Contents
- Preface
- San Francisco
- Amsterdam
- Amsterdam, Helmond
- Amsterdam, Zandvoort, Haarlem
- Amsterdam, Bruges
- Bruges, Brussels, Cologne, Berlin
- Berlin
- Berlin, Potsdam
- Berlin, Wansee
- Berlin, Prague
- Prague
- Prague, Karlstejn, Vienna
- Vienna
- Vienna, Salzburg, Füssen
- Füssen, Neuschwanstein, Munich
- Munich, Innsbruck
- Innsbruck
- Innsbruck, Zürich, Lauterbrunnen
- Lauterbrunnen, Jungfraujoch
- Lauterbrunnen, Schilthorn
- Lauterbrunnen, Spiez, Zermatt
- Zermatt
- Zermatt, Martigny, Chamonix
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc
- Chamonix, Mont Blanc, Courmayeur, Aosta, Turin
- Barcelona
- Barcelona, Sitges
- Barcelona
- Milan, Venice
- Venice
- Venice
- Venice, Milan, Cinque Terre
- Cinque Terre, La Spezia
- Cinque Terre, Pisa, Lucca, Florence
- Florence
- Florence
- Florence, Siena
- Siena, San Gimignano, Rome
- Rome
- Rome
- Rome, Sorrento
- Sorrento, Vesuvius, Pompeii
- Sorrento, Positano, Amalfi, Ravello
- Sorrento, Capri, Naples
- Naples, Bari
- Patras, Athens, Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos
- Mykonos, Paros, Santorini
- Santorini
- Santorini, Athens
- Athens
- Athens, Amsterdam, San Francisco
Prev :: Saturday, 17 September 2005 :: Next
16. Munich, Innsbruck
Photo Gallery
Woke to another chilly rainy day. Having had very warm days for a while, I underdressed and got pretty cold later on. Even so, the Oktoberfest is fun! It starts off with a parade at 11 am, where I snapped lots of pictures of the beer floats and marching bands rolling by. Then a short walk west to the huge fairgrounds. Oktoberfest isn't just tents full of beer; in fact it's mostly a big carnival, with lots of amusement-park rides (some are said to be much too dangerous to be allowed in the US). Not feeling that adventurous (plus the weather was bad), I rode only the Ferris wheel for a nice view over the proceedings. The huge beer tents seem to require some patience (or perhaps aggression) to enter, so I settled for a nice open-air one which served a great Weissbier. Before my trip I almost never drank beer, not much liking the taste, but it seems much better in Europe. I began to like it to the point where I began to worry about my belly (once in Italy, however, I did switch back to wine for good). I had a lot of sausage in Germany, but here I had by far the most delicious of them all, a white one. Under the tent, a group of Bavarians joined me and clearly had a lot of fun. They ate some skinny sausages which were remarkably long, in much shorter buns.
I walked for a bit around the center, and then east over to the Deutsches Museum. After Vienna, Munich was the second (and actually, only other) place where I really didn't stay long enough. This museum alone needs at least half a day! It's full of amazing giant machines and displays of other engineering feats from the Industrial Revolution onward.
At 17:31, I left Munich for Innsbruck, arriving about two hours later. Here I stayed two nights at the Pension Paula, a friendly and cheap (€28) guesthouse. It's a bit of a hike from the center (half an hour). I got a bit lost on the bus, as the exact line I wanted stops running around this time (and the drivers don't speak English). So I had to go back and get a taxi from the station. Once you know where it is, though, it is easy to find.