Dusseldorf

Went up to Dusseldorf a few weeks ago to take Nastasja to an audition. Very nice city. One of the richest in Germany. The streets were lined with designer shops. All the people were dressed like Hollywood. But, somehow, this was the only photo I took.

Munich - Oktoberfest 2006

Front gate, if it isn't obvious

Well, I've been back from Qatar for a few weeks now. My friends got back from their various location in Iraq and Afghanistan at about the same time. So, the GODs aligned the planets and had it all time up good with Oktoberfest. If you didn't know, this fest is a Bavarian celebration of beer dating way back to the early 1800's. But its also an American style carnival. With shady Ferris wheels and spinning rides. However, the big difference that we boring Americans could never live with are the Beer tents. There are about 20 of these large tents for each of the main Bavarian Beer Houses. Each tent can hold about 9,000 people or more. The funny Oompa bands play songs and everyone is signing along. So its all very festive. But, the beer only comes in 1 liter glasses, so things get crazy.

Here I am sporting the Lederhosen. Its the Bavarian outfit of leather pants. Kind of expensive, but now I have a good souvenir from my time in Germany. Nastasja thinks I'm nuts though. The first pic is me in the Main Square, in front of the famous kookoo thing that spins at noon. The next pic is me in the Hofbrau tent, you can see that the size of the tent and of the beer are quite large!

These are my buddies, Doug and Tony. I wore the Buckeyes to see if any OSU fans would notice. I met one guy. But all the Germans kept stopping me and asking why I was wearing chestnuts...