Following our long awaited reunion with Spike we decided to
head straight out of Austria to Germany’s largest federal state, Bavaria. We
crossed the border with no formalities, hoping to catch the last couple of days
of the world famous beer festival Oktoberfest. We packed in 330 km before
arriving at our campsite in the state capital Munich. We wasted no time and as
soon as we were registered and parked in a pitch we headed to the bar. A
typical wooden lodge type affair full of long benches packed end to end with
rowdy lederhosen wearing men glugging beer by the litre and eating chicken like
it was their last meal. We sat down and ordered 3 steins, 4 shots and 2 half
roast chickens and before we knew it we too were glugging beer by the litre and
eating chicken like it was our last meal. The atmosphere was excellent and it
got us excited to see the real thing the following day. We stumbled back to the
camper and settled down for the night. Excited at the prospect of another
person in the camper Oscar decided to sleep on Spikes chest, breathing directly
into his face. Realising that he had 10 nights like this ahead of him Spike
nipped it in the bud and directed Oscar to the bottom of the bed to keep his
feet warm.
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| Oscar, excited at the prospect of a cosy nights sleep |
The following morning brought a slow start, Spike and I
bimbled around in the camper whilst Jac threw up the entire contents of his
stomach from the night before outside. After breakfast and a shower we
attempted our journey to the Theresienwiese Fairground. We paid 11€ for a metro
ticket and walked to the nearest station. Our train arrived shortly after we
did and after making it 3 stops down the line Jac needed to vacate to throw up
again, this pattern repeated itself for most of the morning. As Spike and I
professionally diagnosed Jac with a 24 hour sickness bug we decided not to
waste our day riding back and forth on the underground and to try again the
following day. We had paid an astonishing 50€ to stay at the Oktoberfest Campsite
the previous night and although we were there for a blowout we decided to save
some of the fun tokens and wild camp at the Allianz Arena 11 km down the road.
We arrived at the wild camp and were pleasantly surprised to find that there
was free electricity, we settled in and spent the afternoon relaxing in the sun
with fairly unusual surroundings. The stadium was pretty spectacular, a grand
spherical structure comprised entirely of large glass bubble effect panels and
as night fell the stadium lit up white, red and blue.
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| The Allianz Arena, Munich |
The following morning Jac woke feeling right as reign, we
set off for the metro and our second attempt at Oktoberfest. It took us around
20 minutes to reach Mozart Street and as we climbed the steps to the street the
cold hit us, it was freezing however the cold weather was no deterrent, for
anyone. The pavements were a sea of men, women and children all wearing
traditional clothing and huge smiles heading for the festival. The three of us
were hugely excited and what greeted us when we reached the gates took our
breath away. This was short lived as a police officer approached us and told us
we weren’t allowed in with Oscar. Feeling defeated and like nothing was going
our way we stood dumbfounded for a few minutes. The police officer took pity on
us and explained that there were cameras
monitoring this entrance so he could not let us in but that there was another
entrance 200m down the road where we would stand more of a chance. We followed
the path along the perimeter of the fairground until we reached another
entrance, there didn’t appear to be anyone there so we took a brisk walk
through. No sooner than Oscar’s first paw was over the threshold we heard loud
sirens behind us and were ready to give up when an ambulance sped past us into
the fairground to tend to a casualty. Nothing like a bit of paranoia to get the
adrenalin pumping.
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| Oktoberfest 2014 |
Oktoberfest is held for 16 days from the penultimate
Saturday in September. It is described as an orgy of beer drinking spiced up by
fairground rides that are so hairy they’re banned in the U.S. The fairgrounds are divided along four main avenues creating
a city within a city heaving from morning till night. The event began as a fair
held to celebrate a Bavarian royal wedding in 1810 and proved so popular it’s
continued ever since. It’s now so popular an astonishing 6 million people visit
every year. There were people as far as the eye could see, mostly in
traditional clothing but lots of people were in fancy dress. Avenues were lined
with beer gardens, food stalls and games. We crept into the first beer garden
we reached not wanting to attract too much attention to ourselves and Oscar. We
found a table and ordered three beers and a couple of bratwurst. Before long we
were joined by two families, one from Cologne and one from Munich. They spoke
very good English and spent the afternoon educating us on Oktoberfest,
traditions, food and beer. Both families were so kind and invited us to visit
them at their houses after Oktoberfest.
We haven’t been able to yet but hope to visit in December.
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| These two wasted no time and headed straight for the bar |
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| Sharing a beer & a kiss |
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| One of the families we met at Oktoberfest |
The afternoon flew by and feeling like we had more of an
insight in the German way of life we decided to have a look around. We stopped
at a food stall for Nutella crepes and pastries before venturing further along
the avenues. My sweet tooth honed in on a stall selling the prettiest
gingerbread biscuits. They came in every shape and size and were beautifully
decorated, I stood admiring them for ages hoping I’d be able to afford a few to
keep and take home. At 7€, possibly THE most expensive biscuit I've ever bought
I settled for one. I turned to show off my purchase to Jac and Spike but they
were nowhere to be seen. Needless to say I wasn’t lost for long; I stumbled
upon them at a bar where they were lining up shots of Cinnamon Tequila, Sambuca
and Passoa. Inevitably this would be the end of our night.
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| Oktoberfest 2014 |
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| Oktoberfest 2014 |
The following morning we woke feeling worse for wear, we
packed up and left the Allianz Arena and headed for our next stop, via Burger
King. We reached the northern edge of Munich and the town of Dachau, the site
of Germanys first Concentration Camp. We tagged along on a guided tour although
the slow paced tour with hundreds of questions was hard to bear on a hangover
so we made our own way around the site. We entered through the main gate where
we were greeted with the moto Arbeit Macht Frei, “work sets you free”. We
wandered around a large photo exhibition detailing the history of the Third
Reich where a strong stomach was needed. The pictures were graphic, some
gruesome, showing thousands of malnourished prisoners, some dead some alive,
some working, some trying to escape and some that survived until liberation.
Next we visited the gas chambers and crematoriums, again this is no weak feat,
these places further confirm the atrocities that were carried out here. We
walked the perimeter of the camp where the tall fences topped with barbed wire
and electrical currents still stand before visiting a Jewish memorial.
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| Dachau Concentration Camp |
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| Jewish Memorial at Dachau |
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| The perimeter fence at Dachau |
87 km away in Gunzburg we relaxed on a campsite for the
night. We spent the majority of the following day travelling 320 km west along
the Rhine and across the border into France where we arrived at a Municipal
Campsite late in the afternoon. We checked in for two nights and spent the rest
of the evening playing cards and enjoying a vegetable curry that Jac made. Molshiem is a fairly small town dating back
to the 14th Century famous for its Bugatti Museum. We started at a
café where we tried hot chocolate, coffee and pastries before exploring the
rest of the town. We saw The Butchers House, built in 1583 for the Butchers
Corporation, The County Court, built in 1906 by Maximilien Metzenthin, The
Chapel, The Jesuit Church, a Powder Keg Wall and The Blacksmiths Gate as well
as a winery and a house covered in ornaments, statues, tiles and gnomes.
Something you have to see to believe (see pictures below). We walked Oscar
around 3 km along the River Bruche to the next village. We bought pizza and
beer on the way back and spent the evening playing cards.
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| Molsheim, France |
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| Spike & Mr Bugatti |
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| Molsheim, France |
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| An unusually decorated house in Molsheim |
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| Molsheim, France |
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| Walking the dog along the River Brunche |
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| Molsheim, France |
Our next stop is Rastatt, 136 km back across the Rhine and
into Germany. We found a camper parking area at the back of a sauna car park
and went for a walk. We came across a small quiet town with a few shops and the
first thing we have seen that semi resembles a pub. We stayed for a couple of
drinks before leaving in search of a pack of cards. For the rest of that day
(and night) we could be found at a table in the corner of a tiny back street
casino playing Benny, breaking up each game with a salami baguette. In the days that followed this routine did not change, we
would drive from town to town, do some sightseeing, find a bar, sample food and drink before
moving on to the next one. Numerous pastries, pretzels, donuts and half roast
chickens.
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| Rastatt, Germany |
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| Rastatt, Germany |
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| Drunkenly displaying my excellent photography skills |
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| 10 games of Benny later....... |
After visiting a town named Karlsruhe we travelled 95km to
our penultimate stop Bad Durkheim. We checked into a campsite in the middle of
nowhere surrounded on every side by farmland and steep vineyards. The campsite
was quiet so we took a walk into the town. We saw some beautiful hotels and restaurants
and browsed around a few shops to kill a bit of time. We were heading back to
the camper later that afternoon when we spotted an Irish bar named Molly
Malone’s, the first we’ve seen since we’ve been away. We decided to go in for a
drink and game of cards (for a change). We sampled a Pink Panther and a Green
‘somethingorother’ which tasted like a pint of apple sours before running back
to the camper in the pouring rain. The rest of the evening involved 2 pizzas,
tomato and mozzarella balls, a bit of karaoke and family guy. The following day we passed through Frankfurt on our way to
a wild camp near Hahn Airport. We spent the majority of the day driving and had
an early night ready for a 4am start the next day. We were up and ready on
Spikes last day and dropped him at the airport for 5. We spent an amazing 10
days travelling around a small part of Austria, Germany and France and when the
time came we didn’t want him to leave. We had so much fun although it’s now
time for a long overdue detox. No beer or pizza for a week.
After waving goodbye to Spike we drove 192 km back across
the border into France and headed north to a town called Burton Court. We
relaxed here for two days before heading off towards Belgium, Holland and
Luxembourg, otherwise known as Benelux.
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