Get There Early or You Will Miss Out!

My mother-in-law was visiting us for the weekend, so we decided to take her to Oktoberfest in Munich. The day started out beautifully ... the sun was rising, the cruise ships were settling in, and the vendors were getting ready for the Saturday fish market.
Around 10:00am we leisurely walked over to the train station, bought the Bayern weekend ticket, and took the train to Munich at 10:45am. We had packed everything we needed for the baby - food, diapers and the stroller. We thought it was a good idea to bring the stroller but it turned out to be more of a hassle than we had anticipated. There was hardly no room on the train and it was cumbersome using the escalator when an elevator was not available.

By 1:30pm we eventually made it to Weis'n only to find that ALL the beer tents were closed because they were full to capacity. We walked around and then decided to leave early. It seemed as though there were more people there this year than last year.

After we left the Oktoberfest we stopped at a local bar for a beer. Needless to say, we did not enjoy ourselves. We then decided to make our way to Odeonplatz. Here are some photos that Matthias shot:
Sunday was a more promising and relaxing day. We did a tour at the Schnupftabakfabrik in Regensburg. It was 5 Euros to get in and the tour lasted about 1.5 hours. At the end of the tour, everyone could sniff some tabacco (if they wished to).


Hopefully you will have a good time if you go to the Oktoberfest. Just make sure to get there early well before noon to secure a place in the beer tent. Once you find it don't leave it!

Cheers!

R&M

What To Do On a Rainy Weekend? (Part Two)

Read part one here.

Last Sunday we decided to stay in Regensburg rather than driving out of town. We were expecting it to rain but surprisingly enough the weather was great with lots of sunshine for a cool autumn day. We wanted to give my brother a closer look at Regensburg and experience it the way we do. It was a great opportunity to take advantage of the "Open Door Day" or "Tag der Offenen Tür" that was taking place that weekend. We started our tour from the Eisenerbruecke walking along the Donau to the Royal Villa.

Royal Villa for Maximillian II.

Ostentor

From there, we went through the Villa Park, which brought us to the Ostentor on Ostengasse.
We continued walking on Ostengasse and came across the Brandl-Brauerei where a bear once lived. We would have stopped for beer but they were closed for a few weeks on holiday.

Brandl Brauerei

We made our way to the Historisches Museum (or check here) located in Dachauplatz. This is a great place to bring your visitors. It shows how Regensburg was built and how the people lived in the Roman times. As Matthias and my brother went through the museum, I sat in the court yard and had lunch (with a beer) while little Emil fell sleep in his stroller. Here are some photos that were taken:

This is a model of the Porta Praetoria.

Minoritenkloster St. Salvator (connected to the museum)

After the museum the boys had lunch (and drank beer) and then we headed over to the Thurn und Taxis Palace. We signed up for a tour that lasted over an hour. The palace used to be a monestary and then it was changed to the royal palace. Click on the link above for more details.

Here is a picture of the court yard where you begin your tour, but once inside the palace, no pictures are allowed to be taken. It was 4:30pm when we got out and it started to lightly rain. I was ready to go home, but the boys still had energy and wanted to check out the police station and the Rathaus. Unfortunately, they were closed. I headed home with Emil and they walked around town a bit more. Considering it was a rainy weekend, we found plenty to do and show my brother!

Rosa & Matthias & Emil

What To Do On a Rainy Weekend? (Part One)

Last Saturday, we wanted to treat my brother (who was visiting from Canada) to a trip to Neuschwandstein and then Salzburg. However, as we were on route on A3 we decided to change our plans due to the rainy weather all weekend. It wasn't really a weekend for site seeing. Since my brother is a huge fan of Audi, we decided to stop in Ingolstadt and visit the Audi museum. You can find their hours here and their entrance fees here. Here, my brother is standing next to one of his dream cars, the R8. However, notice that the key he's holding is a Volkswagon key...

The direction sign stood in the middle of the museum. We were only 6653 km away from Niagara Falls.

After the museum, we drove to the downtown area about 3 km from the museum. Within walking distance from where we parked, the boys went to the Neues Schloss Ingolstadt, and I walked a bit further into the Altstadt and sat at a small cafe in front of the Thalia.de bookstore and read a book. I already visited the castle back in April and didn't feel like going through it again.

Here is my brother in front of Schloss Ingolstadt with all the mid-evil military stuff.

And here is Anthony again amidst the green cannons found in front of the castle entrance.

By now it was late afternoon and after walking around town for a while, we decided to eat some ice cream. Then we headed back to the car to go home. On the way home we took a country road and we stopped at a church called Wallfahrtskirche Mariä Himmelfahrt (Allersdorf) found near Biburg and Abensberg on highway B16.

It is a beautiful old church. This is the south side of the church.

This church is absolutetly stunning inside! Unfortunately, there is a gate that separates the entrance from the rest of the church in order to protect against theft.

For being a spontaneous day, it turned out pretty awesome. My brother was happy, so we were happy, too. Stay tuned for what we did on Sunday (part 2).

Cheers!

Rosa