Photo TR: A trip to Germany und Amsterdam!

Being that this is going to be a rather large update, I decided to open another thread instead of posting this in my 'Philrad's 2009 theme/amusement park' thread. There are quite a few pics to post...some are not the best of quality, but the majority of them were not taken with our normal Olympus camera. I hope you still enjoy it!

We left Buffalo/Niagara airport on a rainy, cold fall day (9/29/09). This is the trip we have been waiting well over a year for and believe me, it did not disappoint!

All of the people we encountered in beer tents and other spots along the way were warm, friendly and almost all of them spoke English! Even though the tents were jam-packed and we figured that we would never land a spot, there were some friendly German families that made room for us.

I will say that Oktoberfest is one of the craziest, most awesome events on the planet! Yes, beer and ride tickets are very expensive...but well worth it. Despite the fact that there were some people that were extremely annihilated to the point of not even being able to walk, everyone was fairly peaceful. I did not feel unsafe at any point, but was aware not to flash money around or keep it loose in my pockets.

Anyone that has a love for good beer, extreme rides and fun should get on over to Munich and experience this event at least once in their lifetimes! It was simply too awesome to explain in words!

I see you over there Lowenbrau...we will get to you soon enough! Part two coming soon with beer tent pics, ferris wheel overview shots, more rides and us getting drunk at the 'Fest...don't miss it! Thanks for reading!

High Energy is probably best enjoyed before hitting the beer tents.

If you like spin-n-puke flats they had about five varieties of these "Scramblers on Acid".

They also had a nice looking log flume ride: Wild Wasser.

But of course...this was the biggie - Olympia Looping! This thing kicked total ass! So many G-Forces that I still have a huge bruise on my right thigh from the restraints pushing down while going through all of the loops! Damn, this thing is intense!

The Alpina Bahn was one of the major coasters.

Another tower ride, but this was one that shot you up instead of dropped. They had tons of smoke that came out of the center of the tower after launch. When I first saw it, I thought something majorly wrong was happening. Think SFKK and snapping cables - yikes!

Jumanji - Robin Williams looks to have taken a turn for the worse here.

Futureworld - didn't there used to be a really crazy looking martian or space creature that hung out over this attraction in years past?

More dark ride love...

They gave a shout out to Las Vegas + Siegfried and Roy.

It's, it's...the Hollenblitz! Very cool looking coaster!

If you're into Wild Boar, well...there just so happens to be a place where you can get some at the Oktoberfest!

...awesome!!!

They had a Power Tower that had a crazy cycle. Slow up, drop halfway down, back up, drop all the way down...

Speaking of fahrt...it was forbidden in this area.

...like Fahrt Zur Holle, which when run through my cheesy translator means: A Trip to the Hole!

They had tons of dark rides, fun hauses and haunted hauses...

I have never seen so many colors and lights on rides before...this is like Claw at Hershey, but about ten times more kick-ass!

In case you can't get a seat in one of the beer halls or gardens, they have booze-go-rounds where you can hop on to enjoy your favorite Bavarian beer!

Oktoberfest is very disorienting...dark one minute and light the next!

Some looked like they may have had one too many Mas!

Later that evening, we headed over to Oktoberfest. It was about a ten minute walk from our hotel room.

After the beer and pretzels, we were shot. It was time to check into the hotel for a quick snooze. While the room was small, if they have a Dali hanging on the wall it automatically gets four stars!

Not to disappoint some of the guys out there, I have to include some obligatory pics of German women in classic Bavarian attire!

A Mas of beer and a pretzel - YAY! Seriously, these "breze" were enough for a meal...they were huge!

Being that we were in Munich by 11:00 AM, we decided to walk around and just happened to end up here for an early breakfast of....

Welcome to Munich and the beautiful Marienplatz!

De plane boss, de plane! This is actually the pond jumper we took from Philly to Munich.

What better way to start out a trip to Oktoberfest than with a beer at the Buff airport?

Great pictures.

Those pretzels are my favorite meals in German themeparks or funfairs : it's indeed a full meal and they are really cheap.

^ Danke!

Yes, I could not believe how they could suffice as a meal for about 3 Euro!

I must have had the B-team when I went to Hofbrauhaus back in May. The waitresses and pretzel girls were all older, Eastern-European-looking women with massive biceps that looked like they could have broken up a bar fight with one arm while carrying three 1-L glasses of beer in the other.

Incidentally, Weisses Brauhaus, just a short walk from Hofbrauhaus, has really amazing traditional Bavarian food. But it's more of a restaurant and you don't get that crazy Hofbrauhaus experience.

The church at Marienplatz looks like the best haunted house ever...gruesome, in a good way...

Besides...the huge "puppet" you were missing was in front of StarWorld, which is now looking totally different. It`s now called "Höllenblitz-the coaster" and has a complete new theming...

GeorgeT

The church at Marienplatz looks like the best haunted house ever...gruesome...

One of the churches there, St. Peter's, has this totally awesome skeleton of a 4th Century Christian martyr:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cd/2350_-_M%C3%BCnchen_-_St_Peterskirche.JPG

Never in America!

the evening pictures looks awesome!

thanks for share it.

I must have had the B-team when I went to Hofbrauhaus back in May. The waitresses and pretzel girls were all older, Eastern-European-looking women with massive biceps that looked like they could have broken up a bar fight with one arm while carrying three 1-L glasses of beer in the other.

LOL! Yes, there were some of those there too! I would imagine that there must be a high case of carpal tunnel syndrome from carrying around all of those 1-L glasses of beer every day.

^^ Wow...that is cool!

Nice pictures! I really want to go to Octoberfest. Olympia Looping is such an amazing coaster, and just the whole atmosphere seems like something you don't want to miss!

One of these days I'll get over to Oktoberfest, was EuroStar there this year??

Oktoberfest - Part Zwei!

First, I would like to thank Robb & Elissa for posting my report on the front page - very flattering!

This next grouping of pictures are from our first and second nights at Oktoberfest. The beer halls were ridiculously crowded, but we managed to land at a reserved table in the Hofbrau hall with a very nice German family.

But I do not want to disappoint my fellow friends at TPR, so here ya go!

Part three coming soon - thanks for reading!

Our seating area was in the reserved area, so it was not quite as raucous as the center of the hall. However, there were still some ladies that were up dancing on the benches. They also had a strict no-boob-picture-taking policy, so I will not be able to share any with the group.

This nice looking young lady spoke fluent English and helped translate some of our conversation to her parents and Aunt/Uncle in German. Very friendly people!

This is the awesome German family that let us sit with them in the Hofbrau tent!

This one's for Big Mike!

Okay, enough fische...back to the beer tents! This is inside the Hofbrau tent.

If you don't like fische, than maybe nordseekrabben might be your thing? At first, I thought maggots, but later realized it was only little shrimpies. To the left, filet-o-fish... Bavarian style!

Who likes fische?

It's literally fish-on-a-stick and is quite popular in Bavaria. What better way to coat your stomach before mass ingestion of beer than to gnash into a dead fish on a stick with your fingers and teeth? Yummy!

But before we go back to the beer tents, how 'bout a little Steckerlfische first?

Outside the Hacker-Pschorr tent. There are six main Bavarian breweries represented at Oktoberfest: Pschorr, Hofbrau, Lowenbrau, Paulaner, Spaten and Augustiner (oldest brewery). They had security checking bags at every door because of the terrorist threats that came out days earlier.

Our first Mas at Oktoberfest was in the beer garden outside the Lowenbrau tent. By this time, we were VERY thirsty!

Inside the Lowenbrau tent - here you can see that it is quite crowded.

The Lowenbrau Lion! Every couple of minutes, he would wake from his drunken slumber and give a mild roar (or maybe it was a groan?).

Yay beer!

Love the report so far. Octoberfest is something i really want to do sometime before I die.

Love the German traditional girls...

And the rest as well

This one is probably THE cutest girl in traditional outfit, ever!

You can find it typing Oktoberfest in Google images. It's the picture that our newspapers always use when reporting about Oktoberfest!

One of these days I'll get over to Oktoberfest, was EuroStar there this year??

EuroStar is sold to a themepark in Russia (Gorky Park)

Awesome report.

On the eighth day, God created the dirndl. I'm positive about that.

One of these days I'll get over to Oktoberfest, was EuroStar there this year??

 

EuroStar is sold to a themepark in Russia (Gorky Park)

Must have missed that happening then!!

Wonder if any more large scale coasters will get built specifically for the travelling market?

Insane report! I was looking forward to this one for awhile. And it was well worth the wait. Great pictures!

I'm glad you had fun in Jolly Deutschland, home of the largest Hüßenbraten.

--James

Thanks for the nice comments, guys!

I was also hoping for a chance to ride EuroStar, but was happy with the Alpina Bahn, Hollenblitz and (of course) Olympia Looping!

The flats and the colors are just so much more intense than the one's at the US fairs.

Cycle times seemed good too...our cycle on the ferris wheel was at least 10 revolutions, plus the stoppage to load the cars. Some of the spin & pukes looked to be almost too much with their long cycles. I stayed away from those once I started drinking beer!

Update Drei!

This time, we'll go back to the midway a bit and focus on some more of the rides.

I knew that in order to get a good feel for the layout, we needed a spin on the ferris wheel. Unfortunately, even with a small tripod, a lot of the pictures came out a little blurry (no, we had not been in a beer tent before-hand!)

Luckily, the cycle was incredibly long for five Euro and there were some stops to get a few good stills...

Last shot from the wheel. Next up...last night at Oktoberfest which means back to the beer tents! Thanks again for reading!

Phil

Wild Maus from above...

I even grabbed a shot of the tire- driven lift for all you lift hill nerds!

Ahhh...but here is one I will shell out some Euro to ride - Alpina Bahn!

It IS a credit! I was too lame to shell out the Euro to whore myself though. I have already ridden too many coasters to count credits, so counting at this point would make no sense. I dig the Indian in the tight leather shorts tho!

Hmmm....hidden credit down there?

Oh, those colors...so bright, so beautiful - even when you're sober!

Overview of everyone's favorite European carnival junkie - Olympia Looping. I think I want to quit my job and just travel across Europe with Olympia Looping. Hey, it'd be cooler than marrying 1001 Nacht!!!

...and this is the section for the naughty beer chronics like me!

This is the family section...

Oooh...ahhhh! I had to boot some ogling brat and an old lady out of the way to get this shot! (kidding)

Yay...our kick-ass trolley car looking ferris wheel thingie is here!

AAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! I'm sorry, but this ride makes me feel very insecure about my manhood!

Midway with Star Flyer in the distance. Noooo...I did not do it this time. Fantasy Island and the CNE last year were enough!

I think I've seen this one in the States before, but it sure looked awesome. Like a newer version of the Tilt-A-Whirl?

God, did this thing look crazy! I really wish that I would have ridden it now!

I think Mandeln is German for 'lesbian garden'.

Had to get a pic of Michael with the Hurdy-Gurdy man before heading back into the 'fest!

Incredible (Night-) Shots, especially the one with the total (from the side) of Olympia Looping...the best shot I ever saw from that coaster...congrats !

GeorgeT

Man, that looks like a good time. Beer and Schwarzkopfs.

Here is the last part of Oktoberfest...last night and probably the most buzzed I was the entire time we were in Germany. I managed to down 4 Mas in the beer tent for the closing ceremonies and then two more back at the bar near the hotel.

Needless to say, I wasn't in the greatest shape for our last day in Munich, but it was well worth it. What an awesome party!

Of course, the party didn't stop there...we met up with some fun guys from England at the bar near the hotel for two more Mas!

Thanks for reading!

Next up: Europa Park & Amsterdam craziness!

And that is the end of Oktoberfest. What a great time...I think everyone should try to go at least once in their lifetime!

And when the parties over...it's over! I barely had time to finish my Mas when security was ushering us out the door!

The place was rockin' for the last song!

The band bids their last good-byes...

Air guitar for the German version of 'Highway to Hell'? Yeah, we might have been just a little buzzed!

Michael picked up the lingo quick and was soon singing along (after several Mas of course)!

They were awesome in helping us understand some of the German toasts and were encouraging us to get on the benches and dance to the music!

These are more friends we made - Fabian and Angelika. They lived almost right across the street from Oktoberfest! How cool is that?

Granny was also gettin' jiggy wit it!

Guess we better soak up some of the beer with another giant breze!

This is the way things start to look after one too many Mas of beer!

They were a lot of fun to party with!

However, it did not take her long to hook up with someone else!

This gal wanted to hook up on Facebook, but she did not know my dirty lil' secret!

Yay...we scored!

Last night...we need to find a seat in the beer hall, dammit!

Good stuff. Germany is such a fantastic country and Munich is probably my favorite big city in the world. I spent a couple days near Marienplatz in March with a school group. Fun to see pictures of that stuff.

Looking forward to Europa Park.

Btw, "und" is spelled with a d, not a t, lol (looking at the title of the thread).

Great TR! I lived in Germany for a year and a half, and I've been back a few times since, but I still haven't been to Oktoberfest in Munchen. Hope to make it there in the next few years! I did get to go on some of these rides at Hamburgerdom in the summertime (including the AWESOME Olympia Looping) - not quite the same though. The Germans always know how to throw a party - and they make the best beer in the world. Can't wait to go back there. Ich liebe Deutschland!!

Btw, "und" is spelled with a d, not a t, lol (looking at the title of the thread).

Yes! Michael pointed that out to me when I was showing him the report. I don't know why I was thinking it was unt!

Thanks for helping me out with my Deutsch - glad you liked the report!