{"id":3530,"date":"2015-08-31T16:44:24","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T21:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3530"},"modified":"2015-08-31T16:44:24","modified_gmt":"2015-08-31T21:44:24","slug":"european-vacation-day-3-plarrerfest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/?p=3530","title":{"rendered":"European Vacation Day 3 Plarrerfest!"},"content":{"rendered":"

I promised Aunt Uschi we would be at their house by 9:00 for breakfast.\u00a0 I did wake up early and thought about moving around.\u00a0 It just took a few more minutes than I planned.\u00a0 I showered and dressed as I pushed Rich to the shower.\u00a0 Packing and picking up the room was easy.<\/p>\n

I did manage to take my suitcase down the double circular staircase by myself.\u00a0 I was quite proud.\u00a0 It is a cool feature in Mark\u2019s house, but I\u2019m glad it\u2019s not in my house.\u00a0 Thanks for letting us stay at your place and taking up your available space.<\/p>\n

As we were getting packed, I knocked really hard on Mark\u2019s door.\u00a0 Time to start his day also.\u00a0 Sleeping in wasn\u2019t an option for his Mom today.\u00a0 We all had to show up for breakfast.<\/p>\n

We packed the car and drove back to Aunt Uschi and Uncle Max\u2019s house.\u00a0 Breakfast was well underway there.\u00a0 Uncle Max made extra coffee so he could share with Rich.\u00a0 I know Rich felt honored to share the Air Force coffee.\u00a0 It reminded him of the shop when he was stationed in Germany.<\/p>\n

Mark arrived and we sat down to scrambled eggs with ham, onion, and green pepper.\u00a0 They were so delicious.\u00a0 Rich got his brotchen for the day with luncheon meat and cheese.\u00a0 Aunt Uschi makes her own jams and jellies.\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t resist haven one of everything.<\/p>\n

Too soon, breakfast was over.\u00a0 We cleared the table and got everything into the kitchen.\u00a0 Hamlet and his buddy, Clover, were trying very hard to get some scraps from the table.\u00a0 We might not have left too much to share with them.\u00a0 Sorry there wasn\u2019t much to steal today, Hamlet.<\/p>\n

Mark was leaving work and we took pictures outside the front door.\u00a0 I got to have a picture with my Aunt Uschi, Uncle Max, and cousin, Mark.\u00a0 I know I\u2019ll be looking at for days to come and remembering some great times even though the time was so short.\u00a0 Thanks for having us in our homes.<\/p>\n

Rich and I took our leave.\u00a0 It took a few minutes to get the destination into the navi.\u00a0 Once we got the right street, the navi said and away you go.\u00a0 We waved very hard and turned the corner to head back to the autobahn.<\/p>\n

Now the navi is a crazy machine.\u00a0 She talks to us in English, but has a very different accent.\u00a0 When we got to the autobahn, she tells us that we will be \u201con this road for a long time.\u201d\u00a0 I find that a strange expression when you don\u2019t want to say how long.\u00a0 We find that the navi doesn\u2019t tell you anything over 10 Klicks.<\/p>\n

We are cruising down the road when it tells us to exit the autobahn.\u00a0 We thought this was to avoid construction congestion.\u00a0 However, we need to move from set of roads to another to continue moving southwest. \u00a0This route is through small villages and some very nice countryside.<\/p>\n

I have to tell you that we went through the village of Frankstein.\u00a0 No monsters though.\u00a0 I wanted a picture of the village sign, but there was a really bad accident right there with tons of police cars and EMTs.\u00a0 No visual evidence to support the story that we went through the village.\u00a0 Again, no monsters were seen.<\/p>\n

We cruised on.\u00a0 The speed limit goes up and down all over the place out in the country.\u00a0 I\u2019m going 30 klicks and then 80 and then 100 and then down to 50 very quickly.\u00a0 I think it is to keep you on your toes and awake.<\/p>\n

The navi takes us through a series of small towns and jumps from minor country roads to smaller highways.\u00a0 Finally we reach the next stretch of autobahn heading toward Augsburg.\u00a0 Then we get a low tire pressure warning.\u00a0 Darn!\u00a0 I was hoping we didn\u2019t have a flat.\u00a0 The car felt fine, but we got off the autobahn and found a gas station.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know how you would find someone to do real work on the car.\u00a0 I can\u2019t tell what a garage would look like.\u00a0 I see plenty of car dealers.\u00a0 Mark says that the Skoda is the lower end of the Volkswagen brand.\u00a0 I guess that would be my next place to try.<\/p>\n

Rich goes in to try and communicate with the staff to find the air hose.\u00a0 He comes out and motions me over to the station.\u00a0 There is a can of compressed air that you use to fill the tires.\u00a0 We did find one of the tires a little low.\u00a0 We fill it up and head back out.\u00a0 Once on the road, Rich clears the warning and it stays off.\u00a0 That must have done the trick.<\/p>\n

We are cruising along yet again.\u00a0 We are getting closer to Augsburg.\u00a0 The town name starts showing up more and more on signs.\u00a0 Then we hit a slow snag.\u00a0 The traffic is creeping along very slowly.\u00a0 When we get to the problem, we see a Porsche Boxster pointing in the wrong direction on the side of the road.\u00a0 It is burnt to a crisp.\u00a0 I think the pain might have been red, but I couldn\u2019t be sure.<\/p>\n

We are cruising along again.\u00a0 We are in Augsburg.\u00a0 The navi takes us off the autobahn and we start working our way into the old part of town.\u00a0 There is construction everywhere.\u00a0 It is difficult to turn where the navi wants to go.\u00a0 After several redirects, we make it down a very torn up street and turn into the alley where the hotel is located.\u00a0 The courtyard is tiny and full of cars.<\/p>\n

We park and go in to register.\u00a0 The explanations are made about how to find our room and we get a key to the garage at the back of the hotel.\u00a0 Unfortunately, you have to drive a quart of a mile out of the way because of the construction.\u00a0 The lady gives directions and explains how to store our car.<\/p>\n

Wait!\u00a0 Did she said to use the key to move the rack down and park on the top rack?\u00a0 Yep, those were the instructions.\u00a0 We get to the driveway and see a car parked in front of a door.\u00a0 Now how do we get in?\u00a0 Rich hits the button on the key chain he was given.\u00a0 A garage door on the side opens to show four sets of racked cars.<\/p>\n

We decide on a spot and Rich inserts the key into the lock and begins to lower the first rack into the floor.\u00a0 It disappears and the top rack is ready to accept the car.\u00a0 It\u2019s very tight and takes me several maneuvers to get the car backed up onto the rack.\u00a0 It is tight.\u00a0 And I didn\u2019t smack the old Porsche sitting next to the spot I was using for the maneuvers.<\/p>\n

Rich turns the key and the rack starts to go back up.\u00a0 Our rental is now on top and the lower rack locks into place.\u00a0 Pretty cool apparatus.\u00a0 Now eight cars can fit into the space of 4 slots.<\/p>\n

We get our luggage up to our room.\u00a0 As we figured, there is no air conditioning.\u00a0 This is going to be common in Germany and Poland.\u00a0 The weather doesn\u2019t look like it will cooperate for our trip at this point.\u00a0 Still hot and humid.<\/p>\n

After resting and cooling down, it was time to try to find the Plarrerfest grounds.\u00a0 We were able to pinpoint the location and it looked walkable.\u00a0 With map in hand, we headed off down the alley to the road, to the way, to the main street and to the fest grounds.<\/p>\n

Germany is very bicycle oriented.\u00a0 The roads and sidewalks are set up for bicycle traffic and there is lots of it.\u00a0 We discovered where to walk and where to stand at lights to stay out of the way.\u00a0 Other times, you just dodge as they fly by you.<\/p>\n

At one corner, we caught sight of some people dressed in traditional German outfits.\u00a0 We were pretty sure they were on their way to the fest.\u00a0 We kept them in sight and finally saw the gates with large rides behind them.\u00a0 We made it.<\/p>\n

We entered and walked around the grounds to scope out the rides, food, and activities.\u00a0 There were three large fest halls for eating and drinking traditional fare while listening to bands and talking to your friends.\u00a0 Rich was just going to have to talk to me.<\/p>\n

We made our way around and Rich picked the tent he wanted first.\u00a0 The beer there was the Hasen Bier.\u00a0 That translates to Hare Beer.\u00a0 We entered and stopped someone to see where we could sit.\u00a0 The answer was anywhere.\u00a0 Most of the tables were empty, but had reserved signs on them.<\/p>\n

We found some young kids and asked to share a corner of their table.\u00a0 There was an older man at a table by himself, but he was also very drunk.\u00a0 Rich was a little leery of sharing that table.\u00a0 The kids begrudgingly said yes.<\/p>\n

The bar maid got our order for beer and came back with two large steins of the requested beers.\u00a0 I had asked for a Radler, which is a Shandy to us.\u00a0 Unfortunately, that\u2019s not what I got.\u00a0 However, I was hot and thirsty.\u00a0 Anything tasted good.<\/p>\n

We ordered pretzel to help with the beer consumption.\u00a0 I have to say that the pretzel we got at the Hoffman Estates Beer Garden was much better.\u00a0 We ate most it and rather quickly.\u00a0 It was good to get some food in us.\u00a0 We ordered henchmen (fest chicken) and schnitzel.\u00a0 The food tasted great.\u00a0 I felt like I had enough beer by the time I was halfway done.\u00a0 Rich volunteered to finish it to prevent obvious alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

We finished off our beers and headed back outside to wander the fest ground.\u00a0 We stopped at the bumper cars to watch the strategy of the Germans.\u00a0 Most of them just went round and round.\u00a0 Only a few guys were trying to bump into cars and push people around.\u00a0 You pretty much can ride around in the car as long as you keep feeding it tokens.\u00a0 We say a few takers who made three or four trips around the floor.<\/p>\n

Rich got bumped by someone.\u00a0 His first reaction was someone trying to pickpocket him.\u00a0 Turned out to be a couple of teenagers within a larger group trying to fight.\u00a0 Let me back up there.\u00a0 It was one particular guy trying to pick a fight.\u00a0 It almost looked like a couple of gangs who bumped into each other.\u00a0 No shots were fired, but I wondered where security was during the whole thing.<\/p>\n

We took another circuit of the grounds.\u00a0 On our first walk through the grounds, we saw the Bier Go Round.\u00a0 It was basically a round bar in the center with seating around it and little balconies on the outside.\u00a0 A few people were sitting or standing on it.\u00a0 On this pass, that thing was so full, it could hardly move.\u00a0 People were hanging off everywhere.<\/p>\n

We saw a booth where they had an open pit fire.\u00a0 Then they clamped boards with fish attached and were cooking fish the old fashion way.\u00a0 Rich tried to talk to one of the guys, but they didn\u2019t speak English.\u00a0 It was kind of cool to watch.<\/p>\n

We got a bottle of water at one of the stands.\u00a0 After paying, we received a token.\u00a0 We had to ask what the token was for.\u00a0 When you return the used bottle to the station, you get a few cents back.\u00a0 It was one way to encourage to recycle and not to throw the bottle in the trash or on the ground.\u00a0 Pretty cool idea.<\/p>\n

We circled the grounds and watched the people.\u00a0 Rich wanted to do one more beer from a specific bier stand.\u00a0 It was on the other side of the park, but near where I needed to return the water bottle.\u00a0 Rich went after his beer while I collected our deposit.\u00a0 It was interesting to note that all beers here come in real glasses.\u00a0 They say they don\u2019t get too many broken and you do have to pay a deposit on the glass when you pay for your beer.\u00a0 You get the deposit back when you return the glass.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t see any broken glass so the deposit idea must be working.<\/p>\n

Time to walk back to the hotel. It was just starting to get dark.\u00a0 I was tired and felt the hike was going to ask a lot.\u00a0 We are on vacation and this must be done.\u00a0 We head out the gate and say good night to whoever is listening.\u00a0 We walk back toward the hotel, but decide on a different street than the first one we took.\u00a0 There was something strange and scary there.\u00a0 It bothered both of us.<\/p>\n

We stuck to the main street and the one that Rich wanted to try looked like it had a lot of traffic so it should be safer.\u00a0 We walked up Grotten to Karlstrasse and then found Hohner Weg.\u00a0 This was the street that ran right by the Dom Cathedral.\u00a0 We knew where this was.\u00a0 However, on the way, Rich saw an Erdinger bar.\u00a0 I said no and he didn\u2019t fight it.\u00a0 Erdinger is one of his favorite German beers.<\/p>\n

We got back to the hotel and could easily see how to get around from there to some of the other sites for the next day.<\/p>\n

At the hotel, it was still hot.\u00a0 After showers, it was a little cooler.\u00a0 I settled in to get caught up on my blogs for the last few days.\u00a0 However, my brain was not in a mood to cooperate.\u00a0 So I gave in and went to bed.\u00a0 There\u2019s always tomorrow.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Ausfahrt<\/a>
Ausfahrt is Exit.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Entrance<\/a>
Entrance to Dom Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our car up on the parking rack in the small garage.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our room in the Dom Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The other half of the room.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Our<\/a>
Our bathroom at the Dom Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dom<\/a>
Dom Cathedral down the road from Dom Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Birthplace<\/a>
Birthplace of Mozart’s father just down from our hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Poster<\/a>
Poster for this year’s Plarrerfest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"What<\/a>
What we saw when we entered the Binswanger and Klempt fest all.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Rich<\/a>
Rich settling in at the Plarrerfest in Augsburg.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pretzel<\/a>
Pretzel time to help soak up the beer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bar<\/a>
Bar maid with a load of beers coming through.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The kids seem to love to stand on their seats at the fest.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The young kids stand up in their seats for the music.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Bier<\/a>
Bier Go Round at the fest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Teens<\/a>
Teens waiting to kill others in bumper cars.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Schwabian<\/a>
Schwabian Derby skeeball game.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Outside<\/a>
Outside of the next fest hall as we walked around the grounds.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"This<\/a>
This was Rich’s favorite fest hall back in the day. I thought of it as the Thor tent since it was Thorbrau.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Booth<\/a>
Booth cooking fish over an open fire.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"One<\/a>
One of the rides on the midway. It looked scary.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Very<\/a>
Very full Bier Go Round at fest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I promised Aunt Uschi we would be at their house by 9:00 for breakfast.\u00a0 I did wake up early and thought about moving around.\u00a0 It just took a few more minutes than I planned.\u00a0 I showered and dressed as I pushed Rich to the shower.\u00a0 Packing and picking up the room was easy. I did […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3559,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3530\/revisions\/3559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/zurekbrau.com\/blogs\/richsblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}