Arriving to Munich by Flixbus and right on schedule for this stop. We drug our luggage a short distance to the hotel Mercure in Munich City Center. We choose this hotel due to its short distance to all the spots on our itinerary. After checking in we headed out to old town Munich. Old town was beautiful with all the flowers dotting the sides of the buildings. We made our way to the Hofbrauhaus for lunch and beer, go figure. We were wearing our “Oktoberfest 2019, American Drinking Team” shirts which got a lot of attention. The streets were busy with a lot of locals and tourists dawning their traditional Oktoberfest outfits; Lederhosen and Dirndl dresses, it definitely was a festive atmosphere. After checking out some of the outdoor markets and shopping for our souvenirs we stopped off at Kennedy’s Irish Pub for a night cap and to plan the next days adventure in attending Oktoberfest. The Oktoberfest celebration opens at 10:00 am and includes a carnival atmosphere; rides for the children, games, food booths, souvenir booths and of course 14 very large beer tents, not really tents but actual beer houses that hold anywhere between 5000 to 11,000 people inside each building. Each beer house has a slightly different atmosphere. Our hotel provided wrist bands with their name on it, just in case you might have had too much to drink and forgot where you were staying. Very smart thinking. After researching Oktoberfest, we learned as long as you arrive early you might be lucky enough to get in without a reservation. With that we headed out just before 10:00 for our 10-minute walk to where the festival was held. We arrived just as it was opening and made our way around looking at all the beer tents to decide which one, we wanted to take up residence in for the day. We decided on the Augustiner Tent, each tent serves up a different kind of beer. As long as you arrive before 3:00 pm your chances of getting a table is really good, reservations are not needed as one might read about when researching Oktoberfest. There is no charge to enter the festival or beer tents. We settled into a table and started making new friends. Our waitress Dragica Krecar was wonderful, we ordered up our first litre of beer (it’s the only size that is served) at 11.40 euros each. We read that you should order the chicken and German potato salad while in the tent, so we did and it was fantastic. We continued to order several more litre’s of beer and more food throughout the day and evening; enjoying a wonderful brat (that I don’t remember having…oops). The bands played music and and people danced on the tables all the while holding their litre of beer. There was always a new face joining us at the table, maybe because if you got up to go the bathroom you might not find your way back to the table with all the people. We meet a lot of people from the USA there enjoying Oktoberfest. Reports say that 7.3 million litre’s of beer were served over the 16-day festival and that 6.3 million people attended. According to records from the ATM withdrawals; 55 nations were represented. I would definitely say you need to add this to your bucket list at least once. Next years Oktoberfest is September 19-October 4, 2020.
https://www.oktoberfesttours.travel/oktoberfest-2020/schedule/
