Mark and I had the fabulous opportunity to head to Munich, Germany for the one and only Oktoberfest. Our kids were being kindly looked after by one of our good friends and we thoroughly enjoyed our kid free weekend. We landed on Friday after noon and had some time to see some of the city at night.
At the center of the city is the Marienplaz- a larg open square named after the Mariensaule, a Marian column in its center- with the Old and New Town Hall. Its tower contains the Rathaus-Glockenspiel.
The Glokenspiel is like a massive cuckoo clock. I'll give more details later in the blog.
The Opera House
Taking some time to enjoy a beverage in an outdoor cafe.
So this is a interesting (and creepy) tidbit. In the city of Munich, there is a full fledged shrine to Michael Jackson. Someone actually manages it- lights the candles every night, tidies up, etc. Mark asked me to give him my best MJ pose. This is supposed to be a Thriller move. Very JV.
Good morning Munich! Have a beer and pretzel for breakfast. Don't mind if I do! They serve this only during Oktoberfest.
Before we went to the festival we had some time to explore a bit more. Beautiful churches and pretty architecture.
This is a close up of the Glockenspeil. This clock cranks up and commences its 15 minute performance of dancing mannequins and clanking bells either once or three times daily depending on the time of year. At the end of the 15 minutes, a chicken pops out at the top. It is cool to see and pretty to hear.
Okay, the moments you have all been waiting for. Let the festivities begin!
Here you will see I'm in a traditional dirndl.
And Mark in his traditional Lederhosen!
We had reservations in the Marstall tent from 6-11pm so before heading to our tent, we popped into one (below) that was the least busy of all other beer gardens and tents.
Here is the thing about Oktoberfest, if you don't have a reservation to get into a tent, you have to wait, from early in the am, in very, very long lines. The festival is blocks of amusement rides, beer tents, beer gardens, all kinds of vendors and tens of thousands of people.
6.4 million people attended this year.
This is our tent! Here we go!
Our live ompa pa pa band...
The first beer of the night...
We had a view from the balcony. Massive amounts of people dancing and singing. There were 4,500 people in our tent alone. It was awesome.
Every 15 minutes the band would sing a short song and at the end of it, you clink mugs with the people around you and bottoms up!
Der Gemütlichkeit
Ein Prosit, ein Prosit
Der Gemütlichkeit.
OANS! ZWOA! DREI! G'SUFFA!
or
A toast, a toast
To cheer and good times
A toast, a toast
To cheer and good times.
ONE! TWO! THREE! DRINK UP!
To cheer and good times
A toast, a toast
To cheer and good times.
ONE! TWO! THREE! DRINK UP!
One of my unforgettable dance moves.
There were times in the evening when we looked like this...
But for most of the night, we looked like this...
Oktoberfest 2015...I hope we did you proud!
