Our final trip as a childless couple was appropriately made to one of the biggest beer parties on the planet. We visited Tanja in Passau and experienced Oktoberfest in Munich.

view of Passau from the river

Here is our contemporary architectural visit for the trip... this is Funf Hofe - the shopping area in the center of Munich designed by Herzog & de Meuron, featured in Architectural Record. In this view, custom light fixtures are suspended among greenery.

What to do with an abandoned escalator? Fill it with dirt and you've got an instant planter. Great example of adaptive reuse.

Munich fashions on display in the store windows

OK, we're finally here at the gates of oktoberfest. Everyone in!

This was our view of Oktoberfest: throngs of twentysomethings, probably most of them drunk. We didn't make it into any of the tents because they were all full. Perhaps we shouldn't have tried to go on a Saturday night.

subway advertising

In the end, we ditched the Oktoberfest and headed to Hofbrauhaus. For you Bostonians, this place is like the Durgin Park of Munich. Long wooden tables, big steins of beer, and loud Oompah bands. (that's Apfelsaft in Karen's glass.)