Oktoberfest

Last week I went to Munich for the annual beer festival, Oktoberfest.  This is what I did there:

Karsplatz

My first sight of Munich on disembarking the train from the airport was the famous Karlsplatz (see above).  The sightseeing continued with a visit to Marienplatz where I was greeted by its iconic spire.

  Marienplatz

After which I visited this church (see below), located close to Marienplatz, its name escapes me.

It was now late morning and I was feeling pretty thirsty so I had my first stein (1.3 litre/2 pint capacity).  Only one of them is mine.

After which we took a taxi to Oktoberfest, a short distance from the centre of town.  The picture below captures the sheer scale of the event.

The place resembled an enormous fairground with vast beer tents situated either side of the main thoroughfare.

(Courtesy of www.themeparkreview.com)

In the image above a number of the rides are clearly visible.  For some the rides proved not to be conducive to heavy beer consumption.

The image above goes someway to capturing the reverie in one of the beer tents.

Early the next morning found the esteemed author posing for a photograph (see below).

I was somewhat surprised to come across this person surfing in the river, something I had never previously witnessed in the centre of a city.

Below is an outdoor library.  Perhaps we should embrace the concept here in the UK, considering our declining literacy levels.  On such a wet and cold day this library was not particularly inviting however.

Below are some of the German beers that I sampled at Oktoberfest. Augustiner was my favourite and I can only hope that it appears in our pubs here in London one of these days.  I would not recommend the Paulaner in large quantities, it is very heavy.