Oktoberfest in Munich

Every person of drinking age knows about the infamous Oktoberfest in Munich.  Since my husband has been travelling to Germany on business for the last 9 years, he has made it to Oktoberfest a few times.  So, of course, now that we live so close to Munich, we had to go!  I had it from a few sources that aside from all of the drinking debauchery, Oktoberfest is also a family-friendly festival.  We took the subway from the park-and-ride, and were delighted with all the lederhosen and dirndls, but within five minutes after passing under the 'Wilkommen Zum Oktoberfest' I was ready to leave!  The crowd was overwhelming, and unless you want to wait in line to get into a beer tent, you can't even get a beer! We had been promising the kids that they could go on some of the rides, so we followed through on the promise, got the kids some candy apples (their first ever!), and promptly headed back to the subway. 

We headed up to the English Garden, and made the 20 minute walk to the beer garden at the Chinese Tower.  Along the way, we stopped to watch the surfers, and the kids could have stayed to watch all day. 

The walk took a little longer than it should have, because Ryan took out a biker along the way.  He stopped to look at a map, then turned to run back to us, and the girl on the bike swerved to avoid him, and fell pretty hard.  We felt so horrible, and did our best to apologize in German.  We are very grateful to her that she fell to keep Ryan from getting hurt.
So, we eventually made it to the Chinese tower beer garden, and finally found the family-friendly beer drinking experience we set out for!  It was still pretty crowded, but paled in comparison to Oktoberfest.  What I love about the beer gardens is that so many have playgrounds!  We had a great meal (including pretzels larger than our heads), and were able to enjoy the jovial atmosphere, while the kids had a blast running around with the other kids. 

We had a great day in Munich, but next year, I will skip Oktoberfest.  I guess we are old farts!