Munich Germany

Munich one week before Oktoberfest is very impressive, as is all of Germany at a time when the country is getting ready to welcome 6 million visitors. 2018 was the 185th celebration of the wedding between King Ludwig of Bavaria and Princess Therese of Saxony. Each year the country puts on a fresh coat of paint and puts on the world's largest folk festival - and serves up over seven million liters of German beer. We arrived in Much September 7, two weeks before the first barrel was to be tapped on Sept 22. We may have missed some of the excitement but our reward was being able to find a parking space just one block from the Hofbrauhaus, a liter glass only cost 4euro and we were able to find a hotel room without making a reservation. The flower boxes were bursting with color, the people were all in a good mood and everything was spotless. We imagined the scene would be much different just a couple days after the celebration started.

We arrived just before noon on a Friday, we were able to find four seats at a large table in the center of the main hall. Our server was a very pleasant woman dressed in traditional dirndl. She took our order and returned carrying six one liter mugs. We spoke very little German so she tried her best to speak English but we detected a slight Spanish accent so we tried Spanish and that turned out to be our best method of communicating. Having emigrated to Germany from Venezuela she was very happy to speak Spanish with us. We ordered a pint of all three beers and one huge pretzel. We explained we had come all the way from Florida to experience German beer in the world famous Hofbrauhaus. She was very friendly and being married to a German man she shared some of her German perspective with us.

As the crowd started to arrive a traditional band started to play from a small stage in the center of the hall. We enjoyed our beer, the pretzel was perfect and the atmosphere was just what we expected. We saw German tourists as well as the full range of foreigners. We each took turns walking around the hall examining the photos and banners on the walls. We realized what an excellent job they did recreating the hall at the Hofbrauhaus in Las Vegas. We almost felt like we had been here before. All-in-all it was an experience not to be missed. We took a quick spin through the gift shop and looked at all the HB branded items. Some were nice, but expensive. Then we came across one of the most unashamed swag items we ever saw - a bottle cap lapel pin. You have to imagine the staff meeting where some brewer pitched the idea of putting a dab of hot glue on the back of a bottle cap and selling it for 3EU ($3.50). Pure unashamed marketing and we had to buy one. We enjoyed our time, the beer was familiar and as expected. We really enjoyed just being in such a famous hall and watching all the people react the same way we did when we first came in the door. The meter was running out on our parking space and we had a long drive to make Bamberg by night fall. We paid our bill which was much less than expected (31.40EU) for 6 liters of German ale in a historical setting. They could charge a cover just to enter and look around - but we're glad they don't.