Oktoberfest: We Came, We Saw, We Drank

Our trip to Germany consisted of five nights in four different beds. We planned our trip to Germany with some of our friends here, Dan and Susana and their daughter Sophia. Dan is the man with a plan, so we were happy to tag along when he said he had a place to stay in Munich. This story is full of family ties, so I'll do my best to explain. Dan's wife Susana has a sister, Sandra, who lives in Stuttgart with her husband Michael. Susana, Sophia and Sandra were in Portugal their home town and were flying back to Stuttgart on Thursday. So we left Mons with Dan and on Wednesday right after work for Stuttgart. With me so far? Hopefully most of the confusing stuff is out of the way :) Five hours later we pulled into Stuttgart and met Michael, our friend's wife's sister's husband! We crashed at their place for the night.

On Thursday we took turns ducking our head in the shower; Michael, Sandra and their one year Lucas live in a truly European apartment with really cool funky space right out of an IKEA catalog. They have done an amazing job maximizing the little space they have. After a German breakfast of breads and pastries from a local shop we headed out to see Stuttgart. First we headed by the Porsche factory, awesome! They have a skyway crossing the road from one building to the next that actually has the Porsche bodies rolling across it! Michael, a native German, took us to a local beer store and loaded us up with a crate full of different German beers. Really cool experience, nothing we would have been able to do if we weren't traveling with Dan and his family. We then made it to the festival in Stuttgart, not technically Oktoberfest, but basically the same idea. Huge beer tents and major festival activities. I clearly had no appreciation for how huge these festivals are and what a production. I had no idea how many major rides they have. This is no state fair with a ferris wheel and some bumper cars. This is full size roller coasters, a full size log flume, things right out of Kings Dominion (or better). We hung out in a tent for lunch and some German drinking songs, then strolled through the grounds of the fest. The guys went to pick the girls up from the airport while we checked in to a local hotel. We all met back up for dinner then Keith and I took a stroll into the city center of Stuttgart. The city is amazingly green, you would have no idea that it is somewhat of an industrial city, so cool in that it twists and turns through the hill sides.

On Friday morning, Dan, Michael, Keith and I packed up the car again for the two hour drive down to Munich. Dan knew a guy who lives in Munich who was going to be out of town and said we could use his place. Despite the five flights of stairs and TOTAL cigarette saturation it was worth it, his place was five minutes from the festival and free! We dropped off our stuff and made it over to the festival. As warned it was packed and we couldn't get into a tent, but the food was yummy! We found some benches under some outdoor heaters and just took our seats for the day/evening. We all said we wish we could have a tape of the night to playback at high speed, to watch all the folks who came went around us. We had a fantastic time meeting all sorts of wonderful characters. Of course I befriended the Irish at the table next to us with my trademark "For fucks sake, it's feckin' grand". We did finally go into a tent at the very end of the evening, amazing to see about 90% of people dressed in authentic Bavarian dress. The term tent really doesn't do it justice. These "tents" makes tents at weddings look like you are going camping. They are huge! I've already been asked how it compared to Mardi Gras, and I guess I would say that it was significantly less sleazy and less sexual than Mardi Gras. The drinking was about the same though. A major difference is that the tents close around 12:00, so it's really meant to be a day time festival, not something that starts at night.

As we strolled back to our nicotine patch apartment, mild manner Michael suddenly burst with excitement over a Japanese restaurant/bar, so we strolled in at midnight. What better way to end an evening at Oktoberfest in Munich than at a Japanese bar? We hung out for a good two hours, had a great time and made friends with the folks working there.

Surprisingly we weren't too hung over on Saturday.... I guess when you space the drinking out over a full day it's not too bad. Michael served as a tour guide of down town Munich, unfortunately the rain and cold really put a damper on things. We did get to walk through their amazing market, saw the Glockenspiel, the major church, and the Hoffbrau House. We wanted to go in, but the mass of people standing outside (lines are clearly an American thing) just wasn't worth fighting. They were being let in like they were at a cattle call. "I have a group of six, four, three" then had to fight your way through. Keith and I are hoping to make another trip to the Bavarian area during a non-Oktoberfest time so I am hoping we can try again.

On our way back to Stuttgart we stopped at a place on the side of the highway advertising Marklin train stuff. For those of you who don't know, Keith is really into model trains, and owns several Marklin engines. Michael, our amazing host, found out about this place and we made it just in time to see their incredible displays. Really awesome setups with loads of detail. Back in Stuttgart we checked in to our hotel and took it easy for the rest of the night, hanging out with Sandra, Susana and the kids. The journey back on Sunday was uneventful, we were pretty ready to sleep in our own bed after all our travels.

Lonnie Visit

A whirlwind of European fun is probably the only way to describe our visit with Keith's mom. She and I rode the train back from the airport last Thursday and just took it easy until Keith got home from work. Since Keith's vacation days are numbered he wasn't able to join in the festivities on Friday so his mom, Jen (another consultants wife), and I went to the Parc Paradisio to stroll around and check out the gardens and the animals. Because it was a week day the park was fairly deserted, and the rain held off just long enough for us to see everything we wanted to. I still can't get over how close you can get to the little monkeys!

Saturday the three of us headed for Koln (Cologne) Germany. Yes, it's where cologne comes from. The fourth largest city in Germany is only about two and a half hours from us. Not the most spectacular city I have ever been too, but still pretty neat. Most of the city was devasted durning the war so they have done a lot to rebuild. The main draws are the church, which was pretty spectacular and it's location on the Rhine. We strolled through the city and had a lovely lunch with German beer. Have to say, so far, I prefer the Belgian stuff.

On Sunday we took it easy, we watched Bailey play with some new toys that Lonnie brought from home and then headed up to Brussels to catch a movie. The Kinepolis theater in Brussels is a sight to see. It's three stores tall with over 20 theaters. There was watched Wall-E, complete with French and Dutch subtitles, an intermission, and sugar popcorn instead of salt. Very strange...

Monday we headed to Paris, this time by car. Keith braved the rush hour city driving - probably the worst I've ever seen, but he got us there and back safely. It's a longer trip by car than by the high speed train but we still managed to squeeze a lot in. We managed to see the Trocadero, the Eiffel Tower, a boat ride on the Seine, Notre Dame, the Louvre, the Arc du Triumph, and have lunch. Obviously there is so much more to do in Paris, but to see it all you really have to stay there for several days. We finished the night off with a nice dinner in the Grand Place back here in Mons.

Tuesday, Keith was back to work and Lonnie and I headed out for a leisurly day in Brugge. All along Keith and I have been knocking the little town of Mons that we are in, it's a fairly poor city, that has lost it's life and spirit, and Lonnie thought we were being a bit hard on it until she saw Brugge. I don't know how to explain Brugge other than it is exactly what you think of when you think of a cute european town. It's upbeat, picturesque, clean, charming, or as my mom would say it has "pizzaz". Both Keith and I wish that SHAPE could be located in Brugge instead, but I guess if it were we might not ever leave Belgium. Once Lonnie saw Brugge she understood why we are so down on Mons. It just isn't the same. We walked through the busy city streets, checking out the chocolate and lace shops. We walked along the canals and Lonnie got her first chocolate waffle, a fitting end to her trip to Belgium.

Tanks in Town

The last weekend in August we headed down into Mons for a special event, "Tanks in Town", and frankly the title is pretty self explanatory. Every year the locals dress up in authentic WWII clothing and ride through the streets on tanks and other military vehicles up to the Grand Place. The event is held every year to celebrate the liberation of Mons by the Americans during WWII.

We found a spot on the sidewalk right on the route the tanks were taking to where we could literally reach out and touch them. We watched as the tanks drove by and roughed up the cobble stone streets; we just couldn't believe the number of original tanks they had for the parade. At the end they parked all the vehicles in the Grand Place so that people could take a closer look and even sit in some of them. Keith told me later that many of these types of parades are subsidized by the Belgian government to help keep them running and maintain the cultural heritage in the local communities. Pretty cool. The funniest part was seeing all these guys dressed in U.S. WWII uniforms only to hear them speaking French, Belgian impersonating Americans, who would have thought?

Fancy a day in Paris?

Two years ago we spent our honeymoon in Paris, so for our anniversary we thought we would go back for the day to celebrate. We took the high speed train, the Thalys, from the train station about ten minutes from our house. We were in Paris an hour and fifteen minutes later. The entire day was a super chill trip, we did zero planning, didn't take a guide book or a map, and figured we'd just figure it out as we went along.

From the train station we took the metro to the Louvre. We didn't go in, did that last time, but took in the views. We walked through the parks just in front, watching the kids play with little sail boats in the ponds and riding pony's. We walked our way out to the Seine and walked along the river up to the Eiffel tower. Since it was a gorgeous day, it was no surprise that the lines were crazy long but we had no intention of going up anyway. We grabbed a quick sandwich before taking a boat ride down the Seine. Unfortunately without a cloud in the sky the trip was pretty hot and not quite as relaxing as we would have hoped, but still a great way to see the city. We both preferred the trip at night, getting to see the city all lit up. We got off the boat and walked up the Champs Eleyses toward the Arc de Triomphe. We stopped a couple of times along the way to sit in a park and at a cafe for a break from the heat.

After checking out the Arc we took the metro over to the Trocadero and found one our favorite cafe's from our honeymoon. We got a table right in front with a great view of the Eiffel tower. Sure two beers were 12 Euro, about $20, and our dinner was silly expensive but it didn't matter we had a great time just people watching. The fashion, the personal interactions, the cars, are all so fantastic that you can spend ours just observing. Sitting there we talked about how blessed we feel. It was just two years ago that we talked about how cool it would be if we could live abroad, never did we believe that it would actually happen. We are so excited to have been given this awesome opportunity. We made our way back to the train station and were back home by 10:00pm. Pretty cool that Paris is an easy day trip!