Europe in Autumn: Part 2 Munich

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After cheering your team to victory, what do you feel like most? A beer I hear you say? Well that’s exactly what we were after. We caught an early morning train from Bordeaux, negotiated the Metro across Paris and found ourselves on a high speed train bound for Stuttgart, Germany.

After a full days travel we reached our destination where the streets were orderly, the bread was heavy, the pretzels were huge and the beer was served in 1 litre steins!!

Stuttgart itself was leafy with wide streets and relatively new architecture for a European city. In the early evening light we found an outdoor café to enjoy our first German Weisbier (wheat beer) accompanied by sausage salad (literally grated sausage and pickle piled on a plate with onion and vinegar!), schnitzel and sauerkraut. Back at the hotel we rested our tired feet and found ourselves greatly amused by The Simpsons dubbed in German on TV.

Breakfast at the hotel was an enjoyable albeit slightly strange buffet affair. A highlight was a debate over whether the German wholegrain crackers I was enjoying with cheese were for humans or were in fact horse biscuits.

Our next train journey took us up into misty mountains, through forest and south to Munich. With a 10:00am arrival it seemed too early to begin drinking, so armed with our tourist map we set off to explore the city centre. The many churches and grand buildings surrounding Marienplatz, the main city square, were breathtaking. We snuck inside the town hall and moved up and down the floors admiring the stained glass and peeking out the windows into the quaint square below. At the outdoor food markets we were delighted to find an array of fresh fruit and vegetables, unbelievably huge cheese wheels and even the large mushrooms with red tops found in fairy tale books. The Munich locals sitting outdoors enjoying the sunshine and large steins of beer was all we needed to remind us that Oktoberfest was waiting…!

It wasn’t hard to find- we followed the lederhosen clad crowd towards the fair grounds (yes they really do wear lederhosen!). A brisk walk past the amusement rides and stalls and we were in one of the many beer halls ready for our first taste of specially brewed Oktoberfest beer. Three huge steins were set down in front of us and a massive pretzel to match was thrust into our hands, and so to the sound of om-pah-pah music and a hearty ‘prost!’ (cheers in German) we had the makings of a great Oktoberfest experience.

Averaging 1 litre of beer and a new set of tablemates to chat with every hour we had an absolute ball! By the time we left, other revellers were dancing on the tables to the om-pah-pah band who were having to play even louder in an attempt to be heard above the noise of the crowd.

Germany has a lot to offer and the beer and pretzels that it’s most famous for definitely don’t disappoint. It’ll be hard not to pass up the opportunity to return for some more Oktoberfest München fun next year.

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Photos

Large German mushrooms
And we thought they only existed in fairy tales!