They should make a movie about thi....oh

It's odd to think that Beerfest is a work of historical fiction. It's true, though, that a magical celebration with beer, pretzels, and lederhosen exists. It's called Germany...I mean Oktoberfest. It's called Oktoberfest.

If you are in central Europe at the end of September/beginning of October, it really is a must-see. Although it's a bit touristy, it's cool meeting people from all over the world who just came to have a beer. Makes you wonder what a couple pilsners could do for world peace.

Here we go

It's actually about 7 times bigger than you think it is, and there are carnival rides!

They call these beer tents. "Tent" was lost in translation.

Too German

This is where we ended up--probably the most famous beer tent in the world. We waited for about an hour to get in. It was 1:30.

The "tent" holds about 5,000 people. People who are there in groups often wear matching bright shirts with references to drunken debauchery in all different languages. The kids from Indiana University were annoyingest.

The band. And those are huge hanging pots of hops. Does the picture seem foggy? That's because 4,853 of the 5,000 people are currently smoking.

A couple liters in

Some German friends at our table (ps you do not sit at your table--standing room only)

Lebkuchen hearts! Too bad we didn't have anyone to buy the €17 "ich liebe dich" one for

We settled. It's still on my wall.

Thank you, come again.

We decided to see some of München before it got dark. We had a bit of a hard time finding our way around.

I don't know what these things are, but they were near one of the S-Bahn stops

The Glockenspiel at the Rathaus

So famous

We decided to give up on sightseeing and have another beer. And there were large complimentary shots of something that looked delicious. It was straight rum.

Fam--remember this place? Fi-as-co.

Bad Mergentheim--Spa Day

Now we're heading to the south side of the Liebliches Taubertal. Bad Mergentheim is another town that is similar to mine, but that has a reputation as a weekend getaway destination in Germany. Mineral springs with proven healing properties were discovered here, and now the town is full of little spas, hotels, B&Bs, etc. Luckily, I don't think the seniors or the audio tour producers have found it yet. Let's have a look.

"Willkommen in Bad Mergentheim 2008"

Looks important. Must be the Rathaus.


There's a castle


And a church

Looks fairly normal so far


The Tauber

Chillin'

You down wit LTT?

And then we come to this fountain, which marks the entrance to the Naturpark

It's a large park in the middle of the town with lots of open grassy areas

Lots of tree-lined paths

And lots of roses, everywhere

Some kind of healing clinic

On one side is a discreet and upscale little shopping mall

And on the other is a huge Best Western

Everywhere

Europe and its fountains

But what's better than having a bunch of fountains in a big park?

A bunch of fountains in a big park that are connected by a little fountain river!

At another end of the park is a large public wellness center, with a lap-swim pool, a fun pool, several hot tubs, a few saunas, and a large spa that offers just about any kind of relaxing treatment you could want.

And there's the rose garden

The Japanese garden

And some more fun stuff

A flock of ducks feasting on fallen apples

Three people in the world will understand this. I'm sorry if you're not one of them.