Our ten days in Munich was really great. We had a great visit with our friends who had a lovely dog, Maya.

What most of the world thinks of as German is, in fact, Bavarian. Leiderhosen, dirndls, beer halls, castles and painted alpine cottages, they are all to be found in Bavaria.
We visited the Neuschanstein castle, built by King Ludwig II, until his mysterious and untimely drowning in a nearby lake in 1886. Construction of the castle was halted upon his death, and it became a museum only 6 weeks later.

Today, still only 1/3 of the interior of the castle is finished and there was to be another taller tower in the castle as well. This castle is the one that Walt Disney got his inspiration for the Disneyland Sleeping Beauty castle.

As many know, Munich is the centre of the Oktoberfest celebrations. This is a statue of the Queen of Bavaria, who overlooks the giant field when, for 3 weeks in October, 8,500,000 people gather to celebrate and drink beer. The field holds over 100,000 people at one time. There are many beer tents, and one has the capacity of 8,000 people, about the population of Revelstoke!

We did some touring around the central and oldest part of Munich as well. Here is the beautiful city hall.

Later in the day we visited the Hofbrauhaus, the official brewhouse of the King of Bavaria over 400 years ago. Many of the locals come dressed in the traditional Leiderhosen and hats adorned with tufts of the beard of a local goat.

Here is Simon with his one litre mug of beer!

I opted for the Weiss-beer, or white beer, which comes in a more managable size.

There was a guy’s stag going on at the table beside us and the girls charmed the table and got some of their party favours from them.

We took a night walk around the city centre after the brewhouse, watching the local nightlife and beautiful historic buildings lit up.

It was a big day for little girls.

It was my birthday this week, and My friend, Dana, made my favourite cake, a Black Forest cake. It was really yummy!

Thanks to Norman and Dana for hosting us in their lovely house! We look forward to them visiting us in Canada!