Welcome to the Hotel Weiss (such a lovely place....)

Last week, Hotel Weiss officially opened for the 2013 season with our first visitors this year – our friends from Phoenix, Stacy and Adam (though none of us live in Phoenix anymore as of 1 week ago).  They are the first of 11 total guests over the next 3 months – or at least those are what we know of today.

They landed around lunchtime on Tuesday, so I took them for some tried and true good jet-lag lunch food – döner kebap over by Rotkreuzplatz.  This is the same place we have taken a few other guests – including my mother, who took this awkward photo of one employee with the döner:

Noah made it home early from work, so we picked up some chicken from the Tuesday chicken cart and headed over to Hirschgarten’s biergarten for dinner and beer.  We all Noah lucked out in that Hirschgraten was showing the UEFA Dortmund vs. Real Madrid semifinal game on the big screens.  Stacy and I started with our backs to the screen, but had to eventually turn around - it just became too creepy to have all those faces staring our way.  

The next day the pups got to join us for a pizza picnic in Hofgarten followed by bocce ball in the Englischer Garten.  Sadie became obsessed with a woman riding horse around us – I had to keep her leashed up or she would have tried to become friends with the horse – and most likely fail miserably.  And while I kept her from that danger, it might have been my fault one of the bocce balls hit her in the face.  I have never felt so guilty in my life – I think I was more upset about it than Sadie was.

We spent the evening over at Frühlingsfest for more chicken and beer, and again… Noah was able to watch the UEFA FC Bayern vs. FC Barcelona semifinal game in the beer tent!  The place definitely had a different atmosphere with the game playing (as we were there the Saturday before with some international friends… and 1 authentic German), but it was a very happy one with FC Bayern winning 3-0 and clinching a Germany vs. Germany UEFA cup final.  We also got surrounded by a German boy band ‘flash mob’ – but not sure how flash mob it really was when there isn’t much room between the tables for their few dancers.  And a huge shout out to Stacy and Adam for partaking in the traditional Lederhosen and Dirndl!  Now they really need to come back for Oktoberfest to get their money’s worth out of it!

Thursday we stayed in the city center spending money… what else can you really do in bad weather?  We continued our theme of daily German food at Zum Franziskaner – this time treating our guests to an eclectic combination of Weißwurst, authentic Wienerschnitzel, and Kaiserschmarrn.  While all three authentic German/Bavarian food on their own – I don’t think they really go together.  But no one complained.

We switched things up for dinner and went to a Greek restaurant.  Our old Munich friend Laura joined us, so Noah and I were able to toast her goodbye (again) at dinner.  She found a job in Cincinnati and was here in Munich to finish up her last 2 weeks at Intel.  That just means her and her soon-to-be husband need to come to Munich on vacation, instead of business trips.

Our plans for Friday originally included walking through the Partnachklamm Gorge, as we had heard cool things about it.  We even pre-booked one of our car sharing vehicles for the day.  Unfortunately for us, they decided to ‘close’ the gorge for the week for maintenance, and it would open again Saturday.  But we had a car for Friday – not Saturday!  We decided to be resourceful and just find another place to visit with the car.  Solution: Eibsee and Zugspitze!  

We began with a nice 7km hike/walk around the Eibsee – a lake at the bottom of the Zugspitze mountain (which, by the way, is the highest point in Bavaria – the mountain, not the lake).  Here we made fast friends with the ducks, who clearly are used to people feeding them.  At one point we stopped to look at the lake on a small hill, and this little duck came walking all the way up the hill to try to beg.  Impressive little climber!  We also found a rock shaped like Texas, so naturally I had to stop and give it a photo shoot.

After the 7km hike/walk, we took the cable car to the top of Zugspitze, which left both Stacy and I rather uneasy.  The mountain is 2,962 meters above sea level – or an elevation gain from the bottom of 1,950 meters.  Whatever way you look at it – you are going very high, very fast.

Once at the top, you take an elevator up 3 floors to get to the actual summit.  It is amazing how tiny Eibsee looked from up here.  After stomaching all I could handle of the heights, we moved to Deutschlands höchster Biergarten (Germany’s highest beer garden) for lunch.  I can say I had a real beer at the top of Germany – no Radler for me that day!  

For our guests’ last day in Munich, we decided to focus on the biergarten experience (again).  We first went into the city center to hit up Viktualienmarkt – the large open market near Marienplatz – to pick up a nice lunch spread.  After a quick detour to see the Hofbräuhaus, we hopped on the Ubahn up to Olympiapark, where Rita and Sadie cuddled in the small space between the seats.

Once there, we somehow managed to hit up two separate biergartens.  We did split them by stomping around the park grounds and making it to the highest hill there for some nice views of Munich and the Alps.  It was also nice that Stacy and Adam had one day of beautiful weather in Munich – how we wish it was every day!  Sadly this marked the end of their Munich leg, and we woke up Sunday to an empty apartment.  Well, not too empty – we had two waggly little dog butts to greet us in the morning.

In 9 days, Hotel Weiss will welcome my parents, and we will do it all over again!

Our time at the Wies'n

I am finally getting around to writing about our actual Oktoberfest experience.  We went a few times, so I will write about each visit in different sections… but that means this might be a long one.  Random note – Word autocorrected butthat to butt hat… instead of but that. 

Day 1 of Oktoberfest – Opening Parade (9/22)

The whole shebang started off with the Grand Entry of the Oktoberfest Landlords and Breweries.   That is a big name for a parade that starts near Sendlinger Tor and ends at the Oktoberfest grounds – Theresienwiese.  Basically all the official Oktoberfest breweries with their horse-drawn carriages, the various Oktoberfest bands, and other floats, parade into Theresienwiese to kick off the official start of the Wies’n.

The thing started at 10:45, and after looking at pictures from Ellen’s previous trip a few years back to watch the parade (all really great shots of the back of a shirt – she didn’t have a great view), we decided to head down about an hour early.  The weather wasn’t the best, but I think that helped us nab a choice spot – one where the curb juts out into the street a bit so we could try to do a bit better than Ellen’s photos.  Not that they aren’t great shots of a shirt!

As we are waiting, and the streets cleared, the parade begins!

Ok, not actually.  But this guy in tiny lederhosen did walk his two tiny dogs down the parade route, garnering applause as he went by.  You’ll have to trust me that there were two dogs, because I only caught one in my picture.  The parade actually began with some cops on horses, and since I assume most people don’t need a parade play-by-play, I will just throw in a few of my favorite pics.

As the last float went by, we noticed people started to jump into the street and follow the parade route into the Wies’n.  When in Rome…

Once we maneuvered the crowds and made it into the festival, we found ourselves right by the Flea Circus.  And since there was no chance of getting into the beer tents (as people start to line up really early on weekends), we figured this is a great way to initiate ourselves into the ways of Oktoberfest.  I don’t want to give away all their secrets, so you just have to go see one yourself.

At this point the rain was really starting to come down.  And since we could come back any day, we decided to grab some fair-food and call it a day.

Day 3 of Oktoberfest –Trying to make a dirndl work-appropriate (9/24)

One of the easiest ways to get into a tent in the evening is through work, as companies are able to get reservations much easier than the public.  Intel Finance had 30 spots reserved for us in the Hofbräu Festzelt, and it came with 2 masses of beer (2 liters) and half a chicken.  How could I pass that up?  Not wanting to wear my dirndl all day during meetings (though seeing people dressed up at work during Oktoberfest isn’t crazy), I brought it with me and changed into it. 

We arrived at 5pm, and this was my first time inside a tent – I was shocked at how un-tentlike these things are.  I mean, when our seats are in the back balcony, I don’t think you can call it a tent.  

Noah and I decided that he would come and join me when he got off work – and if he couldn’t get into the tent, I would just leave the work event and join him.  When he arrived around 8pm, the front doors were closed.  But using his clever science brain, he went in an exit and found me.  And since there was plenty of room at our tables, he was able to order his first beer and help me with my chicken.

After he had first beer (and maybe the rest of my second), we bailed on the work party to find our friends Laura and Eddie – who were at Oktoberfest too with her family.   Lo and behold, we meet them to find out that they just got engaged – HOLLA!

After plenty of hugs and congratulations and such, we decided to see if the 6 of us (now including Laura’s sis/bro-in-law) could squeeze back in at our Intel tables.  Lucky for us – a group of people were heading out and we got an entire table to ourselves.  We stayed until 10:30 – when they close for the night – and Noah (as usual) made friends with a table of youngsters next to us.  All in all – a successful first night out… too bad most of us had work the next day.

Day 5 of Oktoberfest –Oktoberfest during the day (9/26)

We decided that we would take off a weekday during the festival to avoid  (some of) the crowds and really soak it all in.  So we set off Wednesday morning to the Hackerbrau Festzelt – a tent we had heard good things.  At 10:30am, we had our pick of the place, and settled down where the band would be.  We had a nice Bavarian breakfast of sausages, pretzels, and beer, and watched as the tent filled in over the next hour.

After a few hours, we wanted to check out all the other tents, so we gave up our spots and headed out.  To avoid duplicating posts, here is the link to the blog post that shows every single tent.  Some were much more impressive, others started to look alike.  But I wouldn’t turn down a spot in any of them.

As we made it to the other end of the fair, we decided it was time for lunch and more beer.  Many of the tables were reserved for the evening, but we found a tent where the reservations started at 5pm versus 4pm, which gave us an extra hour to sit and eat/drink.  Though 5pm came quicker than expected, and before we knew it we were back on the fairgrounds walking around.  We said hi to Bavaria, ate more fair-food (though my dirndl was running out of room for me to eat much more), and called it a day.

Day 8 of Oktoberfest – Friends! (9/29)

As the weekend approached, we had visitors arrive!  Our friends Rhia and Brad even went and bought the traditional clothes, but I won’t slam Melissa for skipping out (she got enough of it during the visit).  As they were targeting Saturday for their Oktoberfest visit, Noah and I sent them off with hopes that 3 people could get into a tent much easier than 5 (and we had already been 3 times).  We would then join them later to tour the fair, and of course, get more fair-food.  I think the fair-food > the beer for me... but maybe because I can get that beer any day?  Or maybe because I am a sucker for delicious-but-bad-for-you food?  I hope they don’t kick me out of Munich for saying that.  

Anyways, Noah and I met the group later that afternoon.

We also rode our first ride – swings.  Yeah, that sounds pretty basic and low key, but let me tell you, it was NOT.  These swings took us waaaaaaaay up in the air and spun around so fast, I heard the boys squealing too.  And since I am the writer of this post, they can’t argue with me.  And we got some good views of the entire festival from our viewpoint a mile up. 

Day 15 of Oktoberfest – Can’t a girl just get some fair-food to go? (10/6)

After our 4 visits, we decided we had our fair-share (pun intended) of Oktoberfest.  However, I had not had my share of cinnamon-macadamia nuts.  As we were heading out to watch Eddie’s soccer game, sorry, Fußball game, I had the bright idea to go get more macadamia nuts for the game.

I still stand by my decision, as they are freaking delicious, but we had to endure so many sloppy drunks, pushy crowds, medical personnel making their way to another passed out drunk, that we were glad we never went on a sunny weekend day.  And this is 3pm!

But I was successful, bought 3 packs of nuts, and even though it took 5 minutes just to get down a flight of stairs to the train platform, I saw Noah enjoying the snacks too.  Plus we got to see a group of passed out leprechauns along our route.  Note to tourists/foreigners – this is so far from what traditional lederhosen look like, that you just look like Peter Pan in this, not a Bavarian. 

So that sums up our 2012 Oktoberfest experience.  Looking forward to 2013 – but at this point I am glad it is still a year away.  

Frühlingsfest!

Spring (Frühling) is here!  Baseball season is underway (we are streaming the Dbacks over the internet), the flowers are in bloom, and the Biergartens have come to life.  People here find all kinds of excuses to drink beer and the arrival of spring happens to be a big one!  Frühlingsfest, the little sister to Oktoberfest, recently took place in Munich so we set out in our Bavarian outfits with our friends to welcome in the spring.

Of course the ladies looked better:

Frühlingsfest had the feel of a typical State Fair in America (or a rodeo for those Texans) complete with tons of sketchy rides that spin, a Ferris wheel, lots of junk food (including cotton candy), people in costumes, and beer.  We played it safe and took a ride on the Ferris wheel.

One of our favorite sightings was the super American cheeseburger (nobody ate one though)!

After cruising around for a while we made our way into the soul of Frühlingsfest, the larger than life beer tents.  These things are really incredible and gave us a small taste of what Oktoberfest might feel like.  See for yourself:

We weren’t able to find a seat in the blue Augustiner tent, but had better luck at the Hippodrom (Greek origin meaning horse tent).  We first sat down to a relatively mellow crowd around 7 p.m., and it was comical how you could significantly notice the energy level increase hour by hour (the beers only come in one size, 1 liter or around 32 OZ).  At first there were a few people up dancing to the traditional Bavarian music, but by 10 p.m. everyone is up dancing on the benches and the music has evolved into international pop classics (many American- Sweet Caroline, I’ve Got a Hangover….Oaaah, etc.):

A group of 16 year olds showed up at our table (yes, I asked them their age) and were carded before being given their giant beers (rightly so).  About 4 sips later, they were pretty drunk, and naturally I made pretty good friends with one of them.

We closed out the evening playing some carnival games.  Eddie is a soccer player so naturally he won his girlfriend a stuffed animal toy with his skills.  Hoping to keep pace with Eddie, I became really competitive at the old western shooting range.  I hit about 13 out of 15 targets while the others kept wasting their ‘shots’ on some silly, practical joke water cannon that shot water on the passersby.  Well the joke was on me in the end because it turns out this was a non-contest game and there was no prize to be won.  I put up about a one minute argument with the game attendant before I got through the language barrier to realize there was no prize.  At least I’ve still got a pretty nice shot though!

Lederhosen and Dirndl Time!

We no longer have to rely on my crude Photoshop to see what Noah and I might look like in the traditional Bavarian attire. After spending more money than you would expect (or at least we expected, before we moved here), we are now ready for Oktoberfest!

Official Deutschland Residents!!

Today Noah and I received our official residence cards, and I received my work visa. Technically Noah received one too – but his is more of a “not” working visa – it says he is not authorized to work. And since the dogs were registered last month, the entire family is set to stay in Germany forever!! Ok, not forever, but until January 2015 (and we currently are planning on staying through February 2014 – so we have plenty of buffer).

This means from this point on, all our posts must be written in German. Wir lieben München! Ich bin glücklich, hier zu leben! Never mind. I think that is enough.

But now we can go buy our lederhosen and dirndl! Here are a few ‘artist’ renditions of what we may or may not look like in the traditional Bavarian attire (click to enlarge):