{"id":9268,"date":"2026-01-01T15:47:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T15:47:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?page_id=9268"},"modified":"2026-01-02T16:31:39","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T16:31:39","slug":"oktoberfest","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/zuschlag.us\/?page_id=9268","title":{"rendered":"Oktoberfest"},"content":{"rendered":"

O K T O B E R F E S T<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a nice bit of doggerel in German:<\/p>\n

\u201cDu sollst reisen vor dem Sterben, <\/em>Sonst reisen deine Erben\u2026\u2026\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

(you should travel before death, otherwise your heirs will do the traveling).<\/p>\n

Germans take this to heart and are constantly turning up in odd corners of the globe to satisfy their wanderlust.\u00a0 I (as you have no doubt already absorbed) am so tired of travel, and crowds, and people, and crowds, and airports, and crowds, that I never want to travel ever again.\u00a0 My farm is world enough for me.<\/p>\n

Yet, there are things that are \u201csite specific.\u201d \u00a0You have to go to that place to experience that thing.\u00a0 People try to mitigate this by building replicas of say, the Eiffel Tower in their own town.\u00a0 There are versions from Las Vegas, Nevada to Tianducheng, China, to Slobozia, Romania.\u00a0 But I\u2019m sure a good portion of the population in Slobozia would still rather see the real thing in Paris.<\/p>\n

So too with Oktoberfest.\u00a0 The world\u2019s biggest and most well-known Festival has been duplicated across the globe \u2013 from the Yukon to Mumbai.\u00a0 We even have two competing Oktoberfests right here in our small county (pop. 7,143).<\/p>\n

Now Munich just happens to be one of my all-time favorite cities in the world.\u00a0 If I had to live in an actual city, it might even be my first pick \u2013 certainly in the top three.\u00a0 But, never, ever, have I wanted to be there in the last two weeks of September or early October.\u00a0 Oh, the humanity!<\/p>\n

\"\"We have a lot of nieces and nephews. \u00a0We don\u2019t often get a chance to see them all, as they\u2019re scattered pretty widely across two continents. This means that they don\u2019t get to see much of each other either. In fact, the last time most of them were together in one place was in this photo from 2004.<\/p>\n

And with our niece Meg\u2019s wedding last year, it was also clear that they were rapidly getting to that age where careers and marriages and their own families would soon start taking up more and more of their time.\u00a0 That would mean even less time for the wider family and certainly less time for crusty old uncles. \u00a0So at that wedding we hatched a plan.\u00a0 Those nieces and nephews who were out of college, and had not yet reached 30, would be invited on a trip with their uncles.\u00a0 No spouses or partners.\u00a0 Just cousins and us.\u00a0 Poor Meg got the short end of this stick as she was above the age threshold and was busy planning a life that would include babies, but there were 8 eligible cousins who fit the bill.<\/p>\n

We still needed a destination, however.\u00a0 I was looking for a place that would have some allure for 20-somethings ready to party, but that wasn\u2019t some some trashy beach destination where 60-ish uncles would feel horribly out of place.\u00a0 I also wanted some place filled with art and architecture and tradition, so that I could still maintain my role as pontificator on \u201cWhat to Do,\u201d \u201cHow to Behave,\u201d and \u201cWhat Must be Appreciated.\u201d\u00a0 My \u201cuncle-isms\u201d as they are known, are tolerated with good humor to my face, but I\u2019m sure are widely mocked when I\u2019m not around. \u00a0I don\u2019t mind too terribly much.\u00a0 Even if none of my admonitions sink in, I\u2019ve earned a place in family lore because of them.<\/p>\n

At any rate, with those parameters in mind, the choice was surprisingly easy.\u00a0 Why not show them one of my favorite spots in the world?\u00a0 It\u2019s filled with great food, art, history, architecture, and culture.\u00a0 Plus, what young person on this planet does NOT want to go to Oktoberfest?<\/p>\n

So invites were extended.\u00a0 They had to manage their own airfare, but any other transportation, food, lodging, etc would be on us.\u00a0 Who wants to come?\u00a0 Well, they all did!<\/p>\n

My pleasant surprise at this rapidly turned to alarm.\u00a0 How to organize it all?\u00a0 \u00a0My alarm quickly grew to panic when I realized that you don\u2019t just show up in Munich and waltz into a beer tent and start drinking.\u00a0 People reserve hotel rooms over a year in advance.\u00a0 And seats at a beer tent in the prime evening hours are pretty much impossible to reserve \u2013 they all have standing reservations from people that have been going for decades!\u00a0 Who knew?\u00a0 One or two people might be able to find a space as walk-ins, but not a party of 10.\u00a0 I was having major second thoughts about this trip.\u00a0 Not only would it cost me a fortune, but it would also mean serious crowds and travel hassles with no guarantees of a good time.\u00a0 Did I mention that I also hate travelling?<\/p>\n

But I had 9 months to plan and slowly it all started coming together.\u00a0 Our niece Helene conveniently happens to be in grad school in Munich, so she was able to accommodate her two female cousins in her small apartment.\u00a0 I found the last available hotel rooms for the five boys and two uncles.\u00a0 As far as tent reservations at the festival, there was absolutely nothing available, but it turns out there was a sanctioned after-market website where reservations could be sold off by those who couldn\u2019t attend.\u00a0 The only thing was, this official website only \u2018opens\u2019 two weeks before the festival starts and available table reservations get snapped up within seconds of posting.\u00a0 Needless to say, I was on the site 24\/7.\u00a0 It paid off.\u00a0 Well, only sorta.\u00a0 I got a table for Sunday evening at the one non-beer tent in the whole festival, and then another table in a great tent, but on Monday in the afternoon.\u00a0 Still, it was something.\u00a0 The rest of the time we would have to take our chances.<\/p>\n

It was a blast.\u00a0 First of all, all the cousins got along very well and were truly delighted in each other\u2019s company.\u00a0 Second, they\u2019re all quite bright and interesting, and very good at pretending that their old uncles aren\u2019t as old and out of it as they really are.\u00a0 Third, they were all very game to have a good time no matter what the circumstances.\u00a0 So we enjoyed ourselves splendidly.\u00a0 When not singing and drinking in beer tents and going on carnival rides, we had the best time in the Englischer Garten \u2013 they even made me swim in the Eisbach<\/a><\/strong>!, and in between some edifying visits to churches, palaces, and museums. We even were able to hang out with besties from home, Drew & Tyler<\/a><\/strong>. \u00a0When it was all done we said good-bye to the kids, took a nap, and then had a nice quiet adult dinner<\/a><\/strong> with dear old fraternity brother Uli Berger and his wife Gabi, before returning to the States.<\/p>\n

At a time when nasty old men (Putin, Trump, Netanyahu, et al) create so much pain and anxiety in the world, there\u2019s something so very joyful in seeing young people from around the world releasing their inner Bavarian in festival of wholesome drunkenness.\u00a0 How could your heart not swell watching Chinese dude-bros in Lederhosen, and Indian lasses eschewing a Sari for a Dirndl, linked arm in arm with a mixed bag of drunken Italians and Australians all belting out \u201cSweet Caroline\u201d at the top of their lungs and having the time of their lives?\u00a0 That is indeed the world I want to live in.<\/p>\n

Once back home it dawned on us that we still have 7 teen and college-aged nieces and nephews who are now full of expectations for \u2018their\u2019 trip with their uncles in the 2030s.\u00a0 Now how are we going manage that in our mid-70s?<\/p>\n

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