September 30, 2008

Roughly a week before starting down the Romantic Road, we were approaching Frankfurt on a Sunday afternoon and noticed the northbound traffic was bumper to bumper and stop and go for over 20 miles. Wondering why there was so much traffic, we finally realized all of the locals were returning home from Oktoberfest. Originally planning to get to Murnau on Friday so we could go to Munich that weekend to catch Oktoberfest before it ended, we changed our minds. After seeing all of the traffic we figured weekends in Munich would be nuts so we decided to wait until Tuesday to go when the crowds thinned (wrong).

Instead, we would use the weekend to do domestic stuff. But, that wouldn’t prove to be very productive. We had use of an apartment size washer and dryer in the cellar which could handle about a single change of clothes. We found we were soiling clothes at about the same rate they were being washed. We checked with a local laundry and they wanted 40 euros per kilogram which is about $26.00 per pound. With our three weeks of laundry, that would tally up to over $1,000. At that price, we seriously thought about throwing away our soiled clothes and buying new ones. We badgered our land lady enough she caved in and let us use her commercial equipment. In 4 hours, we had everything clean.

Murnau isn’t one of your more well known German towns. However, we picked it from “Google Earth” and our Garmin’s “Map Source” because of its convenient location. Murnau is about equi-distant from Munich, Innsbruck and Salzburg and all accessible by rail. We gave ourselves 3 weeks to visit them while we set up home making in a distant apartment. Our apartment was a two block walk from the rail station as well as a short walk from town so we could park the car and give it a rest.

On Tuesday, we bought our tickets to Munich and headed for Germany’s biggest party. The morning was a pleasant 10 C and the sun was shining. The train ride went through mostly agricultural countryside with the exception of the resort area of Lake Starnberg which is about 14 miles SW of Munich. Just outside of Munich, in a suburban area, we noticed an apartment or condo complex that had an interesting arrangement for “green space.” Behind the complex there was a line of 10 x 20 meter lots, each different that resembled your typical suburban back yard. One had a child’s swing set, the next one had a lawn building, the one next to that had a vegetable garden and next one had lawn chairs and a BBQ grill. It appeared the plots were a substitute for a private back yard. It was easy to imagine a summer scene where kids would be playing and 30 feet away their next door neighbors would be tiling the garden while 30 feet from them a couple would be having a cook out. Not being from a big metropolitan city where it might be common, I thought the arrangement was quite ingenious.

After arriving In Munich and a visit to the Tourist Information (TI ) center we were off to “Zentrum” (town center) to spend most of the day exploring the regular part of Munich that wasn’t directly celebrating October Fest. We were on our way to see the infamous “Hauf Brau” haus and passed through a very large central square, “Marienplatz”, that had every retail shop conceivable. These were not your typical tourist trinket shops but high-end classy department stores. From the type of stores and their prices, resident of Munich appear to be doing very good financially.

We came out of one store just in time to see the “Glockenspiel” in the bell tower of the “New Town Hall.” We watched like a couple of kids while the upper figures engaged in a jousting tournament and the lower figures did their mechanical dance. Later, we stopped and had lunch at a neat shop (“Bread & Butter”) that was a cross between “Sharper Image” and “Pies & Plates.” It had all sorts of high end household items and fresh bread being made at the lunch counter.

According to local accounts, the Hauf Braus haus in old Munich was instrumental in the development of beer brewing and while it was an October Fest venue, we went there to visit its museum. All of the placards and displays provided information on how it contributed the early brewing development. Not that it was important except from an historical perspective, nothing was mentioned about it serving as the mass meeting place for organizing Hitler’s Socialist Worker’s Party. I guess that aspect of their history doesn’t need reinforcing.

Leaving “Old Town”, we made our way over to the west part of town where October Fest was “really” being celebrated. We were anxious to see if Munich’s “October Fest” would top Key West’s “Fantasy Fest”. It did!

When we walked through the main gate, we could not believe our eyes. We expected a couple of beer tents like they have in Cape Coral and a fairly large crowd. What was there was immense. It is a huge fair, with an enormous midway (larger than the Florida State Fair in Tampa) and huge beer tents that more permanent structures than tents and can hold at least 1,500 people. Remember, this is a Tuesday afternoon around 5:00 pm, somewhat cold and dreary. That didn’t matter, the crowds were thick and every beer tent we peaked into was packed.
On the recommendation of our friends Bob and Joyce Ryan who lived in Germany for a while, we found our way to the Spaten (a German brewer) tent. It was really great but we didn’t know all of the tables were bought and paid for months in advance. A nice little waitress managed to find us a couple of empty seats at a bought table and asked the table owners if they minded if we joined them while we ate. The two guys were Catholic Frat brothers from the University of Munich with a young girl who appeared to be a Frat groupie chick and also a student. At first, they were a little hesitant to have a couple of old folks sit with them but after a toast or two and showing them we could sing the German drinking song, which was sung by everyone in the tent, we were accepted. Their little ditty went something like:

Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit
Eins, zwei, drei – zuppa!

That short song, played after every Oom-Pah Band song, was designed to promote beer drinking. 1 Liter mugs don’t last long when you take a long draw from them every 4 or 5 minutes. For dinner, we had another one of those delicious ½ fried chickens, drank a little more beer than moved on when the table’s owners other guests arrived. No problem though, making friends in a beer tent with a bunch of happy people was easy. We met another group of young folks who adopted us and hung out with them for awhile (awhile meaning way too long). Having a good time and trying to keep up with our newfound German friends, things got a little fuzzy. I forgot we came by train and to get back home, we needed to make our way back to the station before the last train out of Yuma. Dorothea, my trusty, forever vigilant navigator got us back to the train station with 20 minutes to spare before the last train departed.

Dorothea and Ed