Trip 4: Munich, Germany (Octoberfest!)

This past weekend we took a trip to Munich, Germany to take part in the authentic Octoberfest celebration.  We got up early Friday morning and headed out on the 6 hour drive to Munich.  Thank goodness for iPads loaded with movies and books!  Once we arrived and checked into our hotel we walked around Munich's city center and headed to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner, large pretzels and beers.  Then we were off to check out the Octoberfest site and get the lay of the land.  It was the last weekend of Octoberfest and was supposed to be very busy and difficult to get into one of the 14 official tents without a reservation.  Each tent has a unique theme but all serve liter beers, German food and lots of pretzels.  Many people were dressed in the official attire with men in Lederhosen and women dressed in Dirndls.
The next morning we headed out early to Octoberfest (about a 15-20 min walk from our hotel in the city center) and were lucky to get into the first large tent near the main entrance, called Hippodrom, with a fairly short wait.  We stayed in this tent for most of the day since the people we had met said not to leave as we would have no luck getting into any other tent since it was so busy.  We drank beers, listened to the German folk band (which sounded like polka music), had our fill of sausages and yes more large pretzels!  All in all I think the guys had a very successful Octoberfest visit (this was definitely more of a guys trip).
On our way home on Sunday we took a break in the middle of our 6 hour drive and stopped in Stuttgart, Germany to visit the Mercedes-Benz museum.  We had a very nice lunch in their cafe and toured the 8 floors of the history of the motor car as well as a general history lesson and admired the buildings unique architecture.

Hofbrauhaus

Munich

Octoberfest

Mercedes-Benz Museum