission on Saturday was to find Amy a new dirndl (apparently the one she had been wearing to her church Oktoberfest party in Norwell was getting "old"). Success.... For those wondering where the pictures are of Anthony in leiderhosen, somehow the camera automatically deleted those shots. Maybe next year! Off to the huge open ground in the middle of Munich for Oktoberfest around 4pm on Saturday. Oktoberfest was one big festival with rides (merry-go-round, bumper cars, roller coaster, etc). People everywhere - dirndls and leiderhosen. But, what most people go for are for the big beer steins and huge amount of drinking. Through a work colleague, Anthony got tickets to the Kafer tent (there are huge tents scattered through the grounds where the kegs are tapped, food is served and people drink and dance on the tables). We wasted no time. The place was a bit of a madhouse. But luckily, they had "bathrooms" for everyone to use. Fun was had by all. And for your viewing pleasure, we took a home movie for you to see what happens when you mix a full day of sightseeing, not a lot of food, and a few of those jumbo beer steins. (Please ignore the laughing hyena in the background).

Somehow, after the danceoff we miraculously woke up early on Sunday and rented a car to drive through the Bavarian Alps in southern Germany - Fussen, Stuugart and headed towards Neuchwanstein which is the castle of King Ludwig II and is the castle after which Cinderalla's castle at Disney World is modeled. Breathtaking views both from the base of the Alps looking up at the castle As well as when you got closer
We took a horse drawn carriage up the mountain to the castle (poor, poor horsey).

And once we got up the mountain, the size of the castle was apparent.



Given how high up we were, the views looking out from the castle were unbelievable.




On our way back to Munich, we stopped at the world heritage site of the Wieskirche in Steingaden. Small little church, with some amazing paintings on the ceilings and a large, well ordained altar.




Our final stop on the driving tour was much more somber - the largest concentration camp in Germany at Dachau about 30 minutes north of Munich. It was an enlightening and eerie experience to walk around these grounds.




All in all, the Munich trip was a great time! After a few days of work, classes and tennis, we will be ready for the arrival of a young Jeff Wesson who we are meeting in Ireland on Saturday followed by Anthony's other friends Rich and Walter mid next week - London will likely never be the same!