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The journey of a thousand miles begins with...the perfect pair of shoes.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Random Thoughts Tuesday: Beer Edition

randomtuesday

Hot diggity! Tuesday! You know how I loves me some Tuesday. Why? It's Random! Today's randomness stems from our trip to the opening of Oktoberfest in Munich this past weekend.

*Oktoberfest is effing amazing. I could not have imagined it. I've been in Munich before during Oktoberfest, but this is the first time I've ever been to the actual Oktoberfest.

*Over 6 and a half million people are expected to attend this year's Oktoberfest. It only lasts for 16 days.

*Getting a table is darn near impossible. We met a group of teenagers (you read that right, 16 and 17 year old) who wanted to go explore the rest of Oktoberfest (it's like a big fair) but didn't want to lose their table (they stood in line for 2 hours to get a table) so we offered to hold their spots. Nice of us, wasn't it? They explored, we drank, everybody won. Especially the people selling the beer.

*In 2008 6.7 millions liters (approx 1.8 gallons) of beer was consumed.

*I loved that so many people were in Lederhosen or Dirdls.

*The first Oktoberfest took place in 1810 and was a wedding between Crown Prince Ludwig (later King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen. A horse race also took place that day in the Okotberfest grounds, but those ended in 1960.

*Mr. HH said there were too many breasts and he didn't know where to look. The dirndl is seriously made to show off the breast.

*The beer halls combined can seat 150,000.

*I didn't get to drink a Radler and that made me sad. It's a mixture of beer and a German style lemon-lime soda. It sounds gross, but man it is so good!

*1 Litre of beer cost 8.60 Euro (approx $12.71)

*The locals in Munich call Oktoberfest "die Wiesn" because of its location, Theresienwiese, which was named after Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.

*Fest goers will consume approximately 500,000 chickens, 250,000 pork sausages, 60,000 pork knuckles (OMG!), 38,000kg of fish, 110 oxen (OMG, again!) and almost 3 million pounds of potatoes (mostly in the form of pommes-french fries).

And now for my funny sign of the week. They have a point (except at Oktoberfest).



I have lots (and lots) of photos from our trip which I will try to get posted this week. It was quite a trip that started off with a flat tire at 9:30pm, 100 miles from Garmisch. Good times indeed.


8 comments:

The Crazy Coxes said...

I feel so educated now! Thanks for the Oktoberfest info! I love your resourcefulness......saving the teens table so they could explore. Aren't you thoughtful!

Yankee Girl said...

What awesome info!

I love beer and would love to make it to Germany for Oktoberfest. Since that is not possible this year, I am going to Oktoberfest in Chicago this weekend.

Not the same, but at least there will be beer!

Crazy Shenanigans-JMO said...

This has been my favorite random thoughts! Can't wait to see pictures.

Mike said...

When I was in school, our German class was supposed to go to Germany, and because there was no drinking age, parents had to sign a consent form to allow their kids to have beer. No parent even saw the form. A girl in the class forged all of them! LOL! I wish I had gone!

Elle said...

I've never been to any Oktoberfest, but now I seriously want to go!

Margaret aka: Fact Woman said...

I wish I was there and great job holding that table for the teens. Very resourceful! Have a fun trip and I'd love to see some pictures.

Anne said...

The "Radler" is called a "demi" in French. It mean half/half (kinda) they mix half beer with half lime soda and (once upon a time, in my time) you could drink it at 16 or so, cause it wasn't "real" beer!
I remember Matt saying that this was probably the equivalent of an American beer (not tastewise) but alcohol contentwise!! hehe!!

Formerly known as Frau said...

Sounds like so much fun! I want to go next for sure. I hear you need to reserve a table a year in advance if not more. Can't wait to see your pictures.

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