Carcassonne is France’s Rothenburg ob der Tauber*. The walled medieval city on a hill has been beautifully restored into the kind of picturesque cuteness that tourists can’t resist.
Hiding out in the Dolomites
Greetings from Italy. We’re recovering from Oktoberfest in a cute mountain resort town, because the best way to get over too much German beer, pretzels and kaesespaetzle is to wash it down with Italian wine, pasta, and cheese. I’ll be back to finish off my Oktoberfest posting in a few days. But for now, the … Read more
Oktoberfest 2009 day 12: tent hopping
A new set of visitors, a new introductory tour of the Wiesn. We went around noon on Wednesday and poked our heads into several of the tents. Most of them were pretty quiet, and all of them had free tables. Only the Hofbräu tent was full of rowdy drunks at this hour. We decided to … Read more
Gooooooooooooooooooool!
Urinal at Drei Königinnen in Augsburg, Germany.
Oktoberfest 2009 day 6: Bavarian Heaven
Thanks to its charming decorations and lively atmosphere, the Hacker tent (Himmel der Bayern) makes it onto lots of people’s list of favorite Oktoberfest tents. The walls are painted up into a fairytale-like Bavarian town, and the ceiling is a blue sky with fluffy white clouds. Today (a Thursday) we decided to go for lunch, … Read more
Oktoberfest 2009 day 4: itty bitty tent
Last year I don’t think I even noticed the tiny tents interspersed amongst the big Oktoberfest tents, but there they are. Most of them have names which describe what kind of animal they most like to kill and cook up for your dining pleasure. We spent yesterday evening in the Heinz Wurst- und Hühnerbraterei, a … Read more
Oktoberfest 2009 day 1: Ochsenbraterei
Ozapft is! Munich’s mayor tapped the ceremonial first keg at noon yesterday with two brisk swings of the mallet. Bring on the drunken revelry. We spent the first evening in the Ochsenbraterei tent. We had a table reserved, which is the only reason we even considered going opening day. All the tents were full, and … Read more
The Oktoberfest answers you’ve been searching for
As is to be expected, this week I’ve had an explosion of hits from people googling their last-minute Oktoberfest queries and questions. Why don’t we take a stab at helping out these folks, shall we? oktoberfest reservations A little late for that, buddy. cheap dirndls Try Ebay. oktoberfest munich first time advice You’re in luck, … Read more
A long night of Berlin’s museums
Our recent trip to Berlin included the Lange Nacht der Museen. Long museum nights are popular in many cities around Europe (we’ve also been to them in Zurich and Munich). Berlin has two a year, with 100 museums around the city opening their doors from 6pm to 2am. Special events for the evening include concerts, demonstrations, and things like the opportunity to destroy your evil things with a special machine (after first attending the Dinge-Sprechstunde, during which an expert will evaluate your thing for evilness).*
Dopplr keeps trying to send me to Canada
As a frequent traveler, I’m always on the lookout for ways to make travel easier. There are several websites out there that claim to do just that, but my patience for trying out every new thing to hit the interwebs is low. But this year I’ve been trying out two sites which claim to help … Read more