EN: October in Munich – Without Oktoberfest

Did we go to Munich in Bavaria (Germany) in October but missed the Oktoberfest? No, as I have already mentioned, our children have just enjoyed their two-week Swiss autumn holiday, so we went there last weekend since that suited our family. By then, the Oktoberfest was over for this year, something we were aware of. Hordes of groups and individuals who have had quite a few beers too many is not something that our children need to see. Not just yet...

This means that we came to Munich "off-season" and, still, our first impression was that the city was crowded with people. Possibly, we have become accustomed to serenity of Zurich. However, we could not allow ourselves to avoid the congested stores, because we had arrived with long shopping lists. The price level in Germany is greatly lower than in Switzerland.

With purchases of bike helmets, winter caps and other essentials completed, it was time for some culture and in that respect the main object of our trip was the German Museum (Deutsches Museum). This museum of science is so large that a family with children is not able to cover everything in one day. Already beforehand we had decided to focus on the sections about mining and space travel and can confirm that these exhibitions exceeded our high expectations.

Something we had not hoped for, but which my wife and I both experienced as the highlight of the weekend, were the opportunities to social interaction with “genuine Munich inhabitants”. During our first dinner, by coincidence, we ended up in a very local hangout and to our surprise, all the other guests around our table turned out to be curious about the German-speaking Swedish family. If I enjoyed being in a place where people have an understandable German dialect? I am embarrassed to admit it, but, yes, I certainly did. A lot! ;)

And that leaves us with the topic of food: Deer goulash with potato dumplings and red cabbage. Suckling pig with bread dumplings and sauerkraut. Nuremberg sausages with German potato salad. I happily eat everything which gives me the right to drink another mug of Bavarian lager.

Munich is less than four hours by car from Zurich so the question is when we will come back next time. How about Oktoberfest 2014?

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Deutsche Version 
Svensk version