After a great night out with good friends in Vienna, we jumped on a super-modern train headed toward Germany. We arrived around 12:30 p.m. and dragged our luggage right out of the train station seeking a dirndl shop. Ann was determined to buy the traditional Bavarian dress, and she succeeded. Soon after we acquired the dirndl, we got on the metro train to our hotel.

We couldn’t check into our hotel until 3 p.m., so we just lounged a while in the hotel lobby. Eventually Ann figured she needed to start getting ready, since our seating reservations were for 4:30 and we’d been told numerous times that we’d surrender our seats if we didn’t show up on time. So as soon as our room was ready, Ann was already prepared. We just dropped our bags and jumped back on the metro headed for the Weisn.

We arrived at the Oktoberfest grounds with time to spare. We walked around the carnival area for a bit then headed toward our tent, grabbing a pretzel along the way. We just walked into the tent a little after 4 p.m. and just started wandering around. Our tickets told us to enter a specific gate, so we found that number and just asked a security guard what to do. He pointed us to the stairs and told us to proceed up and ask up there. We did that and were immediately pointed toward an agent for our booking company. She introduced herself and gave us a brief rundown on what to expect. All this going on while our tables was cleaned up.

As soon as the fresh linens were on the table, we took our seats right at the edge of the balcony.

Eventually the rest of our table arrived and we ordered our first round, then food. Everything arrived quickly and we started to get acquainted with our group. One German, two Danes, one Pole and one Czech gal. About four Americans arrived later, but they sat at the other end of the table and I didn’t really talk to them much. In all, it was a fun-loving group and we had a great time.

The Hacker-Pshorr was great. They had live music throughout the night and the entire crowd was dancing, singing and carrying on. The only problems I saw all night involved dancing on the tables. Downstairs, everyone was dancing on their table seats (which were just benches). But upstairs they didn’t allow that. Most of the tables had someone stand up at one point and start dancing around, only to have security come over and give them a warning. If the security guard had to come over a second time, he’d give a final warning. Third time and the offender would immediately be shown the door. But no big deal really. We pretty much just milled around our table, dancing and chatting with everyone.

Ann and I decided to vacate our spots sometime between 9-10 p.m. I managed to knock down three beers. Ann knocked off just over two. The food was good, but the beer was what we came for. After leaving the fairgrounds, we just followed the herd until we came across a metro station. Went back to the hotel and slept like babies.

It was a very good day.