The Johnsons' Journal

Next stop was a big one. We had decided a while ago that we would visit Munich on our trip during Oktoberfest. This required a bit of planning ahead though as hotels and hostels get booked early and are quite expensive.

Just to give you an idea of how many tourists are in Munich over the few weeks of Oktoberfest. The population of Munich is about 1.3 million people. During Oktoberfest, the population rises to about 7 million. That’s a lot of extra people to drink some beer.

The other thing you need to know about Oktoberfest is that there are no small beers. There is one size, GIANT! If you order a beer you get a 1 litre stein.

I’ll have a beer please! Oh, my…

In preparation for this, we “trained” ourselves by drinking a few half litres in Salzburg.

This is a small beer at a bierhaus in Salzburg.

We didn’t only drink beer though. Munich has a lot to offer. While it was heavily damaged during World War II, the citizens had the foresight to take pictures and sketches of most of the buildings throughout the city, so when it came time to rebuild post-war, they had a wealth of images to use as guides to repair or rebuild to the exact designs that stood before the war. And today throughout the city, the war is hardly noticeable.

A church tower which was reconstructed after the war.

One day we hired bikes for the afternoon, from a fellow American as it happens, and went for a ride around the city to see things that are  outside of walking range. First we checked out the Nymphenburg Palace, which was the summer residence of the king.

With our bikes on a windy day outside Nymphenburg Palace

The other place we saw was the English Gardens where we had a picnic lunch as we’ve regularly done throughout our trip and afterwards checked out the surfers. “Surfers?” you ask? Sure, in Munich, in the middle of Europe, hundreds of kilometers from an ocean.

The Wave in Munich

In the river Eisbach, which is a man-made river through the gardens, there is a standing wave where surfers launch in from a platform on the side before wiping out and heading down stream. Then they jump out, walk back and do it all over again, no paddling necessary. It was pretty fun to watch the guys have fun for a while, but you wouldn’t catch me in there, that water is cold! Eisbach translates to  “ice brook”.