Happy Birthday, Oktoberfest
Two hundred years and you look so young;
The tradition of Oktoberfest began Oct. 12, 1810, when Crown Prince Ludwig of Bavaria invited the residents of Munich to celebrate his marriage to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen. The public gathered outside the city gates in a large meadow, christened the Theresienwiese in honor of the princess, and enjoyed five days of dancing, eating, shooting and drinking. An enormous horse race ended the party.
The festivities were such fun that it was agreed to stage the horse race — as well as the other festivities — the next year, and Oktoberfest was born.
I made my single visit to Oktoberfest in 1985 I remember I hung out with Tommy Colburn (who occasionally visits here at TAH) and all I remember is that the following morning, the white polo shirt I wore that day had a big footprint on my chest area. As I understand it, Tommy and I had an altercation with three Turks over a contentious bumper car episode.
Yay, beer!
Added:More Octoberfest pictures from Old Trooper below the jump;
Category: Pointless blather
Methinks I need to go explore my German roots…
Yeah, hooters and beer…it just doesn’t get any better than than. I’ll have one more, please, and the two blondes on the left, second picture down.
I sort remember drinking at the Hofbrau Haus (1988)with one of my closet Army buddies and then taking the train back to where we were staying…then having to get up very early and head down to Berchtesgarten (sp?) to take a white water kayak course…
Amazing how ice cold water can snap you out of beer and weis wurst induced coma.
I’m with ya Sigot,I kinda sorta remember the Hofbrau.Went with afew guys from my unit,thought we all got back on the train back to Bamberg only to find out we was missing a couple.They showed up 2 days later,but thats another story.Oh what fun we had,yes indeed!!!
🙂
I was there, too, in 1985. OMG!! I could not even drink one of those biers!
2 years later we went again and some of my friends indeed ended up in altercations, whoopings and hollerings. One dude even did the streak.
Footprints on shirt-check.
Assinine behavior-check
Schon Frauleins-check
Missing Spouse-check
Fun in the bier tents-check
Memories: absolutely effing priceless!
While Jonn did a fine job of representing on behalf of my birthplace; I felt that there needed to be a few more examples, in order to get the full context of Oktoberfest 😀
Heheheee, I’ve got some photos of my short time in Germany that would go hand in hand with this, but alas, even this many years later they could possibly be bad news for some buddies of mine, lol. 😉
Thanks for the walk, er.. stumble, down memory lane!
This makes me wish that I was stationed in Germany! Darnit!
Ah, the date may have changed, but the frauleins look the same, I imagine the biers taste the same, as does the wurst. I was told I had so much fun the first time I went, that I managed to get back the next two years, too. Those weeks seem to be a bit blurred, in my memory, though.
My checklist is the same as Defend’s, with the exception of the spouse, didn’t have one then, probably a good thing.
I found Oktoberfest to be the best jet lag cure for sponsorees. I took a guy off the plane at Rhein-Main AFB, let him sleep for three hours, then pulled him onto the USO train to Oktoberfest with a hefe weizen beer in his hand to start the trip.
He had no problem with jet lag. Hangover, yeah, but no jet lag. Every time we run into each other he brings it up again.
The first picture of the three young ladies is my wallpaper on the comp. Go Spaten and Go Oktoberfest!
I am a little surprised you do not remember the MP and Polizei escort. Apparently, they thought two American GIs beating up the owners of the bumper-car ride was bad for business. Hey, they threw the first punch. Stupid…. Nice pictures… Happy Oktoberfest old friend.