Imagine the Royal Easter Show. There are rides, food stalls and families with young children in attendance. Now add beer. Lots and lots of beer. And now you have Oktoberfest.

Along with the food stalls and rides, each of the major breweries has a tent at Oktoberfest. In these tents you can hang out, drink steins of beer and eat ginormous pretzels and hot BBQ chooks. In the tent you must find a table and seat, then you can flag down a friendly barmaid and she'll keep you supplied with food and drinks for the duration of your stay (a generous tip on your first round will ensure that she remains attentive.) Some of the barmaids are impressively strong. We saw some barmaids carrying five or six 1-litre steins. I struggled lifting just one of those steins.


Drinking beer is the number one past time at Oktoberfest. This means that if you do want to get a seat in a beer tent you pretty much have to turn up when the tent opens at 10am. You then spend the whole day in that tent because if you leave you lose your seat. You won't be able to get a seat in another tent as they stop letting people in when they reach capacity.

The beer drinking starts at 10am (what else are you going to do when you're in the beer tent? Listen to the oompah band?) and you drink 1-litre steins. I wasn't a beer drinker before my visit to Oktoberfest and even though I was only drinking Radlers (the German name for a Shandy - beer and lemonade) by the end of our two days at Oktoberfest I'd drunk enough beer to become accustomed to the taste.

Apparently Oktoberfest made me into a better person. At the end of our time at Oktoberfest Andrew said to me "you know hunni, I didn't think it was possible to love you more but I do now that you're a beer drinker."

More photos (slideshow) on Flickr.

Our visit to Oktoberfest was part of our Beerfest trip to Germany in 2006 (eek! almost four years ago). We spent a week or so in Germany with Tash and Nat. This is the first entry from that trip.

On our recent trip to Germany we spent one day in Düsseldorf, visiting breweries and sampling Düsseldorf's offering in the Beer vs Beer competition. The thing is, we visited Düsseldorf on a Sunday and the only thing that was open was the breweries. So that pretty much decided our itinerary in Düsseldorf.

We also did a self-guided walking tour. The route was provided by the local tourist information centre (which was open luckily). Here are some photos from our walk. I think Düsseldorf is prettier than Cologne, but that might have something to do with the fact that the sun was out while we were there. (No sunshine, only grey skies while we were in Cologne).





More photos on Flickr.

Why did we decide to visit Cologne and Düsseldorf? A while ago I read an article in the TNT about Cologne and Düsseldorf and their intercity rivalry. Not a sporting rivalry (although I'm sure football matches between the two cities would be hotly contested) but a beer rivalry. Cologne and Düsseldorf both brew a special version of beer and both cities think that theirs is best. I filed the TNT tip away for future travel inspiration. A weekend away which focuses on beer (and a schnitzel or two); it sounded like fun.

And it was fun. In Cologne we visited 4 breweries (Peters Brauhaus, Früh, Gaffel Haus and Brauhaus Sion). In Düsseldorf we visited 3 breweries (Uerige, Brauerei im Füchschen and Zum Schlüssel). We ate schnitzel, spätzle and apple strudel. We played Fluxx (Andrew cheated). It was fun.


Beers are served in small glasses, only 200ml, called Stange (poles). Because the glasses are so small they are also jokingly referred to as test tubes or thimbles. I really liked the small glasses. It was much more manageable than the litre steins that beer is served in at Oktoberfest. It also means that you can have a few glasses without getting too tipsy. It was amusing to see big burly German men drinking from dainty 200ml glasses.


So which beer is better?

Cologne produces a lager-style light-coloured beer called Kölsch. It is less bitter than a standard lager.


Düsseldorf is known for its Altbier. A dark ale. Apprently it's made with malts used for pale lagers but with a technique for brewing ale.


The verdict? Andrew (and BigToe) liked the Altbier from Düsseldorf and I liked Kölsch from Cologne best. We both liked the schnitzel.

Travelling around Europe you can get a serious case of the ABCs. What does it stand for? Another Bloody Church or Another Bloody Castle. Every city has a "famous" church that you "must" visit. Andrew and I've become a bit meh about churches and now they have to be pretty amazing to impress us. So, I was a bit worried when I discovered that Cologne's biggest tourist draw card is a church. Was it going to impress to us?
The church has some notable accolades:

• It's a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
• From 1880 - 1884 it was the tallest structure in the world. (Pipped by the Washington Monument).
• It has the 2^nd tallest church spire in the world (and it has two!).
• It has the largest facade of any church in the world.

So, what is the verdict from these church-weary travellers? Two thumbs up. Yup, it's pretty impressive.

Cologne Cathedral (or the Dom) has an interesting history. Construction started in the 13th century and after more than 200 years, work stopped for a bit of a break. A break which ended up lasting 400 years, after which construction resumed in 1842. The workers of the 1300s left a crane atop one of the half completed spires. The medieval crane was a landmark for Cologne for 400 years (seen in this photo). After work started again in the 19th century it took them less than 40 years to finish. The completion of the cathedral was celebrated as a national event in 1880, only 600 years after construction started.



As you can imagine with a church of this size, the inside is cavernous. There are a lot of stained glass windows.



My favourite stained glass window in the church is a modern one designed by Gerhard Richter and installed in 2007. The window is constructed from identically sized pieces of coloured glass, the placement of which was randomly selected by a computer. They are meant to resemble pixels. The colours harmonize wonderfully and the window is beautiful when lit up by daylight. I spent several minutes just staring and appreciating. Then I spent several minutes wondering if I could achieve the same effect with a patchwork quilt (file that creative thought away for the future.)

The main purpose of our visit to the church was to climb the spire (2nd tallest in the world!). There are 509 steps to the top. You have to climb a stone spiral staircase to the carillon (I hate spiral staircases), then a metal staircase, and finally a metal spiral staircase to get to the top.

There is another world best for the church in the belfry with the largest of the 12 bells, Petersglocke, being the world's biggest free swinging bell. We were in the belfry at midday and when the carillon played, it was "stick your fingers in your ears" loud. We were a little disappointed that the biggun didn't get rung.

The viewing platform at the top of the spire is 98m above the ground. As expected, the view from up there is amazing. Definitely worth the climb.





More photos on Flickr.

As we say Auf Wiedersehen to Germany, I thought I'd post some of my favourite photos from our experiences in Deutschland. I'll update you with the down and dirty later on. (Hopefully...I mean definitely... I'm getting a little bit behind *G*.)

Oktoberfest
Berlin