Perched somewhat precariously in my seat on the train from the Mosel Valley to Berlin, I'm trying to find a little time and space to write. Trains in Germany so far have been efficient, on-time, and unreasonably crowded. On the last train I sat on the floor in the bike section wedged between a young girl trying to sleep (taking up way too much space) and a gentleman in full military uniform, presumably headed home for the weekend. People stand in the aisles, in the corridors between trains and jockey for the few unreserved and empty seats. Steph and I were lucky, and got on at a relatively empty station, and are some of the fortunate few with seats. Yay, a tiny bit of time to squeeze in some writing!
For the last few days we have been camping in Cochem, in the Mosel Valley. Camping, while it does save money when we're not couchsurfing, does tend to cut us off from the world a little bit. Our campsite was a quiet one, filled with professional German campers. It seems that the Germans like to create 'summer' homes for themselves, setting up RV's in delightful locations along the banks of the Mosel or the Rhine sometime after Easter, leaving them for the summer, and then packing up in October. Steph and I got a few weird looks when we showed up with our backpacks and pitched our very small tent. Oh, I forgot to mention, everyone staying at the campground was at least 65.
For the last few days we have been camping in Cochem, in the Mosel Valley. Camping, while it does save money when we're not couchsurfing, does tend to cut us off from the world a little bit. Our campsite was a quiet one, filled with professional German campers. It seems that the Germans like to create 'summer' homes for themselves, setting up RV's in delightful locations along the banks of the Mosel or the Rhine sometime after Easter, leaving them for the summer, and then packing up in October. Steph and I got a few weird looks when we showed up with our backpacks and pitched our very small tent. Oh, I forgot to mention, everyone staying at the campground was at least 65.
Germany has been pretty incredible so far. We spent a bit of time in Munich, but saw nothing. The first day there Steph reffed a rugby tournament, and I woke up late, did a little laundry, then headed out to watch some rugby games. Unfortunately, I didn't look hard enough at the map before I left our hosts house, and spent three hours riding my bike around the city looking for the fields. Not so smart. That killed the first half a day. That evening, our host, Susi, was planning on going to Oktoberfest, and we decided to meet her there. I've wanted to go to Oktoberfest for a long time, but I wasn't quite prepared for what it actually was.
Oktoberfest is the biggest, most crowded carnival you've ever been to. All Germans (probably half of the people there) are dressed in traditional dress (lederhosen and the like), and everyone is drinking giant one liter steins of local beer. These steins are heavy. Like, I needed both arms to hold it after the first five minutes. (Until the bar-maids, who all looked to be around 40 would push through the crowd holding eight in each hand. Then I would take my second hand away and tell myself to stop being such a wimp) The night of Oktoberfest actually worked out surprisingly well. To get into the giant beer tents, you need a reservation, and these reservations are generally secured a year in advance. Now, I'm a good planner, but not that good. Because we didn't have a reservation, we milled around outside the tent where our host was, looked for an opening past security, made a couple of dashes through the crowd (one security officer caught my backpack and pulled me back through the crowd while I successfully body-blocked for steph) and eventually made it into the YARD around the tent. Next was the nearly impossible task of getting into the tent itself. The doors were small, and the guards weren't. We saw a few people trying to sweet talk their way in, including offers of euros and beer. The guards were not having it. I pretty much resigned myself to staying in the yard for the evening. Luckily, Susi had a plan. She sent out one of her friends, who did have a reservation armband, we all linked arms, she showed the guard her band then walked quickly through the door with us in tow. Worked like a charm. The second guard we passed tried to question me, but I just smiled at him, pretended to not be able to hear what he was saying, and allowed myself to be pulled through the door. Couldn't have worked out better if we had planned it. So that evening we spent way too much money drinking a bit too much beer, singing German songs at the top of our lungs while jumping up onto the wooden benches at our balcony table. It was an amazing night. So amazing, in fact, it killed most of the second day.
Oktoberfest is the biggest, most crowded carnival you've ever been to. All Germans (probably half of the people there) are dressed in traditional dress (lederhosen and the like), and everyone is drinking giant one liter steins of local beer. These steins are heavy. Like, I needed both arms to hold it after the first five minutes. (Until the bar-maids, who all looked to be around 40 would push through the crowd holding eight in each hand. Then I would take my second hand away and tell myself to stop being such a wimp) The night of Oktoberfest actually worked out surprisingly well. To get into the giant beer tents, you need a reservation, and these reservations are generally secured a year in advance. Now, I'm a good planner, but not that good. Because we didn't have a reservation, we milled around outside the tent where our host was, looked for an opening past security, made a couple of dashes through the crowd (one security officer caught my backpack and pulled me back through the crowd while I successfully body-blocked for steph) and eventually made it into the YARD around the tent. Next was the nearly impossible task of getting into the tent itself. The doors were small, and the guards weren't. We saw a few people trying to sweet talk their way in, including offers of euros and beer. The guards were not having it. I pretty much resigned myself to staying in the yard for the evening. Luckily, Susi had a plan. She sent out one of her friends, who did have a reservation armband, we all linked arms, she showed the guard her band then walked quickly through the door with us in tow. Worked like a charm. The second guard we passed tried to question me, but I just smiled at him, pretended to not be able to hear what he was saying, and allowed myself to be pulled through the door. Couldn't have worked out better if we had planned it. So that evening we spent way too much money drinking a bit too much beer, singing German songs at the top of our lungs while jumping up onto the wooden benches at our balcony table. It was an amazing night. So amazing, in fact, it killed most of the second day.
Most of the time we have spent in Germany outside of Munich has been in the western wine region of the country - the Mosel and Rhine valleys. Many who read this blog know that my favorite wine is German Riesling. I have a hard time understanding why anyone could not like German Riesling. It's acidic, sweet and perfectly refreshing on a warm evening. We spent two days in the Rhine and three in the Mosel, tasting as many different local rieslings as we could. We shared one wine 'carousel' in the Rhine that had 15 different local wines on it, ordered for us to maximize our tasting ability. We toured some vineyards in both valleys - very exciting for me, we happen to show up during harvest, so we watched the workers harvesting grapes from impossibly steep slopes. Like, the kind of steep that you don't even want to walk down, let alone harvest grapes on. Still, it was entertaining. We toured a couple wine cellers, and basically took it slow, enjoying a few river cruises and mountain hikes.
Now we're off to Berlin for a few days, and I'm preparing myself for another big city, some more heart-wrenching museums and all the WIFI I can soak up. Oh, and one more thing. A friend told me about a California-style burrito place in one of the neighborhoods there. If they're any good, I'm planning on filling my backpack with them. I know I should be enjoying german sausages and potato salads, but seriously. I would kill for a good burrito right now. In fact, we're still an hour outside Berlin, and we've just decided that that's going to be our first stop.
Now we're off to Berlin for a few days, and I'm preparing myself for another big city, some more heart-wrenching museums and all the WIFI I can soak up. Oh, and one more thing. A friend told me about a California-style burrito place in one of the neighborhoods there. If they're any good, I'm planning on filling my backpack with them. I know I should be enjoying german sausages and potato salads, but seriously. I would kill for a good burrito right now. In fact, we're still an hour outside Berlin, and we've just decided that that's going to be our first stop.
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