Day 47...Ich Leiber my Leiderhosen! - 12th August

Up and had our inclusive continental breakfast. It doesn't feel as much of a deal just getting cereal and a few rolls but it is also a relief to have a break from the heavy English/Irish/Scottish cooked breakfast fare.

I was feeling a bit better today, just the throat. We went for a wander around Munich, past the history museum and art gallery. There was a big orange thing out the front that you could climb in so I did that. We also ducked into a shopping centre and got a multi adaptor convertor - phew, we were worried about that one! We need it or there will be no photos! Also got a cd case as we are taking so many photos, there are lots of cds to store them on!

We wandered into Marienplatz (from last night - with the big Rathaus in it?) and it turned out that it was a big gay and lesbian parade, called the St Christopher street festival. Nate wasn't too impressed with it as I was, but he was impressed that the square was full of beer and bratwurst tents. Everyone, including the chicks (prolly coz a big proportion were lesbians but hey) were getting into the steins at lunch and having a grand old time. It was a pleasant surprise and we got stuck into it! The middle of the square was very different from last night. Someone had set up tables and chairs in the square which was full of Germans smoking and drinking steins. They all looked very germany with their haircuts and jackets.

Nate got a pint in a stein shaped glass and some bratwurst. He was very pleased when he ordered it in German, and the guy babbled back in German - thinking he was german! Its so pleasing when that happens! We are to find that sometime we do ok, and other times (most times) cock it up completely. But when it does work, it is so exciting!

Nate got the bratwurst, which the guy chopped up in some weird slicing thing so it looked like big chunks of dog food. Then he heaped this red sauce and onions on top, and gave a round bagette to nate as well. Yum! It looked complicated for me so I just had an apple strudel which was mainly apple - it was great! We enjoyed sitting in the sun in the square and people-watched. Nate drank his beer and ate his bratwurst and I helped. It was jolly good! We also saw bunches of people in church or town hall towers looking down on the square and thought it a good idea. We walked to one which turned out to be St Peters Church. Inside was amazing! There massive gold statues of saints and stuff, - alot of them gory with blood or guts coming out. In St Peters case he was crucified upside down. not fun I'm sure. There was a massive detailed gold altar at the end as well. And smack bang in the middle of the isle was a box asking for donations for the church. I wasn't sure if they were being ironic or not. But I declined to put my cash in there, the Catholic church has more real estate than me at the moment, so I refuse to be charitable until then. But lets not to say it won't happen. When I have more than them. It's possible you know! Nathan was quite surprised at the amount of gore as art, with people being crucified, or stabbed, or wailing miserably. I explained it was an old church and that was a pretty standard thing. I expect something similar in Italy I guess.

The climb up the church tower, really was a climb! Our legs burned, and just when we thought we were near the top - we saw more flights of stairs to go! Having beer and bratwurst didn't help either. But the view was spectacular. We saw all of Munich laid out - it's a bigger city than I had thought yesterday. It had lots of little red-topped houses all bunched around the square, with a few modern ones chucked in the distance.

We did the long trek back down, and then got in our car and did our best wrong side of the road driving to the BMW headquarters. It was a bitch to get to as we could see the building, but it was on a major intersection of highways and had no turn-off signs. We ended up getting a nice drive around Munich for our troubles, but ended up parking as close as we could. On a construction sign near the headquarters it said in small grey lettering (on a white background - very helpful) that the BMW museum had moved temporarily to Olympia park. Very helpful. Thanks guys.

With no help from them, we found the darn park (which ended up being next door). Nathan amused himself with the cars. I was not amused, but the musuem did have a big timeline of their production and the history surrounding the country at the time. I enjoyed trying to image what the era was like when the card was made. So I got into the history bit. That was cool. However they did gloss over their WWII experiences. They just sort of airily said "well, we made pots and pans....and then we made cars again". I seem to have a recollection of Michael Moore hitting up BMW as they had Jews as slave labour in WWII and hadn't owned up and hadn't paid compensation. Interesting...
But I digress! The cars! BMW had its first ever production car made in 1931 and had a model right there. (BMW 3/15Ps Da 4 Convertible). It had 15 horsepower and a top speed of 47 miles per hour.
BMW also had their obscure production cars and wartime models. Along with that were 60's racie cars through to modern day F1. They had the 2006 F1 car in there, which Nate cooed and clucked over enthusiastically.
In all, it was a smaller display as they are making a new mac-daddy building which opens in 2007,. So what we saw was temporary. We saw the building being built next door, and it's going to be incredible.

We also loved seeing the headquarters. (couldn't go inside. If you want to see the production line its a several months wait, and we didn't know when we'd be in germany at the time). the 4 cylinder building! It was builtin the 70's which surprised me, as it looks so modern! It gleamed.

We then had a quick stop at the Alliance arena (where the world cup soccer was played in for some games) I thought it was white, but it turned out it was a weird, see-through ghostly plastic. Very funky.

After that, we drove north up to Dachau. Its about an hour out of Munich, if that. It was a small town, kind of split into two sections. There was the suburban bit, which sat on its own. Then across the road next door was the older town. And that was as cute as a bug! Small, windy cobbled streets and terrace buildings. (By the way, old town in German is Aldstadt. Just so you know). The TIC was closed, but it had some maps and a list of hotels out the front so we found a good one just outside the Aldstadt. It was down a little back road and under a huge old tree. As we were driving to the hotel, I saw an old man riding a bike wearing leiderhosen and a feathered hat. I was so excited! I thought he had maybe come from a country dance club or something. But when we turned the corner - they were everywhere!! The whole town was dressed like that! It was most strange. There was something going on.... But! We had to get to our hotel first. I had rehearsed some German in the car and managed to ask if they had double rooms available.
"Guten tag, haben sie doppelzimmer fur eine nacht?" (Do you have a double room for 1 night?)
"Ja, something something somthing" (Yes)
"Vas kostes es?" (How much does it cost?)
I impressed Nate by gabbling with her a little, and was very pleased with myself. After my fancy two lines, I had to ask her in english what the score was with the leiderhosen. She said that there was a festival on, which was like their mini-oktoberfest and lasted for one week. Today was the first day. So everyone was pumped and excited. Too right!!! So we dumped our bags post haste and headed for the Aldstadt hoping to find a busy pub with some leiderhosen in it.

We decided to follow where others were heading (hoping they weren't heading out to the carpark) and discovered that they were all deviating from the Aldstadt and heading out of town. We were still convinced it was ok, and not the carpark even though they were disappearing into a forest field next door to town. Our guess was right, and it turned out to be a county fair. I was stoked! We managed to hit the main vein! We were the only tourists there, unlike say the Gold Coast show. Everyone seemed to be a local, and all know each other. And when the Germans do something, they do something right! The rides were all being used, and the spookhouse had moving monsters and stuff outside. The food stals weren't your usual white van or white stall, but done up to look like little German cottages. The food was pure German culture : large hearts of gingerbread, fruit covered in chocolate or some weird coloured pastel stuff, buttered corn on the cob, big hot pretzels. And of course: the big fat bratwurst in the small round bagette roll. There was also smoked fish on a stick! There were also about 4 or 5 beer tents as well, even though the fair was on a small oval. And they were all almost full. A good half of the population at least were all wearing traditional garb too. They weren't part of a concert show- they were locals wearing this stuff because they could! The teenagers were getting into it too. They really seemed to enjoy dressing up for the day. I wish Australia could be more into the spirit of things, without getting poppy syndrome or something. It was weird to watch large groups of guys meandering around all wearing leiderhosen and tights.

Everyone was getting into the spirit of the fair, and I got swept up in it and so excited. I kept turning to Nate with a big grin on my face. We had hit a real culture spot - a real town party. Everyone was drinking and singing and going on the rides or playing the old fashioned fair games and calling out to each other. In one beer tent it was absolutely packed, and this crowd of young guys wearing leiderhosen were singing old german songs and clunking their steins together. People were dancing and bar ladies wearing traditional garb ran harrassed among them carrying 4 steins apiece!
I forced Nate onto a ride (though once in line I chickened out and tried to back out - then he forced me on. It was like the giant drop (albiet smaller) and not only did it drop you, but it also shot you up in the air first. And it did it about 20 times before letting you off. I was super scared before we shot up, but it ended up not so bad. It was so high that we could see all the way to the wind machine that was near BMW earlier that day. The lady operating the ride would taunt us before dropping us or shooting us up and I kept screeching at Nate "I don't know what she's saying!" I'm not sure what was worse; knowing what she said in German, or not knowing. Seeing Nathans face scrunch up when we got shot up, and giggle on the way down was so funny!

We were enjoying the fair so much, simply people watching and seeing what they did, that we didn't want to go into town to have dinner. So we tried to get a seat at one of the beer halls (they were serving just a half chicken - nothing else) but the place was so packed with drunk, singing and shouting Germans that there was no chance. So we went to one of the stalls and Nate got a hamburger (meat in bread with gerkin - they love the gherkin here and put it on everything. Although not as much as yankees do! In america if you order something, you're bound to get a massive salty gherkin with it). I had a steak in with bread and it looked really tasty. It tasted kinda strange and I eventually figured out it was pork steak (schwein steak). It only said steak, not schwein on the sign - so don't go thinking I can't interpret dammit! Anyway the German love their pork steaks here and have it more than general steak. Its really hard to find beefsteak.

Feeling sick after that we staggered over and had a couple of drinks in the second busiest beer hall (bierhall). The first one was such a madhouse with the leiderhosen guys clapping each other on the back and singing. I really wanted to go in there, but you could only seem to get a drink if you were standing at a tall table or sitting down - of which there was no room for either. We couldn't speak German to figure out any way around it either which was frustrating. So we headed to the one next door which was still pretty busy. I was quite pleased as they played some weird euro pop songs, but especially when they played a few German ones that sounded like a mix between an oompah band and Rammstein. I loved it! Nathan was frustrated by the fact that when he opened his mouth it was obvious he was a tourist when he wanted to blend in. So standing to the side and watching the others, we could be low-key.

After we had our fill of the fair we wandered delighted into Aldstadt to try and find something a bit healther. We found and old hotel and decided to eat there. I felt like I was transported into the 60's or something as there was wood panneling everywhere. Everyone was wearing brown and beige jackets and smoking like chimneys. It all felt very European.
I couldn't eat my salad due to being full of pork, so with money wasted we staggered home, thoroughly delighted with the surprise of the evening.

PS: In Germany ( and we are to find out in Switzerland too) they bring you the bill and stand directly over you clutching their purse. You have to dive into your wallet then and there and pay them, and they open their purse and give you change. Very odd.

And another thing: All the German little boys look like weird 60's movies extras! They should be the kids in Close Encounters of the Third Kind - you know Richard Dreyfusses kids? How they had those 60's shag mops and tight pants? Like that!

Oh, and another thing: All the women have beer here too. There is even the option of flavoured beer, which we presume is for them. A couple will be sitting down (old or young) and he'll have a pint and she'll match him or have a half pint.
The best thing we've discovered is the old ladies sitting down at 10am together and getting stuck into a beer. Respect.