Munich - Oktoberfest
September 27, 2006
 

President: Glenn "Wally" Faunce 15200 Wycliffe Court Rockville, MD  20853 Phone: 301-774-4646 Fax: 301-774-3610   Return To Germany 2006 Main Page

Send Me An Email To Comment Or Book A Vacation mailto:lynx@lynx-travel.com   http://www.lynx-travel.com

Photo Links
 

I woke up early and it was raining so I just chilled out.  I went down late for breakfast and was ready to head out at about 10:30 AM.  I thought about Dachau but the tour was 5 hours long and I didn’t want to spend that much time on my last day in Munich since I haven’t spent a whole lot of time at the Oktoberfest.  I even took the subway to the Oktoberfest grounds this time to not waste any time.

I started out at the Fischer-Vroni tent at 10:55 AM with my first Augustiner Brau beer of the trip.  The tent was pretty empty at this time so I finally got to have a beer inside a one of the tents.  I played with the idea of having one beer at each tent today.  That lasted all of 3 tents.  I left Fischer-Vroni but promised myself I would go back and have one of the smoked fish that they cook over coals outside the tent.  A couple next to me had one and it looks great.  My waiter ran me down as I was leaving; I had left the cover to my tripod on the table.  Another good thing about being my size is I’m easy to find quickly.

From Fischer-Vroni I headed towards the Oktoberfest entrance and took some pictures there.  A British couple took my picture and I reciprocated.  The girl asked to see my picture and was blown away by how nice it showed up on the back of the camera.  I told her the best thing I did was buy the flash for the camera.  She had the regular rebel at home and said she would probably buy a flash for it after seeing my picture on a dark and overcast day come out great with the flash.

I headed into the Hippodrom tent which I think was the last one after Fischer-Vroni that I had never been in and had a beer.  The Hippodrom is for the Munich elite which is why I had never been in it before.  It was 11:35 AM and still early enough to get a table.  Three people asked if they could sit with me and I said yes of course.  I wish I hadn’t, the evil old lady with them became the first person to ever turn down my request to take a picture of me with my camera.  I was more than a little pissed off since I let them sit at my table.  Screw her, I set up my tripod and moved it as close to her as I could to take my picture. 

A couple of neat things happened in the Hippodrom while I was there.  First this brigade of old ladies came in the tent all in walkers and wheelchairs.  God Bless them, they must have all been over 80.  That was pretty cool that they still were coming to Oktoberfest at that age.  Next the band came out.  They are the first band I’ve seen with an entrance gimmick.  They all march in with a liter of beer and line up across the front of the stage.  On the band leaders command they all CHUG A FULL LITER of beer.  I’ve never been able to chug beer so I was more than impressed.  The guy closest to us finished first in what seemed like about 10 seconds.   Since the band was there I decided to finish my beer and leave for the next tent.  Not because I didn’t want to hear them play, I just didn’t want to be at the table with the evil wench at my table when the Ein Prosit song came on when you toast everyone at your table.  I did head up to the upper level to take some pictures and listen to the band a little.

The Hofbrau tent was my next destination and it was now 12:30 PM.  The Hofbrau tent is definitely the party tent of Oktoberfest.  It was starting to fill up at the tables near the front of the tent but the middle standing room section was still empty and so were the tables near the back of the tent.  The Australians love this tent and they were there in force already and pretty drunk to boot.

The Scots showed up next.  A group of 8 Scottish guys in kilts came into the middle.  The Scots either had a late night the night before or don’t like Hofbrau Beer.  They all had real sour faces at the first swig.  I figured it was either a hair of the dog moment or they don’t like the beer taste.  The Australian girls went running over immediately to have pictures taken with them.  I didn’t think it was possible but these girls were taking way more pictures than I do.  They should have quite a photo collection.  Some of the Aussie girls then came up and took a picture with me also. 

At about 12:50 PM I saw the first major beer spill of the day by one of the Aussies.  I ordered my second beer at about 1:20 PM therefore giving up on the one beer in each tent quest pretty quickly.  The band was playing and the tent was really rocking by now.  At 2:50 PM the Aussie’s broke the first beer glass of the day.

I headed over to another section of the Pig Pen where Francis and I hung two years earlier.  Mostly because the tent was filling up and this area is the closest to the bathroom.  I talked with a bunch of Australians and had a few more beers.  The same waitress we had two years ago was working the same section.  She had red hair and I remembered her picture from two years ago because she was sporting a Bo Derek from 10 look then.  She just had regular hair now which looked way better.  I stopped her to ask if she did work the same section and she said yes.  I guess it’s pretty common to work the same tent and area for years.

I took off while I still had some light outside to take some pictures I wanted.  Six or seven liters of beer was starting to take its toll on me also and I wanted to walk around some.  Anyone who would try the one beer at each tent would have to have a good plan and be very disciplined.  Unfortunately those are two things that drinking liters of beer doesn’t enhance.

I walked down to the Bavaria Statue to take some pictures and then headed to the Ferris wheel to go on.  The Ferris wheel has great views over Oktoberfest.  It’s also possibly the only ride I fit onto.  It was getting towards about 6:00 PM and decided to make good on my promise to have a fish at the Fischer-Vroni tent.  I was right the fish was remarkably good.  It ended up being mackerel and was incredible.  I was still hungry though since I hadn’t eaten since breakfast.  I decided for my last meal at Oktoberfest to go with another roasted pig knuckle.  I got this one at a smaller stand and I think it was better and definitely bigger than the first one I had at the bigger tent.  They charge by the weight and mine was pretty big.  It ended up being 19 Euros and worth every bit of 19 Euros. 

I was wearing down and decided to call it a day since I also needed to issue an airline ticket before the end of the day for Delta Solutions.  I bought some souvenirs and headed back to the U-Bahn.   I stopped inside the train station to get my end of the day Coca Cola Lights and the crappy bag they had put my commemorative Oktoberfest liter ripped.  No more Oktoberfest mug.  A guy who saw it asked if I had purchased it, assuming I had just taken one from the tents, and I said yes.  He said, “Well, you will just have to come back next year and buy a new one”.  Yeah or I could just go buy another one at the stand in the train station, which I did.

Back to the hotel and I issued the ticket I needed to and checked my email.  I watched CNN for a little but the cycle is so quick you see everything over and over.  I then watched some of the UEFA Cup soccer game between Ronaldhino of Brazil’s FC Barcelona and Miroslav Klose of Germany’s Bremen play to a 1-1 tie before going to sleep.

Return To Munich - Residenz Museum & Oktoberfest
September 26, 2006

Continue To Munich to Dusseldorf
September 28 - September 29