Allow me to reminisce....

As we approach departure in 24 days, it reminds me of my first trip to Oktoberfest in 1987. I don't remember the exact dates, but it was memorable nonetheless.

I was visiting Augsburg on a business trip with NCR and we were all sitting at the bar in the hotel at around 19:00. One of my colleagues (we'll call him Tom to protect his innocence) and I commented about Oktoberfest and that we had never been there. One thing led to another and we were looking at train schedules to get to Munich. We determined that if we hurried, be could be in Munich by 20:30 if we caught the next train. There was a 01:00 train we could then catch to get back. So..... off we ran to the bahnhof.

Arrived at the Hauptbahnhof as scheduled and quickly grabbed a taxi to the Wies'n, not knowing anything about anything. Found our first tent (I think it was Augustiner), and were easily able to get a seat and start our sampling of the golden nectar. It was obviously during the week, and 29 years ago. So we were singing, drinking and having a great time, only to be surprised when the lights came on at about 22:00. Huh? Isn't this Oktoberfest? No one told us they actually close the place early. So we quickly decided that the Hofbrauhaus would be a great place since we still had about three hours until our train. Hey, taxi !

Arrived at the Hofbrauhaus and ordered a bier, only to find out they close at 23:00. I thought this was Germany, the land of free flowing bier. What to do now? Tom and I stumbled outside and around the corner to find an establishment that was indeed open, and would remain, and I think I quote the bar tender, "until everyone leaves". Maß after Maß were consumed, and Tom became the local deckel champion (that's another story). Uh oh, all of a sudden it was 01:30 and we missed our train. Not to worry, if we finish our Maß and hurry, we can make the 02:30 train. Nope. Now the next train is not until 06:00. Oh well. Zwei Maß bitte !

So we did get our train at 06:00, and were feeling pretty proud of ourselves. Tried to snooze on the way to Augsburg, but not very successful and only a 30 minute ride. We figured we get to the hotel, get some sleep, and then see what was scheduled for the day. No such luck. As we were entering the hotel, some other colleagues were coming down for breakfast. Being the inquisitive travelers we are, we asked why they were up so early. The answer, "we're having breakfast and then meeting everyone at 08:00 to catch a train". To Munich !

Uh oh. So we run to our rooms, take showers and head back down for breakfast. Off to Munich we went for some sightseeing, and then, you guessed it, Wies'n here we come. There is evidence of that first visit which has been posted before, but here we go again: