200 years of Oktoberfest. Prost!

What started out as a normal week of library visits, strolling through town and exploring Pforzheim took an exciting turn when Shar traded away her Saturday shift at work. We now had Thursday to Sunday to play with. A few hours on google and we had planned a 500 km road trip through the Bavarian Alps and into Austria.

Thursday started early. We made it to Munich, our first stop, in less time than it takes to drive from Vancouver to Seattle. Our first target: why, Oktoberfest, of course! So much more than beer tents (though there were plenty of those, to be sure) lined the streets, which were packed with men in liederhosen and women in dirndls.

The intricate grid of Oktoberfest streets held game booths, roller coasters, stands selling heart-shaped German gingerbread cookies (which, on this occasion, were attached to ribbon and worn as necklaces), candied nut stalls, souvenir hawkers, haunted houses, horses pulling festive beer keg loads decorated with floral wreaths and men competing in the strongest man hammer contest. Everything was over-the-top. The spinning swings were the highest in the world. The dirndl-clad beer tent woman would sweep through the aisles carrying up to 10 mugs of beer at a time. Beer and food tents were adorned with 20-foot high wooden people twirling roasting spits or holding massive bratwurst. The young got into dressing up as much as the old, who rocked those Robin Hood hats in a way my generation can only imitate. The carnival atmosphere was infectious and we were immediately swept up in the excitement.

I didn’t realize when we got there that each beer tent carries its own brand of beer and a distinct reputation that attracts a specific sort of patron. We grabbed a bench at the Paulaner tent, which was buzzing with all sorts of people and had a band playing traditional Bavarian folk songs from the bandstand in the centre. The tent, draped with yellow fabric and green wreaths, could easily fit a thousand people. We got German potato salad and a radler, which is half beer, half lemonade and delicious.

After a ride on the 52 metre high spinning swings, which gave us a dizzying view of almost all of Munich, we left, hopping on the underground and arriving at Marienplatz, the main city square. The shopping was very upscale and the windows were elaborately decorated in celebration of Oktoberfest. Liederhosen cost double the price of designer jeans!

By the time darkness approached we returned to the car, setting off to Salzburg!