Oktoberfest

First week in October was back to a regular routine, work/school, eat, soccer, repeat.  Saturday we were going to go to Oktoberfest but instead enjoyed sleeping in and lounging most of the day.  Sunday we got ourselves up relatively early and out to make the drive down to Munich.  The weather was clear and sunny and we made good time to the outskirts of Munich where we stopped at a park and ride and hopped on the train to the Oktoberfest grounds.  Elise gave us some very good background on the history of Oktoberfest on the way down.  Apparently Oktoberfest marks the anniversary of King Ludwig's wedding to Prince Therese.  It actually started as a giant horse race.   The event was so successful they continued hosting it every year and over time morphed into what it is now.  Another fun fact is that most people want to know is why is it called Oktoberfest when it starts two weeks before October.  Elise told us it originally was held in Oktober, but was moved back at some point to take advantage of the better weather.  

We weren't really sure what to expect, some people had said definitely do not take the kids, and others said they would love it.  There was a consensus on when we should go (the morning), and that we probably wouldn't want to stay past 2pm if we had the kids.  We came up from the metro and followed the crowd to one of the secondary entrances and found ourselves right in the midst of a bunch of carnival rides.  Looking down the avenue we were on it looked like it was just a giant carnival - rides as far as we could see.  

The girls went on a ride right away and had a blast and then we walked down through the rides after grabbing a couple donuts from one of the food stands.  It was about 10 o'clock and at this point I'd say the avenues were at about 30-50% capacity so the crowd wasn't too bad.  There were a lot of Germans walking around in their traditional garb - the men in lederhosen with checkered shirts, wool hats with feathers, brown leather shoes/boots and long decorative socks pulled all the way up and the women in drindls, which are the traditional bavarian dresses.  I also noticed a lot of Americans as we walked along.

We turned down an adjacent avenue and entered our first beer "tent" which really aren't tents at all but large permanent beer halls.  The first one we went it was pretty much empty so we just walked through it without ordering any beer or food.  Across the avenue was the Lowenbrau tent which looked to have a little more activity so we decided to check it out.  Before we went it we bought a giant pretzel to share.  The outdoor seating was all full so we went inside and found it packed.  We walked through the crowd and luckily a large group got up as we walked by so we got a good spot right in the middle of all the action.  We ordered some food and drinks and watched the crowd while we waited.  Already people were obviously already on their 2nd or 3rd giant beers and feeling happy.  As our beverages came the band started up and lead the crowd in a German song that everyone knew and ended with a lot of cheering and clinking of the giant mugs.  The band played on and Haaken of course got all excited and was standing on the bench, clapping and trying to toast with his giant mug.  A group of young guys next to us took note and a couple of them came over and raised a glass with him which of course he loved.  The atmosphere was great with the band and all the people and we had a great time.

First Beer Tent

Lowenbrau Tent 

 Eins, Zwei, Drei, Super!

 Fun with mugs

Our waitress 

We stayed for probably a little over an hour before we decided to head back out .  The kids wanted to ride on the giant ferris wheel so we made our way over to it - the traffic was starting to pick up now.  Carissa took the kids on the ride and I stayed back and people watched.  I noticed that the street in front of me was suddenly thick with people - I'm guessing it was about 12:30 at this point.  The ride took quite a while and by the time the kids found me the crowd was barely moving.  We got some cotton candy and found a little eddy behind the building we bought it from where we could stand comfortably and let the kids eat.  Once they were finished we joined the slow moving crowd back toward the beer tents.  It probably took us 20 minutes to get back to the Lowenbrau tent, which unhindered would take maybe 3 minutes at the most.  We kept going, and started to notice the beer taking it's tool on the crowd - had to step over some stuff and passed a nearly unconscious woman being attended to by the Red Cross.  We decided we'd let the kids get a souvenir and then head out.  It took us another 20 minutes to get to the exit.  Overall it was a good time, but I have never seen a crowd like that before in my life. 

Crowd Thickening

Getting worse

Top of the picture is the Exit.