Munich: Oktoberfest, Seas & A New Ring!
Munich in October means lederhosen, a litre of beer, and, as it turns out, some genuinely excellent birding in the lakes just outside the city. Between the beer tents, two Bavarian lakes, a lifer I had was not expecting, and ending up with a new wedding ring, this last stay on our trip was a full one!
Getting around was easier than expected. Munich's U-Bahn and S-Bahn network is clean, frequent, and remarkably good at connecting the city centre to the surrounding lakes and suburbs.!
Oktoberfest
Oktoberfest was surprising - I didn’t expect it to be so massive, so fun, or so great that we went twice. Oktoberfest becomes a temporary city that assembles itself for two weeks every year on the Theresienwiese, a fairground right in central Munich. The beer tents hold hundreds of people each, the noise is something you feel as much as hear, and the atmosphere is as unique as you’d expect. We loved it..
The food is reason enough to drop in. Bratwursts grilled over charcoal and served with mustard and kraut! I did not like bratwursts until I had these! The centerpiece of the whole experience is the beer, a one-litre stein of Märzen lager brewed specifically for the festival. It's smoother than you'd expect for something that size, which is partly why the afternoon can get away from you. The Hofbräu tent is the most famous, but the Augustiner tent is widely considered the best beer, but we did our best to try them all to see for ourselves! Going early both days we attended meant seats without a wait and beer without a line, which was a win. One day was particularly rainy, but that did not put a damper on the party!
Ammersee
Ammersee is about an hour southwest of Munich. The lake is about 17 kilometres long and sits in a low-lying basin surrounded by reeds, wet meadows, and mixed woodland, a combination that packs a lot of habitat into a compact area. After the noise and energy of Oktoberfest, the quiet of the lakeshore was a welcome change of pace.
Chiemsee and a Lifer I Wasn't Expecting
Chiemsee is Bavaria's largest lake at around 80 square kilometres, and about an hour east of Munich. The scale of it means more open water for diving ducks, and varied shoreline, from sandy beaches to the rocky river inflows fed by streams coming down from the Alps. There was no way that we would have felt like we had enough time to explore this place fully.
We stopped a few places to see what we could find, and at one stop, walking along a little river, something small and dark caught my eye. It took a second to process. White-throated Dipper. A chunky, dark bird with a bright white throat. I couldn’t believe it, I didn’t think I’d get lucky enough to see this bird on this trip. I climbed my way through the bankside grassed to get a better look. I was so excited to being looking at this bird! But, the grass I pushed through on the way there turned out to be a slight issue, my skin reacted with a rash, so we made an unplanned stop at a German pharmacy. The bird was worth the itchy skin!
A New Ring in Gräfelfing
We stayed in Gräfelfing, a quiet, leafy suburb just west of Munich on the U-Bahn line, with hosts who made us feel immediately at home. They met us at the train to give us and our luggage a ride, gifted us a fresh baked loaf of bread, and even carried our luggage into the cottage - despite our protests! This little cottage felt like exactly the right base for this part of the trip. The hosts delivered fresh pastries throughout our stay, and were genuinely so kind that we still think of them often.
We took a walk into the town on our first morning to find some breakfast, and while enjoying our espresso and pastries, we noticed a jeweler's shop across the street. My old wedding ring had been in rough enough shape that I had stopped wearing it, and on a bit of a whim, we walked over after breakfast.
The jeweler was a small family-owned operation. The salesman greeted us and started showing us some lovely options he had available, but I really just wanted my current ring but in better condition and a metal that would last. I just asked if he could make a new one, expected him to say no, but he said he would! We talked about some specifics and left them with a plan to create a ring for me right there in their shop. We returned a couple of days later to pick it up, and they had made a perfect ring.
Most people think Bavaria and head straight for the Alps, but the lakes around the city are genuinely excellent for birding, the “suburbs” are so nice, and Oktoberfest is so very fun. Kim and I left with full stomachs, good birds, and one shiny thing we didn't arrive with.
If you've birded the Bavarian lakes or made it to Oktoberfest, I'd love to hear what you found out there and whether you managed to fit both into the same trip.
Prost to this amazing German adventure!
But we were happy to get home to our slightly fussy Zoe girl!
This is part four of a four-part series from our 2023 trip to Germany. Here are links to all four:
