| Events in Germany | |||
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Over the next couple years I hope to experience many trips, special events, and fests in Germany and around
Europe. Germany has many fests. Each town will have their own fest to celebrate any number of things.
Normally they occur in late summer and early fall. Other events I hope to get to are rock concerts, tours,
and anything else that is a unique one time experience. | |||
| Alstadt Fest Bad Windsheim | |||
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The first fest I experienced happened to be right here in Bad Windsheim. The fest kicked off about 3pm with tents
scattered around the various corners of town. The tents ranged from beer tents, to food tents, to games, and tents
with goods for sale. The food was very good. I only ate Bratwursts (i managed to spill mustard on my shirt too), but
others told me the schnitzel and other sausages and ethnic foods were very good. Early in the day is when
families attend the fest to hear the music, do a little shopping, and have a relatively quiet time together.
One game that seemed to be big with all ages was the milking contest. They even had the important people
in town go head-to-head. Once darkness begins to set, which is not till about 10pm (and I mean very little
darkness) the party really starts. The bands crank up and the beer tents really start to let the taps flow. I left
the fest at 3am and the streets were still packed with festers. One can find ones of these fests almost every
weekend between now and the BIG fest in Munich in Oktober. Below are some pictures I took during the fest.
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| Entering the Fest | Enjoying the Fest | Couple Beer Chicks | On Loan From Willy Wonka |
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| Chick in a keg | Milking Contest | OOmpah Band | A Local |
| Dido Concert Munich
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| Today I drove down to Munich to watch Dido in concert at the Koningplatz. The Koningplatz is an open air square surrounded on two sides by famous Roman and Greek museums and a third side by a columned building. It is very daunting, but makes for a wonderful square and backdrop for a concert. Driving down autobahn 3 I passed the original Legoland. On another trip I will stop in and play Godzilla. I found the general area where the concert was and proceeded to explore the northwest corner of Munich. It is a gorgeous city with fountains everywhere. There were also quite a bit of statues dedicated to King Ludwig. It was an intensely hot day and after walking around for 3 hours, with 3 more till the concert, I needed a place to cool off. Unbelievably, I turned a corner and ran smack into the Lowenbrau brewery. Nothing says relaxing like a bratwurst and Weisbeir in the Lowenbrau beirgarden. So I ordered myself a liter of Weisbeir and a brat and relaxed for a while. After I finished my beer I walked down the block towards the concert, the skies opened up and it began pouring down rain. I got to the concert early enough so that I could sit in the “pit”. I was about 60 ft from the front of the stage. I could have been closer, but I wanted to lean against the railing. The concert was awesome. Dido played most of her songs, almost all remixes. They ranged from salsa, to hard-hitting bass, to rock. They played a much more lively set than I thought from what I’ve heard on her CD’s. The Germans really got into the concert, which surprised me because I’ve always heard Germans are reserved. After the concert, I tried to get kidnapped by the band, but to no avail. So I headed back to the car and made my way back north towards Illesheim. It was a great time. I’m heading back to Munich later to experience the rest of the city and a world famous beer house – The Haufbrauhaus. Below are a few pictures. | |||
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| Dido Poster | Fountain of Posiedon | Lowenbrau Brewery | Having a liter |
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| Roman Museum | |||
| 7's Tournament in Rogenzell
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| This past weekend (9/11) our rugby team travelled to Lake Constance on the Swiss-German border to battle it out with 6 other teams from Germany and Switzerland. 7's is not like regular rugby and requires 15 minutes of non stop running and hitting. It's a ton of fun. We played games all day long. Illesheim entered two teams in the tournament and we ended up placing 2nd and 3rd. Many of our guys scored their first try and had to streak the field naked at the end of the day. It caught a few eyes. I had no tries myself but was able to make my presence known with a few hard hits for turnovers that resulted in tries. After the games we had a nice party. The hosts had arranged for a ska band, plenty of beer & brats, and prizes for the top 3 teams. We ended up taking home 2 magnums of champagne. One of the teams from Switzerland partied alot with us. We had a good time together. In fact one of the Swiss players was from Coff's Harbour Australia. So we chatted about "down unda" for a while. I think our two teams where the biggest partiers there - we enjoyed the hosts beer, hospitality, and women! We have already agreed to come back next year and look forward to seeing many of the same teams in two weeks for the large Oktoberfest 7's tournament in Munich. | |||
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| The two hard hitters | Fun afterwords | Illesheim and Swiss | Illesheim Team 1 |
| Oktoberfest, Munich | |||
| On a rainy Friday afternoon a couple of us traveled to Munich to party the night before our Oktoberfest 7's Rugby tournament. We set up tents shop in a horseriding stadium, with about 200 other folks, and drank a few 1 Liter beers. The next morning it was miserably cold and rainy and we headed to the pitch in downtown Munich were we met up with the rest of our team, and about 20 other teams. The teams came from Germany, the Royal British Army team who consisted entirely of Fijians, two from Italy, England, Holland, France, Poland, and even one from Japan. I had the hit of the day by managing to knock the wind out of one of the Japanese guys. I also managed to score my first try of the season, so that was cool. Tradition in rugby is that after you score your first try with a new club you are supposed to run the length of the field naked; it's called a ZULU. Luckily it was so cold and miserable everyone wanted to leave immediately - but I'd pay later. The Fijians won the tournament handily. So as we slugged through 7 games we got muddier, and muddier, and colder, and wetter, and still muddier. And so did a few of our fans! By the end of t he day I was entirely brown. It was a fun day, but I'm not doing it again. Afterwards we headed back to the camp ground for some brats and beer and to warm up a bit. Unfortunately for us, the field our tents were in flooded due to all the rain. So that capped off a great day. As night fell we headed back to downtown Munich to the Bondi Bar . It's an Australian bar where all the rugby teams head for the night. It was so much fun!!! Everyone partied, talked, danced, and had a blast. The waitresses even had on traditional German Oktoberfest outfits. It was really a wonderful atmosphere. It also gave me the opportunity to drink one of my favoritist beer in the world - VB! As we left bar chants for a ZULU came out. So in the middle of downtown Munich at midnight I streaked for a couple seconds! Luckily no cops were around and I rerobed quickly. Ahhhhh the wild times. Munich is a crazy place during Oktoberfest and I was lucky enough to be there for it, and to play a little rugby too. | |||
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| Our Fans | John and VB | Irish Team | Our Team |
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| Italians | Waitress | ||
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