Shirley and I were ejected from the first on the train from Brussels to Stuttgart, but got to share a second with USA cuties Colleen and Pattie, as well as some other foreigners. We chatted with the girls at odd times and made it through to Stuttgart by 6am. We then had an hours uphill walk to the autobahn and were lucky enough to get two pretty quick lifts, the second taking us all the way into Munchen in a German kombi van. The two front seat passengers nodded off frequently during the ride, but fortunately the driver didnt follow suit. Shirley and I first wandered around the streets of Munich, took in lunch at a local restaurant, then finally met up with first Linda & Julie (ex Sundowners), then later Bob & Jules (plus a host of other Aussies) outside American Express in the afternoon. We collected our backpacks from the station, then made it back to the campsite, Camping Thalkirchen, packed with Aussie vans and personalities. We were pretty knackered from our lack of overnight sleep and crashed in the roof section of the van before having a slops dinner with all the troops.
All in all, we were part of a flotilla of four kombi vans booked into the campsite, each ostensibly with 2 people (and paying for those), but in reality there were a total of 26 people, of whom 9 were assigned to our van – Bob & Jules, Shirley, Tony, Bob, Janet, another couple & myself. It was an uneventful night just sitting around and making acquaintances with Rick, Mick & Pru, Bill, Max, Gary, Sharon & Anne, Cheryl, Chris & Dave .
There was only room for 5 people to sleep in the van, so the other 4 had to find space elsewhere. A big group breakfast next morning was remarkably well organised. Around 10am, a group of about 20 Aussies took a free bus trip into the city to see the 11am parade. It was a fun environment, with many Kodaks and a great unrestricted view from the gutter, and even got a few gulps of beer from a passing float. After following the procession, we made it down to Theresienstrasse, a big amusement park with around a dozen different branded beer halls. We decided to give Hofbrauhaus our custom, along it seemed with about a thousand
other Aussies, with whom we spent the next 8 hours demolishing multiple litre steins of beer, along with pretzels and wursts. A fabulous time was had by all, with no incidents apart from a puke or two, and a really great pissy atmosphere, along with a swinging band. Maybe the biggest potential winners of all were the Turks who took up residence outside the ladies loo, looking for a grope or two, although a couple of them got back from the girls what they deserved! We all got a bit lost making it back to the campsite, which was not surprising given our condition, but we finally made it back to the van by 10pm. It took a while to get to sleep, what with so much happening in the campsite, but finally the grog took its toll.
of little sleep and a fierce hangover didnt leave me feeling too flash next morning. The others shot off early, but Shirley and I stayed back and just relaxed at the campsite. We finally made it into the city early in the afternoon for a decent meal before the next big nights fling. I farewelled Shirley, who was flying
back to Tel Aviv that night (but not before receiving an invitation for me to fly over to Israel for a visit to the kibbutz), then shot down to the Deutches Museum, which had some fabulous working exhibits but unfortunately no English explanations. From there, it was a long trek in the drizzle back to Theresienstrasse, meeting up again with US cuties Colleen and Pattie on the way. I made it into the beer hall around 6pm, and initially felt right out of it being sober, but that didnt last long, and the night ended up being even wilder and drunker than the previous night.
Characters
Write Comment
