Oktoberfest 2012 in Pictures
Whole Lotta Flyin’ Goin’ On
I had another fine flight on Virgin-Atlantic to London – the airline just can't be beaten for comfort and service. As many of you already know, it's relatively easy to accumulate rewards points from various sources and apply them to Virgin's frequent flyer plan to get an upgrade to their Upper Class ticket. So, except for a bit of turbulence here and there, it was another great flight.
One of the other things I like about Virgin is the Revivals Lounge at Heathrow. It consists of 30 private bathrooms with showers, plus a breakfast cafe! So, at no extra charge, Upper Class passengers can shave, shower, and change clothes after a wrinkle-laden, Einstein hair inducing, fitfull night of semi-sleep on the red-eye flight and emerge looking reasonably human.
I spent two hours hanging at Heathrow, busying myself to avoid falling asleep, and then caught a Lufthansa flight to Munich. It's amusing to compare American and European flight expectations: my Lufthansa economy ticket included several inches of free space between my tall man's knees and the seat ahead of me, and free food and drink (even wine and beer). Fabulous. However, there were no food choices. Instead, the stewardess practically raced her cart down the aisle, tossing a one-flavor-fits-all French bread pizza to everyone, without a word. It was mushroom marinara pizza, which I find tasty but it might not have suited everyone. Yet I head no complaining, no demanding to know what other flavors there were, and saw no one acting as if they were entitled to mutliple choices. Kind of refreshing, actually.
Munich's airport is modern and well-laid out and sits atop two rail lines. It struck me as odd though that the trains are express trains. They're locals, making 12 stops over 40 minutes, before reaching the center of the city and adding more time and jammed-in comraderie with other humans to your trip. Hmm… sounds a bit like a rail project that's working its way out to Dulles airport outside Washington, D.C.
See the traditional lederhosen costume at left? As the train made its way into town, more and more people in this traditional dress for Oktoberfest got on board. Women in those dirndl dresses, too. In fact, I arrived into the Hauptbahnhof central train station in a veritable swarm of these outfits. Fighting down the urge to race out and plunk down $300 for a real one, I luckily realized it just wouldn't “go” with anything else I own. Considering that they're made out of rather heavy leather, I don't how I'd have gotten one in my suitcase anyway, without sacrificing the room I set aside the for endless souvenirs I rashly promised everyone I know.
I found my hotel without mishap, and managed to get out to an Italian restaurant for a simple meal, and my first Oktoberfest (only 20-oz.) beer. Yes, everyone in town is serving the seasonal brew. Tomorrow is forecast to be a nice, cool, sunny day and I will devote all of it to worshipping the golden grain product and making my dent in the millions of pints that will be served this year at Oktoberfest. Stay tuned!
On The Road Again
Welcome back. It's been a while since I've posted here and I'm very glad you're reading my blog. I hope you'll stay with me as I jet off to some interesting places in Europe once again and I look forward to adding regularly to this chronicle of my travels.
As you can tell by looking at the dates of the posts here, I managed to skip reporting on my 2011 trip entirely. No specific reason; just didn't do it. I did go to Amsterdam for the first time and it was wet but a lot of fun. The Dutch are a friendly people, to be sure.
If you tag along with me, this year we'll start off by spending some time enjoying the last few days of Oktoberfest in its home town, Munich. Then we'll take a scenic train ride over the Alps and down into my favorite island destination, Venice. The City of Light, Paris, will be our third stop, with some interesting events in store there for us. Then it will be back under the English Channel by train to London to revisit some familiar places and new pubs.
My trip doesn't start for a few more days, but do check back here after that for my daily photos and musings.
Fall Travel a Smarter Plan
Man, am I glad I didn’t book a holiday to the UK for April – May! The Icelandic Volcano Dust dilemma would have made things very dicey, indeed. Me thinks that a Fall return to the UK and Paris sounds like a better bet.
Update June 24: Yes, definitely working on a trip to Venice-Paris-London in early October.
Home Again
After an uneventful return to London on the Eurostar train, I went down to The Mitre pub and had a lovely pint of Wells Bombadier. Now that is some good ale! Then I explored a bit of the Bayswater area that I’d not been through before and discovered quite a few shops and restaurants I’ll have to investigate further on my next trip.
It’s fun to stand on the balcony landing inside Paddington Train station and watch the masses come and go. Paddington is the west London travel nexus, with Great Western trains from all over Britain arriving, trains from Heathrow disgorging airline travelers, and six Underground lines in the basement. Everyone crowds around watching the large overhead GW track assignment boards and then zooms off when their track is posted. Naturally, there’s a mini-mall of sorts there, too, with my traditional hotel (the Paddington Hilton) sitting on top of it all. Very convenient, I think. The station’s retail offerings include a pub, a Starbucks, and a Krispy Kreme donut shop, so I’m set.
Turned in early Friday night and Saturday packed up my stuff, hopped on the Heathrow Express and headed out to the airport and into the arms of the Virgin Atlantic Upper Class experience. Man, oh man, the dedicated check-in and security line are very nice. Then it was off to the Virgin Clubhouse for breakfast and some very relaxed waiting around for my flight. It ain’t cheap, but it sure is nice.
After a comfortable and posh flight home, just in time to hand out Halloween candy, I’m thinking back about how small the world has become and how wonderful it is to be able to explore it so relatively easily. I felt really good being back in my old haunts in Reading, and London and Paris seem so familiar now. My under-practiced French even worked out suprisingly well and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so relaxed speaking it. Having friends in these places make the experience all the better. I look forward to my next adventure and hope you will join me then.
Louvre: Liberty Leads the People
I went to the Louvre today and visited my favorite large-format 19th century paintings (Delacroix, David, Ingres, Gericault), which were inspiring as usual. I was amazed at the number of idiots taking flash photos of the paintings. I guess that virtually everyone has a camera these days and that the museum staff simply can’t stop everyone, so they post a few signs and give up. The flash, of course, is bad for the paintings. If it were up to me, I’d put one of those idiots in a cage on the wall for an hour with a large warning sign about camera flash. They even ignored the "No Photo" signs on the easel of the real painter painting a copy of one of the works. Sheesh! Cultural note: extreme rudeness is not, as often advertised, solely the province of American tourists. We’re all apparently "One World" when it comes to that.
The French are a bit riled up right now because it’s been announced that a McDonald’s will be joining the restaurant line-up in the Carousel du Louvre, the underground shoppng area beneath the museum.
Then, after a quick stop at nearby Angelina, advertised as a Tea Room but serving the world’s best hot chocolate since 1880-something, I strolled up thru Place Vendome, past all the high-high-high-end designer clothing and jewelry joints, to the decidedly more pedestrian Printemps department store. Like its neighbor, Galleries Lafayette, these are the definition of stores like this. Both massive buildings are built around inner cores topped by huge art-deco stained glass domes, and Printemps went the extra step of flooring in its 6th floor and opening a restaurant there. So, after surveying all the cool men’s clothes I couldn’t afford, fit into, or look sharp in, I had a lovely lunch beneath their fantastic glass dome. The meal began with cream of mushroom soup, which was jaw-droppingly good, and followed with a penne dish with gorgonzoloa cheese sause, with diced ham, white raisins, and walnuts. A lovely Bordeau was the perfect compliment. Absolutely tasty!
By the way, French clothing sizes (and also British sizes) do not necessarly match those in the U.S. and forget finding BIG stuff like size 13 shoes.
Then I hoofed about a bit more and spent time daydreaming while sitting in the Tuileries Gardens, which extend out from the Louvre. Many folks were out today, just enjoying the nice Fall weather. As in many French parks, there are long gravel and dirt paths which surround large areas of grass so perfect that any U.S. homeowner would kill for it. And yet, these perfect grassy areas are usually off limits to anyone! They’re bordered by flower beds and are clearly just eye-candy, and they sure look inviting.
Wound up the day back in my hotel neighborhood at the Soufflot Cafe. It’s quite fun to people-watch and also waiter-watch. Being a cafe waiter in France is an actual career, not just a temp job, and they take it seriously and perform it with style. They wear a standard uniform of black pants, white shirt, black vest, and white apron, and when not serving they patrol in front of their sidewalk seating and troll for customers. It’s really entertaining to observe them at work.
So tomorrow, I’m back on the Eurostar train at midday for London. There I’ll get one last crack at my favorite traditional ales before winging home on Saturday.
Camus, Sartre, and Hemingway
This morning I was up and out in time to catch the #27 bus and get to the Orsay Museum just before it opened. My nice Museum Pass let me skip to the front of a very long line and I was one of the first to get in. However, things do change, and that was proven when I discovered that my very favorite rooms, which house the Degas pastels, was closed for renovation! Nonetheless, I spent a few wonderful hours among the other Impressionist works and got to see some of my favorite sculptures again. The Orsay really has a fine collection. Don’t miss it when you come to Paris.
Then I hoofed it south to the Delacroix Museum, which is in his last home and studio. Got to stand in the bedroom where he died. The studio has a delightful little garden out back and the entire museum is very charming. This is what can happen when a concerned private group works hard to save the legacy of one of France’s leading artists. It doesn’t take long to see everything but it was cool seeing his paint palette, easel, and brushes.
I lunched on bread and goat cheese at nearby Le Deux Magots, a very famous (some say too touristy, but I didn’t find it so) cafe where various members of the 20th century literary and intellectual elite used to hang, including Simone de Beauvoir, Sartre, Camus, Picasso, and Hemingway. By the way, the name has nothing to do with "maggots" as we know them; translated, it means "The Two Chinamen" and refers to two wooden statues in the place.
My next stop was the Pantheon, a huge cathedral-like structure dedicated to the heroes of the French Republic. Big, interesting, quiet, and includes Foucalt’s pendulum (proving the Earth turns) in the middle.
Ended the day with a stroll through Luxembourg Gardens (my fave) and a few glasses of Brouilly at Soufflot Cafe. Marvelous!
Tomorrow, the Louvre and Galleries Lafayette!
A Great Evening with Marti and Phil
Yesterday was a fun day! After taking care of business and whatnot in the morning, I took the Metro over to the Bastille area and attempted to take a tour of the Bastille Opera House. Sadly, tours were not being offered. So I spent my afternoon strolling through the nearby Marais district, which includes some very old but nice palaces and gardens and the Jewish quarter. I saw a lot of very interesting architecture and had trouble resisting the wide variety of foods on offer.
About 1600h (4 pm) I went out to the Museum of Music and joined my friend Phil Demetrion for the "We Want Miles" exhibition, which covered the career of Miles Davis. French exhibition curators are, as Phil pointed out, very, very thorough. The career of Miles Davis is long and amazing and the exhibit didn’t skip a minute of it. Phil is a retired music journalist and we first met when he was my guest backstage at a Frank Zappa concert back in the 70s, hence the connection.
After a cocktail, Phil and I took the Metro down to the 5th Arrondissement and met up with his lovely wife Marti who, like me, is a UVA Theatre School alumni from the early 70s. We were good friends back in the day when she was a costumer and I a techie. She made the wise switch to business after graduating and now has 27 years in with British Telecom, which landed her and Phil here in Paris 18 years ago.
They introduced me to Louis Vins, a terrific traditional French restaurant not far from my hotel. My meal started off with Profiterole d’ Escargo (mushrooms and snails in a little bread cradle) then progressed to Blanquette de Veau Ancien, a very traditional French stew of veges and veal. All accompanied by a lovely bottle of Burgundy Savigny-les-Beaune. The finisher was some kind of chocolate ecstacy with vanilla sauce. Absolute gastronic Heaven and only 44 Euros each! I can still taste the garlic from the snails this morning – wonderful – and the veal was outstanding. Easily the best meal I’ve ever had in Paris. After a leisurely 3 hours at the table, I was sorry to say goodnight to my friends. Many thanks to them for expanding my horizons.
All in all, a really nice day and the fabulous Fall weather (sunny and mid-60s) continues.
Paris in the Fall
Paris in late October is delightful: the hordes of tourists are gone and the colors of Fall make the city lovely. Daytime temperatures are in the comfortable low 60’s and dip 10 degrees at night and the air is clean and crisp. There’s something instantly recognizable about being in Paris: the cafes, the style of the pedestrians (always very put-together, a profusion of scarves, and very exuberant), and the architecture. My beloved Luxembourg Gardens is strewn with bright leaves and dappled with shifting sunlight, the Parisians still in their green chairs studying, kissing, or just getting some sun.
I’ve made my first visit to Soufflot Cafe near the Pantheon and enjoyed their wine, as usual. The owner and bartender put up with my French and even gave me a free refill. Soufflot is where a now-retired waiter named Guy was so very kind to my daughters when we visited Paris nine years ago, earning the cafe a place in my heart.
I’m meeting a friend this afternoon to see the Miles Davis exhibition at the Museum of Music, then we’ll meet his wife (a college classmate of mine) for dinner. In the meantime, I’m off to nose around the Marais neighborhood and check out the Bastille Opera House.
I’ve made my first visit to Soufflot Cafe near the Pantheon and enjoyed their wine, as usual. The owner and bartender put up with my French and even gave me a free refill. Soufflot is where a now-retired waiter named Guy was so very kind to my daughters when we visited Paris nine years ago, earning the cafe a place in my heart.
I’m meeting a friend this afternoon to see the Miles Davis exhibition at the Museum of Music, then we’ll meet his wife (a college classmate of mine) for dinner. In the meantime, I’m off to nose around the Marais neighborhood and check out the Bastille Opera House.
Like a Speeding Bullet
For the Romans, it was a horrible sea crossing. The Spanish navy never ruled it. Hitler was thwarted in his desired to cross it. Having just ridden in comfort underneath the English Channel on the Eurostar train in about 25 minutes, I am reminded of the history of the fields of Northern France. We do truly live in an amazing age. The Eurostar experience, by the way, is quite nice: security screening and boarding is more civilized than the usual airport routine, the seating is nicer, and the food and wine slightly better. You handle your own luggage getting on and off your coach, and the walk through the stations is far shorter than getting to that far distant gate at the airport. At the London end, St. Pancras International station, in the heart of the city, is clean, easily-accessible, and new. In Paris, you arrive at the Gare du Nord train station and have easy access to the Metro and RER trains. Door-to-door, for me, was about 3 hours; an excellent journey.
The Occasionally-Examined Life 