Tue, 30 Sep 2003

author Liz	location Interlaken, Schweiz
posted 20:13 CEST 06/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Deutschland/Deutschland 3 ( all photos )

Looking around München ( 20 photos )
(Continued from Österreich 2).
At about midday, we arrived in München (Munich). We had two nights' stay booked at a hostel, which was conveniently close to the station, so we went there first and checked in, but had to leave our bags in a storage room.
From the hostel, we stopped quickly at an internet café and then wandered up to the centre of town.
We didn't actually do a lot of sight-seeing as such, but just spent hours and hours walking around the city. We came to a big fountain and then wandered along a busy pedestrian shopping street until we came to Marienplatz, a square dominated by a huge neo-gothic building, the Neues Rathaus. We stood and just enjoyed the busy square for a while, before heading onwards.
From Marienplatz, we walked through lots of streets, some busy, some quiet. We saw market stalls, cafés and restaurants, with lots of people drinking beer. We walked over a bridge crossing the Isar River and went into a large and very beautiful park - Maximilian Anlagn. There were lots of green trees, with some of the leaves changing colour, and the sound of running water from the river. It was really relaxing and peaceful just strolling along.
We crossed back over the river and went into Englischer Garten, a huge park filled with woods, streams and wide open grassy areas. We kept walking past a large beer hall, and we sat on a patch of grass to eat some fruit and watch all the people and dogs walk by.
We came out of the park and made our way back through the city to the Internet café, where we got all our good news about having the van towed. From there, we went back to our hostel, found our beds (in a thirty bed dorm! but nice and clean, split up into groups of ten), and met the other newly-arrived Aussies around us.
Of course, everyone was in Munich for Oktoberfest, so after a while Tim and I went to see what it was all about. It was ten minutes walk from the hostel, which was very convenient and made it easy to get to.
The whole place was really cool - a bit like the Easter show, with lots of rides and stalls selling yummy food and soft toys. And there is beer! There about twelve beer 'tents', which are actually huge buildings that fit about ten thousand people in each one. Each tent comes from a particular beer company, so if you want a certain beer, you go to that tent. We walked into the showground, bought some delicious showgrounds covered in mustard, and just wandered around trying to soak everything in. The delicious smells of roasting nuts, sausage, chicken, popcorn were all around us. There were flashing lights and loud music, and crowds of people, then we wandered into one of the beer halls. I don't think I have ever seen so many noisy happy people all at once! Lots more yummy smells, so many people, and so much beer! We went into four or five different tents, just standing still or having a bit of a walk around. Each tent had a great band playing, and everyone was singing, drinking, clapping, cheering, eating, and standing on the tables. Everyone was having such a good time - I couldn't wait for the next day when were going to spend a whole day at Oktoberfest!
After a good look around, we decided to go back towards the hostel and get a bit more food there where it would be cheaper. Along the way, we stopped at a bar and had a small beer each (well, we had just seen so much of the stuff!!).
We grabbed a bit of food, and then went back to the hostel where I slept fairly well, but Tim was kept awake by lots of noisy, drunk people coming in.

author Liz	location Interlaken, Schweiz
posted 20:05 CEST 06/10/2003	section Europe2002/Europe/Osterreich/Osterreich 2 ( all photos )

North into Deutschland ( 2 photos )
On Tuesday, we again had a lovely breakfast at the hostel, packed our bags and headed up to the train station.
Austrians are obviously much more efficent that Italians - the train arrived and left on time, and was even on the right platform.
The countryside was beautiful - huge forest-covered mountains, and little farms with cows and fruit-trees on the valley floor.
We crossed the border north into Deutschland.

(customised)