We set off for our
second year running at Oktoberfest, in the final week of the festival with
friends, Kirk, Kate and Chris.
2010 was the 200th Oktoberfest and after how popular the
festival was last year, we decided to go mid week, in hope to be able to move
between the beer halls and find tables more easily. We arrived Wednesday
evening, settled into out hotels and meet at a local café for a feed of pork
scnitzel. James and I had been to a nice café last year with Emma, Maneesh and
Hamish and although none of us could recall the name, we did manage to find the
exact same place (we couldn’t believe our luck after googling ‘the best scnitzel
in munich’ and coming up with the map to the café-“Steinheil”). We had to wait for a table it was so
busy but once seated we all enjoyed a scnitzel the full size of a dinner plate
and chips, for a reasonable 9 euro 50 cents each. And we enjoyed the local beers also!
The next morning we
decided to go via Mairensplatz (the centre of Munich) to find Kate a dirndl
(traditional Bavarian outfit). I had already dressed into mine which I bought
last year and as we were shopping the boys managed to dress themselves in the
traditional leierhousin too!
Probably best explained by looking at the photos!
We arrived at
Oktoberfest and found a table at the Schottenhamel tent. Given it was lunchtime
we all ordered lunch, which consisted of the yummy pork knuckles with dumplings
and roast chickens. We then moved onto the Lowenbrau tent, and stayed there at
a table for many hours, drinking and socialising with the locals. At this
point, for Julie, it was time to head back to the hotel with Kate after feeling
rather crook (let’s just say I didn’t pace myself!), while the boys stayed out
until 1am having loads of fun drinking and enjoying the amusement rides.
After a slow start the
next day, we all met back at Oktoberfest and started our first stein in the
Hofbrau tent following a couple of amusement rides. We also enjoyed some apple strudel and more roast chicken
for lunch. Following this, we
moved onto the Hippodrome tent, although it was so busy and with many of the
tables booked, we settled for a table outside in the beer garden area. This
proved to be a great table, with us making friends with some americian guys
along the way and singing many rock tunes which got the crowd singing along
too. After a long night, Kate and I helped the boys home!
The following day we
all met back at Oktoberfest, largely out of curiousity as to how busy it would
be on a Saturday. We arrived to find we could only shuffle along in the areas
outside the tents it was so packed and by 10am onwards, it would have been
impossible to have got a seat in a tent anywhere. So we were pretty pleased
with our efforts and with that, we enjoyed lunch in Mairenspltaz before heading
out to the airport and back to sobriety!
