Oktoberfest! 200th Anniversary!

Leevi and I took a USO sponsered bus trip to Oktoberfest on Saturday. Children are allowed but we said over and over that day that we were so glad the girls we at home with a sitter (Thanks, Lauren and family). It was raining, the crowds were crazy, and the bus ride alone was long! We left at 5am from Mannheim and arrived in Munich around 10am...we had from 10am to 9pm to wander the fest and Munich and hope to not pass out drunk because if you did the Red Cross would hold you for a minimum of 2 hours before you could be released!
I found this history of Oktoberfest online...

Why is Oktoberfest in September?The answer goes back to 1810 during the dark days of beer drinking before refridgeration.In those days in Germany beer would never be brewed in the summer months. The batches would never turn out good.The last batches were usually made in March. These last batches would have higher alcohol content to take advantage of alcohol as a preservative.Traditionally there would be a big fest starting on the last Saturday in September till the First Sunday in October. The purpose was to drink up the old stocks of beer to make room for the new brew that would be make after harvest. The tradition goes back to the 15th and 16th Centuries.The first official Oktoberfest was held in 1810. Crown Prince Ludwig threw a big party to celebrate his wedding to Princess Therese on October 12, 1810. The party was open to all. Everyone liked it so much they kept having the party every year. Every year the Oktoberfest takes place at the same spot, the Theresienwiese in Munich.


I copied this picture from the Internet so you could get a better feel of the atmosphere and the crowds. Typically 6 million people are expected over the two weeks but this year being the 200th anniversary they were predicting 7 million.
Overlooking the festivities is Bayern, otherwise known as the Bavaria Statue. She is a 60-foot-high bronze lady representing the state of Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital. She was created between 1844 and 1860 and is one of the biggest cast bronze figures ever made. The lion, a symbol of Bavaria sits at her side. Lines were like this at each Festhaus. Apparently the people waiting in these lines probably never got in...you have to reserve your seat in the festhaus in advance (like the year before!) or you have to show up at 6:30am to be first in line when the door open at 11am. Each festhaus holds about 6,000 people and when they are at capacity only one goes in as one goes out and usually if you make it in, you don't leave! Unless you are at a Festhaus that demands you drink a Liter every half an hour or you have to give up your seat! :) Rain, rain go away...it finally did!Our first beer...note the heater in the top right corner...it was pretty chilly!He's carrying over $200 worth of beer!I LOVE this bathroom sign and will be looking in stores for it! :)That sign with "Paulaner" had a heater in it...we were directly below one and camped out here for quite awhile and enjoyed the company of husband/wife doctors and their college daughter studying to be a vet.

"Prost!"

These bretzels as big as our heads saved our livers!

All of these structures and festhauses come completely down every year!!!

Inside the Lowenbrau festhaus...we lingered around a side door and I batted my eyelashes and the security guard finally let me in and I pulled Leevi along behind me...we felt so accomplished! :)

Sadly our only reference was that it reminded us of the Festhaus in Busch Gardens Williamsburg! :) We constantly have to remind ourselves that we really are in Europe!

The St. Paul Cathedral...we wandered Munich for a bit and found a nice restaurant to have dinner before the ride home. We shared a table with two local guys and had great conversations about culture, race, religion, beer, women (ha!) etc! It was very pleasant and not at all odd that we were seated with people not in our party.

A few clips of the day...lots of "beer songs". We kept commenting that in America we don't have beer songs.

For Claire: The Festhaus band busted out Sweet Caroline shortly after we got there and it made me think of you guys playing this song on the way home from the hospital with Caroline (and yes, of course since I was a little typsy, I had to blink back the tears! Miss you guys!)