Oktoberfest - Munchen, Germany

The last weekend in September saw us travelling over to Germany for Oktoberfest.

The friday night we all headed to the Augustiner Beer Garden for dinner and our first steins of the trip.

Eloise, Ryan and Sean.

LJ and Simon

Mary with her stein, no mug of wine.

The boys with their beers.

Day one of Oktoberfest. We had a table inside the Schottenhamel Beer hall. The tent that opens the whole event. Not a bad place to be on opening day.

As you can see, we weren't the only ones there. These Beer Halls fit as many as 10,000 people in them! The band is seated in the middle, playing music all day for us to sing and dance on tables to.

At 12 noon the Mayor of Munich taps the keg, and the beer starts flowing. Our beer wench had a bad wrist and was only able to carry 8 1L steins at a time.

Sean, unable to keep his eyes off the beer!

Drinking and being merry!

Despite us getting up early and lining up with them, Simon, LJ and Mary didn't get into the beer hall on opening day. Neither did their beer.

Oktoberfest Day 2. Paulaner Beer Hall.

Some of the other Beer Halls...

Rugby World Cup Match - Australia vs Wales

Sean and I drove over to Cardiff with Ryan and Eloise to watch the Wallabies take on the Welsh at the Millenium Stadium.

Wayne and Jackie

Our view.
The Teams

The Wallabies had an expected win. The post match celebrations carried on into the night.

At the end of the match, rather than a streaker, a guy dressed in full Wallabies uniform, including mouthguard, boots and ball ran onto the field. I think this was him.

There was plenty of drinking, dancing and celebrating. A great time was had by all.

London - September

We went to Portobello Road Markets (Notting Hill) on the Saturday after Jason and Mary arrived in the UK. the streets were packed. Many tourists around. Lots of antiques on sale. And the colourful buildings were amazing.

We made a quick stop off to vist the travel Bookstore from the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts film Notting Hill.

In the evening we had a BBQ at our new place, with Sarah, Simon, Sean, LJ, Mary, Devin and Jason (L to R).

Sean decided it was time to get out the remains of the tequlia and was lucky (or unlucky) enough to get the worm in his final shot.

He said it slipped down his throat, no problems, this photo suggests otherwise!

The following day we all went into town, walking around some of the major sights.

Including Picadilly Circus...

Tower Bridge...

And the London Eye.

Bank Holiday Weekend - August

For the bank Holiday weekend we headed south on a road trip with Simon and Sarah.

We started on Friday night with Pizzas and Mojitos. We had an early night so we could get an early start to beat the holiday rush.

We had a good trip down through Bournemouth, around to the Isle of Purbeck and stopped off at Swanage for lunch of fish and chips on the beach. The weather was great, nice and sunny and the beaches all along the coast were packed all weekend.

Between Swanage and Weymouth we got thirsty, so stopped off at Corfe Castle...

Where we found this lovely little pub to quench our thirsts.

Sampling the local ales and ciders with Corfe Castle in the background.

During the walk to Durdle Door at Lulworth Cove, Sean got a little too close to the locals.
Durdle Door. This little beach is lovely, and the walk to it is fairly hard work, so not too many venture down. We are hoping to get back there when the weather is warmer...hopefully next summer is an improvement on this one!

England's South Coast.

Us overlooking Lulworth Cove.

From Lulworth cove we headed north towards Dorset to find somewhere to camp for the night. It was a bit of an effort, it seems every man and his dog was camping in the south of England.
Next morning Sean and Simon went Zorbing (Big plastic ball rolling down a hill with the boys inside). They had a ball. (Sorry, Sean's joke!)

More beaches, filled with very white people.

We followed the coastal road to a place the boys spotted on the map...

they were in heaven, they had found a town called Beer!


They were so excited, they even went for a swim in Beer!

We stayed our second night in a B&B just out of Bath. We spent half the day exploring the town, the Roman baths, Bath Abbey and surrounds. Also calling in at Stonehenge before heading abck to London. It was a great weekend. I think the last long weekend now until Christmas :(