Oktoberfest Trip Report Day 5

Today we attended Oktoberfest. We had a beautiful sunny day with comfortable temperatures. It is wonderful how fortunate we have been with weather. We walked all over the Oktoberfest grounds which is a combination of amusement park, carnival, food fest and beer garden. We settled at the Hofbrau-Festhalle where we were able to find a seat at a table. I ordered some schweinhaxe and Janet got a big pretzel. We both had a stein of beer to go with it.There was oom-pah music playing and every 15 minutes or so the band plays "Ein Prosit" and the entire hall joins in the singing. The hall was quite noisy, especially in the center where there were standup tables only. Occasionally an overindulged patron would stand on a table and try to chug down an entire stein of beer before security arrived to convince him to get down.

I was surprised how many people show up in traditional Bavarian costumes. I expected mainly to see people working the fest to be dressed up, but I would say more than half of the attendees were in lederhosen and dirndls. I almost felt out of place in my jeans and shirt.

After we left the beer tent we bought tickets for the big Ferris wheel and finished up the day with a ride that provides a nice panoramic view of the entire festival. On the way out we bought some of the hot candied nuts that are on sale everywhere and smell so good you can't resist. We stopped at the St Paul Kirche on the way back but declined the opportunity to climb another bell tower.

Tomorrow I think we will do a walking self tour of Munich city center and perhaps return to Oktoberfest in the evening.