We spent a couple days touring the tents of the original Oktoberfest, and bookended the trip with Dachau and Third Reich tours.
December 29, 2024
Almost as soon as we landed, we headed to Dachau to tour the concentration camp memorial. None of us really had words for the dispiriting experience, but felt it was important to see.
We stayed at Hotel Brunnenhof. The hotel was clean and comfortable, was a nice 20-minute walk to where Oktoberfest was at Theresienwiese, and got us in the celebratory mood with Oktoberfest decor. We also upped the celebration with a bottle of prosecco and the most delicious chocolate cake, which was somehow still tasty the entire 3 days we were there.
We were slightly worried about finding enough seating for 9 people, but ended up having no problems—as long as we got to the tents close to opening at 10 am. Everyone there was very friendly, especially the young Germans who we still aren't convinced were old enough to enjoy the beer.
Despite the rain and chill, we still enjoyed walking through Munich on the Third Reich Tour to learn about the regime's rise to power and see bits of hidden history that you'd normally stroll past—my favorite of which were gold bricks that paved tribute to resistors.