Oktoberfest

We left Austria and headed in to Germany with Alex and Matt on facetime joining us. Again, a little underwhelming but another country border ticked. We arrived at the north part of Munich, our overnight stopover being the Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich football club. Nice parking area and facilities, better than some campsites we’ve stayed on! Great view of the arena too. Took the underground to the city and walked around for a bit of sightseeing before we headed to the bier festival. Lovely hot day too. Security wouldn’t let us take our bags in, had to be smaller than a bum bag or something similar sized so had to put them in the cloakroom area. Saved carrying stuff around, admittedly. It was quite busy and lots of people wearing traditional clothing, lederhosen, skirts, hats, braces etc. looked really good. We had a look around the funfair section then went to one of the Bierhallen. Decorated lovely inside but so loud. The band playing Bavarian music and everyone talking to be heard. Very busy. We got seated and ordered the litre sized glasses each (one alcohol free), they’re all a standard price €14.50 per litre. The waitresses can carry an immense amount of those glasses, so heavy. Such a workout! We shared a huge pretzel each. Got chatting to the people on our table, an American couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and a group of Australian lads out on a bender. Great fun to watch the shenanigans. We moved on after finishing our drinks. Sat outdoors next, bit quieter. We did the ferris wheel (Riesenrad) and I had a gingerbread heart (Lebkuchenhertz), Gary had the bratwurst. We had a great time there, brilliant experience but so very expensive. We left there early evening and found a pizza place to eat then on to a rock bar which was great but I was feeling a bit stuffed and bloated by then. Got the underground back to the van/stadium. Went to bed full and merry.Lue lisää