Munich – Oktoberfest 2017 – Day 1

After 3 years of planning we finally made it!

Luckily this year Lufthansa started a direct flight from Denver to Munich! A mere 10 hours and you are in Germany!

We left the states at 4:30pm on Thursday and arrived Munich at 10:30am on Friday!

I got just a quick cat nap, so it was on to try and stay awake till night time!

The metro system in Munich is fabulous! I was able to download an app MVV that allowed us to buy tickets on the phone vs trying to figure out the machines. Of note – we never once had anyone check out tickets. It is assumed you will follow the rules, so we always bought tickets. There are some interesting option which include a “family” or “group” ticket which counts for up to 5 adults. Fun fact – 2 children count as 1 adults. That just made me laugh!

We easily found the train to get us into Munich (S8) – bout 35 minute ride.

Suman and Premilla got off on an earlier stop for their Air B-N-B, we continued to our hotel – Hotel Isartor (suggested in one of the many books i read on Munich!). It was a great option. Full european breakfast each day, room was good sized and had a balcony! The trick with this hotel was to communicate via email – that way you could book early. They only require 80% down 30 days prior to arrival, and then you pay the last portion on check out. But book early as they do sell out for Oktoberfest. I booked around February. Another bonus was that our Metro stop was the same name and around the corner! Win!

We unpacked a bit and then headed out for some grub and to stay awake! We wanted to try a donner kebab place but we hadn’t obtained cash yet. Note – most places prefer cash, so if you can, have euros instead of relying on CC.

We ended up meandering into Marianplatz for a bank (later discovering there was an ATM nearly next to the hotel, oh well)

Then we headed back to the Viktualienmarkt – it had everything including (food, snacks, souvenirs) a maypole and a beir garten!

We chose a place where we could sit, joining a couple guys from Australia! Hubby went the sausage route, i went with a dish that said swiss sausage and swiss cheese. It was yummy, but definitely looked weird!

Woot – first weis beir in Germany – on vacation!

From there we look and walked around, found our first ticket based bathroom experience.

Super high tech in the train station – you pay your 50 euros, the sliding doors open, you enter the rest room. It was weird (for an american) to have everyone go through the same entrance and then split off to the correct door. Also whoever the “cleaner” was would go into whatever rest room – so i ran into a gentleman in the woman’s side on more than one occasion. One that helped me used a fancy all in one hand washing station too!

After that it was time for our walking tour of the city!

It was about 2 hours and we got see and experience a ton of the city!

I did end up falling asleep standing up, but dropping my waterbottle solved that!

Random tid bits – Marienplatz, Mary’s Tower, Old Townhall, Tribute to Michael Jackson and the Monkey Tower (story from the guide)!

After the tour, we went back to Viktualienmarkt to grab some dinner/snacks. Suman/Pram and I got some cheese and meat, hubby got sausage of course, and weisbier!

After that i got a little burst of energy, we did a little walking and found the Trachden Outlet right before closing and “suited” up to be ready for Oktoberfest on monday!