Munich, Germany – Bavaria’s crown jewel. And best known for the world’s biggest party, Oktoberfest. And attendance is pretty much required if you visit the city. More on that later. The real highlight of our Munich trip was our hosts – Kathrin, Roger and their youngest daughter Marlene. Their older children were in Berlin for school camp so we unfortunately missed them. But this was our first experience with Servas and they definitely set the bar high. They welcomed us into their home and truly opened their lives to us. Kathrin made amazing homemade soup for us the first night and we ate delicious local bread. We shared meals and played games in the evenings and had great conversations about our cultural differences and similarities. Such great people!
Our first day out exploring, we walked through the English Garden – a huge greenscape with trees, open space, lakes, streams and loads of hiking paths. It’s larger than Central Park in New York City. The kids got a chance to run and play hide and seek, and it was a nice break from the hustle of the city. We found a playground near the Chinese Tower so they could do some climbing and swinging. Good stuff.
Eventually, we made our way down to (cue Beethoven’s 5th) Oktoberfest. THEE Oktoberfest! The real one, not our local version back home with a couple hundred neighborhood folks eating brats. This one lasts for more than two weeks, attracts over 5 million visitors each year who consume over a million gallons of beer. Say what?? It’s as if a giant carnival and a giant keg party had oktuplets (get it…). Anyway, it is so massive. Fourteen giant beer tents (football field sized) and a couple dozen smaller ones plus hundreds of carnival rides, candy, pretzels, schnitzels and whatever else you can consume. The majority of the people wear traditional Bavarian Lederhosen and Dirndl dresses. It’s awesome. Our only regret is that we didn’t find some Lederhosen for Jett.
But it was a lot of fun. We did the beer tent first, promising the kids we’d come back the next day to go on some rides. We spent maybe an hour in there each downing a giant mug of beer (10 euro each – which is currently about $10). The kids shared a pretzel that was as big as their heads. And everyone sings and laughs with the occasional person standing on the table top, pounding his beer while thousands of people cheer him on. It’s a really family friendly place. 🙂 The next day we did go back and do some rides and eat some junk food so all those boxes got checked.
That night we ate at a local Bavarian restaurant with friends Silke and Peter. We originally met them in the tiny village of Mae Hong Son, Thailand more than a dozen years ago. Each night we’d all gather for home cooked Burmese food, sing songs and laugh. Peter had his guitar so together we all wrote “The Mae Hong Song” to the tune of Hotel California. It was so much fun. We’ve kept in touch via email all these years and finally were reunited with them in their home town. Life is so good.
Out in town, we found a local Kebab place run by the nicest Iraqi couple. The Donor durums and sandwiches were SO delicious we broke our own rule of going to new places and went there two days in a row. (More of a guideline than a rule). Mike got a haircut for 9 euro from a Turkish guy that didn’t speak English. We explored the city center as well, seeing the Hofgarten, some local bocce ball and the historic town center.
The next day, Kathrin took us on a bike ride to the Olympic Park where the 1972 Summer Games were held. We first stopped at Father Timothy’s East-West Peace Church. He was a Russian pastor that came to Munich to spread peace and built a tiny church as a refuge and place to connect those from East and West. It’s now a tiny museum and tribute to the life of service he and his wife gave.
We continued through the Olympic Park, seeing the stadium, the tower and the pool where Mark Spitz won 7 gold medals – amazing. Also, it was a special experience for Mike because his wrestling idol, Dan Gable won gold here without giving up a single point throughout the entire games. A story that inspired him as a young wrestler. The park is exceptionally beautiful with a pond, rolling hills and bike paths weaving throughout acres of green space. Locals come here for exercise, relaxation and inspiration. We hiked to the high point to enjoy a spectacular view of the city. What an awesome day it was! The highlight was, before riding our bikes down the steep cobblestone path, we gave the kids a safety talk about NOT squeezing your front breaks because you could go flying over the handle bars. And of course, 12 seconds later, Mike got distracted by Jett and did exactly that – sommersaulting through mid-air, over the bars and somehow landing on his rear, bike on top with neither he nor the bike damaged. It left the group in hysterics and unfortunately no photos or video to share.
We truly, truly enjoyed our week in the very diverse city of München. And are forever grateful to our hosts and new friends for their generosity. Looking forward to keeping in touch and meeting again one of these days. Maybe in Carlsbad for a surf lesson! Danke schoen from the Stivers Tribe.
Stivers Tribe 