So what does €27 buy you?

Jo - Well not much in the British Empire store in Nürnberg. Our shopping list consisted of

Sharwoods Balti Sauce - €3.89
Sharwoods Korma Sauce - €4.35
2x Kia Ora Squash - €2.90 each
McVitities Digestives - €1.89
Heinz Lentil Soup - €2.19
Heinz Baked Beans - €1.98
HP Sauce - €2.50
Marmite - a whopping €4.48 for a tiny 125 g jar!

We got so excited in the shop when we saw all this British food, I was like a little child in a sweet shop.

We really only went in for Baked Beans as we've really missed them - they go with everything!


Ross - But that's not all we've been up to recently. Today we went to the "Doku-Zentrum", also in Nürnberg. The city itself was pretty much the home of the Nazi party and as such they held all their big rallies there. Many of the grand buildings that Hitler designed for these rallies are still there (although only one was actually finished as something or other apparently got in the way of construction between 1939-1945).

The Doku-Zentrum is housed in one of the wings of Hitler's Congress Hall (picture) and is a museum of Nürnberg and its connection with the Third Reich. It's very interesting and only €7.50 for us both which offered us at least 3 hrs entertainment. To be honest we could have spent plenty more time there, but it was full of waffle so we skipped most of the last part!

The building itself is unfinished but was meant to be double the size of the Coluseum in Rome, and Hitler's pride and joy. The picture shows what was meant to be the main hall with space for 50,000 people and a huge roof. The outer shell was as far as they got, but nevertheless it's still pretty impressive. Nowadays it's just home to the museum, the Nürnberg Symphony Orchestra, and lots and lots of storage. I like to think of it as the World's most expensive shed. If only Hitler was alive to see it today...!

There's a 2 hr walk round the lake which takes you past all the other buildings but the Doku-Zentrum was quite enough fascism for one day so that can be done another time.

Love Jo and Ross x

No beer at Oktoberfest

Well we thought it would be rude to come all the way here and not pay a visit to the World famous Oktoberfest, especially as it's only about 100 miles away in Munich. So that's exactly what we did, nearly 2 weeks ago now.

As expected, it was incredibly busy and very very large (the picture just doesn't do it justice) but the first thing surprised us was the amount of funfair rides that there were. These took up a large proportion of the area, and whilst they certainly provided plently of entertainment, it seemed wrong to us that the main focus of the event seemed to be around these and not the beer.

This abundance of spinning, twirling, and flashing attractions seemed at first to be a pleasant surprise. Afterall, they're always good for a laugh. However, we very quickly realised that perhaps they weren't such a great idea for 2 good reasons.

Firstly, far too many people seemed incapable of making this simple calculation:

copious amounts of booze + rides that simulate washing machines = large amounts of regurgitation.

Add into this equasion the fact that 6.5 million people visited Oktoberfest this year, and that the facilities consisted of scarsely scattered chemical toilets and the answer is not pretty. Needless to say, the capacities of these toilets were not nearly enough to meet the reqirements and I'll leave the rest up to your imagination...

The second (and much more serious) problem was the fact that with all these rides, there was not enough drinking space left! The beer tents were all crammed into the back corner of the festival, and by the time we arrived they were already at capacity. Hense the title of this blog. We waited an hour at the doors of one of these tents and only 3 people were let in. So no beer for us and we left feeling cheated. And thristy. (To be fair though, we were there on it's final Saturday at about 3pm so couldn't have really picked a worse time).

However, it wasn't all bad. Oktoberfest did certainly have one redeeming feature. With the amount of people and alcohol, this was definately a recipe for a mass brawl. However, I can honesly say that we never saw any sign of trouble. I don't know why but it's certainly worth pointing out.

Miss you all. Ross x

More photos of Oktoberfest will soon be added to http://community.webshots.com/user/joanna2079 so keep checking!