Part 3: Big Castles and Fontainbleau

So when we were done drinking beer we needed some time to chill and play tourist folk.  Once Jeremy and I parted way with Nick we drove south to visit some old German Castles.  The first castle we wanted to visit was just outside of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Schloss Linderhof.  This was an amazing looking small castle/palace.  There is way to much to try and explain about this castle so here is a link if you feel like checking it out:

 http://www.schlosslinderhof.de/englisch/palace/history.htm . 

From here we headed a little farther west to the famous Neuschwanstein Castle.  This was one of the places that Jeremy was excited to see.  Its a massive castle situated on the edge of the Austrian Alps.  We spent most of the day touring and walking the trails trying to see the castle from every view possible.  Here is a link explaining everything you need to know about this castle:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle 

Once we were tired of walking the trails around the castle we decided to head home for a few days of hanging out with Julie and relaxing a few days before our next adventure in FONTAINBLEAU!   That weekend was great being able to hang out with the wife and show Jeremy a little bit of the area were we live.  

Jeremy killin some of the best German at Rosanna's :)

Our first Football (soccer) in Europe

Drinking some Dom for our 3rd Anniversary

Getting crazy with friends!

Somebodies had a few beers :)

HAHAHAHA Jeremy!

Julie, Rosanna, Alex

Julie, Rosanna, Alex, Jeremy

Alex, Julie, Jeremy, Me, Rosanna

Yippy!!!!!!!

Horray!!!!!!

UT-OOOOOOOOO

Jeremy and I headed to Font, this was the first time for both of us.  As we drove we were getting more and more excited thinking back on all the videos we have seen of the perfect sandstone boulders.  The first thing we did when we arrived to town was find our hotel that we would be staying in for the week.  We threw our stuff in the room and both knew we had to get to some boulders as soon as possible.  Luckily I was able to get online with "orange" and find directions to some boulders that were close by.  These directions took us to Isatis.  As we were walking through the forest in search of boulders I wondered to myself, how are there so many boulders in this forest when I can't see any rock at all right now".  Out of nowhere we here a scream, so we decided to follow the screaming and yelling.  No it wasn't Adam Ondra, but those screams took us to a massive boulder field.  I couldn't believe my eyes, so many boulders with at least 5 to 10 boulder problems on each one.  I threw down my crash pad and started roaming around trying to find as many problems as I could to sample.  The more I roamed the more I wanted to sample, I grabbed my shoes and chalk and just started climbing everything in sight.  Within the first hour of climbing I had done 25 boulder problems.  After that I decided to try a really cool looking compression problem.  This problem was felt hard!  At some point a guy came by and told me that this problem was in the 7c/7c+ range.  I thought cool Font grades arent't so hard.  I did the problem, later learning that this problem was 7b!  Font grades are insanely hard, 7b in Font would be 7c anywhere else I have climbed.  Anyways from there we proceeded to climb and keep climbing doing another 20 of so boulder problems.  On day two we decided to head to Cuvier, I have heard so much about this area from the perfect boulder problem with great history to all the new school "Lady Street workers".  This day was a mirror of the previous day, walking through the boulders wide eyed not knowing where to start.  Through that whole day I think I climbed around 30 boulder problems.   I wish I could throw a few names of the boulders we climbed on but for some reason I didn't care enough to look up the grades and names let alone remember any of them.   It was just a nice treat climbing and having so much fun in the boulder field.  We decided not to take a rest day and and climb 3 days on.  With thin skin and aching muscles the 3rd day was so much slower than the previous two days.  On this day I wanted to go see a boulder named Karma.  I remember watching videos of this problem years ago and thought it was an amazing looking boulder that I would have to get strong enough to try.  This boulder is located in the Cuisiniere sector.  We roamed around once again but this time I was on a mission, I had to see this magical problem I had been dreaming about for years.  We found it, and it looked exactly liked I'd imagined it would, Start hold then BLANK!  Maybe one day I'll be able to do this problem but that day I didn't have a chance.  We proceeded to climb as many problems that we could find before a little rain hit.  Just after the rain we ran into someone Jeremy knew from his home town and I had met briefly in the past.   Thomasina and her daughter Cedar are traveling in Europe and climbing as much as possible.  We spent the rest of that day messing around with a few boulders and playing with Cedar which was way way way more fun than bouldering!  Once we were done bouldering that day we made plans for a rest day the following day.  

FONT!

True Love!

Cedar killin it!  Girl and climb!

The heart problem!

Some of Jeremy's Photo's!

Jeremy and I awoke on our rest day feeling just that, needing to rest.  We heard a knock at the day and it was Thomasina and Cedar, ready for the big day ahead of them.  We started the walk into the main town of Fontainbleau where the palace is located.  We were all pretty excited to see and tour the castle and its grounds.  It is a magnificent piece of history with amazing arcetecture spanning multiple centuries.  Here's a link with more info on the palace:  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fontainebleau  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palace_of_Fontainebleau

Our last day in Font we chose to go to Le Elephant sector.  In this area there are some really cool feature that are kinda of mind blowing if you ask me.  The "Elephant" boulder stands on  3 pillars and looks like an Elephant head with a trunk, SUPER COOL!  From there we did quit a few more boulders before I heard Thomasina talking about a boulder with a heart on it as a hold.  I knew I had to go climb it, so off we went to try.  We threw our pads under the perfect shaped heart and BAM climbed the perfect problem.  This was our last problem of the trip and it was time for our drive home and the end of Jeremy's time with us, and the end of a crazy fun month!  We miss you already Jeremy and wish you didn't have to leave us!!!!!!!!!! 

Part 2: Oktoberfest in Munich!!!!!!!

Ok, so we have all heard of the craziest beer drinking party on the planet right?  Well if you haven't you have now!  Since Julie and I moved to Germany the first thing we told ourselves is, we have to make it to Oktoberfest in Munich.  From day one we started planning the 5 day weekend trying to convince people into joining us.  Well we succeeded in getting 2 friends to show up for the occasion, Jeremy Pettigrew and Nick Greenwell.  I will try and give you a play by play on what went down on those 5 days with a few, What happens in Octoberfest stays in Oktoberfest moments kept out :)

Ok, so the weekend started with Nick and I coming home from Ceuse and picking Jeremy up from the train station.  From there we tried to find the guys some of the "Bravian" local attire at the shops here in town.  After walking into a few stores and all over the shopping district nothing was found, 3 men trying to shop isn't the best way to go about it though.  From there we headed back to the house to pick a few things up then off to get Julie.  On the drive we go!

Five hours later we arrived at our friends home Frank and Mandy in the Frankenjura.  We spent the first 2 days of the weekend bouldering on a rope and having a lot of fun hangin out.  But no one wants to keep reading about climbing, there are already way to many people talking and blogging about climbing :)

Taking the guys to sample some Frankenjura!

Sunset in the Frankenjura

 From here we headed into Munich to find out hotel.  This went surprisingly quick and we were walking toward the festivities an hour later.  As we were approaching things were looking vaguely familiar.  If you have ever been the a State Fair, picture this with 100s of 1000s of drunk people from all over the world pouring out of the fairgrounds.  This was at 6pm and we hadn't even made it into the festival area.  In the festival area we were all wanting to get some food before we started the drinking for the night.  Nick was psyched on fish and fish is what he got!

Nick with a fishy mouth!

The rest of use went with fish sandwiches.  Once we were done eating we needed beer!  We had no idea how to go about this because you couldn't just walk up to a vendor and buy it.  We later found out, after walking aimlessly for 30 minutes and trying to ask people, you need to be seated inside a Beir Tent or at one of their Beirgartens.  We tried to get into a few of the tents but this was almost impossible, with each tent housing 10,000 people eating, drinking, dancing, screaming, fighting, and jumping up and down on tables.  So we decided we should sit out at a Biergarten for our first beers of the night.  One hour and 2 liters of beers in, I was feeling pretty happy!  My goal for the first night of Oktoberfest drinking was 4 liters of beer.  I was half way there in just an hour, feeling confident I could meet my goal we all decided to hit up another beirgarten.  An hour later the goal was met, not much is remembered after that other than some dancing on tables with our crew and a bunch of screaming, partying Germans!

A bunch of Photos! 

The following day was basically a repeat of the first, this is the most partying and drinking I have done in years.  The fourth day we all needed a rest from all the flowing beer and drunken people so we stopped to visit and pay respects to the concentration camp, Dachau.  This was another thing Julie and I have talked about doing since we moved to Germany.  Its hard to describe the feeling you get when you enter the gates and see where millions held during the 2nd World War.  Here are a few photos I took while wondering around learning about what went on.

From Dachau we drove to Innsbruck, Austria for a day of sight seeing, eating, and basically to take a rest from all the beer drinking.  We basically just did the touristy things around town.  Once we were done with being tourist Julie packed up the car and started her drive home and Jeremy, Nick and I jumped on a train back to Munich for one more night at Oktoberfest.  It was another night of insanity and a great end to our time there.  It was a 5 day weekend I will never forget!!!!!!!!