Beer paradise

Photo: Hacker-Pschorr's tent from the middle, right next to the band.

Being one of the best-known festivals all over Europe, Oktoberfest takes over the city of München annually for almost an entire month. Can you guess which month is it about? It depends on every year, but it is mainly September :) Even though, the name comes after its first celebration in October 1810 - to honor the marriage of the future Bavarian Kings. King Ludwig I ordered Münchner breweries to produce special beer for the occasion, and still so it is nowadays! Six local breweries serve their Oktoberfest beer at the festival: Hacker-Pschorr, Spaten-Franziskaner-Bräu, Paulaner, Löwenbräu, Hofbräu München and Agustiner Bräu. But festival's history has also a sad side: it has been cancelled 24 times due to several wars, economic problems and diseases - such as both World Wars, the Great Depression and cholera. 

Oktoberfest is held in Theresienwiese, a park located nearby Munich's central station. The mentioned breweries make way for 14 big beer tents every year accompanied by 20 smaller structures in charge of providing typical Bavarian food and drinks to the visitors. Besides that, the whole complex is amused by music and even a big parade takes place on the first Sunday to kickstart the festival. 

I took the picture above at one of the most traditional tents at the festival, The tent is called "Himmel der Bayern" (Bavarian Heaven) and belongs to Hacker-Pschorr brewery, a result of two 600-year-old family-breweries that merged in 1972. It is one of the biggest with a capacity for almost 10.000 people. 

Arm yourself with patience if you want to sit inside a tent, reservations are usually sold out months before the event. Or do what I did: avoid weekends and go early on a weekday. The door opening is at 10am, so if you get there around 9am the line is not very long. I quickly got inside and found a table for 8 people right next to the band!

Officially an "expensive street"

Zürich, a world-known Swiss city for chocolate and its luxury shops. But this city is much more than just that. The most expensive stores are located in the main shopping street, called "Bahnhofstraβe" because it goes from the central station to the lake Zürich, in the southern extreme of the old town. 

Photo: Tiffany & Co's display window @ Bahnhofstraβe.

This 1,5km-long street is being included year by year in the top 10 of most expensive streets around the world by several studies. The most famous study is made by Forbes, which puts Zürich's Bahnhofstraβe in a 7th place. But if you keep your eyes open, there is something curious about it: the luxury goes increasing meanwhile you move forward direction to the lake. That means that you can find stores such as H&M at the beginning of the street at central station, but keep going straight and you will start seeing design stores, like for example Dior or Tiffany & Co.

More than chocolate and banks

Photo: View of St. Peterskirche tower and two of its four clocks from Münsterbrücke. 

The old town goes along both banks of Limmat river, which divides the city in two parts and flows into Lake Zürich. The "Altstadt" is full of charm, little alleys, narrow and with no vehicles driving around. 

There are several churches in Zürich whose spires can be seen from high points, but the most important are four: Grossmünster, Fraumünster, St. Peterskirche and Prediger. All of them look quite alike except Grossmünster on the river's right side, which has two towers instead of only one spire. By the way, the legend says it was founded by Charlemagne at the beginning of the 12th century. Crossing the Limmat we find Fraumünster, a parish church built on a former abbey for woman - so its name. A little bit further along the Limmat, we find Sankt Peterskirche with the widest tower clock in Europe - with more than 8m of diameter! And last but not least, the Gothic-styled Predigerkirche rises up also on the right riverbank and it holds the main library in Zürich in its cloister.

Photo: Grossmünster's 12th century cloister from the inside. 

A funicular from 1889

Photo: Views over Zürich from University's terrace. 

One of the spots I liked the most of the city was the area around the ETH (German acronym for the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the technical university in Zurich), which is up on a little hill on the right side of the Limmat river.

There's such a special way to get to that mentioned area: there still exists the Polybahn, the original red funicular which is running since 1889! Its name is taken from the former school's name - Eidgenössisches Polytechnikum. It is only 176-meters-ride, which goes from Central Polybahn (nearby central station, other side of the bridge) to Polyterrasse ETH and vice versa. You will appear at the back side of the school, in a huge terrasse which offers such fantastic views over the old town. 

From a train station to a world-known museum

This museum was definitely a big discovering for me. I honestly did not know about its existence before visiting it, and it was actually my travel buddy who mentioned it and made me feel curious about it. She said it was a former train station (Gare d'Orsay) and I love them, so with no more discussion we got in. The building has a lot of history since it was initially built for the Universal Exposition in 1900, and trains ran until 1939 when it became unsuitable for longer trains. During the II World War, this space was turned into a mailing centre and finally, after many years about to be demolished, it was listed as Historical Monument and converted into the current museum in 1986. Its strategic position creats a magical three-in-a-row together with the Louvre Museum and the National Museum of Modern Art (located at the Centre Georges Pompidou). The museum holds a large collection of artworks from well-known artists such as Monet, Gauguin or Van Gogh, besides obviously the architecture of the building itself, which is stunning.

Luckily for low-budgets, the most of French museums are free of charge for under-18 and European citizens, but also on the first Sunday of the month! You must watch out it is not Monday, it is most of museum's off day.

Photo: Giant clock-shaped window at the top floor of the museum.

Views over Paris

Photo: Views over La Défense and Avenue de la Grande Armée.

As many of you may know, there are many triumphal arches conmemmoring war victories around the world, but maybe the best-known is located in Paris. This neoclassical monument was finished in 1836 under Napoleon's command to remember all those French soldiers who died during the French Revolution and the Napoleonic wars (their names are engraved on the building).

If you have time, I recommend you to climb up to the rooftop, which offers magnificient views over the city – from La Défense to Montmartre, including the towers Eiffel and Montparnasse. The entrance costs 12€ but children and European citizens can get up there for free!

By the way, do you see the 12 avenues starting from the square nowadays called “Charles de Gaulle”? Those are the twelve reasons why that square was called “Place de l’Étoile” until 1970! The most famous of those avenues is Champs-Élysées, shopping street for excellence and known for many annual events (Tour de France, Bastille Day militar parade…)