Tollwood Winter Festival

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There are so many Christmas traditions here in Germany! Not only the Christmas markets, but also so many of the local shops, restaurants, and cafes are decorated for the Christmas season. Tollwood is the local winter festival here in Munich. It’s very similar to a Christmas market, because there are lots and lots of stalls selling food, gifts, and also Christmas trinkets, but there are also a lot of odd things too. There’s a really big indoor bazaar with even more stalls for shopping. Some of the things for sale include: wooden giraffes, stuffed animals, mittens, hats, funny hats, big hats, small hats, Christmas ornaments, wooden ornaments, wooden furniture, bongs for hookah/shisha, musical instruments, and lots of food! Mulled wine (Glühwein: pronounced "glue vine", but not made out of glue :P ) is also a big tradition here just like in the Christmas markets. There’s live music too, which is I guess the biggest difference from a Christmas market. Feuerzangenbowle is one of the biggest traditions of the Tollwood festival where rum-soaked sugar is set on fire over mulled wine, giving it an even sweeter taste.

The festival is actually located on the Oktoberfest grounds. In the off-season the site of Oktoberfest is just a giant concrete lot, until Tollwood where only a section is used. The rest of the site is still just a concrete lot. I walked across this lot to see the Lady of Bavaria, a huge statue that you can climb up into and see across the grounds. Unfortunately, it’s only open to go up during Oktoberfest. The Statue of Bavaria is right the Ruhmeshalle (Hall of Fame), which holds the busts of history’s most famous Bavarians.

There’s also a nearby church that I’d seen multiple times from Oktoberfest and today I wanted to check it out and find out the name. It’s really cool looking on the outside; it has three towers and looms over the Oktoberfest grounds like a giant. I found out its called St Paul’s Basilica. The inside was really decorated from what I could see (there was a service going on so I didn’t want to intrude with my camera), but the outside was enough to grab my attention.

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Photos

Oktoberfest?
the Oktoberfest grounds on the off-season

funny hats
i like the third from the right :)

St Paul's Cathedral
right next to Oktoberfest