Ocean Park

On Monday, poor Dan had to go to work but the rest of us spent the day at Ocean Park. Ocean Park is part amusement park, part zoo, and part aquarium. The whole park was decorated for halloween. Our kids were excited since we don't have Halloween in Germany.
A big attraction was the panda bears - to everyone but our boys. They rolled their eyes asking if we could go straight to the roller coasters.
We took a gondola/skyride from one side of the island to the other (also boy / girl) and got a great view of the harbor and their house.
Once the Moms finally let the boys ride some rides, we hit the log flume a couple of times, the two big roller coasters and a host of other cool rides. I don't know if you can see it from this picture, but the boys loved the big rides.

I got to ride all the roller coasters with Brian since we had 5 kids and the Moms declined to ride. The highlight for Brian was riding in the front car of "The Dragon" roller coaster. It had three loops upside-down. He was happy to be tall enough to ride, walked up to the front car, then did the ride with no hands, screaming, "...awesome,.... awesome,... awesome..."

I don't know how the Moms could pass this up.
On a different note - there was a shocking lack of beer gardens. I don't know how the people stand it.

Visit to cousins in Hong Kong

This October our holiday break matched up with our cousins' holiday in Hong Kong. We decided to take the plunge and visit them - letting the cousins see each other and experience their life in Hong Kong.
Dan and Beth live in Repulse Bay in HK.

We spent the first two and a half days getting acclimated and seeing their local sights.
The HK McNick's (aka McNicks in HK) showed us the downtown skyline and we took a boat ride across the harbor.
You can see the excitement in their eyes. The boys suggested we quickly return home to play Xbox, Nintendo, and iTouch. The girls just enjoyed being able to spend time with someone other than their brother(s). The kids actually got along great as "boys" and "girls". There was very little mixing.
We were also treated to a wonderful dinner at the top of a Kowloon office building that gave us a great view of the skyline. The life in HK was quite a nice change from the Munich weather of frost and winter coats. The kids swam everyday.

The second half of the week we all went to Phuket, Thailand and rented a house for some more relaxation. More of that trip to come...

Release the hounds....

* a quick disclaimer - I charged the battery for the camera but forgot to put it back in the camera before we left. My fault. Today's photos come from the cell phone. *
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This Saturday we were invited to a great event. Our friends, York and Bettina, invited us to a "hunt".
You can see from the photos, that the boys were excited to wake up early, drive 90 minutes south and west of Munich to the largest lake in Germany, and take a ferry to an island.
There are two islands which were previously cloisters (one for men and one for women) until King Ludwig II decided he wanted the island for himself. He built a small version of Versailles as a summer palace.
We were only told that it would be a show of horses and dogs to celebrate the history of hunting.
Arriving at 9am we noticed some of the people in outfits that seemed out of the 19th century (and lots of dogs including George.)
We loved that after a short ceremony, the people sat for white sausage, pretzels, and beer - 9am. Our host said, "yeah - but they got up at 5am so it's practically noon to them..."
At 11, we gathered to watch the priest come out of a church built before Columbus sailed to the new world, to bless the riders, horses, and dogs. The riders had outfits of red and blue riding jackets with helmets and various body protection. The average age of the riders was about 60 years.
After the blessing, the observers walked to a spot where the riders would have to jump a huge log.
Since almost no one believes it is nice to hunt fox in the traditional fashion, the hunt had two riders lead the dogs/riders with a 'scent' bag. The 40+ dogs then gave chase and the riders followed.
At the first jump, we tried to explain that there was some danger to horses and riders to our kids. First, the scent horses came by - then the sound of the dogs. It was exciting. We were warned that we needed to keep George on a very short lease because the hunting dogs are capable of killing non-hunting dogs.
Here is a shot of the horses coming across the jump.

The ceremony was great. The event is hosted by the head of the Bavarian hunting club, who invites the owner of the dogs and various "friends".
Here we see the dogs.
They control the dogs with whips and calls and whips.
After a couple of jumps and demonstrations of hunting, there is an intermission where we were invited to sit for lunch. We stretched out on our blanket and took out our lunch while the horses were kept warm by walking around the field.
Notice the ambulance in the background. We had one rider (age: 65+) fall off the horse at the first jump. He looked very embarrassed and more hurt. Horse rode off at high speed. Rider got up without help but I sensed broken ribs. Kids asked if he was OK and our host said, "sure - it gets easier if you do it all the time." He probably can't walk today. I will check the obits tomorrow.

After 3 hours of riding and jumping - they rode up the main lawn of the Schloss (castle). The dogs were rewarded after a day of hunting with a huge barrel of cow stomachs- they fought over the pieces. The riders, who started with beer, had some champagne.
Daphne and I were so happy but the kids were not as impressed. After the ferry back to the island, we stopped at a small chapel with the oldest frescoes (12th century) in Bavaria. Kids didn't even want to go into the chapel.
They found a playground outside the chapel and there was a ride which looked like a wagon wheel on a pole with straps that let the kids swing with wild abandon.
I am sure this will be the only memory of the day.
York and I demonstrate that at the end of every adventure in Bavaria is a beer. (He had the small).

Treatment

Let me start by saying I didn't want to post this. I am pretty sick with a head cold / sinus issues. I went to the office doctor who took a look at me, offered a "vitamin cocktail" (it was still Oktoberfest I guess) and told me to sit for some treatment.

Five minutes of low microwave treatment on each side of my face to break up the sinus pressure. Your reaction might be the same as mine, "..microwave??" I thought maybe this was a language thing but the machine clearly said microwave.
Luckily they provided safety goggles. The goggles were like two mini pasta strainers for your eyes. I really felt like Candid Camera was going to pop out and everyone would have a laugh. My defense - take my own picture with my phone and share it with my wife for a laugh. She then insisted it goes on the blog.

Let me see if I can preemptively answer the question: it kind of warmed my upper cheeks and provided no discernible relief. I developed a strange craving for microwave popcorn.

Birthday parties

Brian has been invited to several birthday parties since we have been back. It would seem that second grade is the optimal birthday party age. So far, we have been to soccer (it's football here) parties, swimming parties, and indoor playground parties. The birthday facilities here are impressive. Very impressive.

My pictures don't do them justice because I (repeatedly) found myself dropping off or picking up with only my blackberry and its built-in camera. You should be able to note the indoor roller-coaster in the first picture next to the working train ride. They also had towering slides and climbing apparatus.

Still in the same place, there was water boats, bouncy castles, bumper cars... you get the picture.

This weekend was the indoor soccer party. I should have known when the address was Olympia Park that I was in for a shock. Olympia Park as in, where the Olympics were hosted in 1972.
Again - the photos is no match for the scale of the dozen indoor soccer fields and supporting food, beverage, and ice cream.

The king of the parties however was at the indoor swim party. A massive facility with wave pool, adventure water slides, indoor surfing, beach volleyball.... and more.

Brian informed me that he will have his birthday at the swim place. I told him he would have a better chance if he asks his mother for a Ferrari. He said, "Really?!" and then discussed with his brother what color Ferrari he should ask for...

Oktoberfest visitors

We just had another set of visitors come by to see Munich. Daphne's brother David and his girlfriend Jennifer visited for a week which included the final week of Oktoberfest.
Although the weather was not ideal, they were able to visit places like Neuschwanstein castle, the surfers in the English garden, the Chinese turn, and of course the Oktoberfest. The kids and I still had school and work commitments but we were able to enjoy a really nice week.

Jennifer and David both got into the spirit by dressing in the traditional clothing for the Oktoberfest event.

Daph and I hosted some of our friends for lunch during the week which is much more civilized and tame than what you might see on TV.

There are some pictures of when our visitors 'hit' the evening Oktoberfest, but you are going to have to ask Jennifer for the funniest ones. I can assure you that they had the appearance of having the full Munich Oktoberfest experience - - all the way through the morning effects.
The Oktoberfest closed today with 6.5 million visitors and 7 million liters of beer consumed.
Alles gut.