Mom and Dad visit... Oktoberfest!

This past week, Mom and Dad came for a visit.  On their first day here, after a loop around town in a sightseeing bus, of course we had to hit (the last weekday of) Oktoberfest!

Mostly my parents were looking to eat a good Bratwurst, but first we had to check out a few of the breweries' pavilions ("tents") before they closed "due to overfilling".  Already at 11 a.m. on this sunny Friday the tents were crowded.
The first one we saw, the "Crossbowman tent" from the Paulaner brewery, had a few (fake) dead animal heads on the wall...

Then the famous Ochsenbraterei (Ox roaster) tent, where they roast whole ox on a spit, while serving many a liter of the Spaten brewery beer.

Ochsenbraterei info

We shared a roast-ox bun as part of our joint lunch.  Yum!  (Sorry, Mom, I have to include this picture!)

Then on to the tent of Munich's favorite brewery, Augustiner.  This beer has been brewed, starting with the Augustine monks, for nearly 700 years, and according to our tour-bus guide, it is so well loved here that they do not need to advertise.   (He has lived here all his life, and has never seen an Augustiner ad. And they don't export.)

I've had Augustine beer several times already, and it is good, but I couldn't bring myself to sit and have a liter of beer at noon -- plus I don't think Mom and Dad would have wanted to deal with the noise!

So we went outside and found a couple good Bratwurst sandwiches, which made Mom and Dad happy.  Then, for dessert of course, a bag of sweet roasted almonds.

Oktoberfest is over now.  Can't say as I'm sorry.  The streets and subways are not as crazily crowded and messy as they were during the 16-day drunkfest.  It was fun to see it a few times though.

Now on to more Munich and Bavarian sights with Mom and Dad.  That's one of the great things about having visitors -- I have a good excuse to do all the fun touristy things too!