Rita and I finally made it to Munich’s Oktoberfest. We have been to Munich many times but never for this famous event. And we have been to many other Oktoberfests at various places but this one is the original. The first Oktoberfest began in 1810 in Munich and has grown so much that today Oktoberfest and Munich are synonymous. This year was probably a good year for these two senior citizens to attend since crowds were down to a manageable size. We were told that last year there were 11 million people attending the two-week festival. Last year there were 2 million attendees in the first weekend while this year there was about 550,000 in the first weekend. Much of this is attributed to the drop in international travel since the September 11 attacks in the USA. We noticed that there seemed to be very few foreigners in attendance and the crowds seemed mostly German, young and drunk.
Our trip was sponsored through the US Embassy’s Tri Mission Association (TMA) but is not limited to Embassy employees, especially if the trip is not filled up. This trip was on a very comfortable bus with music, videos, and plenty of space since it did not fill up. Rita and I were able to spread out to two separate seats for the trip. We left Brussels early Thursday morning and headed on motorways to Luxembourg and into Germany gliding past Trier, Kaiserslautern, Mannheim, Heilbronn, Stuttgart, Ulm, and Fussen where we took back roads to the village of Oberammergau. This village is so picturesque that it doesn’t look real. It is home to the well-known Passion Play, which is done with the local village residents every ten years. It derives from a vow made by the village inhabitants in 1633 when the plague epidemic miraculously stopped short. Oberammergau is also known as the center of Bavarian wood carving with dozens of shops and carvers in the area.
We checked into our comfortable Hotel Wolf and soon had to get on the bus for a short drive to Garmish-Partenkirchen. Earlier in the day we all voted for going to this town to a Bavarian restaurant with “live music and great German food”. Our bus driver, who was also the organizer, called ahead on his cell phone and we had reservations for 8:00 pm. The entertainment and beer were good, but the food was just okay. Here we had Paulaner beer served in half-liter sizes – a special Oktoberfest brew. I had Wiener schnitzel and Rita had sauerbraten. The entertainment was a gentleman with accordion who yodeled and sang German beer-drinking songs while playing. Two teen-aged boys came out at 30-minute intervals to do their Bavarian slap-dances in lederhosen. We all sang along even though we didn’t know the words. We had the spirit!
Friday morning we had about an hour after breakfast to look around town and do a bit of shopping if we wanted to. We departed at 10:30 and headed into Munich. Traffic was heavy and we arrived at the Oktoberfest fairgrounds about noon. People went their separate ways instead of staying together as a group. Rita and I went around with Mike Bretz, with whom I work. Mike had been to three Oktoberfests when he was posted to Germany years ago in the Navy.
First we stopped at the Paulaner beer tent for a liter beer. At the Oktoberfest beer tents, a liter is the only size beer that can be purchased. A liter is slightly larger than a quart or about the size of three bottles of US beer. We also had a lunch of wurst with sauerkraut and a big pretzel. We listened to the oompah band and watched people singing along as they drank. It was not crowded yet. We wandered to the Lowenbrau beer tent, which was more crowded, and then to the Spatenbrau beer tent for another liter. Each local brewery sets up their own, huge beer tents. These are not really tents but large buildings with Plexiglas roofs, with the interiors decorated to look as though they are tents.
We decided to walk into the center of Munich about a mile away. On the way out, Mike and I decided to ride the Euro Star inverted roller coaster. We waited for front row seats for a thrilling ride. Then we continued into Munich, arriving in time at the Marienplatz to witness the 5:00 o’clock glockenspiel demonstration at the town hall. Next we hiked to the famous Hofbrauhaus beer hall. We had beautiful, mild weather so we sat outside in the beer garden and had another liter of beer. We were feeling pretty good by now and getting hungry. Just a short distance away was a good restaurant called Orlando where we had a nice meal. Mike had a half-liter beer while I had a glass of white wine. Rita had sips of my beer throughout the day.
After dinner we walked back to the fairgrounds and to a couple of other beer tents. The crowds had more than doubled in the time we were in town. Some of the beer tents had shut their doors because of over-crowding. We walked into the Hofbrauhaus beer tent and it was packed with drunks standing on the tables and dancing to the music. Smoke was so thick you could barely see the band from the back of the tent. We decided to sit outside where we all three shared one last liter of HB beer. I was surprised that I drank that much beer – probably the most beer in one evening since high school. I was also surprised that I could handle it as well as I did. Probably because we paced ourselves, walked a fair way and ate plenty of food with the beer. We all met back at the bus at 10:30 for the ride home and exchanged war stories before falling asleep on the ride.
Saturday morning we all stumbled into breakfast dying for coffee. But all in all, nobody was sick and we didn’t really have major hangovers. I didn’t feel like going for a run but I didn’t feel bad. We departed the hotel at 9:30 and headed for home with a couple of planned stops.
Our first stop was the beautiful, Rococo style Wieskirche or Wies church near the small village of Wies. Built from 1746 to 1754 by Dominikus Zimmermann, this church is a very sweet piece of eye candy. I find the Rococo style too ornate for my tastes but this was a “piece of work” as they say. My guidebook defines Rococo as “ornamentation that is both exaggerated and asymmetric”. Good description.
After a short while here we headed out to Neuschwanstein castle. Everyone has seen a photo of this castle, which is a modern castle, started in 1869. Built by “mad” king Ludwig II, it is a tribute to Wagner with scenes of his operas painted throughout the castle. The castle looks terrific from a distance and is in such beautiful settings that it looks like a Disneyland affair. We toured it but the tour is short since it was not completed. Mainly you get to see the third floor, which was completed. Rita and I had toured Neuschwanstein back in 1977 with Rachel and Gretchen while we camped around Europe for three months. It hasn’t changed nor have they finished it.
It was finally time to head home. We could relax, read a book, sit back and doze off. We were in good hands and our driver made the trip back without incident. We arrived home about midnight and were happy to fall into our own beds.
Rita and I decided that Oktoberfest is for the younger crowd. We did enjoy it and we are happy to say we have experienced it, but we think we would have enjoyed it more when we were in our 20s or 30s. I guess we are showing our ages.
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