The castle is downhill from the bridge, so once we safely crossed the rickety boards a second time, it was a pleasant trip down.
Quite the sunset view! I guess it was good to be king.
You could hear a waterfall from here, but not really see it.
The hike downhill wasn't bad, but it was getting late.
We spotted a slug! Earlier in the trip we saw a snail, but I didn't take a picture of it, so this one is even more important now. = )
The busses back to Füssen only run once an hour after 7:00, so we had a bit of a wait. And we were the first in line, which made me nervous! Luckily, I read it correctly and we made it back to Füssen. The service back to München was interrupted, so we had a long wait at the train station too. We were able to buy some snacks right before the souvenir shop closed.
Billy opened the first round of bottles using my wallet, but cut his finger. Luckily, I did have bandages!
The next round he used a bench and the edge of a trashcan to get the bottles open!
This sign was in the middle of the tracks, between the platforms. It seemed very old.
Also, there is a well of large lockers at the Füssen train station, that were mostly empty, should that make life easier for someone reading this.
A forklift lane was a new one for both of us!
I didn't see anything posted about why they had the vintage ubahn cars out, but they might just up the number of cars during Oktobefest, and use what they have!
What the 'modern' trains look like, for contrast.
We got to the festival grounds right around noon, and it was pretty empty along the midway. Granted, it was a Monday.
It took a minute to figure out where we were and weren't allowed to sit, but once we had a place, service was impressively fast!
I took a 'covert' picture, because I really wanted to show how closely packed in the tables are!!! They want as many people as possible to enjoy the festivities! So, you are sitting back to back with the people behind you and sharing a table with strangers is standard!
We went in a side door initially, so I didn't get to take an exterior picture of our first "tent" until we left.
It drizzled on us a little, but it really wasn't too bad. I think it did rain pretty hard while we were in our second tent though.
We were headed for a smaller tent, but I could hear the 'party' that was going on in the HB tent, and told Billy we absolutely had to go there next.
There were reserved areas that had sit down tables, but the 'drop in' area was all standing!
We ended up at a table with two other groups of Americans (they asked me if we were from St. Louis, thanks to my Cardnials bows. = )) That said, the menu that was most readily avialable was in English, which makes me sad, because I can't practice my German in the states!!!
I was so delighted with all the decor in the tents, it was all just so surreal.
The rain had passed by the time we moved on, and we did end up at one of the smaller tents. There was only biergarten seating available, but we scored a relatively dry seat under the umbrellas. Which was lucky, because it did drizzle a little more after that.
We ordered an appetizer platter for "four" since it was well past lunch and almost dinner. Everything was delicious and we just picked at it while we chatted with other revelers nearby.
As we were preparing to leave, I told Billy that I'd carry the leftover rolls, cheese and meat back for breakfast the next morning (since our hotel didn't offer breakfast) so that we could focus on packing. Then, he proceeded to bite into one of the leftover rolls, and I'm like "you already had one!" and he replied "where?" When I showed him where his partially eaten bread was, he thought it was pretty funny. lame.
Outside of the tents you could get hot drinks, and since it was getting chillier by the moment, I got an Irish coffee. I got to see them reduce some of the liqueur down to the sugar, then add the coffee! Because they give you an actual glass mug, they also give you a return token so that you can get your Euros back if you bring them back your glass.
The sky cleared out, and the fairgrounds became busier.
The Augustiener beer was served at several different locations. I took a picture so that I could remember the name, but really liked the composition of the shot.
The sun seemed to disappear quickly, so it looked really dark. We had entered from a further ubahn station than we intended to return by, so we made our way to one of the exits to get our bearings. It was in the absolute opposite direction of the exit we needed. ; ) So we turned around and walked back through.
Even several Maß in, Billy's aim was still really good! He hit 11/12! When asked which prize I would like (because that's how it goes right?) I asked for the worm, just because I knew the word, but don't think I'd ever had occasion to use it!!! The kids really liked it when we got it home.
The tower drop ride was Hangover themed, so they had some nods to Las Vegas in and around the ride.
The statue of Bavaria was not far away, so we walked over, but she was closed for the night. = (
There were so many people. We encountered lots of Americans, and I even stood in line with some Canadians!
We stopped in one final Biergarten, before making our way to the exit we needed. We were kind of sad to leave, knowing that we wouldn't have time on Tuesday to go back.
As we got on the ubahn, I thought Billy was right behind me, but he was not. So, when I turned around, I could see him behind closed doors on the platform. = ( It was a station that had two lines running through it, and so I wanted to make sure that he took the correct train, so I got off at the junction with the line we needed, and text him until I could see him again!
Back at the hotel, I took a picture of how I had to carry all of the things that I ended up getting during the day. They had a purse policy, and so I didn't even bring one, just had some lanyard pouches for my id, money and phone, and my sweater pockets for other. The pockets were full of leftovers, hand sanitizer, tissues and the worm when he wasn't in my hand.
It turns out that it was really nice to find our hotel during the day instead of trying to find it at night after our trip to Neuschwanstein. So that did work out in the end.
Before checking out, we went up to the sun deck.
These strange, large chairs were in the lobby. They must have been more comfortable than they looked, because there were people in them almost every time we entered the lobby! They were finally empty as we were checking out though, so I got my picture.
Back to the wild that is the München train station during Oktoberfest.
We bought first class train tickets to make leaving a little easier, and it was pretty good. You get more space, table service from the food car, fewer people passing through, and the seats recline further!
Leaving Bavaria was kind of sad, we both really liked it in München, and wished we had more time to explore the city outside of the festival grounds.
Billy got the currywurst. He liked it enough that I made it when we got back home too!
We were running about an hour and a half behind by the time we got to Frankfurt (which wasn't terrible for us, since our flight wasn't until the morning.) We opted to stay close to the airport, because most of the hotels have shuttles, but ours wasn't running and they weren't answering the phones, so we had to take a taxi. When we arrived, we found that they were slammed because of a flight to Tokyo that was cancelled. We didn't feel much like going back out (since we'd eaten on the train) so we just had an early bedtime.
The Frankfurt airport was even worse than Detroit. We had to wait in line to check in (at a kiosk!) then wait in line to drop off our luggage, then wait in line at the 'border' control, then wait in line at security, then wait in line for our gate!!! It was gross. I got pulled for a 'random search' with another American. Apparently, this is at the behest of the TSA?
Once we finally got through the final line, we had to get on a bus, and they drove us to the plane. The good news was that there were two doors open, so loading was much faster! (Also, the weather was fair.)
Now it was time to go home, and back to our babies! In Detroit we had to wait in another really, really long line at customs. Then we had to wait in line to get out of the airport parking garage! We also hit traffic on the way home. Next time, we will definitely leave from Lansing.
It was a fantastic experience, and I can't wait to go back, maybe even with the kids!
The whole trip felt like a dream, and I'm so grateful to my mom for taking care of our dear ones while we were gone, because I would have been left behind if she hadn't stepped in!
later days
edit 11-5-23: backdated for continuity.
