2004.09.24 in Munich
Woke up early for a hearty breakfast of hot dogs, assorted breads, deli meats, and a mix of potatoes, eggs, and cheese dish. Tony then made us sandwiches from the leftovers for us to take which was totally unexpected, and we'd later enjoy the next day. George was on his way to Munchen so he offered to show us around the city and this allowed us to actually go to Oktoberfest after all! From Munchen, we'd catch a night train into Florence instead of Rome; Tony suggested we could visit Florence for a few hours and still get into Rome before evening.
Welcoming the change of transportation, George drove myself and Le to Munchen as we cruised along the Autobahn. At one point, we hit 180km/h! We could've gone faster but even congestion builds up on the two-lane freeway. There are sections of the Autobahn where there are posted speed limits - typically, 120 km/h - otherwise, it's as fast as you can go. The Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munchen was the very first portion built in Germany during World War II and Hitler created it to transport Nazi tanks and supplies. It was a fun and interesting 2 hour drive - of note: Along the way, we were stuck in major traffic and we happened to be inside a tunnel when we heard sirens from behind us. The Autobahn is generally 2 lanes in both directions and I could not see how an ambulance was going to get through the traffic in this tunnel since there are no shoulders either. Ah, but what ended up happening (and I doubt I'd ever see this in North America) was that all the cars in the left lane moved as far left as they could and all the cars in the right lane did the same to move far right. This created more than enough space for the emergency vehicle to proceed down the middle of the road and help in the accident many kilometres down the way.
Munchen is Bavaria's capital - a must-visit region of German culture and history - and it's unfortunate we would not be able to explore this region any further than this city. We had "Weisswurst" for lunch - it's a white sausage where you suck in the meat from its outer skin. This is the traditional method but we opted for the modern way of cutting the sausage lengthwise and then spooning out the meat. You don't eat the skin. Wandered around Marienplatz looking for Fournier cards and a Swiss Army knife (for Le) amongst all the shops and restaurants. After enough exploring we finally made our way over to the CNE - uh, I mean Oktoberfest. Okay so at first it looks like any other giant fair. But then you see people leaving completely hammered and it's only 16:00! And then you see some men and women wearing traditional Bavarian Lederhosen. And while you make your way around the fairgrounds, you're finding it hard to actually get past the entrances to the enormous and jam-packed beer tents. We met up with George and a couple of his coworkers at the Augustiner beer tent - each tent serves just that type of beer - and WOW, is this the best beer we've ever tasted! It's a very smooth lager with just about no aftertaste - definitely chuggable. I enjoyed drinking out of my Augustiner 1L glass stein so much that I decided to take it as a souvenir. George and friends encouraged me to stuff it into my daypack while Le decided he wouldn't want the extra weight to carry. He would later regret making that decision.
The night train was bad. We were at Hauptbahnhof early and got our own 6-seat compartment. But the doors don't lock and before the train actually departed we were kicked out by these German students with 'reservations' that we didn't bother asking to see. None of the compartments indicated any reservations and we assumed it was first-come-first-serve. We settled for a filled 6-seat compartment where I ended up having to sit next to this monstrousity who snored all freakin night. I couldn't sleep at all on these upright seats with no leg room. It was about past 03:00 and we were already passing through Italy when I couldn't take it anymore and just wandered down the carriage. I found a deserted compartment and we moved into there for some off and on sleep on our way to Firenze (Florence)...
Beer Rating of the Day: Augustiner: 5 out of 5 stars!
Welcoming the change of transportation, George drove myself and Le to Munchen as we cruised along the Autobahn. At one point, we hit 180km/h! We could've gone faster but even congestion builds up on the two-lane freeway. There are sections of the Autobahn where there are posted speed limits - typically, 120 km/h - otherwise, it's as fast as you can go. The Autobahn from Stuttgart to Munchen was the very first portion built in Germany during World War II and Hitler created it to transport Nazi tanks and supplies. It was a fun and interesting 2 hour drive - of note: Along the way, we were stuck in major traffic and we happened to be inside a tunnel when we heard sirens from behind us. The Autobahn is generally 2 lanes in both directions and I could not see how an ambulance was going to get through the traffic in this tunnel since there are no shoulders either. Ah, but what ended up happening (and I doubt I'd ever see this in North America) was that all the cars in the left lane moved as far left as they could and all the cars in the right lane did the same to move far right. This created more than enough space for the emergency vehicle to proceed down the middle of the road and help in the accident many kilometres down the way.
Munchen is Bavaria's capital - a must-visit region of German culture and history - and it's unfortunate we would not be able to explore this region any further than this city. We had "Weisswurst" for lunch - it's a white sausage where you suck in the meat from its outer skin. This is the traditional method but we opted for the modern way of cutting the sausage lengthwise and then spooning out the meat. You don't eat the skin. Wandered around Marienplatz looking for Fournier cards and a Swiss Army knife (for Le) amongst all the shops and restaurants. After enough exploring we finally made our way over to the CNE - uh, I mean Oktoberfest. Okay so at first it looks like any other giant fair. But then you see people leaving completely hammered and it's only 16:00! And then you see some men and women wearing traditional Bavarian Lederhosen. And while you make your way around the fairgrounds, you're finding it hard to actually get past the entrances to the enormous and jam-packed beer tents. We met up with George and a couple of his coworkers at the Augustiner beer tent - each tent serves just that type of beer - and WOW, is this the best beer we've ever tasted! It's a very smooth lager with just about no aftertaste - definitely chuggable. I enjoyed drinking out of my Augustiner 1L glass stein so much that I decided to take it as a souvenir. George and friends encouraged me to stuff it into my daypack while Le decided he wouldn't want the extra weight to carry. He would later regret making that decision.
The night train was bad. We were at Hauptbahnhof early and got our own 6-seat compartment. But the doors don't lock and before the train actually departed we were kicked out by these German students with 'reservations' that we didn't bother asking to see. None of the compartments indicated any reservations and we assumed it was first-come-first-serve. We settled for a filled 6-seat compartment where I ended up having to sit next to this monstrousity who snored all freakin night. I couldn't sleep at all on these upright seats with no leg room. It was about past 03:00 and we were already passing through Italy when I couldn't take it anymore and just wandered down the carriage. I found a deserted compartment and we moved into there for some off and on sleep on our way to Firenze (Florence)...
Beer Rating of the Day: Augustiner: 5 out of 5 stars!
posted by ET at 17:06
1 Comments:
Edgar! Man I thought you were still here in Europe! I didn't get to see you or Patti! Dang! Well I'm still here in Europe moving to South Spain on Tuesday, gotta get some sun and sand before I go back home on Dec.12th =) Hey got any pics up? Dan Joaquin
Post a Comment
<< Home