Brief History of Oktoberfest
Basically Bavaria, the state of Germany that Munich is in, used be an independent country with a royal family, etc. To celebrate the wedding of Ludwig I and Therese in 1810, the royal family had festival in front of the city gates. This evolved over the years to include horse racing and an agricultural fair. Think American state or county fair and you have an idea. Because the weather can get dicey in Bavaria in early October the festival was moved to late September ending the first weekend in October.
Ok there you have it. Very brief. Oktoberfest 2013 actually starts tomorrow September 21 at Noon local time. The mayor of Munich along with the governor of Bavaria tap the first keg and basically say, "It is tapped." The fire off a cannon and away we go.
This will be my third trip to Oktoberfest and Todd's first, so he is in for a shocking experience. Basically, Oktoberfest is the Super Bowl of Beer. There is no other way to describe it. People from all around the world attend and they will have over six million visitors over the two week period. The atmosphere is very jovial and everyone will have a good time.
Todd asked me to give a high level overview of some of the things not related to Oktoberfest that we may be doing. Munich is the second largest city in Germany and the capital of Bavaria so it is a very worldly city without Oktoberfest. It is also home to BMW and the European soccer champion Bayern Munich.
On day one we will be traveling south of Munich to the foothills of the Alps to Tegernsee to visit a famous Beer Garden and kind of have a gentle entry into the beer seen. We return to Munich on the morning of the second day and visit the world famous Hofbrauhaus to knock a few back under the chestnut trees. Day three brings a tour to the Paulaner factory for an unfiltered unpasturized Paulaner that can only be found there. A bike tour of the famous beer gardens of Munich follows with the opening visit to the Wiesn (Oktoberfest) that evening. Day four brings a full day of Oktoberfest with our tent reservation at Fischer Vroni and the total experience. Day five is a slow detox that may have us visit museums including the Oktoberfest history museum. Day six is a jolting return to the US.
I will have some more info as we prepare to depart and get ready on Wednesday for non-stop live blogging from the largest beer festival in the world.
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