実はこの旅行、今年の初めから話が出ていて、ベルギーのブリュッセルからオクトーバーフェストの開かれるドイツのミュンヘンまで車で移動しながら旅行しよう、と決まり、半年前に飛行機のチケットを予約したら、その直後にブリュッセル空港がテロ攻撃にあう、と、ちょっと不吉な旅行でした。
半年前には家を売る計画もなかったので、引っ越し作業の真っただ中の旅行となった上に、オットのイギリス出張まで入って、かなり勘弁してほしいタイミングでした。
オットはイギリスから帰ってきた数時間後にベルギーにとんぼ返りな、とても健康に良くない旅行日程でした。
EU圏内でのテロ事件が重なる中、目標になりやすいオクトーバーフェストというイベントに行くのは危険なんじゃないか、といろいろ言われたけど、全く問題もなく、引っ越し作業のことも忘れてとてもたのしい旅行になりました。
ちなみに日程はこんな感じ：
初日ベルギーのブリュッセル入り。ブリュッセル２泊。
ルクセンブルクを通り過ぎる間に数時間観光。
フランス１泊。
スイスアルプスの谷間に２泊。
オーストリアはガソリン給油休憩以外は通り過ぎただけ。
ドイツのミュンヘン５泊。自分で作ったドイツの民族衣装、ディアンドルを着てオクトーバーフェストに行きました。完成したディアンドルの詳細は後日。
We had our great vacation trip to Europe.
The Man of the House and two of his friends from childhood always talked about going to the Oktoberfest together some day, and the some say has finally come for their 40-year-old anniversary year. Though they grew up together, now that we all live in different states, it was a nice get-together too. With their respective wives, we were a party of 6.
The plan of this Europe trip began earlier this year. The boys decided to start from Brussels, then drive through Europe to get to Munich for the finale of Oktoberfest. We bought the tickets 6 months ago, and the weekend after we bought the ticket, the bombing happened in Brussels. As you know, there were more terrorist attacks in Europe since then, and especially after what happened in France in July (a truck driving through a crowd), it was slightly scary to plan to travel to Oktoberfest, the best soft target you can think of.
Also, the timing of the trip was not ideal. We obviously did not plan on selling our house and moving 6 months ago. On top of that, MOTH had a business trip to England right before our trip and he did not come home until the night before our departure. He literally came home from England at 8 pm, and by 3 am the next morning, he had to drive 1.5 hours to the airport to head to Brussels.
People told me it was not wise to go to Europe considering what's happening, but at the end of the day, I would not want terrorists to prevent me from doing what I want to do and I would rather get bombed and die on my vacation than live with the "I could have gone" regrets. Anyway, we had a lot of fun and everything was great in Europe. People were so very kind and food was great.
Some highlights of the trip:
We stayed in Brussels for 2 nights and visited Lindeman's factory. Lindemans is a lambic (a type of beer that is brewed with spontaneous fermentation) brewer and you can tour the facility with a guide. Since it was too warm for brewing, the only working part of the factory was a bottling section, but we get to stand at the bottling line on the factory floor, close enough to snatch a bottle, which was pretty interesting. We also had an ample amount of tasting at the end of tour.
We stayed one night at a chateau in France, which was awesome. By the way, bread in France is so good everywhere.
We stayed 2 nights in Swiss alps. We went on a gondola and did a dry tobboggan run on the mountain side. Yup, went down the tin course on a sled, looking snow capped mountains. It was awesome.
The finale was the Oktoberfest. The boys all wore lederhosen (leather breeches) and the girls wore the dirndl. More about my dirndl later.
Thanks to smart phones and the Internet connection, we never got lost and we found many good restaurants throughout our trip. Hooray to the technology.
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