Oktoberfest 2012

      So it's 9:00pm and we've already been home for over 3 hours. We did not expect to be home this early, we had planned on getting home around midnight! Well thank goodness the trains allow you to take any return train home. We got to the actual Oktoberfest grounds around 9:30am. It was drizzly and chilly but we were all okay with that. We finally found a biergarden to sit all 10 of us. On opening day they Mayor doesn't tap the keg until noon so beer can not be sold at all until then. We waited and waited and of course it started to rain... then it started to pour. And of course there are no inside locations to get into. The only inside places are the beer tents that you have to have a reservation for. So we had to sit outside in the rain. 

It continued to pour and we were all soaking wet and absolutely freezing! We had umbrellas but those did no good when they were being flipped inside out by the wind! It was crazy! It was only supposed to be light rain. We were miserable and couldn't wait to get home. So after we all had a beer we decided to leave. This was not the experience we expected at all! But we are lucky enough to live so close and it's super cheap to take the train so we are planning a second trip next weekend and are hoping it is a much better experience! We didn't get a beer stein or even a pretzel! We did not get the full experience, although we did wear our dirndl and lederhosen, but we are looking forward to a second try!