Weekend Getaway: Oktoberfest in Munich!

My dad came to visit! He had been planning this trip since February and it was finally here! I met up with him in Amsterdam on Friday evening, we jumped on a flight to Munich and were settled into our hotel by 23.00! Which meant that we woke up pretty early and ready to explore!

(Side note: Almost a year ago now, we spent Christmas traveling around Germany and Prague (my parents and brother also went to Austria). They left a week before I did and we decided to meet up in Munich. Immediately after arriving in the city on the train, my family went straight to the hospital because my dad had some serious pains. In fact, the entire time we were in Munich, my poor dad was in the hospital. So, the fact that Oktoberfest is located in Munich was perfect: my dad could see the city AND mark attending Oktoberfest off his bucketlist.)

It was a rainy day. So instead of heading straight for Oktoberfest, we thought we would tour the city and the next day, when the weather was better, we would go to the bier festival. We found our way to a quaint coffee shop that served us our lattes and avocado bagel sandwich (I haven’t had one of these since leaving the US — yum!). Then ventured onto the hop on/ hop off bus that took us around the city and explained some of the history.

We spent the rest of the day being typical tourists and wandering around the old city center and going into shops. When dinner rolled around we somehow found a really great restaurant that actually wasn’t too touristy in the center- crazy!

We ate a typical German dinner of sausages, potatoes, and sauerkraut. I didn’t think I liked sauerkraut but it was soo good! Then we headed to the bar next to it and spent the rest of the night catching up and drinking pretty good beer.

The next day it was time for Oktoberfest! We dressed up in our traditional outfits: lederhosen for my dad and a drindl for me.

We headed out to where the festival was being held and wandered around and looked into some of the beer tents to see what they were like. Huge! And so nicely decorated! Each tent had its own theme so whichever tent you went to, it would be, at least a bit, different than the one next to it. We settled into the Hofbrau tent and got ourselves some beer from a very nice and helpful waitress and then wandered around the tent taking in all the craziness that Oktoberfest is.

At some point, we asked if we could join a nice looking family at their table as it was half full, they obliged and we climbed in. The table we were sitting at was reserved by the company the father of the family works for; the company reserves about 6 or so tables so that the employees and their families can participate in this wonderful tradition. They were such a nice family and we spent a good 3 hours just chatting, eating, and drinking with them. After we parted, dad and I went to the Lowenbrau tent for a final beer before heading back to the hotel.

After a full day of beer drinking and wandering around in our traditional outfits, it was about time to head back to our hotel and get some rest.