Oktoberfest Connoisseur’s I

Our flights went great though we were a little late getting into Munich. We got on the S8, and made it to Marienplatz by 2:00. We checked into Hotel Lux and hauled the bags up two flights.

I immediately left since I needed to get to the Oktoberfest grounds to pick up some tickets. Just as I was stepping onto the S-bahn, my phone rang. Fearing I’d lose signal anyway, I didn’t answer. Moments later I got an email from Doug, a new member of our group. He arrived in Frankfurt and came to Munich on the ICE. He was at Hotel Conrad on the south side of the Hauptbahnhof. Since this was more or less in my direction of travel, I decided to pick him up. That’s kind of a seedy neighborhood, but the hotel seems nice. Doug came down and we jumped on the U5 to Theresienwiese.

It’s odd getting off there to an empty platform! You can really notice how the walls of the tunnel are decorated to resemble a tent! We went directly to the Ox tent and got my tickets. The lady there was really nice and gave me a handful of pins and stickers.

We walked the whole length of the tents – Augustiner does have a new tower next to their tent. With a week to go until opening, the tents look almost ready, but some of the rides haven’t even started to set-up! We walked to Goetheplatz and caught the U3 to Marienplatz. I took Doug past the Alter Hof and straight to the Hofbräuhaus. We fell into conversation straight away witha young american couple and an Austrian couple. The austrian had been in the US with his band and actually played at the Chicago Brauhaus! We polished off a Maß quickly and then Vonia joined us. We split a second and then moved on to the Weisses Brauhaus. Simone and Oliver were there with the whole Friday night Stammtisch. War echt cool, die alle sehen zu können.

We did a lot of damage there in a short time, but I promise Vonia I’d take it easy. The place was really packed and I made it out by 8:30 and went to bed straight away. The crowd from Hofbrãu woke us up at 12:30 and it stayed noisy for quite some time.

Now, we are on the way to the airport to retrieve the group and start the adventure that is Bavaria. Stay tuned!