Itinerary Thursday Sept 27

For those of you arriving independently prior to Thursday or on Thursday, make your way to the Hotel Maria (Schwanthalerstr. 112-114, 80339 München/Deutschland Fon +49 (0) 89 / 510826) and get checked in. Take the S1 or S8 train from the airport towards downtown Munich and get off at Hackerbrucke. You won’t have to transfer. It will take just over ½ hour or so. When you get off the train, go up to the top of the bridge and follow the crowd headed for Oktoberfest. The crowd will veer left once you get over the bridge. Keep following the crowd until you get to Schwanthalerstrasse. (It will likely be the first traffic light where you have to stop and wait for traffic. It is NOT the street that has train tracks on the street itself. It is the light after that street.) When you get to Schwanthalerstrasse, the crowd will go straight. You should turn right. The hotel will be about 50 steps up on the right.

You will be the first to taste the 2007 Oktoberfest beer. This beer is brewed specifically for Oktoberfest and is arguably the best beer in the world. Once you have checked in, I would suggest making your way over to the Wies'n (vee-sen). That is the piece of land on which the Oktoberfest is sitting. Veterans call it the Wies'n, so start calling it that. Examples, "Are you going to the Wies'n tonight?" "Is Ken still passed out at the Wies'n?" "Did Walt get thrown out of the Wies'n again?" You get the picture. I will get there at around noon on Thursday and will be at the Hacker Festzelt tent. In the map below, that is tent number 4. Here's how to get there:

Turn left out of the hotel. When you get to the first main street, turn right (follow the crowd). For those of you that arrived by train, you will just be retracing your steps (so far). Within 2 minutes of leaving the hotel, you will be standing at the top right corner of the map below (where it says TAXI at about 1 o'clock). Cross the street and go into the main Wies'n entrance. There will be a big arched sign with the words "Willkommen zum Oktoberfest." Go under the sign and you will be on the main Ofest path called "Wirtsbudenstrasse" (the path running in front of tents 1-8 below). The first tent you will see on the right is a red tent called the Hippodrome (#1 below). Then you will see the Armbrustschutzenzelt (Paulaner - #2 below). Then you will come up on Hofbrauhaus (HB - #3 below). The fourth tent on the right will be Hacker Festzelt. That is where I will be on Thursday afternoon. Go in the front doors, turn left and head towards the back of the tent down the left hand side. When you are about halfway (about 3 rows before the band), look for people in our travel shirts . We'll try to be in section H near the walkway. If not there, look around.

We'll stay there pretty much all afternoon and evening and then head for either pizza or Indianfood.