Once again Marlene and I were the last to rejoin the group, this time for our 1 o'clock ADR at Biergarten. Even Lauren beat us there, and I was worried that she'd be late with the long line that she was in to meet Aurora. And yes, even Gram and Poppy beat us there, shuffling across several countries from France to Germany, which are neighbors in real-life, but not here in the World Showcase. Go figure.
Judy saw somebody else playing the Agent P mission and asked me to get a picture of Perry the Platypus in the window above the restaurant, since she'd missed it.
Oh, and "Spoiler Alert"!
I think that the flower in his hat is a nice touch.
I turned around and Marlene had called one of the phone booths elsewhere in the World Showcase. I think it was in the one in near the bathrooms in Germany, the building just to the left of the miniature trains. I asked her about it while I was writing this update and she didn't think that she got anybody to answer on this particular occasion, but she sure loves that gag. I'm surprised she hasn't tried it from home.
We had to wait a few minutes to be seated. Lauren is obviously thrilled that I have the camera out.
I know I mentioned it in my pre-trip report, but we've eaten at this restaurant the last three trips now. I tried to change it up and try someplace new, but the kids wouldn't hear of it. They love it. Plus, Poppy's ancestry is German, so he was going to love the food here.
Okay, once finally inside, it was time for some blurry, no-flash pictures of the kids. Lauren and Marlene were to my right...
...and James was to my left. But look beyond him, they sat us right next to the buffet. Thank you, Biergarten table-assigning cast member! I don't want to get winded, running back and forth to the buffet.
Soon after we were seated, the oom-pah band came out and started oom-pah-ing. Their real name is "Oktoberfest Musikanten", but if I say "oom-pah band" you know exactly what I mean. I always plan my ADR time to be a few minutes before theyre scheduled to play, and I use this great website,
wdwent.com maintained by Steve Soares, to keep track of the entertainment times, particularly for the World Showcase. Ideally, I like to be seated and have my first plate of food so that I can enjoy listening to them while I eat. It didn't exactly work out that way this time, but it was fine. I took a couple of pictures and then ducked back to the buffet.
Here was my first plate of samplings. I am totally mailing-in this food review, I didn't write anything down regarding what was what. But hey, it's German food, there's a roll, a couple of sausages, some sauerkraut and slaw, potatoes and potato salad, and a meatball. Hey, I think I did pretty well. Oh, and there's some soup there too. I'm pretty sure that's the cream of potato and leeks.
I tried to take a picture of Poppy and Gram and they each took turns being a blur.
Hey, there we go! Ein Prosit! (Hum "Roll Out the Barrel" to yourself.)
I knew that the band wouldn't play for too much longer, so went to get a couple more pictures before I got my next plate of food.
They really are a lot of fun, and add to the experience at Biergarten. Just look at how the people in these pictures are watching them.
A shot of the room.
Is it safe for that woman to be holding a child on her lap right in front of that Ricola horn?
Here are a couple more plates of food that I, ah "sampled". You probably recognize most of the items, but on this plate the stuff in the middle is Spaetzle, and at the bottom is Wiener Schnitzel. (Schnitzel Wiener Art, or Breaded Pork Vienna Style, per allears.net) The schnitzel served in the actual city of Vienna (Wien) is much better, pounded so thin that covers your plate, but I dont know when I'll ever get back there, so this is a good substitute.
Some last minute things to try before moving on to dessert.
I had some definite opinions on which desserts I liked best, and now I can't remember. In this picture, at the top is Rote Gruetze with Vanilla Sauce, then Blackforest Cake, then Apple Strudel, and Bavarian Cheese Cake. I think my favorite might have actually been the cheesecake.
You may remember that way back in
this post of the trip report, Lauren saw "WW" on my schedule for the week and wondered what it was. The kids had been guessing all week long but we wouldn't tell them, only promising that we'd let them know before Friday. At some point during the week, they pinned us down on exactly
when we'd tell them and we set the big reveal for lunch at Biergarten on Thursday. Well, here we were.
I told them that "WW" stood for "Wizarding World" (as in "of Harry Potter", but I couldnt use "WWoHP" or they would have surely guessed it in two-seconds flat) and they were all "We KNEW it!". I think I'm lucky that it was Wizarding World...if it had been anything less, I'd have been in trouble. Even though they suspected that's what it was, they were psyched. Tomorrow would be something to look forward to, for sure.
Other than that, apparently I thought up a slogan for Biergarten while I was there because in my notes I wrote "their wurst is the best!". Ba dum bum.
Just before we left to go do more "stuff", the kids encouraged me to take a picture of the Hamburg flag.
No, it wasnt because our family came over from Hamburg (although they may have, I have no idea), or that we've ever been to Hamburg, or have any affinity for Hamburg. It's kind of a family joke. My mom (yes, Gram, in this TR) always referred to
hamburgers as a "hamburg". Drove me nuts. "Do you want a hamburg?" "No, I want a hamburg-
er." "Hamburg-
er." "
Er,
er,
ER!"
Okay. Sorry. I feel better now.
Up next: Proud to be an Amurrican
Link to next chapter
You're not too late because it appears that I am going for the record of the most drawn-out trip report! Woo hoo! 
I was getting a lot of grief over how long this TR is taking, and thought you were jumping on the bashwagon. 
I know what you mean though -- I'm having a hard time keeping up on a lot of TRs too.
