Munich & Oktoberfest 2011

We are on the way to Oktoberfest! It is a beautiful morning as we walked to the Bahnhof in Enkenbach where we took the train to Kaiserslautern, then the ICE to Mannheim and now the ICE to München. My first time on a high speed train!

It's a great way to travel, more room than a plane and you get to see more! I love that you don't have to go through security and pack liquids in little bottles. You can bring on whatever food and drink you want and the bathrooms are bigger! Our hotel is just a 3 minute walk from the Bahnhof and the Oktoberfest grounds are about a 10 minute walk from there. We are not far from the city sights either so once we get in we'll figure if we want to see some of those or head right to the fest! There's so much to do and see that of course I didn't sleep well in anticipation of it all. Now time to just relax on our 3 hour ride to the city of the world's largest beer fest....

We arrived in Munich and oh boy what a sight, 100's and 100's of people dressed ready for the fest. We were hit with Oktoberfest galore and we hadn't even left the Bahnhof. Just a few minutes' walk to the Marriott (btw is the first chain hotel we've stayed in so far in Europe!) then we headed out to get lunch and found a fun outside place called Altes hackerhaus where we enjoyed a brew, I had a Caesar salad and Dave had a plate of meat! 

A little potato with a lotta meat!

We were right near the city center, the Marienplatz that is marked by a statue of the squares namesake, The Virgin Mary. This square is also famous for the New Town Hall, like so many other Neo-Gothic buildings we've seen were decorated with 40 statues of royals and nobles. It survived the bombings in WWII. This is also the building that holds the famous glockenspiel that recreates a wedding from the 16th century between a Bavarian duke and a French bride. It goes off every day at 11, 12 and 5.  We missed it Saturday because we were stuck drinking liters at the Hofbräuhaus....

We walked through the Viktualienmarkt which is a large fresh produce and goods market and also has the huge maypole - basically an information post (from the 15th century). This maypole shows Munich's 6 great brews and the festivities & crafts associated with brewing.

Then we made our way over towards the Hofbräuhaus which is the world's most famous beer hall and right next to the Hard Rock Cafe.

We walked through the crazy, loud, oompah band playing hall without really intending to stay but when a table opened up in front of the band we couldn't pass it up and glad we didn't because it was a lot of fun! The table soon filled with fun people including a dad and daughter from CA that were on the last night of their 2 week vacation, a couple from Lisbon, Portugal and a large group of old drunk Austrian men that never stopped talking about Arnold Schwarzenegger! Different tables would start singing songs like "Sweet Caroline", "Country Road Take Me Home", "Come on Ilene" and a bunch of others but the best part was that they had printouts of the words! They were not Americans either! After 2 liters and a big huge pretzel we thought we'd head over to the fest and walk around.

On the way we walked by a pretty sweet Lamborghini parked right across from the -

-Asam Church which was built by the Asam Brothers. It was built in 1740 and was a bit ostentatious to say the least!  It was extreme Rococo style which I guess I've never seen before.  They built it between their homes as a private initiative to basically show off their work but it is now recognized as a place of worship. I didn't take pics inside when we stopped, because I thought it was some sort of sacred worship spot but after reading about it I wish that I did snap a pic or two!
As soon as we came upon the grounds of Oktoberfest we couldn't believe the "brightness" and it was just getting dark.

I think it was a great 1st impression of the fest because of the illumination of everything! We walked around in amazement at the size of everything and the amount of people! There was no getting into the tents unless we wanted to wait in lines and we weren't that eager. So we just took it all in and strolled the grounds since we'd be heading back in the morning.

Slideshow of Day 1 in Munich:

Saturday was a beautiful day! We enjoyed breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the fest, fully Bavarian dressed, shortly after 10 am.

Self pic in hotel

There were mobs of people, and I'm not exaggerating! Polizei were everywhere, security in all the tents and all around the fest grounds. It was unbelievable at how packed it was so early! We went into a few of the tents but each one was harder and harder to move and limited if any seats and neither of us wanted liters at that hour so we decided that stick outside the tents for the time being. 
We took in the atmosphere, major people watched, and avoided getting bumped into from those that were too inebriated! We took a ride on the ferris wheel to be able to get a good bird's eye view of the grounds. It was quite a view, and hardly no pavement in sight because of all the people!

View from the top of the ferris wheel

There were biergartens throughout, including a rotating carousel garden, that were still pretty full but definitely easier to get into plus you got 1/2 liters which was more up our alley :). We chatted with a bunch of Aussies from Brisbane who were just finishing up a 2 month vacation then heading back to their summer. They were fun to talk to and hear about their crazy experiences...they were young guys.

I'm kind of bummed that I lost count at how many other Frau's were wearing the same dirndl :( there are so many unique ones but I didn't care I still love mine! 

All the men look the same in their lederhosen, not as many different varieties to choose from there!  We had some wursts, got a few souvenirs and headed to the hotel to put our feet up for a few before heading back to Marienplatz to see the glockenspiel in action at 5:00. The fest is fun for sure but it was hot and crowded beyond belief and our feet just needed a rest! 

More fest pictures:


Heading back to the city center (still in our super cute Bavarian outfits), we could tell that tour busses were dropping loads off at the same time. Groups and groups of elderly, Japanese, or Italians seemed to be the majority! I guess maybe we've been in our little town too long, not used to the crowds and diversity that was experienced this weekend! At 5:00 the glockenspiel started playing and everyone was ooohhhing and aaahhhing over it with their cameras pointed up high.

Ready to watch the glockenspiel

It was pretty cool to see the life-size figures do their little dances. It's 100 years old and was restored in 2008. 

We left the area with the masses and headed to the Hard Rock for dinner, where we always like to go when we travel. It was fun, good food as usual and very American, except for the beer!

After dinner we did some walking around and sightseeing which I'll do all the explaining in the pictures because I'd otherwise bore you with the details without seeing the pics! 

Sunday morning we had breakfast at the Marriott again then headed out on foot for a little more sightseeing before catching the 12:30 train. Munich is a city of 1.5 million people but it seemed like it was more than doubled! Can you tell that the amount people was a bit overwhelming for me this weekend?! It was a fun time indeed but we really want to go back during a quieter time to see more of the sights in detail. It's an easy train trip away! There is so much history - 853 years - the BMW museum as well as many others, beautiful parks and palaces, Dachau (which we'll see next weekend as we pass through) and of course beer gardens and the Hofbräuhaus, which I have to say was my favorite part of this quick, expensive trip to Müchen!