September 19 & September 20

Photo Links, Video & Journal

Well I said I’d come back to Oktoberfest again but with friends next time.  I was half right.  I’m in Munich again for Oktoberfest but I’m here by myself again.  The combination of cheap travel agent rooms and frequent flyer tickets was too much to pass up.  I had an extra frequent flyer ticket but couldn’t convince anyone to come.  Oh well I’ll make do on my own.

 My flight overseas was a late departure that wouldn’t get me into Munich until after 5:00 PM on September 20.  My travels were made longer since I showed up 3.5 hours early to the airport to get the exit row seat.  It’s a pain in the butt but it was definitely worth it.  The exit row on the 777 was like having business class leg room.  The Air France flight between Washington and Paris bounced the whole way up the coast past Newfoundland.  It was so bumpy that the lady sitting by me grabbed my arm at least 3 times.  She got so nervous that she demanded alcohol from the stewardess while the seat belt sign was on.  Luckily for the lady the stewardess was within arms reach of the booze and gave her a bottle of wine.  The only bad thing about the exit row was that nothing seemed to work.  My overhead light didn’t work and the television screen on the lady next to me wouldn’t rise up for her to view.  We made do by sharing the middle seats light and television.  I still can’t sleep on a flight so stayed up the whole trip watching Pirates of the Caribbean 3 and Spiderman 3.

 The landing at Paris was as bouncy as the beginning of the trip.  Charles De Gaulle Airport is enormous.  We taxied forever to reach our gate.  Then the walk to customs and immigration took forever and then I had to go to another terminal for my flight to Munich.  I had 3 hours in Paris anyway so it didn’t matter but there were people on my flight who had less than 30 minutes to catch their next flight.  There is no way they made it in that amount of time.  The final crazy thing at the airport is we went down the jet way and they took us down stairs to a bus that took us to another terminal where we went up stairs to the jet way our plane was at.  Why didn’t we just go to the second jet way to begin? 

 I finally got to Munich and of course my bags were almost the last to come off the flight.  But that ended up being a blessing.  When I finally got to the subway station at the airport to buy my ticket there was a guy who just got off the subway for his flight that had a one day ticket and gave it to me. That was very nice of him and it saved me 8.80 Euros.  I had a line change to the Harras station for my hotel the K & K Am Harras.  I knew it was on the road at the station and had a 50/50 shot at going the right way.  I chose poorly.  I really have to start going with the George Costanza method of doing everything exactly opposite of what my instincts are telling me.  I didn’t go that far out of the way before I realized I was going the wrong way.  I finally got to the hotel at about 7:00 PM. 

 The K & K Am Harras is a smaller hotel but very nice.  Like most small hotels, they offer more amenities than the bigger ones.  I got free internet and breakfast here.  Neither is free at the Sheraton or Marriott I stay at next.  The only problem I had was the crazy room key.  You had to press a green dot on the key against the green dot on the door handle then open after hearing the unlocking mechanism.  Everything worked as I was told except the opening of the door.  After 5 minutes I gave up and went downstairs to ask for help.  They sent someone up and I was so happy when the door didn’t open right away.  At least I wouldn’t look like an incredible dunce to the guy they sent up to open the door.  He fiddled with it for about a minute and got it to reset and it finally opened.

 I was exhausted and after checking my email and doing some work I just went to bed.  Of course since I went to bed at about 9:00 PM I woke up at about 4:30 AM.  I watched CNN, the only English channel for about an hour and finally went back to sleep for a couple of more hours.    A shower and breakfast helped a lot.  I did some more work on the hotels free internet and checked out to head to the Sheraton Arabella Bogenhausen.

 I stayed at the Sheraton in 2003 when I was here with Francis so I had a good idea where the hotel was off the subway stop.  The other thing I remembered was there are 2 Sheratons in the area and I went to the right one.  Francis and I went to the wrong one last time.  I have a much better view this time also.  Last time we faced away from the city.  This time I have a view of Old Town with the Frauenkirche and Oktoberfest Grounds.  I was still a little tired and just chilled out until about 1:00 PM before heading out. 

 I made my way to the Englischer Garten with a quick stop at the Siegestor Victory Gate.  It is definitely easier to get around Munich now that I have been here 4 times.  I stopped at the Milch Hausl Beer Garden right on the outskirts of Englischer Garten.  A liter of Hofbrau and small pretzel cost me 6 Euros.  It’s a beautiful day and the park is very crowded with bike riders and people walking their kids and dogs. 

From here I walked across the park past the Monopteros, a Neo Classical building atop a hill in the park to the Chinesischer Tower Beer Garden.  The Chinese Tower was built in 1789-1790 and again was packed.  One real funny thing I saw was a group of school kids on an outing stopped for some sodas.  The chaperones decided to have beer since they were at a beer garden.  You’d never see that back home.  After a beer here I started towards the Hofbrauhaus. 

 I stopped and took pictures of a waterfall and a bunch of swans and ducks.  One swan wasn’t happy with a guy who wasn’t feeding him enough and came out of the water and chased him up a path snipping at his jacket.  Englischer Garten is a clothing optional park which is interesting.  There is nothing like walking around a corner and some dude is out free balling while reading a book.  The only girl I saw was a 60 year old lady with her husband.  Some people just shouldn’t be into nudism.

	Guy Playing "My Way" On His Cello In The Hofgarten

 I exited the Englischer Garten near the Prinz Carl Palais and made my way through the grounds of the Residenz Museum.  There was an open air temple built in 1615, the Hofgarten Temple aka Temple of Diana.  that had a guy inside who was playing his cello.   I hung around for awhile listening before heading on past the Feldernhalle on the way to the Hofbrauhaus.   I did see on of the weirdest monuments I've ever seen on my way.  There was a bronze plaque on the sidewalk in the  outline of  a dead body like you'd see on television.  Ends up it was the sport where the 1st Premier of Bavaria Kurt Eisner was assassinated on November 18, 1918.  You've got to wonder how much he was actually liked if that was how he was memorialized.

 I finally got to the Hofbrauhaus which is celebrating its 400^th anniversary.  I had another beer and pretzel before leaving.  I was definitely getting tired again after I got my change from the waiter and then started putting my 20 euro I was supposed to give him back in my pocket.  The waiter got a good laugh at this, thank goodness, as I explained I was still a little jetlagged.  I listened to the oompah band for awhile and left to go across the street for one last beer at Ayinger’s Speis & Trank.  I saw a few n interesting sites here.  First was, a blind backpacker asking people for directions.  Unfortunately for her the first person she stopped was an Asian tourist.  Which brings me to the second interesting site I saw while drinking my beer at Ayinger’s? A stereotypical group of Asian business men, maybe 30 of them, came in to the platz between the Hofbrauhaus and Ayingers and all whipped out cameras.  It could have been right out of a movie. 

 I stopped and got a pizza like pastry at Rischart’s by the Marienplatz subway stop.  I finally got back to the hotel at about 9:00 PM.  After a little rest I started to get my computer set to call home and the phone rang.  It was dad calling from home over the computer.  That saved me the internet charge at the hotel.  We talked for about 20 minutes while I downloaded my photos of the day.  I was going to go to bed and type my journal tomorrow morning but decided to be good and finished it this evening.  Now I can sleep in.  I think I’m going to go to the new stadium in town to see the soccer game tomorrow.     

Forward to September 21 , 2007
St. Peter's Church, Viktualienmarkt, Marienplatz and
TSV 1860 Munchen vs. FC St. Pauli Soccer Game at Allianz Arena
 

 Return To September 26, 2007
Isartor, Deutsches Museum And Oktoberfest Tents