A Weekend in Bavaria

Just like back home, American FSO’s in Israel enjoyed an extra day off for the holiday. Rather than celebrate it on the beach in Tel Aviv, a friend and I decided to take advantage of the loosened travel restrictions and fly to Germany for the long weekend. One of the things we’ve missed out on most with Covid restrictions is the cheap travel to Europe and the Mediterranean, so we weren’t going to let this opportunity pass us by.

• 

• 

Now, when I say cheap, I mean cheap. We bought one way tickets to Memmingen, a small Bavarian town with an airport smaller than a Walmart parking lot (see above), for $33. From there, we rented an Audi A4 and drove east. Due to flight delays and a long wait at the rental counter (there was only one employee working; did I mention the airport was small?), the only option for food along the 90 minute drive to the hotel was…McDonald’s. We flew all the way Germany just to eat American fast food. Wunderbar. You know what, though? It was delicious! Easily the best McDonald’s I’ve ever had and only marginally more expensive than the U.S. The drive thru worker was very excited to speak English with us (super!) and thought the word “waffle” was hilarious (yes, they had waffle fries). As we sat in the car munching our Mickey D’s and observing the surprisingly crowded parking lot, I couldn’t help but feel like we were in some wacky German version of The Lost Boys, surrounded by teenagers with styled blond hair and black metal band T-shirts driving the luxury brands of Mercedes, Audi, and BMW.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Eventually we made it to our hotel in the sleepy town of Aying, home to one of my favorite breweries, Privat Brauerei Ayinger. Their Oktoberfest should be pictured next to “beer” in the dictionary; it is my all time favorite brew and everything a classic beer should be. Unfortunately, we were a few months too early to try this fresh from the source. We spent the next morning wandering around the little town before getting stuffed on various meats and dairy products no doubt sourced from the same nearby farm we smelled from our bedroom window the night before.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The next stop on our Bavarian tour was another 90 minute drive, this time west to the castles of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. A steep trek up a paved road littered with horse manure revealed a beautiful view of the surrounding landscape. The only downside of this trip was Marienbrücke, a bridge with the best view for photographs, was closed due to repairs. Not to worry though, we were still able to snap off plenty of beautiful pictures.

Driving around Bavaria, a few things struck me. First, everything was so clean and well maintained. There was hardly any litter, a striking change from the plastic tumbleweeds floating across the streets of Tel Aviv. Every field was perfectly cut, every road as smooth as the day it was paved, every forest edge exact in its precision. The second thing I noticed as we passed through one cookie cutter village after another was the uniformity of it all. Each village featured bright white buildings with red clay roofs. The tallest building in each town was the church, while a blue and white maypole adorned the town center. Further research revealed these maypoles are at the center of a tradition that may or may not boil down to a centuries-old drinking game (click here for more details). It was very charming.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The last stop on our Bavarian tour was Munich, home of one of the greatest beer traditions in the world. Naturally, most of our two days here was spent drinking beer and eating. It stayed late until after 10pm, something I didn’t expect before visiting the country. This made staying up much easier, but unfortunately many bars and restaurants had earlier closing times than usual due to Covid precautions. Despite these precautions, we were still able to visit the world famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall, as well as Augustiner Keller, two of the six hosts of Oktoberfest. One of the more memorable beers of the trip was a liter of dunkelweiss at Marienplatz, the Gothic heart of Munich shown in the photos above.

The trip was a blast. From the beer to the food to the ease of movement around the city and country, everything was great. People were exceedingly friendly and patient, something seriously lacking in the last few cities I’ve called home. The only odd part about the trip was the country’s insistence that you wear a FPP2 face mask to enter businesses despite the fact that exactly 0% of the people enforcing this rule were abiding by it themselves.

My last thought before ending this blog: there were far more people wearing lederhosen and dirndl than I expected. It wasn’t a high percentage by any means, but it was common enough amongst the younger crowd that it appeared unironic, albeit quite amusing. For all of these reasons and more, I hope to go back with Misha as soon as possible.