Em and Rob Travel The World: Munich (and Oktoberfest), 16-20 September 2010

One of the things that I had been looking forward to all year was the Muse concert. We had got tickets to the Manchester one because the London one was sold out, so we were to stay overnight in Manchester as well. Manchester was, well, forgettable. Not that we got to see a lot, but neither of us are inspired to go back anytime soon.... We did go on Manchester's version of London wheel, and saw not much. But Muse was absolutely fantastic - our favourite concert so far. We felt better about missing the London one when we heard that they did a much better song line-up at Manchester. It was cool getting to go and see a concert at Old Trafford as well.

Sarah and Simon were trying to pack as much in as possible before they had to go home to New Zealand, and the next thing they had planned was Oktoberfest. We decided to tag along, without much expectation. The trip was booked through PP Travel, and was one of those times you think something won't be too bad when you look at it on paper, then the reality is a million times worse - that is the fact that we were driving to Munich on a coach, from London. We left at 1pm, took the ferry over to Calais, then drove overnight. The coach was packed with excited people, drinking.... lets just say not much sleeping occurred.

When we got to the campsite, we were assigned a tent which was OK, a bit grotty but could have been worse, and went into town to have a look around. Of course we had to try bratwurst, and we got extremely charmed by Munich and its inhabitants. Everyone seems to get dressed up for the occasion of beerfest in tradional dress. We tried to get a table in a beerhall but they were all packed, so we went to an outdoor one instead and had a sensational meal of pork and potato salad. The awful coach trip was all but forgotten.

Saturday was Beerfest Day. Most of the girls in the campsite had little Bavarian outfits to wear, but the girls in our group were far too sensible for that nonsense and dressed comfortably and warmly. We decided to get a table early and managed to find one with a male server. For some reason the guys in our group weren't happy about that. But really they were just pleased to get served with their 1 litre steins. Beerfest isn't just about beer, although there are numerous different beer tents to choose from. There are fairground rides, food like wurst, half roast chickens, pork, chocolate-covered fruit, gingerbread, and other stuff you'd find at a fair, and crappy merchandise. Sarah is not a fan of beer so she and a friend had found a tea tent that sold cocktails and cake. We wandered over there and were extremely impressed at what the tent had to offer. Ourselves, Sarah, Simon, and our other friends from NZ, Kristina and Stu showed the Bavarians how to do it when the rock and roll band Flat Out started playing. We also enjoyed watching the natives boogie in their funny outfits.

After a great day on Saturday, we had already decided we would take the option of going to Dachau Concentration Camp and a Monastery on the Sunday.

Dachau, as we expected, was very sobering. Unfortunately we didn't really have enough time to explore it fully as we got taken up with the impressive museum display they have telling the whole sordid history of the Nazis.

"Hard Work Will Set You Free"

The monastery was planned for lunch, and what we didn't realise was that it was a proper brewery. It is extremely popular with locals as well as tourists, so it was packed. We got beers and pork and potato which was devine. The view was a great accompaniment to the meal.

After the food we couldn't resist getting a dessert we had seen one of the locals get, which looked like a steamed pudding with custard on. It was called a "dampfnudela", and was delicious. Afterwards we went for a walk and had a look in the church which was spectacular.

We were dreading the coach ride home, but in the end it wasn't so bad - we watched DVDs to start with and everyone was so tired they shut up, plus Simon had some spare ear plugs that he gave us.