And bonus: this is the perfect post with my beer background on the blog. Finally!
I got to drive the first leg of the trip to Munich on Friday and it wasn't bad at all. The top speed I got up to was 112 mph/180kph. Pretty cool. I mostly held around the 75-80 mph mark, as there was a bit of morning traffic to contend with. Hubby took over and we rolled into Munich in the early afternoon. It's only about 4 hours away.
We got to the Hilton (our home away from home) and were upgraded to a suite which was really nice. Since we have our fancy Hilton diamond member status and have the credit card, our three night stay for this trip was totally free - we used our two free night passes and points for the other night.
And headed out to the fest to catch up with our crew. It was a short-ish 5 stops on the subway, full of plenty of people in clothes just like us. Our friends were in the Paulaner biergarten so thanks to the magic of cell phones, we located them as soon as we could and sat down. They had been guarding the seats fervently - as you may or may not know, Oktoberfest is a pretty crowded affair, so tons of people kept asking to sit down.
Yay beer!
Later into the night, someone started making friends with the Germans sitting at the next table. Hubby really liked this guy's coat, so we'll probably have to get one for next time.
Before we knew it, it was 10:30 and the group was dispersing. It was pretty late to be out anyway, so hubby and I headed back to the subway and back to the hotel. Hubby, having at least 3 liters (each of those huge things is a liter and there isn't a smaller size) was a little miffed that we were all leaving, but I dragged him away anyway. Being inebriated didn't quite catch up to him until we made it back to the hotel.
We also ordered room service! Drunken room service is so good, and the Munich Hilton had an impressive list. I had the pork filet with sage and parma ham, balsamic sauce, mediterranean veggies and parmesean gnocchi. Divine at midnight.
I was fine waking up on Saturday morning. Someone else was not. He powered through though, and got up for breakfast. We had access to the executive lounge at the hotel, and that's where breakfast was served. Usually it's a little nicer than a continental spread, soI was pleased to find scrambled eggs and bacon included. Just what I needed.
We hung around and were lazy for the morning, as were our friends in their hotel. Finally we headed out again, and I snapped a picture by the drugstore here - I thought this was soo cute - dog parking!
When we got to the fest I was pretty hungry so I made hubby get some currywurst and fries. (For those of you playing at home, we now enjoy mayo with our fries - yum!)
Hubby and I wandered around for a bit, and came upon the drunken hill, which we referred to as the nap zone. Quite comical - this was taken around 2:00pm and you can see plenty of drunken naps taking place:
Rocking the red shirt today!
I really wanted this awesome puma riding a tiger, but it was just a little out of our price range.
We caught up with some folks in our entourage at the Augustiner biergarten. Mmm.....
After hanging out there, we got some sweets. I got this awesome gingerbread heart. I posed for this picture and not 30 seconds later I was digging into it. Sweet, sweet icing!
We walked back to the hotel where our friends were staying, hoping to find their friends Bob and Pat. Pat had wandered off and Bob went to go look for him but when we got there, only Bob was there, quite asleep.
Long story short, Pat eventually returned, Bob was woken up, thought it was 12 hours later and we were leaving for the fest to get in line for the bier tent, and he was very confused when we explained that it was 7:30 PM and it was time for dinner. Hilarity ensued.
We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and pasta was just what I wanted. Hubby and I were in bed around 10pm since we had to get up super early for the bier tent experience...
In my opinion, there are two Oktoberfest experiences: the one among the crowds outside, and the one inside the tents, where everything is warmer, easier, and faster. But you have to pre-pay by being there right when it opens at 9am. That meant we were lining up well before 8am.
It totally paid off: we were the FIRST ones in the Lowenbrau tent! And had our choice of tables. We were pleased as punch by this, and ten minutes later they had people coming around with these doughnut-type things that went surprisingly well with the first beer that showed up by 9:15 in the morning.
Woo hoo! (Please note that some of these photos may or may not be out of order... but I think you get the idea)
Here's a shot of half the tent from our seats. Keep in mind that they re-build all of the tents and the entire Oktoberfest setup annually. It's pretty impressive.
Even the menus were ornate!
More tent pictures coming back from the bathroom...
I grabbed hubby's hat for a bit.
He took it back.
He then proceeded to borrow these glasses from the table next to us for a picture.
Not quite sure what he's concerned about here. "Where's my beer?" perhaps.
Before noon, hubby was challenged to complete "the chug" - this meant chugging his full liter of beer. We had already seen a few attempts (and completions), but we'd also seen security get a little batty and gone over to each person after they did it. (Luckily, we hadn't seen anyone get thrown out for this behavior, so we thought we'd be fine if he did it.)
Well, he did. To the cheers of everyone around him, he completed it.
Special thanks to Chris for putting together this video of the entire thing, too!
Security did come over, but basically said that every table gets a "one and done" - meaning that anyone else that attempted this at our table meant the entire table would be asked to leave.
Then the band showed up!
I had the most amazing Spätzle I'd ever had. I also had the same kind of sausage with sauerkraut as the day before, and it was just as delicious.
Soon it was time to get up and start dancing on the benches again... so we did.
Short video:
Another video. Sorry I took it vertically!
Hubby kept drinking, while I took a break for a bit and switched to cola-mix, which is a pretty tasty blend of coke and orange soda.
Everyone kept partying.
I eventually cut off the hubby and finished his beer for him. I think we left around 5:30/6:00pm, so it really was a full day of partying. It was dark outside by the time we left, but on the way to the hotel I dragged hubby over to get a sweatshirt and a feather for his hat.
He was not a happy camper back at the hotel, but I made sure he drank his Gatorade and some more water.
We took it easy the next morning before driving back. He took the first leg, although he was struggling a bit, and then I did the last half and got us home. I had already anticipated a rough day, so I had a Tex-Mex pizza in the freezer waiting, and a ham and pineapple french bread pizza for myself.
My only regret was not getting enough kitschy souvenirs this time around, so I hope these pictures and videos will hold me over until next time.
Anyone planning to come with us next year???
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