The Oktoberfest 2015 – our first few days

My, oh my, how time flies when you’re having fun – and we’ve been having plenty! Just yesterday, so it seems, we couldn’t wait for that magical first barrel to be tapped, and then… well, that was on Saturday, and now it’s Tuesday already… *massages forehead*

And since – for reasons we won’t go into – we’re not really in much of a writing mood, we’ll let a few photos do the talking, because, as we all know, a picture says a thousand… You get the picture.

One thing we will say, though, is that we were spot on with our predictions from earlier in the year: there’s a lot of denim around, as well as pastel and even metallic colours. We’re also seeing a lot of everyday wear with Bavarian details, multi-coloured check-pattern shirts, and linen.

Saturday: the keg is tapped in Schottenhamel

It’s already the second year in which Mayor Dieter Reiter, elected in 2014, has been responsible as the city’s first citizen for the tapping ceremony – and he already beat the personal best he set last year by ?? hits, managing to drive the tap into the barrel in just ?? whacks of the mallet.

Sunday: Ochsenbraterei

This year – once again, for reasons we won’t go into – we really needed a proper feeding on Sunday, and so headed to the Ochsenbraterei, the tent known for spit-roasting whole oxen. And after a lot of red meat, we felt great again. If only we’d managed to keep it down to one single litre of beer to keep our headache at bay… Interesting stastistic, by the way: this weekend saw 10 oxen roasted and the tent noted an unusually high demand for their (admittedly delicious) spinach-pretzel dumplings. Consumption of their beer, Augustiner, was normal (read: high).

Monday: “Steckerlfisch” at Vroni

So, for further reasons we won’t go into, we fancied something healthy yesterday – and what could fit the bill better than grilled fish and, perhaps, just a little less beer? That should set us up for the week, so off we went to Fischer Vroni, the tent known for roasting rows of river fish over open coals (called “Steckerlfisch” when they’re ready to eat).

Tuesday: Schützen-Festzelt or Hacker

Today, of course, we’ve realised that all these attempts to “feel ready for the rest of the week” are pointless. So now we’re giving in and heading for a real party tent: the only thing left to decide is whether it’s the newly-redesigned Schützen oder Hacker Festzelt.

If you want to keep up with us before our second update from the Oktoberfest 2015, then just have a look in on Twitter to keep abreast of all our various observations and comments.