Advertisement
Published: December 16th 2011
It started way back in 1811 as an agricultural show, now it attracts over 5 million people who consume 7 million litres of beer and scoff down over 120, 000 sausages in big tents. The 17 days of fancy dress and tipsy travellers slurring "
eins, zwei, drei, g'suffa," (One, two, three, drink) is ‘
Oktoberfest’. My choice of beverage may not be beer, but I did make it to Oktoberfest to take a look - when it was over. I think I timed it perfectly to see the set-up (and pack-down) of the infamous event and avoid the drunken madness.
One weekend in Munich meant I had to pack in as much as possible and what better way to see the sites and feast on some historical facts than a free walking tour – complete with a stop at the
Viktualienmarkt to decipher between a bratwurst and bierwurst or weisswurst to wollwurst, served with sauerkraut and mustard. German Christmas markets are said to be quite spectacular, and although Christmas is still weeks away, this market was a small sample of what was to come.
While the shop keepers enjoyed their Sunday off and forced me to take on the cold
Run for a beer!
What better product to sponsor a marathon than the nations favourite beverage (the 'alkohol fre' variety)weather outside, I hit the town to see more sites. Road closures, people wearing shorts and t-shirts (while I was covered head to toe in an effort to keep warm) and music pounding, I came across the
Munich Marathon. With a pretzel in hand, I enjoyed watching the action and reminisced on the days when I trained my body, not my taste buds and participated in such (smaller) events.
There was no sign of sand in the Englischer Garten (park), but a man-made wave in a man-made river gives any beach mad Munchen a wild ride. After a surf, what better way to refuel than a beer at one of Munich’s most popular brewery’s, the
Hofbräuhaus. And if you drink too much and think dressing your dog in
Lederhosen is a good idea, then Munich is the place to find matching his and hers traditional dress. My last day in Munich finished with a walk down Maximilian Strasse, one of the city’s four royal miles – filled with top shops for people with too much money.
Back on the big blue bus and ready for some more adventures, we escaped Munich with
a slight delay and run in with the police. It may have just been a small bump to a car on the street, but considering the bus drivers have clocked up long hours, load our bags on and off te bus and perform some very skilful moves in tight city streets (and put up with a bus load of Aussies), that wasn’t too bad at all.
A big hit of Italian flavour is on its way!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 48; dbt: 0.0617s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
