On Friday morning I had still not resolved my accomodation issues for Friday night, but the hotel I was staying at said that the broom cupboard room in the cellars was available again, and although a little expensive, I decided I would stay there, as i was meeting a few people throughout the day, and the next morning too, and staying would make all that much easier.
I met up with James, a friend from Australia, at the hotel, and we set out in the rain to see some of Munich. We didn’t get too far before the rain forced us indoors, and we had our first beer of the day. We moved on to another beer hall for lunch, and afterwards took a stroll around the city, as the rain had eased off.
I wished I had a bit more time here, as there are a few places I would like to visit nearby. There is a guided tour which goes to Dachau, a WWII Nazi Concentration Camp, which James said had been a fascinating but sobering place.
James had to leave towards the end of the afternoon, as he was continuing his travels, and I headed back to my hotel to meet up with Dawn and Diane, who were visiting Munich from Chicago. We headed of to Oktoberfest at about 7pm, but the place was packed. I think it was a national holiday, so everyone was off work, and by the time we got there, all the beer tents were full, doors closed, and only people with reservations could get in.
We eventually found an outdoor beer garden area, and sat next to a group of English guys on their fifth annual visit to Oktoberfest. They were obviously old hands at this sort of thing, and worked their way through the huge beers at a fair pace. It was a brilliant evening, and I went home much later than I had planned to, much drunker than I planned to, with my face aching from laughing for most of the evening.
Oktoberfest! Brilliant!
