Munich, Germany: PROST!

Before starting our yearlong trip, Chad and I would both agree that going to Munich for Oktoberfest was our favorite. Being nearly halfway through our trip, it still ranks near the top. If you are someone who likes beer, day drinking, and socializing, do yourself a favor and make sure you make it to this two week festival sometime in your life.

Oktoberfest is just as crazy as you’ve heard. So much so that I would highly recommend avoiding the weekends. During the week is hard enough to find a seat in the evening. During the weekend the tents often close their doors due to being at capacity in the early afternoon.

It is possible to make reservations in the tents for dinner and then you can stay as long as you like listening to the live music and drinking beer. We’ve always gone to the open seating area which is a massive party!

Even though you have a seat, no one actually sits down when you get to a certain hour. Everyone is standing on the tables, dancing, singing, socializing, and having an absolute blast!

There are just rows and rows of picnic style tables covering the massive floorspace. All you need to do is find some space big enough for your group and join the party!

There are 14 tents to choose from, each with its own impressive color scheme and theme.

The most well-known is the Hobrau Festzelt. It is known for being the largest with a seating capacity of 10,000 people.

Another very popular tent is the Lowenbrau-Festhalle. This tent is known for its 4.5 meter tall lion that is propped high up near the entrance.

The Fischer Vroni tent is known as the “fish tent”. They have massive grills outside roasting fish on a stick. There is a large stage for the band in the shape of a boat on one end of this tent.

The Marstall tent has become a personal favorite. It is right at the entrance for the Oktoberfest and features a merry-go-round as the stage for the band.

The Hacker-Festhalle tent is best known for the clouds and stars on the ceiling. Their philosophy is with a beer in hand, you will feel like you are in Bavarian heaven.

One of my favorite things is to get to Oktoberfest early when the tents have tons of room and walk through a few of them before they get crowded.

If you have a good tolerance you could try to have a beer at each of them as you go. One liter is too much for me to have at all the tents if I want to make it to the evening time!

And when you get tired of drinking beer all day- don’t worry! There are plenty of rides to go on to really test your limits. Rollercoaster, swings, haunted houses, rides to spin you every which way.

If the massive amounts of beer don’t make you puke, these will sure put in a good effort.

We have a secret to tell you all. Chad and I didn’t figure this out the first time we came to Oktoberfest. It took our smart parents to find this out… there is a “side area” that you can pay a measly €3 to go to a more local part of the festival.

There are still plenty of beer tents, music, and games, but it is all much more low key than the open seating in the large tents. We were able to spend the day exploring the city and still find seats to drink beers at the festival.

Speaking of, there are plenty of great sites to see in Munich outside of the festival. There are the main brewery restaurants that operate year round. We visited the Hofbrauhaus Muchen located in the old part of the city for dinner the first night we were here.

The place was crowded even despite the fact the Oktoberfest fesival was happening down the road. My mom got a taste of their dunkel beer, which is the dark brew, and was sold!

This is also where my parents learned how big the beers are. They had a great time seeing how big they were compared to silverware and seeing how many they could hold. By the way, it was actually super impressive my dad could hold 4 liters in one hand. I challenge you to try this sometime…

We also visited the Augustiner-Keller restaurant outside of the festival for dinner with Beth and Tyler. This place would be a perfect place to visit whether the fesitval was going on or not.

One thing many tourists question is where to buy the lederhosen and dirndls. Just to clarify, the lederhosen is the leather suspender outfit the men wear and the dirndl is the beautiful apron dress the women wear.

We searched long and hard for these outfits at a reasonable price. Short answer- they are ALL expensive. The cheapest place to buy them is the train station. You can find more options in the stores around town but they are either really cheaply made or much more expensive. I was spoiled with a department store dirndl that I CANNOT wait to wear at Oktoberfest back home!

There are some other big purchases worth checking out in Munich: cuckoo clocks and beer steins. To get good quality you will spend a few bucks. We found an amazing store in downtown Munich called Max Krug.

They have a huge variety of high quality clocks and steins. If you ship it back home, they are able to remove the tax in store and send directly to your home. Most of the time the price evens out with shipping costs versus tax savings.

St. Peters Church is a good spot to get a great view of the city. For only €3 you can climb the 14 story building to see a panoramic view of Munich.

Another fun attraction is the cuckoo clock in the main square right in the heart of the city. This clock is referred to as Rathaus-Glokenspeil and chimes every day at 11am and 12pm. It re-enats two stories from the 16th century with 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures.

One is a happy story of a marriage and a joust. The other is based on a myth from 1517 when the plague hit Munich. The coopers would dance through the streets to bring hope which became a symbol of perseverance and loyalty to authority in difficult times.

There are a few tours you can do from Munich to see some of the surrounding sites. We decided to do a day trip to see some fairy tale castles in Bavaria. We visited two castles built by Germany’s 19th century King Ludwig II. Our first stop was Linderhof castle.

This was Ludwig’s hunting lodge and last home. It was actually the only palace he lived to see completed. It was clear from touring this home that Ludwig got much of his inspiration from the French ruler, King Louis XIV, who built the palace of Versailles.

There was also a beautiful garden out back which was referred to as the Moorish Pavilion. I should also mention that we were all a little hungover from Oktoberfest the night before in this picture.

The Neuschwanstein castle was the real reason for booking this trip. This is the castle that Disney used to model Sleeping Beauty’s castle. It is easy to see why Disney chose this for his inspiration.

Ludwig II paid for the palace out of his personal fortune and by means of extensive borrowing, rather than pay with Bavarian public funds. The castle was intended to be his home but he died before the project was complete.

This castle is built in the Hohenschwangau village. This is a beautiful area to walk through with some amazing views of the countryside.

You can walk around the castle to a bridge to get a really great picture of the castle. I will warn you now though- this bridge is HIGHLY unregulated. There are massive amounts of people on this incredibly high bridge to the point you can feel it moving. I only made it 30 seconds for a quick picture.

To end off, there is tons of German influence in food all over Europe. But lets talk about the REAL German food. First off, Schnitzel seems to be one of the most popular things to order. This is a thin slice of veal, chicken, or pork, breaded and fried. It is most often served with some type of potato as a side and cranberries.

Another one we all know and love, the Soft Pretzel! They are normally served with mustard. Sorry, no cheese sauce here.

There are some really great Cheese & Meat Plates you can order. These are full of soft cheese spreads, sausages, bread, & some interesting vegetables we weren’t used to.

Dumplings were only something we recently discovered in Germany. They were AMAZING! They are generally made with potato as the base and can be mixed with different vegetables and meat. I will definitely be learning to make these when we get home.

Another food we are certainly used to in the US & Canada: Bratwurts and Hotdogs. Chad was in heaven!

The Currywurst is very popular in many German restaurants. This is a bratwurst with a tomato-based curry sauce on top.

The list seems to go on! Spatzle & Goulash is the final food I will leave you with. This is an egg noodle with a thick beefstew.

On that note, I’m feeling pretty hungry. Or maybe in the mood for a liter of Hefeweisen!