MUNICH - OKTOBERFEST


What an absolute blast this was. I honestly dreaded the thought of fighting our way to Munich when mum suggested we make the trip up there. Having the car has been a blessing but it can also be difficult with directions (why didn’t I get a GPS!?!?) and finding parking.

We checked out of our wonderful apartment on Thursday around noon and slowly made our way to Germany via Austria and Liechtenstein (a teeny country I visited for the first time here). We got to Liechtenstein late afternoon and went walking. We come across the loveliest little stream and found a great restaurant at the foot of their castle. It is such a clean, friendly little place and because of its size, easy to navigate around also. We left at around 9pm and headed for Munich in search of a quiet parking bay to spend the night.


We woke up around 7am to a fog filled car and got ready for a busy day. We had a brilliant run through and headed straight for the nearest train station. We were parked and on the train before 10am. The first sight of the Oktoberfest was super exciting – we power walked our way to the entrance like children and spent the first hour walking around in awe. It is absolutely massive!! I have to say that it is by far the best fun park (other than Disneyland Anaheim) I have ever been to. The atmosphere was like nothing I had experienced and the rides were brilliant - as good (possibly better but that may also be the beer) as the major theme parks in Australia.

I could only manage 1 and a half pints of beer before I had to stop – I should have had more practise! I was drunk by 1pm and spent the entire day/night on top of the world. We managed to find mum a couple of baileys and we were skipping through the crowd. We tried every German food we could find and popped our heads into every tent (sooooo many of them). You never had to travel very far to find the local ambulance busy picking up the wounded – all of whom had passed out and had lost all ability to function at all.


The costumes were outstanding – we were amazed by how many people wore them and couldn’t stop staring in admiration for the tiny women who carry the 10-12 steins. I was so side tracked (again it must have been the beer) I even forgot to take a photo.

Just on sunset, I left mum standing by the side of a stall why I fought the crowds looking for an entrance to a tent that had traditional yodelling. Less than 10 min later I found her with a grin from one end of the festival to the other and a massive love heart gingerbread in her hand. Some random guy saw her standing there and either felt sorry for what looked like a lost little child or simply tired of carrying this treat and handed it to mum. She was tickled pink and carried it around for days until I made her throw it out before boarding our plane to Scotland. I know!!!!!


Even more amazing was when we left after dark around 9pm. We were about 100m from the entrance when these cute guys approached mum and popped a hat on her head. Not knowing what they were doing, she took it off and looked a little distressed at these strangers in the dim light. They were sweet and said they wanted to give a little something to someone special – they had just been waiting for the right person. When mum felt the traditional hat and saw the photos I took – her reaction was priceless. It actually looks like it has been passed down for generations. Dad swears he is going to stretch the darn thing until it fits his own. Super nice gesture and hat. No better way to top off the perfect day!!!


Mum would say the best bit was at the end watching drunk people trying to stable themselves on a fast moving conveyer belt, only to spend the trip on their backside (this seriously was hilarious) I’d say the best part was the rides and watching mum experience something so damn big and exciting for the first time. We had an absolute ball.


SWITZERLAND


After 2 night drives to Munich and back and spending each night in the car, we made our way back to Switzerland, this time Lauterbrunnen. We stayed at this beautiful hostel at the foot of Staubbach waterfall. I had spent almost 2 weeks searching for somewhere in Switzerland that did yodelling but had NO luck. By absolute fluke, on the night we were in Lauterbrunnen and after asking around, mum found out that there was the yearly folk music festival being held at the local school up the mountain in Wengen that very night. Can you believe it!! Mum was in her element listening to their traditional music incorporating yodelling and she was all teary with joy bopping along to words we couldn’t understand. Mum (of course) made friends with the local yodelling teams (outside having a fag) and we made our way back on the last train close to midnight. Really wonderful night.


The next day we hiked around the local valley in the morning and late afternoon drove the short distance to Stechelberg. This is where we caught the cable car to the peak of the Schilthorn (2971m) which is famous for being the setting where the 007 classic, ‘On Her Majesty’s Secret Service’ was filmed. Very cool. We had a coffee in their revolving restaurant on sunset and caught the last cable car back down. The scenery was breathtaking, you literally felt like you were on top of the world. We then made the sad journey crossing the Switzerland border en route to Paris.



FRANCE


Talk about an action packed week. We stayed a few days longer in Switzerland than thought as we loved it so much so our time in France was limited. After a day of hiking and site seeing around Lauterbrunnen, we made our way to the France border where we spent the night in the car. We woke early and headed for Paris – I had wanted to take mum to Moulin Rouge but didn’t risk booking tickets in advance as it was going to be an 8 hour journey without getting lost or heavy traffic. We actually made it on time but we were disappointed to learn that all 3 shows that night were booked out (the 3rd show less than 30min before). It wasn’t meant to be so we caught the underground and headed for the Eiffel Tower instead. It was just on dark and the very moment mum saw it, the lights were flashing – it literally took her breath away. It was also the first time I had seen it at night – simply beautiful. We caught the elevator to the top and just caught the last train back to our car just after midnight.




We then drove and found a quiet park to sleep (close to Euro Disney). The next morning I surprised mum with a day at Paris’s version of Disneyland. We were there from open to close. Another amazing day full of lots of fun and food – it is, after all, the happiest place on earth. We enjoyed the rides as much as the kids. Our day revolved around making it to the ‘thrilling’ rides and the longest we had to wait was a whole 15 min!!! All of the rides were great but we particularly liked the tea cups where you could spin the wheel in the centre to make you go faster and Tower of Terror - VERY unexpected. We also spent a few hours in Walt Disney Studios (like Universal Studios). Having been to Disney land in Anaheim in the US, these parks were considerably smaller but equally as fun. I never want to grow up. :-)



After a relaxing night, we headed in the direction of the airport, spent our last night in the car then the following day, we found a shower, re packed our bags and cleaned the car for our flight to Edinburgh. Oooohhhhh I’m excited…. I have a surprise for Mum!!