Oktoberfest in Munich

We returned over the weekend from a four-day trip to Munich to celebrate Pete's birthday at Oktoberfest. Oktoberfest is the biggest public festival in the world, and it was a raucous, rockin', high-spirited, song-singing, anything goes party. And a "gut" time was had by all! To imagine Oktoberfest, you have to start with the image of a state fair -- a huge midway, with thrill rides, food stands, souvenirs, games where you can win stuffed animals, and lots and lots of people. Then add beer halls. Huge ones, and more than a dozen of them, holding between 5000 and 10,000 people each. They call them "tents" because they are assembled and dissassembled every year, but they are actually huge halls with all of the amenities of a restaurant -- including enormous kitchens. Individual tents are somewhat different in appearance, size, and beer offerings. Each sells beer from a particular brewery; as you can see here, there was a Lowenbrau tent and a Paulaner tent: Include oom-pah-pah bands and loads of Germans in lederhosen, dirndls and crazy hats -- and you've got yourself a party! There were ten of us together -- birthday boy Peter and his wife Lisa (the super-organizer of the trip):Dawn and Greg, who travelled over again from the US: Tim and Penny, who kept us, and each other, laughing all the time:Carla and Steve:and, of course, the two of us: We had a ball together.Lisa bought us each a pair of fashion-forward beer goggles in the UK before we left, and they proved to be real conversation starters.We all met lots of people from around the world. We dove right in on our first full day in Munich, arriving at the Hofbrau Brewery tent when it opened at 10am. We had heard that we needed to arrive early to secure a table, and while it didn't seem so important on that first day (mid-week), we soon discovered as the weekend grew closer that early admittance was key. The tents were full by 11:30am, queues formed outside of the doors, and you could only enter after someone else left! Day 1 was the day of beer. LOTS of beer. We slowed the pace down a bit (and ate more food!) on Day 2, when we spent the day in the Paulaner tent. But it was, by no means, a tame day. Paulaner was a rocking tent, and there was a lot of dancing going on!D asked me to add this 20-second video clip he recorded at the Paulaner tent. He knew that my parents would especially enjoy it. Although most of the band's songs were German, there were also songs in other languages -- and seemingly everyone there knew all of the words. It was odd to hear 6,000 people, mostly Germans, singing along to this one. Especially when all of them were pronouncing it "Vest Virginia"...

It was amazing to watch the waiters and waitresses carrying out the beers all day -- often with a dozen or more liter mugs in their hands at one time. Day 3 was spent in the Hippodrom tent. We actually had a reserved table here, as Lisa had made certain in advance that we'd have a place on the busiest day (Friday) of our visit. The table was in the mezzanine, from which we could look down and see the rest of the revelers. Our day at Hippodrom was the guys' favorite. Early in the day, a bunch of German models and beauty queens were introduced by the band, and only minutes later they came up onto the mezzanine and parked themselves at the Champagne bar right next to our table.
Not known for being shy, D made friends quickly.
Not to be outdone, Greg found himself a friendly fraulein: as did Tim: There was much spirited discussion of "heaving bosoms" amongst the guys -- I can't imagine why...! We had a great time and came away with lots of fun memories!