Business and Pleasure in Germany

Our couple weeks in Germany included two stops - one for business and another for pleasure.  The business stop was a 9 day physical therapy course that Lindsay took in Bad Sobernheim, a small town in the Rhineland-Palatinate, about an hour west of Frankfurt.  The pleasure stop was a couple days in Munich for Oktoberfest - the world's best party.

Oktoberfest occurs every year in Munich, Germany for 16 days, from mid-Sep to the first weekend of October.  With over 6 million visitors annually, it's the world's largest beer festival.  Oktoberfest takes place on a massive fairground in Munich called Theresienwiese, which includes 14 large tents serving beer and food, carnival rides, games, and food stands serving a variety of German treats like sausages, pretzels and honey roasted nuts.  Beer in Munich, brewed strictly in accordance with Bavarian purity laws, is always fantastic, but the breweries in Munich brew their best beer every year for the festival.  The beer is served only in liter quantities and has an alcohol content of about 6-6.5% (about a percentage point higher than normal).  One liter will make you very happy.  After 1.5 liters, the night descends into a blur of random shouts of "Prost!" (which means "Cheers!" in German), hugging people you just met, and singing cheesy songs like "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond or "Heal the World" by Michael Jackson as passionately as you ever will.

For those of you who have never been to Oktoberfest, the term "tent" might be conjuring up an image of small canvas structure that you sleep in while camping.  The tents at Oktoberfest are more permanent structures and house several thousand people.  Each tent has it's own feel, but all have picnic table communal seating, which ensures that you'll be making new friends.  They also have a center stage where a live band plays a mix of traditional Bavarian music, classic sing-a-longs and more contemporary music.  We spent our first evening at Armbrustchützenzelt, which serves Paulaner beer.

We visited the Armbrustschützen tent on our first evening at Oktoberfest

Inside the tent, there is an elevated center stage surrounded by hundreds of picnic tables.

Center stage where the band PLATZ Oktoberfestkapelle plays all the hits

Other tables are free seating and seats are available on a first come first served basis.  We attended the festival during the week and were able to get a couple of seats pretty easily at 4pm on the first day.  If you're coming on a weekday, you really want to get there before 5/6pm, as all the locals typically show up after work and by 7pm, the place will be rocking and rolling, with most people standing on their chairs.  By that point, it gets significantly tougher to insert yourself into the party.  Even if you get a seat, everyone will be wasted.  You're better off getting to know one another a bit before the madness begins :)

Note that if you're coming on a weekend without a reservation, you'll need to get there as early as you can to ensure you can get seats.  The festival runs from 10am-10:30pm on the weekdays and from 9am-10:30pm on the weekends.  If you're a larger group, you're better off reserving, which happens months before the festival.

As we took our seats, we introduced ourselves to our table mates and ordered our first beers.  Notice the size of beers - they only come in liters and are served in thick glasses that can take a lot of punishment through the evening as you pound them against one another and say "Prost!"  The beers pair perfectly with freshly baked Bavarian pretzels, which help soak up all that alcohol.

Lindsay enjoying the perfect combination

Prost!

The Armbrustchützen tent served typical Bavarian food, including roast chicken and sausages with sauerkraut and potato salad.  

Sausages with sauerkraut, potato salad and mustard

Half roast chicken

This dude was selling some tasty pickles

We had a blast with our table.  Our table mates included a really nice couple from Winnipeg - Jen and Craig - also on their honeymoon, three Bavarian guys who never gave us their names but were great fun, and a couple from Munich, Andreas and Sylvie.

Two of three Bavarian guys are in front, and Jen and Craig are in the middle.  The place was rocking and rolling by this point.

Andreas and Sylvie (in the middle) were awesome

Sylvie was Lindsay's new BFF

Our Bavarian friends posing for a picture

Don't remember what we were singing, but we were singing it passionately

We spent our second day in Munich exploring the city before revisiting Oktoberfest in the evening.  Munich was largely destroyed in the war, so it's short on historical buildings.  Nonetheless, it is a very pleasant city to walk around in, as it has one of the largest pedestrian areas in Europe and an enormous beautiful park called the English Garden.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit rainy and cold, so we skipped the park in favor of the city center.  I used to live in Munich in 2001, so I took Lindsay to my old favorite Thai place near the University called Kun-Tuk.  It's funny, but you can generally always find good Thai food in Germany (I suspect that there are quite a few Thai women married to German men).

Marienplatz - the main plaza in Munich

After a couple days at Oktoberfest, we drove up to Bad Sobernheim for Lindsay's course on the Schroth Method..  The Schroth Method is a treatment approach for scoliosis which aims to minimize progression of the abnormal curvatures and, in the optimal case, reverse the curves.  Lindsay's colleague at the Hospital for Special Surgery used the treatment approach in NYC, and Lindsay was interested in learning more about it.  Given that we were planning on being in Germany for Oktoberfest, she thought it would be a great idea to get certified in the Schroth Method in the place where it originated and has been practiced successfully since the 1920s, the Asklepios Katharina-Schroth Klinik in Bad Sobernheim.

Asklepios Katharina-Schroth Klinik

The clinic pictured above was built in 1997 and houses 173 beds for patients with varying degrees of scoliosis. Patients typically stay for 4-6 weeks, depending on individual needs. Their treatment includes ongoing physician consultation, radiographs to monitor the curves and intensive conservative physical therapy treatment for 6 hours per day, 7 days per week. Most treatment sessions are in a group setting, however, it can also include individual sessions for exercise and breathing. The picture below was taken in one of their classrooms. Notice the amount of mirrors. Visual feedback is encouraged, with mirrors in every classroom (even on the ceilings for exercises performed on their back) and in the hallways to promote "conscious posture", thereby minimizing habitual postures.

Lindsay and her classmates with their instructor Axel Hennes (front)

Enjoying some beers to celebrate everyone passing the exam for their Schroth certification.  From left to right:  Dmitry (Russia), Pier (France), Mary (Hong Kong), Claire (Luxembourg), Lindsay and Funda (Turkey)

While Lindsay was taking her course, I took the opportunity to go visit Dennis McMurray, a childhood friend whom I hadn't seen in 20 years.  During junior high (at Barnhart in Arcadia), Dennis was one of my closest friends - we played basketball together, shared a similar taste in music, and hung out at each others' houses often.  Unfortunately, we lost touch in high school and hadn't spoken since.  Dennis noticed that I was coming to Germany on Facebook and suggested that I meet up with him, as he's currently stationed in Stuttgart with the Air Force.  I hopped on the train from Bad Sobernheim to Stuttgart to spend the weekend with Dennis and his family, who graciously showed me around town and offered me a place to stay.  Immediately upon arrival, his wife Kia made me feel very welcomed with this beautiful gift basket.

Kia's generous gift basket with delicious wine and lots of local/European treats

It was really wonderful to catch up with Dennis and meet his family.  His wife Kia is a sweetheart, his two boys - Dennis and Michael - are great kids, and Dennis has grown up to be a fantastic husband and father.  Dennis and I are the same age, but we're at very different points in our life.  Dennis and his wife Kia are not too far from being empty nesters, while Lindsay and I are about to start our own family.  I really enjoyed and appreciated Dennis' perspectives on things, and hope to introduce him and his family to Lindsay sometime soon.  Here's a shot of the two of us at the Volksfest, Stuttgart's version of Oktoberfest.

Old friends catching up over beers

The 9 days in Bad Soberheim also offered me and Lindsay plenty of time for marathon training.  Surprisingly, this small town was the easiest place to train during our entire two months in Europe, as they have built a bike path that runs over 80 km along the Nahe river.  The setting is beautiful, through a lush green valley surrounded by vineyards and forest.

Lindsay on one of our training runs through the German countryside

Our next post will be a big one, as it will cover our 2.5 weeks of eating and drinking our way through Italy, capped off by the marathon in Venice.  Stay tuned!