Oktoberfest

If you've ever been to a state fair you have experienced Oktoberfest.  It is on a grander scale, but it's the same idea.  There are several beer "tents" that are constructed of wood and very well could be permanent structures.  There are carnival rides, small vendors, bad food, but the main difference is the beer is great!  I was so glad that it was light AND cold!!  They only sell beer in litres and supposedly there is a two beer maximum.  I'd say that is per tent, so you can really have 42 if you wanted!!  The pretzels pretty much rocked also.  The rest of the food smelled as bad as it looked, which was disappointing considering the food in Germany as a whole was really good.  The sights and sounds were worth the trip!!

Band at Augustiner tent

Us at the Augustiner tent

Lots of empty litres!

Authentic, right???

Asian group taking pics and leaving!

A beer festival can be a family event, right??

Band and dancing

One of four  stein cleaning sites in the Augustiner tent

band beer break

security evicting some guys for smoking

check out his hat!

The guys were much happier today!

Augustiner beer (only beer aged in oak barrels) tent exterior

Another tent (these are temp structures)

No drinking on the streets (yeah right!!)

We did not go in here, thank goodness!

carnival rides

Lowenbrau tent

Just some "normal" guys at Oktoberfest!

Inside Lowenbrau tent

Munich

We left St. Goar for Munich and the famed Oktoberfest celebration.  The weather was miserable-rainy and cold.  Our first day in Munich consisted of seeing the Glockenspiel-the huge clock depicting the marriage of Duke Wilhelm in the 16th century and the passing of the plague in 1517.  We then wandered over to St. Michael's Church for Mass and pictures.  The next day we went to the Nymphenburg Castle where King Ludwig II was born.  Again it rained cats and dogs, so we did not tour the grounds.  We ended the day at Oktoberfest (separate post of pics) which was fun. 

The top is the wedding and the bottom is the dance to end the plague

The guys "loved" the Glockenspiel!!

Above a door at the Rathaus

More scaffolding!!  It was everyehere!

St. Michael's Church

Gardens at Nymphenburg

Door at Nymphenburg

Mad Ludwig's mother's room and his desk

Side views as the front was covered in yes-scaffold!!

Dachau

We actually saw Dachau on our last day of the trip, but it was so depressing that I decided to post it prior to the rest of the days.  I am not going to elaborate on the history as you can look that up, but just know that this epitimizes the worst of what humans can do to each other.  We need to educate future generations on the mistakes made by such actions so as to not have them repeated.  Dachau is the smallest and supposedly least used, but I can't imagine what the other camps must be like.  If you get the chance to experience this, you really should.  Here's a slight glimpse of what we experienced.

"work makes free" was the German motto.  Not so true here.

One of 34 barracks.  Toward the end each would house up to 2000 people

One of 7 guard stations

The expansive roll call grounds

beds in the barracks around 1940

Roll call grounds

Memorial dedicated to the dead

Catholic memorial built in the 60's

Protestant Memorial (60's) designed with no corners to protest the Nazi rules

Jewish memorial (60's)

Grounds where barracks were

Electric fence

Statue dedicated to the unknown prisoners

the designer allowed him to look up (which was forbidden at the camp)

You can guess what this building  was