Oktoberfest 2002

Robert, Carlo and myself met up in Slough on Thursday night and had a night out in Windsor. The aeroplane left hideously early the next morning. And then stopped in Belgium! We arrived in Munich at lunchtime just in time for Goulash and sausages. Dan met us at the station in Ingolstadt and took us out to a Cuban bar with pictures of Castro on the wall. Ready now for the Oktoberfest.

Day 1: If you arrive after 3:00 in the afternoon you can't get into a tent. Maybe. It had been raining and snowing in Munich for the first week of the Oktoberfest. Now it was Saturday, warm and sunny, and the whole of Munich descended on the Oktoberfest. Anyway we were outside today as all of the beer tents were full.

Carlo finishes off another litre of beer. It takes a feat of strength to lift one of these up to your mouth but the waitresses can carry about 15 of them to your table.

We have a few more litres to consider this anomaly and forget how to work the camera.

Day 2: We arrive at 11:00 in the morning to be sure of getting into a tent. I have a bit of a hangover from the previous day but feel much better after eating half a cow. Carlo is starting on his. Mine is on the beer glass to keep it out of the way of an enormous tray full of large bits of animals with sauce that has appeared on our table.

We wore these hats to pretend we were Austrian (the most despised nation in the world maybe?). Nobody came over to beat us up as the Germans are far to nice, and far too drunken to do that sort of thing. The atmosphere was really good in the tents.

The young lady falling off a table to the left is wearing the traditional Oktoberfest wear. There was some discussion about whether this 100 year old style of dressing was more attractive than the modern style where bits of fat poke out of undersized tight garments while the stupid bints freeze outside night clubs. All right, there wasn't all that much discussion on that point.

Dan and Robert have had far too many beers - they've gone all blurry.

The beer tents are still open at 9:00 in the evening. We risk a walk around the Oktoberfest site.

This is the view from the top of a big slide. Oktoberfest is half about beer tents and half a fairground. I had a go on one of those enormous rigid swings that you can do a full 360 degrees on. I managed about 90 degrees before deciding it was too scary.

I decided buying a Tee shirt was a safer option. Carlo bought a big mug then it was time to go. We missed the train to Ingolstadt by about 30 seconds, so went into Munich for an overly salty Pizza.

Here we are at breakfast on Monday morning shortly before leaving for the flight. The German beer must be quite good as none of us have hangovers. We found a lovely street cafe in Ingolstadt that served us a German continental breakfast (various types of meat, cheese, and breads. We had the first boiled eggs any of us had eaten since we were 12 years old. Robert made a wasp trap using a tub of jam and a coaster.