Oktoberfest...and Munich, of course

We headed off to Munich, Germany for the last weekend in September to enjoy the famous Oktoberfest beer festival, and of course, see some of Munich while we were at it.

We arrived Saturday morning to find a jam packed Oktoberfest fair ground with plenty of bratwurst, sauerkraut, sausages, gingerbread and beer for everybody. After a walk around the fair grounds and a bratwurst and beer for lunch, we headed to the train station to catch up with an evening Beer Tour.

The "Beer Tour" took us by tram to a local restaurant for a beer tasting and a tour of the beer museum. After the museum our group headed off to the Hofbraukeller for a dinner of traditional Bavarian food and our first full liter ("stein") of beer!

All over the city, when you wanted to eat or drink, you just sat down at tables with whoever else was sitting down. With the amount of beer at the table, everybody makes friends very quickly and its really a lot of fun. This is our group from the Hofbraukeller. After a couple of liters, we all helped each other find our way back to various hotels!

Sunday, we decided to spend the day seeing the sights in Munich. Since the city is completely flat and is well equipped with bike paths, we decided to take a bike tour. It was definitely the first time either of us had ridden a bike in years but we had a great time.

We started in Marienplatz in front of the famous Glockenspiel with the mechanical figures that perform every hour when the clock tower chimes. We headed throughout the city and saw most of the major sites like the Frauenkirche, Asamkirche, the English Garden, Odeonsplats, and the Hofbrauhaus. We even took a quick stop at the nudist meadow where there were a few dedicated people sunbathing even though it was only 60 degrees...the tour guide obviously had some great stories to tell about this stop!

After lunch (and beer) at the Chinese Tower beer garden, we had a very interesting ride back into town.

During the bike tour, we rode along the river Isar where the current is so strong coming out of one tunnel under a bridge that people actually surf on the rapids.

Sunday night, we decided that we hadn't had enough beer yet so we headed to the world famous Hofbrauhaus for dinner and another liter of beer (or two).

It seemed like everybody was dressed in traditional clothes including lots of grown men in lederhosen. Some women walked around selling pretzels and gingerbread hearts which went great with the beer.

Monday we rented a BMW so that Rich could drive on the autobahn to Neuschwanstein, the most famous castle built by King Ludwig II in the late 1800s. The interior of the castle was decorated based on various Wagner operas. Since it took almost 30 years to build, King Ludwig II only lived there for 6 months before he died and parts of the castle were never completed.

The castle sits up on a hill overlooking miles of farmland, streams and a little lake. The views were amazing from the castle and valley.

After our visit, we headed to Garmish to visit the city where Chris (Rich's brother) was born before returning for one last night at Oktoberfest. Rich enjoyed driving the BMW 200km per hour legally...yes, that is about 125 miles per hour but there were people passing us!

Back in Munich, the crowds had finally died down a little, so we walked into several of the big tents and had dinner at the Paulaner tent. We each had half a chicken, a liter of beer and a pretzel just like the other 10,000 people there! After dinner, we walked around some more and stopped for another beer at this carousel/bar. The horses were a little small but it was fun!