Fröhliche Floßfahrt!!!

Although it started terribly, I had to admit that it has been a glorious summer. And how better to celebrate the end of the season than to take a delightful river raft ride? Caro had organised an event with her sister and so we hopped along for the ride. Cast off was at Wolfratshausen at 9am which necessitated a very early wake up time (I think 6:30am) in order to put on tracht and get the s-bahn.

But it was a beautiful clear day - perfect rafting conditions!

Blonde Susi and Blonde Laura in their German best.

Markus had just arrived back from Shanghai and he'd been thoroughly integrated into Asian-ness.

Caro and Carola

But a raft ride through the Upper Bavarian countryside isn't just a raft ride. There was also Bavarian breakfast consisting of leberkäsemmel (no suesser senf though :/), and a lunch consisting of half a roasted chicken, krautersalat and kartoffelsalat. And bier. Many litres of bier. In fact, we received our first bier at 9am.

Chugging down from our souvenir Steinkrug

A raft on the river

A beer with pleasure

So let us celebrate it:

Cheers to Bavaria!

(roughly translated)

And we're off!!!

Heading through the wilderness *duelling banjoes playing*

Yep, nothing but wilderness and guys in lederhosen.

The ride took us to some strange places...

Nah, that's not quite true. We passed a few landmarks and a lot of people waved from the riverbanks or from bridges

When I first told Pooey that I was going to do this and sent her a few photos, she said, "THAT LOOKS SO UNSAFE!!!" So here are a few photos of the raft

Which was literally a bunch of logs lashed together.

With a few more logs as seating.

Yep, I'm pretty much just standing on the water here - when it got hot, I even sat on the side and dangled my feet in the water as we floated along. It was a pretty stable craft though - and the drivers had some extra rope and an axe in case of emergency.

At a few places in the river, we had to take canals that would drop the height of the waterway and we'd all be told to sit down. It didn't stop the party though :D

All in all, a very pleasant way to spend a warm afternoon. Totally recommended although I'd just like to warn everyone who does this to watch their alcohol intake. Just sayin'.