Travel, travel and more travel

As usual, its been far too long since I last wrote in this blog.
At the end of September I went for a day trip to Oktoberfest in Munich. The beer 'tents' are massive temporary tents housing about 6,000 guests and smelling of stale beer and grilled chickens. Not particularly pleasant from that perspective, but each tent was grandly decorated. Each tent is presented by a different beer brewery and decorated in a particular theme. Apart from the beer tents, there were plenty of other food stands and heaps of rides. A bit like the Melbourne Show, just 10 times bigger! Of course there were thousands of people there too. Every few minutes I would hear Aussie voices somewhere...and wander off in the other direction. I was warned they can be dangerous and make you get spastically drunk ;-)
After seeing the fest, I took a walk into the centre of town. I wanted to see the Glockenspiel at the Munich Town Hall, and of course with my luck the Town Hall was under renovation so the Glockenspiel was not completely visible, nor did it work properly. There was no sound...ie no Glockenspiel - just he movement of the figures in the clock. Bit disappointing. What was very nice though was the walk I took through the Englischer Garten (English Garden) which is meant to be the biggest city park in Germany. It was a fantastic day with blue sky and sunshine, about 20 degrees and autumn colours in full swing.
Last weekend I took a trip to London to visit some friends for a few days. That was awesome. I saw plenty of the usual sights, including the London Eye - expensive but a great view. The highlight of the weekend was seeing my friends, and seeing the musical "We Will Rock You".
This week has been spent with Dad visiting his old workplace and where he used to live a few years ago. The last couple of days were spent visiting friends in Regensburg.
Tomorrow I go with Dad in a hire car to visit various relatives all over the south of Germany over the coming week. Then I'm off to the USA for a wedding of one of my best friends - that's in San Francisco. 10 Days in San Fran, then a few in New York before heading back to Europe for three weeks and then back to Oz. It'll be a busy few weeks, but I'm looking forward to it all.
Can't wait to see my family and friends again soon too.