Oktoberfest in Munich

This past weekend we decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip down to Munich for Germany's most famous festival....Oktoberfest!

We left at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning with MWR's bus trip to Munich. The weather was much chillier and gloomier than we would have liked, but we were determined to make the most of our experience.

Oktoberfest attracts more than 6 million people from all over the world for its 16 day festivities. There are 14 large tents, as well as many more "small" tents. The large tents are really more like buildings...some of them can hold 6-8,000 people! This year, visitors consumed 6.4 million liters of beer.

We arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds around 9:30 a.m., and the tents were already full! We did manage to find a seat at the outside courtyard of the Lowenbrau tent, We were lucky to sit down when we did, because shortly after there was a crowd that formed trying to get in to our courtyard.

The crowd trying to get in our courtyard

We sat next to a group of German high school boys, who provided much entertainment for us! They were very proud to teach us some traditional German drinking songs. Once a group starts singing a German folk song, the entire crowd joins in!

Chris with some of our new German friends!

We spent the entire morning and afternoon at the table in the courtyard....we knew if we got up it would be almost impossible to get a seat again. We ate one of our favorite German meals for lunch, pork shoulder and knodel.

We love the fact that we live in Bavaria, and we can make a day trip to one of the world's largest parties! Oktoberfest is now checked off of our European bucket list!