Bavarians, friendship and beer! - Bad Heilbrunn, Germany
Bad Heilbrunn, Germany
Where I stayed
Monika and Helmut, Bad Heilbrunn
Last Friday, we found ourselves deep in the heart of Bavaria and grateful that we had GPS or we may never have found Monika's house! We met Monika nearly 11 years ago trekking back down from Everest Base Camp. She was trekking on her own and had a severe case of the Khumbu cough, a high altitude cough named after the Everest region. It is caused by cold, dry air combined with over exertion and is fairly common if you have been trekking for a while over there. We had been there over two months and Monika had been there a month but her cough was way worse than mine and we raided our medical kits and plied her with antibiotics till we reached Katmandhu. Good job too because the coughing can become so violent and put so much strain on your chest that you can tear muscles and break ribs!!
We had all clicked immediately and had heaps of laughs on the way back down. There were also three Aussie guys and an Aussie couple who we had all met on the way and all of us got together with a few others at one of the backpackers in Katmandhu and had a great party before we all flew off in different directions....memories like these are like the Crown Jewels!! Ten Xmas letters later and there she was, waving wildly. Visually she looks like an Amazon woman, tall, slim, dark hair and incredibly strong. She is the only woman that lifts me off my feet when she hugs me! Hiking and mountain biking come a good second to climbing for her.....proper climbing with the ropes and carabiners, hence the strength! "No fear" Monika lives with Helmut who we nicknamed "Mountain boy". These guys are roughly our age, by the way! Helmut is an alpine guide, climber, mountaineer, fireman and in the mountain rescue team.....and he is VERY Bavarian!!!
Bavaria is a State in South Germany, bordering Austria - it's capital is Munich. Although it is part of Germany, Bavarians have a very strong and separate identity which they go to great lengths to preserve! They consider themselves "Bavarians" first, "Germans" second. It is a little like Goans and Indians! Bavaria, blessed with the Alps and once purely agricultural, is now the most affluent region in Germany. Most Germans, given the option, want to live in Munich. There are several large corporate players who have made their home there, like BMW (Bavarian Motor Works), Siemens, Adidas, etc....
Bavarians are different from Germans on many fronts....religion, dress, food, tradition, language and culture. Take the language, for example - the Bavarian dialect is so different that the average German can only understand about 40% of what is said!! It is probably closer to Austrian than German. Religion - Bavarians are mainly Catholic, whilst the rest of Germany is mainly Protestant. Tradition - they keep alive centuries old traditions through festivals and dances - the Oktoberfest is a classic example. Dress - Lederhosen is still worn in Bavaria by the men - mainly on special occasions but many still wear the leather trousers as part of their normal wardrobe attire, in town and hiking on the mountains. The women's traditional dress is called Dirndl, a brightly coloured skirt that drops to just below the knee with a bodice which is laced tight at the front over a white blouse with elbow length puff sleeves. A brightly coloured apron completes the look. The dirndl was what country girls and peasants wore in days gone by and is very Bavarian; it is also worn in Austria. Food and drink - Bavarians love eating and drinking; they also eat large amounts of certain foods that are not found easily elsewhere in Germany....especially Weisswurst (white sausage).
And then there is the beer!! Served normally by the litre and true Bavariian beer is different. A law established in 1487 by the Duke of Bavaria allows only three ingredients in the beer: water, barley and hops. In 1906, it made its way into all-German law where it remained until the European Union struck it out as being incompatible with the European common market. Pathetic....in fact I remember way back English bananas being originally banned because they were too bent...bureaucracy gone mad! The beer must still taste good because Bavarians are amongst the most beer loving nations in the world with an annual consumption of 170 litres per person!!
And so to Helmut! A real mountain man, very sociable, likes good food and a beer, but I couldn't understand a word he said! A true Bavarian!
We were intending to stay a night or two, not wanting to overstay our welcome, however Monika had other ideas! She sat us down in the kitchen when we arrived, made us a coffee and just as we had started drinking it, she said: "Right, this is the programme! One night is not enough...you are staying till midnight on Sunday at least!"...and lo and behold, completely unbeknownst to us, Monday was Monika's 50th birthday and as Helmut was on a 24 hour fireman shift for the Oktoberfest (till 8am Monday), we were given the privilege of staying up till midnight to welcome in her birthday. Monika's programme did not end there - she had mountain biking, hiking and dinner at friends all lined up. On Monday when she and Helmut were going to be out climbing for her birthday, we were to go to the Oktoberfest!! Mmmnn, hiking, mountain biking, good food, drinking and Oktoberfest......we thought we could perhaps accommodate "the programme"!!!!
Their house is beautiful and not even in a village but in the middle of countryside amongst meadows, trees and cows with a couple of farms nearby. It is an eco friendly house in that no chemicals have been used anywhere in the construction or interior finish. This is not surprising as Bavarians are originally mountain folk and in touch with nature; the Green Party does well in this State! As the top floor of the house is rented out, we slept in our van on the drive during the night. Well, first night we were there, we fell asleep fairly quickly, but were woken up at about 4am by what sounded like artillery fire - cannons or something similar, which went on for about an hour or more. We lay in our bed wondering if we were actually dreaming or whether this was for real, was Germany being invaded, was it getting louder, were they getting closer....and then it stopped........
Breakfast the next morning was a spread of Breze (pretzel) and Semmel (rolls) fresh from the bakery, with cheese, prosciutto and salami, also cake and freshly ground coffee....it was a real spread! I asked Monika if she had heard the artillery fire during the early hours of the morning and she nonchalantly replied: "Oh, that's a Bavarian wedding!"
And so to "the programme"! We grabbed the mountain bikes and following Monika, we headed right out of the drive and straight up a hill, passing another farm where they made honey and out towards Bad Tolz. Now there are over 80 towns in Bavaria that begin with "Bad", which translated literally, means "bath" in German. These towns are spa towns and to have the prefix "Bad", the town has to be officially recognised by the State as a spa town; moreover if it does not maintain its natural springs and thermal spas, it can lose its status and be made to remove the prefix!
It was a lovely cycle ride to Bad Tolz, through country lanes and with a little bit of off-road, passing by farms and chalets. We stopped for coffee at a very small place on the corner of the street and were just enjoying a chat with the locals when a guy tweaked Mark's ear from behind and then got the fright of his life when he realised that he had mistaken Mark for someone else - what followed was a lot of ribbing about his sexual orientation by his mates and we saw at first hand how extremely sociable these folk are!
From Bad Tolz, Monika led us up a very long hill, which hopefully burnt some of the breakfast calories off and we ended up at the Benediktbeuern monastery. Now I was especially interested in this place because one of my favourite pieces of classical music is called Carmina Burana - I love it! Well, apparently, I can thank this particular monastery for this piece of music, because back in 1803, the Carmina Burana manuscript was found here....of all places!! And the German composer, Carl Orff took it and put it to music....it was his greatest ever work!
The monastery was built in 739, so is now nearly 1300 years old - boy, that is old, but it is in great condition as are a lot of the Bavarian monasteries - it even houses a beer garden! The interesting thing about beer gardens in Bavaria is they are quite happy for you to bring your own picnic - they are only interested in serving you beer! I guess it is the converse to a BYO restaurant in NZ, where you can bring your own beer as they are only interested in serving you food. The backdrop to the monastery was a huge rock massif, on which Helmut had established two separate climbing routes for teaching less experienced climbers.
Dinner that evening was at Lisi's parents' house (Heine and Christine). Lisi, we had not seen for just over a year. We had come home from work one day last March (in NZ) and there was a campervan parked on our drive - a young guy was offloading Lisi and her backpack onto our front garden! Her mother and Monika were friends so here she was!! We had great fun with Lisi, riding horses on the beach at Pakiri, just north of Auckland and spending a few days in the Bay of Islands - she also dived at the Poor Knights and tramped the Tongariro Crossing....and here we were now, having dinner with her and her parents in Tegensee in Bavaria!!
The next morning, all of us (except Helmut, who had to work) had breakfast together and then Heine drove us to HeimGarten, which is a mountain. The tramp to the top of HeimGarten and along the ridge to Herzogstand is one of the most popular Bavarian walks. It climbs up about 1000 metres and then you walk along a very long ridge to the top of Herzogstand, where you can take a cable car back down. The scenery is amazing, particularly along the ridge as it falls away on both sides. You are surrounded by mountains and at one point, you can see about six lakes! A cafe at the top of Herzogstand was a welcome relief after the 5 hour tramp and Mark enjoyed a King Ludwig Dark ale served by women wearing the traditional Dirndl before we headed down on a fairly quick cable car that seemed to drop over the steep sides smoothly and effortlessly.
Then, according to the programme, which we were thoroughly enjoying, Mark and I drank red wine, spritzers and Prosecco with Monika until the clock struck midnight and we drunkenly sang "Happy Birthday".
Over the previous 24 hours, my brother (Peter) had emailed saying that he was driving towards Munich in his little French car, a Berlingo and asking exactly where were we? It amazed me that he was prepared to drive 16 hours each way to see us for a day!! We told him we were on Monika's programme and would be going to the Oktoberfest on the Monday, and we arranged to meet him at the train station in Bad Tolz at 9.30 in the morning. Late on Sunday night, we got an email from him saying he had got the last available room in the town and only because a friendly taxi driver near the station had rung around them all for him! Bad Tolz is about an hour from Munich by train but apparently the opening ceremony for the Oktoberfest that day (Sunday) had attracted almost a million people, so rooms were full everywhere, even an hour away!
Having missed out on the classical music concert in Neuschwanstein, we were pretty happy to be able to attend this cultural highlight of the Bavarian calendar!! The very first Octoberfest was held in 1810, so this was the 203rd year that it was held, less a few for the odd war and the odd epidemic! It started originally to celebrate the October 12th wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and his Saxon Princess Therese. The citizens of Munich were invited to the wedding which was held over five days on the fields in front of the city gates. The fields were named Theresienwiese, after the Princess, "wiese" meaning "meadow" in German. Being a highly sociable bunch, 40,000 people attended! The festival, known locally as Festwiese, is still held in the same place each year, on the Theriesenwiese, much of which has since been tar-sealed as the town has grown around it.
Horse races were held at the very first Oktoberfest! But by 1819, the race had been replaced by beer carts and a carnival-like atmosphere. The leaders of Munich decided that Oktoberfest would be held each year, no exceptions. And though Oktoberfest originated from a 5 day wedding, it was extended to 16 days of revelry and heavy drinking. Only in Bavaria, eh! Where else would you get an elected government to suggest over two weeks of beer drinking for its citizens!
The beer is served in a glass called a Mass which holds 1 litre and is a lot stronger than the beer served in bars and cafes. Alcohol level is up around 8%. The traditional thing to do is to stand on one of the tables and "down it in one go". Many pass out as they underestimate the effects of the higher alcohol content and these guys are called Bierleichen" ("beer corpses"). Despite the potency and the price of 9-10 Euro compared to about 3 Euro elsewhere does not put anyone off the amber nectar! Beer consumption over Oktoberfest exceeds 5 million litres. What's more, the litre mugs themselves are a hot item and security guards normally recover about 150,000, however many are not recovered. The Hofbräu tent alone averages 35,000 missing each year.
Peter was waiting for us when we got to the station - it was good to see him again so soon! I was quite surprised when he said he had not been to Oktoberfest before, so it was with growing anticipation that the three of us disembarked at Munich station and followed the crowds, most of whom had risen to the occasion and were in traditional Bavarian dress of lederhosen and dirndl.
Monika had suggested we start in the OideWiese part, which was sectioned off with a 3 Euro entry fee (the rest was free admission). What was special about the OideWiese is that it represents how the Oktoberfest used to be in the olden days. They had the old style carousels and rides together with an old fashioned beer hall where the beer was served in stone litre jugs (not glass). An oompah band in traditional dress played Bavarian folk music and there was a dancing area where Mark and I had a dance....what the hell...!! It was here that we tried three different sausage dishes including Weisswurst with sauerkraut. The food was washed down with Augustiner beer. Outside, there was a procession - a brass band in traditional dress followed by serving maidens. It would have been around this point that I discovered something else about my brother - his love of carousels!! So on the carousels we went! Why not!
From the OideWiesen, we wandered around the rest of the festival which stretched over six or seven streets. There are about 8 or 9 breweries, each of which has a hall. These are the only breweries who are licenced to produce the special Oktoberfest beer. In and amongst these halls, it is simply one very large fairground with all manner of death defying rides, slides, dodgems, swing boats, rollercoasters and those horror trips where horrible things like skeletons jump out at you! It is pretty much Disneyland on steroids!
We ventured into the Hofbrau hall, mainly because we had been told that it was where the antipodeans gather. The place was absolutely heaving and it was only mid afternoon! Row upon row of trestle tables nailed to the floor crammed with sit down drinkers, litre glasses strewn everywhere. Towards the centre, waist high tables for standing drinkers. There was all manner of nationality in there and it was very noisy....like one massive party....I'm guessing about 1000 people in there altogether!
As the band played on, the party continued.....every now and then, some brave or crazy guy would get up on the table and to the cheering and stamping of the adoring crowd, they would successfully quaff the whole litre in one go and then turn the jug upside down on their head, other hand raised in defiance! Of course, this is all that is needed to incite further rowdiness and tempt another young fellow onto the tables! Peter and Mark looked completely at home amongst the mayhem!
If you have never been, its a "must see". I had absolutely no idea of the sheer size of this festival nor that it went on for 16 days....I thought maybe some white marquis tents in some fields or something and I had no idea that it was held amidst a multitude of fairground attractions. It is, however, the largest beer festival in the world, attracting 6.5 million people each year. Drinking is a popular pastime, n'est-ce pas?