Munich 2019

After an introduction to Octoberfest on Saturday our group felt more prepared for the festivities on Sunday. We had a plan, everyone’s phones were working and we were not going to leave the tent for a bratwurst.    Sunday started with breakfast at the Hotel New Orly. Since all of the boys would not share their breakfast buffet, I walked around the streets looking for a bagel. Dad joined and me in a visit to three coffee shops and a closed Lidl before deciding on a local favorite, apparent by the line out the door. The no-nonsense barista was not budging in her German to our English but we successfully ordered two pan au chocolates, a ham sandwich and two coffees. Getting milk for the coffees was another ordeal. Thankfully, Dad received help from friends in the line. Around lunch time we U-bahn’d to Theresienwiese for day two of the festival! Worried about starting the day with too much wandering around before Finbar had a drink, we began with two quick litres each in a...

We met Michael and Tim Jr. at Hofbrauhaus on Friday night with hundreds of other pilgrims pre-gaming before events begin on Saturday.   We had to split up to find spots at tables which is good practice for the tents.   I squeezed in with Finn and six guys from Milan where we began the practice of finding enough common vocabulary between English, Italian, Spanish and German.     They were a group of dads, sons and in-laws who drove from Milan to make opening day at the festival.    This was also our first ‘What’s up with Trump?’ experiences which promises to be repeated often.   Michael and Tim were with some Kiwi’s, Liam with other Americans and a Qatar’i?    Brendan, fully recovered from his flu, checks out McD but joined us at the Italian table where we start to merge and outnumber them.   After a few bosses of beer we headed to U-bahn to navigate back to the hotel.   I immediately lost everyone but with enough phone charge to g...

We started our journey together from the IBM Herndon office near Dulles airport so we can leave our car there.   Finn worked a half-day in Arlington and joined us there.   I finished up some meetings in the office and then told my team I was going off the grid to attend a beer festival.   No meetings for 6 days! We arrived at Dulles about 2 hours before departure.   Lines weren’t bad.   Finn got some design-your-own pizza at &Pizza.   He built a tasty concoction with mushroom sauce, arugula, jalapeños, pepperoni and ranch dressing.   Brendan got a burger at one of the Chef-inspired quick-serve places.   Our full flight to Munich departed on time and was gratefully uneventful TG.   Finn and I watched Jordan peele’s Us on our respective mini screen – thumbs down.   I also binged the new Netflix limited series – Spy –   thumbs up.   Arrived at Muchen Flughagen on time.   Took us a bit of time to sort the S-Bahn ...