So the big day arrived and we made our way over to the Theresienwiese compound where Oktoberfest happens! At first glance the place is enormous, some of the beer tents alone can hold 7000 people and the crowds are somewhat intimidating until you settle in and realise that the whole place has more of a "family fun-fair" atmosphere than "football hooligans in a pub" vibe (certainly during the day at least). The first tent I wanted to visit was the Paulaner one (see picture above), I've tried their "Festbier" a couple of times from cans and really enjoyed it so was keen to sample the "real thing" fresh from the tap. When you enter one of these tents the first thing that hits you is the noise, there's lots of it, and then the music, a whole variety of catchy (anthemic) tunes are being blasted out by a large band positioned on a stage in the middle of the space. The next thing that goes through your mind is where on earth are we going to sit, it appears (on first glance) that the place is completely rammed!
As we wandered through the tent we realised that what people do is spot a table that's "lightly full" and ask the people there to "budge up!", that's exactly what we did and people seemed perfectly happy to do this (I can't imagine this happening in the UK!) First we landed on a table with a delightful Munich family, of course they spoke perfect English and they were really keen to give us all the festival tips, the first of which was "cash only!!" luckily I had a 50 Euro note but other than that no cash at all, fortunately there was a cash machine in the tent (of course there was!) and we cashed ourselves up and got stuck into our steins!
When we first arrived there was some anxiety in the group about how large the beers looked and indeed, the traditional "stein" is a litre of beer (i.e. nearly 2 pints" so by UK standards it's on the big side! Anyway once we got into the swing of things and realised how good and balanced the beer was we started to let our hair down a bit and go with the "flow". It was so nice to see everyone having such a nice time, everyone seemed "happy", of course the beer helps, but it was also aided by a general relaxed atmosphere. After a while the Munich guys left and were instantly replaced by a group of four young blokes from New York, they were only in their early 20s and seemed somewhat baffled about proceedings, we were able to enlighten them with our newly acquired insider information and we all settled in for another round of beers and a good old chat about life the universe and everything!
After a couple in the Paulaner tent we decided that we should move on and sample some of the other breweries. Next door was the "Augustiner" tent, slightly smaller but no less crowded (and noisy) we managed to get a table and settled in for a round of beers and some rather nice roast chicken, we felt a snack was in order after a couple of litres of beer! We had another great experience in this tent and I reckon the beers were slightly better! After an hour or so swigging Augustiner Helles and singing along to "Sweet Caroline" at full tilt we noticed that the sun was beginning to set and we ought to be heading back. Emboldened by the excellent brews we lingered around the fair ground for a while and sampled a couple of the rides (see picture below, yes we did do this!) before heading back to the subway station and four short stops back to our hotel.
We all slept well that night, and at breakfast the next day we totaled up the beers, the boys sampled 5 litres each and the girls 3, it seems unlikely on reflection but the receipts don't lie! One of the Oktoberfest legends that we were told was that the beer is so "pure" and "clean" that you don't get a hangover the next day, I can confirm that we all felt great although judging by some of the people we saw on the fringes of the event when leaving, I think it's quite easy to take things a little far, some of the youngsters there were a little worse for wear even though they seemed in good spirits for it.
We were all quite apprehensive about Oktoberfest, being in our twilight years we were concerned that it would be too boisterous and full of "lager louts" but how wrong we were, it's a thoroughly great event and although I can't speak to what happens after dark if you go during the day a good, if not great, time can be had by all!
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