Oktoberfest 2006

Ya gotta give it to Bavarians when it comes to throwing a big beer bash....no one does it better. Our friends and neighbors, Christel and Norbert, invited us to go with them to Oktoberfest this year on closing night. They were meeting their daughter and her boyfriend and their friends and relatives, and these guys had a table reserved, along with what seemed to be lots of food and beer coupons!
So we hopped on the train with our friends, and rode all the way from our little village since there might later have been drinking and driving issues...well yeah if we went about this all correctly! Here they are on the train on the way in.....
So as we arrived on the train which dumps you right at the fairground, the skies opened up and monsoon hurricane started coming down. We thankfully had an umbrella, but when it is a windy downpour, you might as well just prepare to get wet. We were pretty drenched, but here is the scene when we arrived. This tent (Hacker-Pschorr) holds exactly 6950 people inside, and I'd say the place was pretty danged full. And since it was pouring rain, maybe even some of the 2400 from outside came in and joined us in what turned out to be a big, steamy sauna! BUT, the music is loud, the dirndls are fantastic, the food is actually good, the people seem to like the beer, and the company was great, so I have nothing to add other than it was some rip-roaring fun. And I can't remember ever seeing Bernd quite so wild and jumpy! If you hate crowds, I'd say avoid the place. But if you want to get rowdy once a year, for sure come to Munich. There's no better place. In general I'm not a fan of German beer drinking music, but it is so perfect in this setting that you just really would not want to hear much else.

Some various photos:



The tent started leaking due to the downpour. No big deal, just pop open the umbrella.

Christel collecting chicken bones for her cats. I think it was not that much fun carrying that bag around, but it made us all laugh. We tried to sell them on the way out, but no takers.

Me and a Bavarian guy who has had a liter or two of beer. He's been working way too much and too many hours and I'd say he really needed this buzz...until the next morning when the dogs wanted to take a big walk and work called again......

This is Yvi, Christel and Norbert's oh so cute daugher, and her equally cute boyfriend Stefan. We love Yvi around here. She is also our veterinarian. She's gentle and sweet and smart and speaks really good English. These two are getting married (and I think this is a good thing...they will have very cute, very blonde children), but I told Stefan that our dog Uben is still Yvi's best friend. Stefan wants to be her best friend, but Uben slid in there already. So ist das.

At the end of the evening since this was the closing night of Oktoberfest, sob, they passed out sparklers, dimmed the lights, and the whole tent fired up. It was dramatic and something to see. My photo does not do a good job of capturing it, but I also have a movie so if you want to come by and see it, complete with music, come on over. I had the thought that this would never happen inside in North America due to potential fire. I wondered for a millisecond if it was really safe, but decided it would be a good way to go if it was time.

Christel, Norbert and Yvi, thanks so much for taking us along for the ride. It was a great night even though we couldn't unload those bones. Let's go again next year with bigger umbrellas and raingear!

Scammers, scammers everywhere

Earlier this year we were in Munich for some reason, and when we arrived home there was a ton of commotion in our driveway. There were 2 strangers with a big hose, my mother-in-law, and our nephew and niece from next door all standing around talking. Turns out that the 2 strangers came to the door of my mother-in-law and made an offer to power clean the driveway for a mere 800 Euros. Our nephew and niece were trying to stop it when they realized what was going on. The scammers not only were robbing my mother-in-law, but had taken her to the bank to get the money, and she had told the guy her PIN number. Now I tell this only as a warning to the elderly and vulnerable...be wary of those who come to the door.

Set number 2 of driveway powerwashers showed up at the door today. I took awhile getting to the door and by the time I got there they were already talking to my mother-in-law. Flashback. As there is a line in our driveway where the first set of washers stopped, I thought ok maybe I would surprise the husband and get the rest done to match the part that is clean. So I asked about how much. The guy at the door calls his sidekick over who proceeds to tell me what a bad job the previous washers did, how it all needs to be redone, and that THEY would coat the driveway with something (no clue what that was in German) so that this would just in every way be better. Never did get a price for just the 1/4 that I wanted done, but they made the equally astounding offer of 300 Euros. As this might have taken them an hour to do (the driveway is not that big) I politely said no, it was too much money, and turned to go. Sidekick man wanted to debate my decision. Less politely I said (in German) "Was I not clear, I just said NO." He STILL wanted to debate this but the original guy convinced him to leave as it was a sure thing that I was not going to part with the 300 Euros. I guess cleaning the 1/4 that I wanted done was just not worth their time or effort. Funny how they seemed to be less nice upon leaving then when they were trying to get me to open up my Geldbeutel.