Munich for Oktoberfest and Nordlingen for history

Oktoberfest: mix copious amounts of beer with 1000 people dressed in costumes and add music.

 Bike taxi with Led Zeppelin music getting back to the hotel after Oktoberfest

When I was 10 years old my grandfather asked me what was my favorite school subject.

 “Social Studies”, I replied.   “What do you think Social Studies is?”, he inquired.  “People and places” I responded as if he should already know.

He wasn’t satisfied with my answer and wanted more detail. “What about people and places?”

“Well, you know, countries and different people”.  “Yes, but why is it Social Studies?”  My 10-year-old mind was getting bored quickly as I was near the back door and wanted to go out to play. “Because it’s different. See you Gramps, I’m going to my friend’s house.”

Fifty-nine years later I’m still trying to get a handle on what is the purpose of Social Studies.

German countryside from Munich north to Nordlingen. Hills in the background are from impact crater.

 

The world is like an onion, each remote region of the planet represents a different layer made up of the people and the land they occupy. Peel back each layer and find a variety of colors, textures and structure. No layer is more important to the onion or the world than any others, they are all essential to make up the whole.

It’s easy to dismiss the complexities of an onion, to hastily rip away the protective covering, and quickly hack away at what’s left to use it as an ingredient for some enjoyable result. The same is true with Earth. We destroy the surface to extract resources for our economic pleasures paying no heed for the land and people exploited in the process. Global tourism is coming under assault for the mass influx of amusement seekers snapping pictures and drinking in the local fare for a couple hours without knowing anything about the ways of life of the people there.

          How many beers can you carry? Each glass weighs 1 kilo with 1 kilo of beer (4.4 lbs.)

“Welcome to Munich” says Friedrich, “I’ll bet you never heard that before”.

This stop is Munich at the end of September which becomes the world’s party headquarters for three weeks. Oktoberfest is both the happiest place on Earth for a few hours when fueled up by oversized beers, and the unhappiest place on the morning after. Once again, I am blessed to have exceptional friends to greet me.

Friedrich and Heike are gifted teachers, extraordinary friends, prolific world travelers, and true global ambassadors for Social Studies. We met in Antarctica on a cruise and have been eager to stay in touch ever since. Many people squander their money on fancy cars, lavish homes and luxury vacations, while these folks find the best use of their funds is to take every opportunity of time off to go to remote places on the planet and learn to become a local.

They spoke of traveling to northern Namibia and being the only white people; they were such a rare sight that people stared wherever they went. They spent the summer in Asia, just returning from Cambodia. Their tales of eating bats and dogs, spiders, snakes and scorpions are horrific for some of us westerners, but when cheeseburgers are not plentiful, this is what keeps you alive.

Freiderich's world map showing all the places he's visited. Most years include Europe and southern         Africa where he often is a paid lecturer.

Sunday’s plan was to meet at their home, pick up my Chinese lady friend who was also visiting Munich, then spend a day in Nordlingen, an authentic 14^th century town with the city wall still intact. He gave a tour of his apartment in a 170-year-old building with cramped rooms and barely enough space to maneuver around all the artifacts from the world over. In the hallway hang a couple of dozen framed pictures which are changed annually to show their recent pilgrimages. The wall map of the world is plastered with hundreds of tiny flags crowded on every landmass to show all the places they’ve visited.

Nordlingen and the surroundings are built into an impact crater from a meteorite that fell 15 million years ago. It wasn’t until recently that geologists discovered the crater which has since been somewhat flattened over the eons. The explosion occurred over a field of carbon deposits, which created micro-diamonds embedded in the rocks and stand-alone crystals.

Of course, all the structures need restoration and maintenance, but are carefully reworked to the original design.  As we walked along the upper pathway between watch towers Friedrich peeked out through the arrow slits and said, “Imagine all the unsavory characters who wanted to get inside these walls.  The only way to protect oneself was inside the city.”  History has not changed much in 600 years as we still need security inside our gated communities.

             Geology Museum and a Moon rock on display. Interesting, but all exhibits in German.

              14th century wall intact around the entire town.  You can walk the perimeter on top.

Inside the town with original architecture.  There have been many renovations over the years, but                                                                 always keeping the same look. 

                                 OKTOBERFEST – Bavarian Halloween with beer

Oktoberfest is for 3 weeks beginning the second to last Saturday of September and running through October.  It is held in Theresenweise, an empty area outside of downtown Munich where only this and a spring festival are held.  It takes 2 months to construct the 17 major “tents”, another 21 smaller beer houses and all the carnival rides along with attractions.  Then afterwards another 2 months to take it all down.  I imagine 189 years ago there were canvas tents and the horse drawn wagons carried beer to the grounds, but today the tents are wooden warehouses, and the beer is brought in large aluminum kegs through the back door.

 

                                Horse drawn beer wagons and revelers in traditional costumes.

Many people dress in traditional clothes (lederhosen and dirndls) prompting me to remark this is like Bavarian Halloween.  My host corrected me “Americans borrowed Halloween from the Irish, while this is our own unique party” Saturday’s opening night is proceeded by a parade through Munich of horse drawn beer wagons and bands, all shown on local television. Ask the locals about the major influx of global party seekers and they will lament it is getting harder to have a seat at the tables in the tents.

 

                               Drink enough beer and you might be enticed to buy goofy trinkets.

In German folklore, Aloisius was sent from heaven as a messenger to advise the Bavarian government, but he ended up in a beer hall and decided it was much better to stay there than to go back.  This is the reason the government is not so good.

Bring plenty of Euros as they only take cash.  One beer, a half chicken or a sausage plate runs $20 each, add a few more beers, pretzels and trinkets and 100 Euros barely covers your night. A reservation for a table of ten is upwards of $2000, but it comes with beer and food tokens.  My phone tells me inside the tents it got up to 114 decibels though all the smiles say no one seems to care.  No wonder the next day people are dragging, but once in a lifetime it is worth taking in the spectacle of one of the world’s great parties.

                   Friederich, Tom, me, beer, and a pretzel the size of a steering wheel.  

                                 Happy to report I did not puke after all that partying