Prost! A Guide to German Beer Culture

Oktoberfest, Munich Germany

Greg's friend, Patrick, who lives in The Netherlands, called us earlier this year to see if we wanted to join him in Munich for the Oktoberfest. I said "YES, please!" and Greg set it up soon afterwards.

I have always gone to the Oktoberfest in Addison, TX and took Greg there the year we were dating and we still have beer mugs to prove it :-)

Even though Texas isn't the real thing, I always loved eating all the German food and having a festival beer to celebrate, so I always looked forward to the Oktoberfest at home.

I wasn't too sure what the weather would be like in Germany, but the chance to actually go to the REAL Oktoberfest was something I couldn't pass up. To get to Munich was very easy. The flight from Finland to Munich was only 2 hrs. After a short walk we were at the train station, which would take us right to our hotel.

I knew I wasn't in Finland when we first arrived at the train station. A college age student came up to us and asked us, in German, if we wanted to share a group ticket with him, for the cost of 4 euros each. Greg thought it sounded like a reasonable price and so we took him up on the offer, along with 3 other people (another German and 2 people from the UK). The people from the UK weren't really friendly as they sat on the other side from us (we all needed to sit together if the ticket checker asked for our ticket). Greg offered the British gent if he needed help putting his suitcase on the top shelf and the guy responded with something that didn't sound very grateful. I guess he was embarrassed because he was rather on the short side and Greg was towering over him.

Anyway, the young German guy sat opposite of us and didn't stop talking the whole time we were on the train, this definitely wasn't Finland! He asked if we were heading to the Oktoberfest and told us we would get to experience Bavaria. That he was from the northern part of Germany and that Munich would be not a German experience but a Bavarian experience.

Greg told me that Germany is made up of different states and Bavaria is one of the largest southern states, with Munich being its capital. I was also told that since this area is closest to Italy that things tend not to go on time, unlike the northern part of Germany, and that the predominant faith is Catholicism.

Some large companies are headquartered in Bavaria like Audi, Siemens, and BMW. Even the police drive BMWs, and Greg thought I was being unreasonable having one... humph!

Greg and I dropped off our luggage and headed to the Hofbräuhaus (Hofbrau House) beer garden.

Here Greg just heard the news of the US stock market crashing and is yelling to Gorlock, his trusted financial advisor, to "SELL SELL!!"

Greg told me that this is one of the most popular beer gardens, but hey we are there to be tourists for the Oktoberfest so it was called for. Upon entering the place I immediately like it. Just one sight of a waitress carrying ten 1-liter mugs of beer while the soothing

sounds of an oompah bands plays in the background is enough to put a smile on any one's face.

So we grabbed a menu and only 1 type of beer came in a half liter size, so we decided to get that and share it.

Click below to have Greg educate you on the customs of Germany and its love for a beer head.

Greg and I were a little reserved about the calories in 1 liter of beer (1 liter is about 3 12-ounce beer bottles). Hmm...the fact that we were worrying about calorie content in beer should of given us the first sign that maybe a beerfest was something we might not get too much out of.

HA! oh well, I like sausages and sauerkraut! Oh wait, I guess those aren't very low cal either but let's take a look at the menu.

I wasn't in the mood for a pork knuckle (ewww!)

not even sure what that was.

Greg and I decided to be brave and split a speciality, the Munich sausage, The Weisswürste ('white sausages').

Traditionally eaten only before 12:00, (a tradition dating to a time before refrigerators,) these morsels are often served with sweet mustard and freshly baked pretzels. The pretzel was warm and fresh and was gone in seconds. gaaaa....drool.....Homer Simpson style.

Next after our 'snack' we decided to hit the streets by foot to see what was around.

At the centre of the city is the Marienplatz - a large open square.

Greg is on his knees taking this photo and I think he got a good shot of the Rathaus-Glockenspiel. Part of the second construction phase of the New Town Hall, it dates from 1908.

Every day at 11 a.m. it chimes and re-enacts two stories from the 16th century to the amusement of mass crowds of tourists and locals. It consists of 43 bells and 32 life-sized figures.

We also saw The Peterskirche (Saint Peter's Church) which was located close to Marienplatz. It really was a grand looking church inside.

Until I saw a skeleton of someone with lots of gems in their clothing. ewww!

Now back to the hotel for a couple of free German beers and some snacks, thanks to Hilton points!

The next morning we left early to go to the outdoors market, The Viktualienmarkt, which was located near the city center, Marienplatz. Even though we just had breakfast, I could resist the fresh nectarines I saw!

Next stop was a stand that sold blackberries! You cannot get blackberries in Finland and this was one of many pit stops for blackberries Get in my belly, you delicious berry you.

We then did some serious shopping. Or I should say Greg did. We visited Hugo Boss (German) for some suits, blue jeans and some shoes at Lloyds.

Greg gave me some line about suits not fitting him and that Germans tend to be taller than most Europeans, so he had to buy things here. Don't worry, I kept mental track of the amount so that I can do some damage on another trip :-)

After 3 hours of shopping I was tired of being indoors and was wanting some fresh air and sun. I begged Greg to leave it for another day and so we decided to rest our weary feet at an outside beer house and enjoy the free entertainment.

By the time we got back to the hotel, Greg's friends (well I guess I can call them my friends now) Patrick and Kaes were rested up and ready to join us for dinner. Kaes hates planes, so he and his loyal friend Patrick took the train. Instead of it being an hour flight from Rotterdam, it was a 10 hour train ride. Patrick is a better friend than I would be.

Here we are decked out and ready to hit the town for some dinner!

Patrick is the blond and Kaes is the curly headed one to the left. This is the only nice picture I have of all 4 of us together and the only nice picture of Kaes, who must feel uncomfortable in front of the camera because he is always making funny faces...which you will see later.

Most places were full and the place that Greg and I saw earlier in the day was packed too, but for some reason this cosy little place had more than 1 seat available. HA!

Actually I was told this represented what a beer house looked like and so we ventured in to see what was on the menu. I sure was glad that we were with some international people because both Patrick and Kaes could speak German. I think Patrick was a little more fluent but it was nice because he was able to help us with the menu (only in German) and converse with the waitress (only spoke German).

I was nervous about going Germany since I didn't speak any German, but usually we got around just fine...it's the older people who usually don't speak any English.

Well I ordered the pork chop, with saurkart and potato salad. Boy it was a big pork chop, and they say American portions are big!

Next time I hear some lofty European talking smack about America and our portion size problems, I will show them this picture along with the others I am collecting as evidence.

I was not too thrilled about the "potato salad", which ended up being plain boiled potatoes. When questioning whether I received potato salad I was asked "Is it potaotes?" ...well yes...."and is it cold?" ...well yes ..."well then you have potato salad". HAHA Patrick!

The next day it was overcast and a little colder but it would soon be opening day of Oktoberfest! So we dressed warmly (or I did) and we headed out.

When we first arrived it was before noon and the festival was suppose to start at noon, so believe it or not, but not much was going on.

The start of the Oktoberfest was signalled by a 12 gun salute over the statue of Bavria, and the tapping of the first keg of Oktoberfest beer at 12:00 by the current Mayor of Munich. The statue is a bronze-cast statue of a female figure representing Bavaria the"secular patron saint".

Then everything started happening. Music started playing and voices all of a sudden were loud and people were everywhere.

We went out in the fair grounds to see if we could find a beer "tent" where we could sit and enjoy the atmosphere. The Germans call them tents but they looked like restaruants to me, they were so big. There are 6 breweries known as the Big Six: Spaten, Löwenbräu, Augustiner, Hofbräu, Paulaner and Hacker-Pschorr. Traditionally Oktoberfest (beers) biers were the lagers of around 5.5 to 6% alcohol.

We decided to try out one beer tent, Löwenbräu, and we should of known how packed it would of been when the outside area was packed as well!

But we decided to head in anyway

Ok, so that was rather full! We decided to try for another tent on the other side of the grounds, Spaten.

It had movable wooden figureens on the top of the tent, that were turning an animal over a spit. Little did I know that they actually have a spit inside with a carcuss turning, where you can see what pieces of the beef are missing.

This was brought to my attention when I went again the next day with a Germany family. They told me about the poor beef turning and that there was a sign above it that had the weight and name of this poor animal! ah man, make me feel bad for eating meat now! Click on the video above to see the name and turning meat.

Well after seeing the crouded tents we decided to see what one of the local beirhouses looked like. We were pretty hungry by this time and were really happy to find out that this place had room for us. yea!

Beer only comes in 1 type of mug here and so we ordered a round of beers and some pretzels to keep us a float until the food came.

The guys didn't seem to appreciate the pretzels as much as me, or maybe it was the large sized beer mugs on an empty stomach, that affected their appreciation.

Not long after the pretzel modeling and pirate imitation ordeal (click the video below and you will understand)

our food came.

Yea sausages and mustard!

I loved their mustard. It was thick, a little on the sweet side and prefect with sausages and pretzels. YUM! But Greg wasn't really impressed with the mustard (another video)

The next day I had made plans to meet a woman that I met in Finland who lives in Munich. I met her through her sister Irene, who I am friends with here in Finland. Ingegerd and she is a real sweet person. She had great plans for Greg and I to walk through a forrest and go eat at a little place somewhere out in the countryside.

BUT Greg was sick the next day. No, not from a hangover, believe it or not Greg only had 1 beer that day because he felt a cold coming on. So she decided to take her whole family to Oktoberfest, that way I could meet her someplace close and her kids could get their wish of games and treats at Oktoberfest. Unfortunately I arrived just as the parade was starting and got stuck on the other side of the road as one marching band after another kept coming and coming (Video below)

I finally saw a break and jumped over the rope and made a break for it. After the 10th marching band passed I didn't care about rules and the rope, I figured it wasn't going to stop anytime soon and I wanted to get the party going!

This time I got to see a different side of Oktoberfest as the kids were dying to play games. I thought they looked so festive in their Bavarian outfits and they were such a beautiful family (Ingegerd, Volkner with their children Björn and Malin).

We approached a tent where you couldn't see what the ride really was, but the kids knew what was inside and were so excited to go. So we got tickets and went in. Inside there was a circle in the middle, with childen all on it. A song would play and the circle would start to spin.

The speed would increase and eventually it would start to throw off all the kids! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Poor Ingegerd was terrified at first saying, 'My kids aren't going to ride on this!' but her husband being a man said 'ah, let 'em be kids, what's the worst that could happen'.

So the kids climbed on and we sat down to watch just to see what could happen (click the video above to see the spinning children's game).

Ingegerd was translating everything for me and it was a lot of fun, until they were looking for 'older girls' to join in the fun. Ingegerd volunteered both of us to go on the moving circle thing!

They handed us hula hoops and wanted us to use them as the circle started turning! I was horrible and I could not keep the hula going but Ingegerd rocked the house and the hoop stayed up the whole time and she won!

I was totally embarrassed by this time and couldn't wait to get off (here I am trying to escape ASAP ) .

Just as I thought I was going to make it off and hide, a guy came up behind me and grabbed me by the arm and told me something in German. Ingegerd said that there was another round that we had to go through, oh no!

They called up some men on stage and they laid down on their stomachs and held on to a rope. Ingegerd said I was then suppose to sit on their backside and the circle would then start to move and try to throw us off! WHAT?! WHAT?! Ugh motion sickness here I come

Ingegerd rocked the house again and won this round as well!

Wow what a competitor. If I had to makea fool out of myself at least I had a friend who could make me proud.

Now it was on to finding a seat and getting some food. (video below)

Here we have a wienerschnitzel sandwich and some delicious looking pastry thing

After filling our bellies it was on to 'Let's Make a Deal'! Boy this family knows how to get the discounts.

Ingegerd's daughter, Malin, wanted me to have an Edelweiss scarf. Well they talked the shopkeeper down and I got it at a discount. Here I am sporting my prize.

Next it was on to cookie hearts. Another traditional thing that I saw was everyone wearing gingerbread cookie hearts around their necks. I asked if they tasted good but was told that they are for looks rather than taste. So at 15 to 25 Euros I passed on it since I couldn't eat it!! :-)

But that didn't stop Björn and Malin from wanting one. Björn walked up and told the shopkeeper that he only had 10 Euros of spending money left but REALLY wanted a specific cookie heart, that was well over 10 Euros. The shopkeeper had one look into those eyes and cute freckles and was putty in his hands and so he got his cookie heart at a huge discount! Watch out ladies, he is a sweet talker and already aware of his charm at age 10 :-)

Even though I was having a blast I had to jet back to our hotel and only had 30 minutes to get there. So I quickly said Auf Wiedersehen to Ingegerd and her family and said Auf Wiedersehen to Oktoberfest.

I might have gone 20 years too late, but I still had a great time. So thank you honey, Patrick, Case and Ingegerd for making my German experience a lovely one.