Oktoberfest 2006
My trip to München (Munich) was a combination of beer and tourism....mostly beer. The main purpose of my trip was, of course Oktoberfest. The first difficulty to overcome was the realisation that Oktoberfest is, in fact, held mostly in September. So in order to get there in time for the opening on 16th September I actually flew in on the 13th as flights into Munich increased by £40 each day closer to Oktoberfest and it was cheaper to arrive early and stay in a hostel for a night. On the 14th I met up with my sisters friend, Aaron (also a Kiwi) and his friends at a camping ground. Dirt cheap and packed full of Kiwis and Aussies. In fact Oktoberfest in general seems to be populated more by Kiwis and Aussies than Germans - odd.
On the first day of Octoberfest there's a huge parade of Umpa bands and horsedrawn carts of beer with all the germans and many of the revellers dressed in ye olde costumes (lederhosen etc.) through the town into the beer tents and no-one is allowed to start serving beer until the official taping of the first keg. After that the beer comes smooth and fast!
Oktoberfest is basically a HUGE fairground type experience with the added bonus of massive beer halls! There are 12 halls, two each for the six main breweries in München and everything is centred around them. That's the miriad of food vendors (pretzels and wurst are the mainstays) and rollercoaster type rides.
I had a fantastic time and have a souvenier stein acquired in the normal way. Great fun! I must go again next year =)
I also managed a trip to Dachau concentration camp which was very sobering. For those of you who aren't aware, Dachau was the first and most infamous concentration camp in Germany. The memorials are moving and, like Hiroshima, I think should be visited by everyone at some point in their lives.
On a more positive note, my other non-beer related venture was to the Deutsches Museum which is amassive science and technology museum. I loved it (as any engineer would!) although non of its exibits were newer than the 1980s and the Emerging Science and Technology Museum in Tokyo was better.
So other than a planned trip to Köln (Cologne) in the new year to attend Carnival I think that I've now well and truly done Germany justice!
On the first day of Octoberfest there's a huge parade of Umpa bands and horsedrawn carts of beer with all the germans and many of the revellers dressed in ye olde costumes (lederhosen etc.) through the town into the beer tents and no-one is allowed to start serving beer until the official taping of the first keg. After that the beer comes smooth and fast!
Oktoberfest is basically a HUGE fairground type experience with the added bonus of massive beer halls! There are 12 halls, two each for the six main breweries in München and everything is centred around them. That's the miriad of food vendors (pretzels and wurst are the mainstays) and rollercoaster type rides.
I had a fantastic time and have a souvenier stein acquired in the normal way. Great fun! I must go again next year =)I also managed a trip to Dachau concentration camp which was very sobering. For those of you who aren't aware, Dachau was the first and most infamous concentration camp in Germany. The memorials are moving and, like Hiroshima, I think should be visited by everyone at some point in their lives.
On a more positive note, my other non-beer related venture was to the Deutsches Museum which is amassive science and technology museum. I loved it (as any engineer would!) although non of its exibits were newer than the 1980s and the Emerging Science and Technology Museum in Tokyo was better.
So other than a planned trip to Köln (Cologne) in the new year to attend Carnival I think that I've now well and truly done Germany justice!
posted by Ricardo at
11:01 pm
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