We survived Oktoberfest, though I'm not sure I'm ever drinking again...

Our fourth day in Munich, we hired a car and headed south west toward the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein, built by King Ludwig. I'd already seen the castle before but Ian and Amit hadn't and I was happy to go and see it again. We were given a tiny Fiat Punto to drive around in, which was a bit small for the three of us but we still gave it what for down the Autobahn.

The castle (Schloss) is very impressive but unfortunately unfinished as the King died while it was still being fitted out so there are only 8 or so rooms to see on the tour. It's stunning none the less, the guy was nuts and nearly bankrupted Germany building castles. After the castle tour, we headed to a nearby mountain where Amit and I organised to go paragliding. We had to wait to the end of the day to get the last two spots so we hung around there for a couple of hours. Fortunately the pilots got down in time for us to catch the last cable car to the top of the hill and were able to go. Paragliding is where you run off the mountain with a parachute, as opposed to a hang glider, which is what I did in Rio. As we were the last flight of the day, the guys took their time. My pilot took me up and up and we fly high over Neuschwanstein castle, which was cool.

On Wednesday, we checked out of our hostel and the four of us, (Adam, Ian, Amit and myself), got our hire car and drove to Cologne, about 600kms away. We had a new Merc C220 diesel. I did most of the driving, of which half was B roads as we incorrectly set the Sat Nav to shortest route rather than fastest route. However, I did get some autobahn time, as did Ian and Amit, at the wheel. We all topped out around 220km/h but sat on something between 160-180km/h most of the time. Gotta love the German Autobahns.

Our last day was Thursday. In the morning, I checked out the giant church at Cologne, before boarding a 30 min train to Dusseldorf. We should have skipped Cologne and gone straight to Dusseldorf as it's a really cool city with a massive "cafe strip" style area in the AltStadt (Old City) just chock full of pubs and restaurants. Amit and I hung around this area the whole afternoon while Ian was off exploring some converted steel mill somewhere (Duisberg?).

We concluded our trip with a traditional german meal at a microbrewery in Dusseldorf. The next day we traveled Dusseldorf to London, London to KL and finally KL to home.

And so ends another trip. Can't wait for the next one, which may be a while off yet unfortunately due to changing employment and no annual leave accrual!

Til the next instalment!
Auf Wiedersehen

So we reach the main event, Oktoberfest.

We arrived in Munich the day before the 200th anniversary of the Oktoberfest celebration is due to start. After an early morning warm up beer, I go shopping to find myself some traditional german gear, known as Tracht, to wear at the fest. For blokes, this is known as lederhosen, or leather pants. I get everything from shoes and socks through to pants, shirt and suspenders. That afternoon we go back to the hostel to watch the AFL preliminary final - Geelong vs Collingwood and put away a few more beers at the hostel bar that night.

Day 1 of the fest. We arrive at 8:30 to masses of people already queuing to get into tents, which don't open til 9am and don't serve beer til midday. We lined up at the Lowenbrau tent and when the doors finally open, we rush inside only to find that most tables are reserved and there's no space to accommodate the rest of us. We reluctantly leave and take up a position on an outdoor table. We then begin the boring wait of holding the table with no beer for three hours. An old colleague from Perth, Ali, who now lives in London, showed up and we did some quick shopping for hats while we waited for beers.

At midday, the cannon fired a few times, the first keg was tapped by the Mayor of Munich and then we waited. We had just sorted out our hat with our cash to pay for rounds when a waitress carrying 12 steins of beers came rushing out the door and laid them down on our table. We couldn't believe it. We were the first people outside served at the Oktoberfest! There were many jealous people around us as we came together for a huge cheers and then enjoyed our litres of beer.

The rest of the day quickly became a reasonable blur as one stein turned to five, turn to a desire to get food and water, turned to more beer and then as the night got longer, turned to finding our way into a tent and dancing on tables singing german drinking songs. There was also some show rides thrown in there somewhere but that part is a little hazy. What a party this Oktoberfest is!

Day 2 started a little later at 3pm at the Hofbrau tent where we took it a little more sensibly at first, before more steins, more table dancing and more german singing was undertaken inside the Hofbrau tent. More rides were had including a five looping rollercoaster and a giant chair swing, amongst others.

Day 3 was Monday and the fest had quietened down a little. I can't begin to describe the noise, colour, sights and sounds of Oktoberfest in full action. I took some time this day to go in and out of every tent and take some pictures, enjoy the sights and sounds, the songs of the oompa bands playing and of course, a cheeky stein. That afternoon, we headed to Olympic Park and the BMW museum where we'd organised to take a factory tour. All the tours were sold out in English so we took a german one, which was interesting. Fortunately, you don't need commentary to see what is going on in most parts of the factory, though i'm sure the commentary was interesting. We returned to the fest that night for another stein and more rides.

That's the end of my Oktoberfest adventures. Four more days in Germay I'll write about separately.

Prost!
Dave

Amsterdam was our next stop on the way to Munich. I've never been to the Netherlands before so this stop officially makes country #36 to my travel list.

We arrived to a reasonably overcast and slightly wet Amsterdam. We were greeted by a bloke from the apartments we were renting and he led us into the red light district to find our apartment. We arrived at a little door in a street and were informed that everything above was ours. Entering the building and negotiating the steep winding staircase revealed a three level apartment, which was pretty cool. We met up with a few others that night and partied the night away.

The first full day in Amsterdam and it was wet and miserable and there were a few sore heads amongst us. We had an easy morning, which was probably needed anyway, before heading out for a canal tour, in the rain, after lunch. Was hard to really appreciate the canals in the rain but there is a lot of them and the general infrastructure in Amsterdam is very bike and canal focussed. It's noticeable the lack of any land area, with all buildings butting up against the other building and all going up, rather than across.

Day 2 saw a couple of us take a train to the Hague, renting some push bikes and then cycling about 30kms to Rotterdam, via Deft. It was a nice day fortunately and given how flat The Netherlands is, an easy cycle, except for the headwind. Delf is very quaint and is the home to that blue and white china you see around the place. Rotterdam, by contrast, is a huge port and we did a tour of it in the afternoon. It's massive and very busy. Containers and container ships everywhere. We trained it back to Amsterdam and again hit the town that night.

Our final day in Amsterdam saw us float around a bit. I visited Anne Frank's house, which was really interesting, before meeting up with the others at the "I am Amsterdam" sign for some photos before heading to the Heinekken brewery for a tour, which was pretty cool. I even have a beer bottle at home that says "brewed by Dave Wylde". hahaha.

We took the overnight train to Munich that night - next stop Oktoberfest!

Cheers
Dave

G'day everyone

Again I'm off on travels, this time, the end goal is Oktoberfest in Munich Germany but for now, the start is London, UK.

As I've been to London a few times before, there isn't a whole lot to say here. We (four of us) are staying at a hostel near King Cross Station, which is nice enough but the rooms are tiny.

We had a big day our first full day in London. After doing some shopping on Oxford Street in the morning, where I went nuts on the credit card(s), we went to Fullham to see Fullham play the Wolves in the English Premier League. Was a great match that the home side eventually won 2-1. After the game, grabbed some dinner in the area near the hostel before having a power nap til midnight. At midnight, we got up and headed for Ministry of Sound club. Fedde Le Grand was playing and the place was packed. The club itself doesn't look like much from the outside but it packs a killer sound and lighting system which is 2nd to none. So loud but so clear. Amazing.

Next day I did some more shopping before catching up with an old Deloitte colleague from my Germany days, Emir, who took me for a nice lunch. After a lovely afternoon catching up, I rejoined the lads and took in a comedy club in Leicester Square that evening. Acts weren't bad and got a few laughs. 

Monday there wasn't much to report, last minute shopping then a flight to Amsterdam. Next update from there.

Cheers gov,

Dave