Europe Part III: Germany

We spent two nights in Germany. The first in a little town in the Rhine Valley called St. Goar, known for it's ice wine and beer steins... and also for having the worlds largest hanging cuckcoo clock!

It's amazing they can harvest the grapes from the vineyards on the steep slopes of the Rhine Valley. Some are as steep as 60 degrees, and they need to use special equipment to reach the grapes without sliding down the hill.

The next day we headed to Munich:

This is the Glockenspeil in the Marienplatz in Munich. Nice building, but the Glockenspeil itself is a bit overrated. Kinda long and boring... and the bells aren't even real anymore, they just play a CD!!

It was no accident we were in Munich during Oktoberfest. But I didn't realize it was the opening day! It was absolutely crazy. So many people! But everyone was amazingly friendly, and it was a great atmosphere. I always thought Oktoberfest was all about the beer, but turns out half the visitors are children! They come for the rides and games.

Most of the tents were closed due to overcrowding by the time we got there, so we waited for a while outside a tent we heard was most popular with the locals. All the beer steins hold exactly 1.1 litres of beer, and these things are heavy! I had to use both hands to drink mine. I admired the waitresses who could carry five steins in each hand!

We finally got inside with the help of a friendly local couple, and were amazed to see how many people were in each tent. This one held over 10,000! And there were 16 tents. Although, I should mention that "tent" doesn't quite describe these buildings. True, they are temporary structures, only erected for the three weeks of Oktoberfest, but these buildings were solid!

Overall, I think Germany wins the "friendliest people" award. Maybe Oktoberfest had something to do with it, but even away from the crowds everyone was super friendly and helpful. I hear that may be a trait of the Bavarians, which sets them apart from Germans in the north who have a reputation for being more stern and reserved.