A Wet Wies'n Weekend

 When we first announced we were moving to Munich, we got a lot of "Congratulations" and "You will love Munich" followed very closely by, "Can we stay with you during Oktoberfest".  And with the opening of the Wies'n this weekend, we also happily welcomed our first visitors!  H and her family were our closest friends in Prague.  In fact, Stinkerbell's best friend (boyfriend some say) is H's oldest son.  We couldn't wait to welcome them for a long weekend with us in our new home.

And after a relaxing night at home on Friday just catching up and a day spent exploring Munich on Saturday we were ready to don our Dirndl's and Lederhosen and hit the festival on Sunday!

Pictures were necessary before we even left the front door because it was rainy, and wet, and cold and we wanted to capture the fact that we really did look cute when we set out that morning...

Pictures having been taken we headed down to the U-Bahn and grabbed our train to the parade grounds before heading over to the Theiresenweise.  Having not been before, we were very excited to see the parade.  But we were also missing our guests of Honor, H's mom and dad.  As H's mom spent some of her formative years right here in Munich one of her bucket list items is to come back and see the parade that is such an integral part of her childhood memories.  H (and I) hoped we could help her relive a few of them.  Sadly Mama B had a nasty bike accident just a few days before she and Mr. B were to leave and they ould not join us.  But I made it my mission to take enough videos and pictures to make it feel like she was here...because next year she will be...at least we hope so.  (Next year!  Please come next year Mrs. B.  Our house will alway be open to you).  

The Trachten und Schützenzug (Costume and Riflemen parade), held for the first time in 1835 to honor the silver wedding anniversary of Ludwig and Therese (the whole reason for Oktoberfest), has been held each year since 1950 and has grown to be the largest parade of its kind in the world.  With over 8000 participants marching from Mazimillianstraße to the Oktoberfest grounds (covering 7 km) it showcases traditional costumes and folk dances and music from the German Federal States.  There are riflemen, historical local costumes, marching bands and flag wavers.   And over 40 decorated festival carriages and coaches round out the huge display.  And what a display it was... (there will be a separate post for just the parade, don't worry_

We also at some gingerbread cookies while watching...And even got some hops official Oktoberfest hops from one of the wagons.

We didn't stay for the entire 21/2 hour parade because, well, it was 2 1/2 hours and we had little ones.  And it was raining.  So we danced our way back to the metro and got ourselves a table at the Wies'n.

The Marstall tent was very good to our family last year so we thought we would try again this year.  And we were lucky.  They had a full table for us, right in the middle of the action.  We took our picture and ordered our beers (and something a bit lighter for the kids) and some traditional lunch...

She can't believe how big that beer is...

Winner. Winner.  She earned her chicken dinner.

The kids wanted to see how heavy the mugs were because they kept seeing the waiters go by with hands full.  They got one for each hand and did their best...

This one did a taste test first...

Bellies full, strong man competition over and needing to stretch our legs, we headed over to the midway for a bit of fun.  Each child got to choose one ride (they are EXPENSIVE) - J and Stinkerbell picked the bumper cars; MadHatter and J chose the roller coaster.  I still can't decide which one gave me more bruises...or more laughs.

The day was still rainy, the kids were over the beer drinking and the boys had some work to do back home.  H and I made the decision to send them all home and continue on to see a bit more of the Wies'n.  And see it, we did.  We wandered into a few tents and then back out again because there was no way we could get a seat to get a beer.  And you must have a seat to be served while inside a tent.  So, we came up with a plan.  We found a full table and asked if we could sit just long enough to get a beer and then we would wander off.  You have to be seated to be served but you don't have to be seated to drink the beer you have been served.  The men at the table were more than happy to oblige; the women not so much.  But we got our beers and we had our fun and then we headed home in time to put our kids to bed and call it a weekend.  What a weekend!