Oktoberfest!

A beer-lovers holiday, that's Oktoberfest. The people of Munich are very proud of their heritage and their beer and it all comes together for a 16 day party that ends the first Sunday in October. The fair-grounds are packed with people drinking, enjoying carnival rides and games and eating. Many locals dress in traditional clothing: lederhosen and dirndl (which shows off a copious amount of cleavage!) The event is so popular that we didn't realize that you need to have a reservation to get into a beer 'tent' (only Munich brewers are allowed to have a tent) where they have long rows of tables, traditional oom-pa music and serve liter-size beers. After wandering around for a couple of hours we were shocked that it is almost impossible to get a beer when you are not in a tent. Robert was persistent and knew that it was all about timing in order to get a table outside a beer tent and was successful in doing so within 10 minutes of trying. We had terrific weather, great tablemates, a gargantuan pretzel and several liters of Paulaner beer =) Prost!! See our pictures from the Oktoberfest here.

Note: Sunday was much more subdued - we took in the Neue Pinakothek which has a terrific collection and one of our favoite VanGogh paintings - Sunflowers