Following the Cross to Oktoberfest 2006

We arrived back in Bonn on Wednesday, September 13. After a very busy day at work (and one tetanus vaccination later), I headed to Munich Germany with my dear friend Clare for another go at Oktoberfest. Yes, we had so much fun last year that we decided to do it again. The vaccination was an update as I'm headed to South Africa in November.

Clare, who was also in Assen with me, and I had become friends with some of the coaching staff from the Australian team. A couple of them were also going down to Oktoberfest so when we arrived in Munich, we joined up with them for a few days of fun.

The trip down was interesting. Clare and I (in our cheap way of doing things) arranged a ride through an internet hitch-hiking service. Not sure of the name of it, but basically, if people are driving from one city to another, they advertise that they have space for a certain amount of people and then you can contact them for a carpooling ride. We used it last year and it worked. This year, it worked too…however, the guy drove at over 200 kilometers/hour. That is too fast…and Clare and I were scared. I think we both woke up at the same time and he was going 240 km/hour. We started to say something but the guy slowed down as we were entering Munich. Thank God. I don't think this guy realized how precious the cargo in his backseat was.

We had an extra day in Munich which we spent traveling to Füssen, Germany, home of the Neuschwanstein Castle (the same castle I went to see with my mom and dad). My travel partners - Clare, Gary and Brett - had never been down there. However, this time around, the others didn’t really want to go into the castles so we did a bit more hiking around the castle grounds.

It was a pretty nice day down near the mountains; we hiked down to Pöllat Gorge underneath Mary’s Bridge for a beautiful view of a waterfall. We then hiked our way over to the Gondola that extended up to the top of the Tegelberg Mountain. Last time I was down in Füssen, there were hang gliders that were jumping from the top. I was so excited to possibly do that, but it was too windy that day so there was no hang gliding allowed. I was super bummed, and I think the rest of my group was too (as I had gotten everyone's hopes up of a possible adrenaline rush.) As you can see, Brett almost got blown away it was that windy.

When we arrived on top of the Mountain, we were looking for a good view of the castles, but we never got one. Apparently we were one peak over too far. However, on top of Tegelberg there was a giant cross. I think it was Clare who said, “You can’t go wrong in following the cross"...so we climbed to the top and were stunned by the beautiful views of the mountain valleys that extended as far as our eyes could see. It was like being on top of the world (at least you felt like that). The hike was kind of funny. It started with a normal trail that got narrower the higher we went. This was no surprise to Clare and I as we both have a bit of hiking experience. However at one point in the trail, we came to a single foot path with a think chain leading us to cross. It was not as steep as it looks, but you really had to use the chain at some points in the climb.



We made our way back down to Füssen and walked around the town got some dinner and took the lazy train ride back to Munich. All of us needed our beauty rest because the next day was going to be a long one.

Oktoberfest, of course, was a blast. At a festival that can seat 100,000 people a day in 12 beer tents, has 6 million people attend a year, charges 7,50 Euro for a liter of beer (and people will pay it) and has the biggest and best pretzels around – you can’t go wrong for a weekend of fun. The weekend we were there was the first weekend of Oktoberfest. Clare and I met up with Brett and Gary bright and early at 8:15 Saturday morning (September 16) with beers in our hands. We thought that you can never start too early...maybe you can, but the beer tasted good and it was cold. We made our way to the festival grounds by following a group of friendly Germans in Lederhosen on foot. We got in line for one of the tents that Gary and Brett had been told would be the best one to go too. The doors opened up at 9:00am and by 9:30am the tent was full. What were we supposed to do? We couldn’t see any of the entrances to the other tents, so we were at a point of where it could be risky either way – to stay in line or get out and try and go to another tent. We figured if this tent was full, then the other tents might be full as well. We opted to get out of line and we walked down the path to the next tent and we walked right in...no lines at all. We couldn’t believe it and laughed at ourselves for waiting in line that long.

This tent was crowded, but we were in. Clare in her friendly way went up to a table of Germans that had some extra seating and they said that we could join them. At this point in time there were only 4 of us, but Brett’s brother and 2 friends were going to join us when they got out of bed (which ended up being about 4 hours later!). As it was the first weekend, a parade made its way outside and through the fair grounds and then our tent had a small parade that came inside complete with a band and the first keg of beer. Some speeches were made and then the final count down to 12:00 noon, when Oktoberfest began.

It was a really fun day, complete with some of our group purchasing matching lederhosen and hats to complement the festivities. To drink, sing and be merry...the Ultimate Goal in Life was reached once again.

Instead of staying at the beer tents all night long, our group opted to leave the tents and enjoy the carnival rides outside. It had been years since I had ridden a rollercoaster and I rode 2 in one night. I love adrenaline when it’s rushing through your body like that.

After the rides, we went to a bar/club that was near me and Clare’s hotel. No idea what it was called, but it was HUGE. It was like a food court with several bars and a giant dance floor and stage in the middle. Then on the bottom floor was a proper dance club. Clare, the rest of our group and I danced the night away until we were too tired to stand. Sweating, we ordered about 8 glasses of ice (yes dad, they served just ice) and we made our way back to our hotel.

Tired, Tired, Tired...The next day, Clare and I met up with a friend of Clare’s from New Zealand who happened to be in Munich for work. Walking around we found the giant Oktoberfest parade which must have been miles long. We enjoyed some of the parade, ate some lunch and then made our way back to the train station to meet our ride back to Bonn. It was exhausting weekend but I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.