Ein Bier Bitte

To catch everything up quickly - I went to Oktoberfest from Sept 22-25 then flew to Rotterdam for work on the 27 returning to London on the 2nd of October. Rotterdam (in the Netherlands) was cool, crazy Ducth with bicycles everywhere, trams and chocolate sprinkles for toast. Think Nutella but as sprinkles for ice cream... bit odd. It was a good project and a fun team. Bicycles definitely have the right of way though!

On to more entertaining times...

I took a few days off and went to Munich (via a flight to Stuttgart and a coach trip south east). I went with a tour group called Busabout, its mainly individual travellers and they operate a jump-onjump-off buss service around Europe. But for festivals they do one off group trips. There were about 38 of us, a mix of Aussie, Kiwi, English and the odd Canadian and Scot.

We got to Munich and took a brief walk to orient ourselves. There is just too much to say about Oktoberfest. Two second history lesson... Oktoberfest started as a royal wedding celebration in 1810, that has subsequently grown.

I thought it was a bit of a joke that all the men wore lederhosen and women drindles (think Bavarian beermaid dress). The other thing is that there are approxiamtely 6 million people who come to Oktoberfest. It has agricultural displays (never saw them but I heard they were there) and carnival rides and all. Think of the state fair but 10 times bigger and everyone is happy.

Of course the big feature everyone thinks of are the beer halls. The open about 10 am and mostly close around 11 or 12. There are 14 or 16 halls, all a bit different. They all sell beer and food. Of course they have massive pretzels, dumplings, pork knuckles and loads of other things (sausages....) but didn't have time too eat too much. The beers are mostly served in liter steins, some how I managed to get one... and cost about €8.60 plus a tip so €10.

The halls all have bands bu they range from traditional music to rock to whatever. Its a great atmosphere, everyone is happy, singing and dancing on the benches. To be honest, I don't think I saw but half a second of someone being rude or agressive. Given the size of the crowds and amount of alcohol consumed, I was suprised it was as happy and controlled.

One night of the halls and then a full day were pretty devistating, both to the body and the wallet. So we took a day trip over to a castle that was designed and built by Ludiwg the II to celebrate the operas of Wagner... its the castle that inspired Disney and loads of fairytales and things. Castle Neuschwanstein was cool and a good break from the beers. But we returned to Munich for a last night to party and lived it up.

Friday we packed and cleaned up and headed back to Stuttgart for a couple of hours before our flight. So of course we went to a big beer garden and relaxed a bit. A great 4 days, tons of stories and memories. Oktoberfest is an awesome experience and would recommend it to everyone. Just don't get caught up in the beers too much.