ein Prosit, ein prosit...

After our stay in Lindau, we we’re inline for more tent usage in Feldkirch, a small Austrian town nestled between some alps. From here we’d be checking out Vaduz in Liechtenstein and surrounding areas before heading to Munich (or Munchen) and Prague (or Praha).
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For the record, it’s now nearing the end of September and if it’s not day time and you’re not in the direct sun, it’s cold out. It’s not freezing cold, but cold enough where you don’t want to leave your sleeping bag at night time unless you reallllly need to.

Little liechtensten

• Liechtenstein is very small, only about 25Km long by 6km wide, and less than 40,000 people.
• People have been here a loooong time, earliest settlements date back 5,300 BCE.
• The country’s prince lives in a castle overlooking Vaduz, just a modest residence.

​Our first day in Austria/Liechtenstein we went  to a Rolls Royce Museum. No pictures because you needed to pay 10 Euro for a photo pass, what a rip off eh?

Oh well, it happened that the “Ferrari Club” was having a day trip so I photographed their cars instead.

From there we went to walk around Vaduz.

There was like 20 Ferraris, I'm not much into cars but here is a picture of one of them!

To reiterate, it's very small.

Even though Vaduz is he capital of Liechtenstein, it’s quite small. The country is only this big (see left). On our hike later we’ll be basically able to see all of the country from one spot.

We just putted around Vaduz for a bit, there wasn’t a whole lot to do in the place. We did walk up to the Prince's residence, its an old restored castle that is closed to the public because, you know, a prince lives there. We went up on a cloudy day so I presume he was just gaming in the ball room.

​When we got back to our camp that night I started looking for some hikes we could do, which ended up being challenging due to how many great hikes there are in Liechtenstein.

I narrowed it down to three different hikes, then basically went with a random one because they all seemed so good. The one selected turned out to be Rappenstein, unfortunately I couldn't discover the significance of the name Rappenstein, so tell me if you know!

The drive to Rappenstein the next day would be a challenge in itself, driving manual around hairpin turns steeply up into the alps. I found it a little nerve wracking, but the locals lining up eager to pass me didn’t seem to think so.

The hike itself was straight forward, roughly a steady 1km ascent and then descent of the same, stretched out over 14K. It was a great hike for three reasons:

• At the beginning of the hike you meet the official “Rappenstein greeting party”
• There was a great mix of rocky, earthy, muddy, grassy terrain
• And you get a superb view of the valley at the end of the hike

​Unfortunately for us, it was a cloudy day which meant that our view was basically 100% obscured at the summit. Oh well, we had a beautiful sunny day at Trolltunga, so you can’t win ‘em all.

When we got back to our campsite we heard some commotion at the nearby park, so we went to check it out.

​There was a relatively high level baseball game going on at the diamond with fans eating burgers and hot dogs, drinkin’ beers, and having a good ole American style good time.

I regretted not having my baseball cap with me, this was one the one place we’ve been where I actually would have fit in wearing it.

Only picture, but it was a festive atmosphere take my word for it.

Our last night in Feldkirch meant the next day would be our first in Munich, our stay would mark days 11, 12, and 13 of the 16 day festival.

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Der Gemütlichkeit (to cheer and good times)

We drove into Munich (Munchen), which translates to “home of the monks”, and is the second most expensive city in Gemany. We checked into our camp hostel and said good bye to our Diesel VW. We certainly had some good/bad times with this vehicle... but now I can drive standard so that's pretty neat.

OKTOBERFEST FACTS

• 5.9 million people attended 2015 Oktoberfest, locals told me this was a “slow” year
• Over 7 million litres of beer consumed. That is about the same volume of water that 50 people will go through in a year.

​You will enjoy Oktoberfest if you are OK with any combination of the following items

• Crowds
• Drinking
• Festivals

If anyone of those things turns you off, then it’s probably not your scene! It was a crowded drinking festival. 

​The festival began in 1810 as a wedding celebration for some royals named Ludwig and Therese, but it was such a great time they had another festival for the first anniversary the following year. And it’s literally just been growing from that since then.

It has only been cancelled for 24 of the last 215 years, due to war or economic inflation.

We went to two nights of Oktoberfest, one drinking, one sober. I enjoyed the drinking night great deal more, but it is cool to walk around and take in the different spectacles, be it colourful rides or intoxicated people. 

We had beers in two different main tents, Augustiner and Schottenhamel. Each tent serves a different one of the six Munich brewery’s beer, and no other. No Coors Light to be found here. To be honest, I found all the beers at Oktoberfest a little bit sweet for my tastes, but it’s really more about the setting than drinking your favourite beer.

Augustiner is apparently the collectively agreed (amongst Muncheners) “best” beer, so we went to that tent first. Entering an Oktoberfest beer tent is quite the experience. Once you step thrugh the doors, a wall of air and sound hit you in the face. There’s thousands of people laughing, singing, and talking along with a full traditional German band playing. There is a lot of energy which can take you off guard if you’re not prepared.

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​We had one beer at Augustiner, which is one of the more "subdued" tents and houses a slightly older demographic.

We sat with a Munich native and her nephew, chatting about various things like her time in Chicago, how the festival has grown, and how attending Oktoberfest as a young person 20 years ago wasn’t “cool”.

Schottenhamel tent.

​Schottenhamel, with a younger crowd and a stronger beer, was more of a party vibe. We sat with four girls from Munich University. For the next few hours we’d have a pretzel, learn some German drinking songs, explain how bears aren’t that common in Canada, and just have a general great time. Lindy and I 

​learned a great beer hall song here as well.... ​which basically translates to cheers, cheers, 1-2-3 drink! This was the Oktoberfest version of "sociables!".

Ein prosit...

Overall, Oktoberfest is definitely worth visiting, but on one of three conditions:

1. You’re already relatively close by
2. You have plenty of money
3. It’s on your bucket list

Munich is one of the most expensive cities in the world; lodging prices triple during Oktoberfest. Your classic Oktobefest outfit will cost anywhere between $150-400 ​CAD. When you throw in flights and food that is one hell of an expensive trip from North America.

​Here’s your Michael Sime corny recommendation: Get a group of friends together and go to your city’s local Oktoberfest, they’re springing up everywhere. But hey, if it’s just something you need to do, you certainly won’t regret it!

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Prague spring

​We caught the morning bus to Prague, arriving at about 2PM. Remember how I said it was cold before? Well now it’s warm again, like t-shirt weather. I guess once you leave the windy alp region things warm  a bit in Europe.

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​First impressions of the city were how old and intact it was.

A common theme for many of the places we’ve been were that they we’re partially bombed and subsequently reconstructed; but not Prague.

It was basically untouched (by bombs) in WW2, so the city doesn’t look drastically different from 100 or 200 years ago, it made for a really cool experience walking around.

The 11th century Powder Tower, separating the New and Old cities.

There was a beer tasting Lindy had read about that takes place in one of Prague’s oldest buildings, almost 1,000 years old. The speaker/educator/beer leader was a passionate and very knowledgeable fellow when it came to beer and history. We’d come to learn that Eastern Europeans really take their history seriously, much of their history is as interesting as it is tragic. 

The beer tasting was great, certainly our premier beer experience thus far. There was great quality, quantity, and variety. Enough of a variety in fact, that I realized that many Czech beers are not high on my list, I found them sweet. 

​Interestingly/not surprisingly enough, the Czech beers I liked best we’re American pale ales, very similar to some of the Nova Scotian craft breweries. It seems hops aren’t quite as popular in Europe yet. 

Favourite beers (Left to right, 1 to 10) 5-->8-->6

Prague? So far so good. It’s by far the cheapest place we’ve been so far, a pint of beer at the bar would run about $2 Canadian, beer being the standard metric of currency equivalency measurement.
Next time, Lindy and I class it up by going to the Prague Symphony Orchestra, witness my first art “critique” in Budapest, and we say Hello! To the UK!

No European city is complete without a palace, Budapest does not break this trend.