Surfing and Beer Drinking in Munich

by admin | October 2, 2026 10:34 am

München, Germany — The polka band inside the Augustiner Festhalle at Munich’s Oktoberfest is playing Sweet Caroline. Daughter Mere, son-in-law Matt and I are seated outside at a picnic table, finishing up an early lunch of roasted chicken, potato salad with cucumber, thinly sliced and savory radishes and a half-liter mug of Augustiner Bräu — a widely acclaimed lager from a brewery that began operating in 1328. Some beer aficionados aver that Augustiner Bräu is the best in the world. I don’t know about that, but it is the best I have ever tasted. That is one reason I am back for the second year in a row, along with what festival organizers say is about a half-million others.

The Augustiner brewery is just one of six allowed to set up at Oktoberfest. It is the only brewery serving beer at the festival exclusively from wooden barrels. Each night during the festival’s 16 days, at midnight, the beer trucks arrive at the Theresienwiese (Oktoberfest grounds) with wooden barrels of beer. Each barrel holds about 200 liters. As the festival ends each day, the empty barrels are transported back to the brewery, washed and refilled.

We arrived on Sunday morning early enough that the line was short, with lots of parents bringing their children. Oktoberfest has a carnival-like atmosphere, with lots of rides and games of chance — all of which we ignored. Parents know to arrive early before the serious beer drinkers arrive, and things can get dicey. We also know to arrive early, drink a few beers, eat a great meal, and then also escape, ahead of those who over-imbibe.

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I arrived from Houston the day before we went to Oktoberfest, a few hours later than scheduled, thanks to a balky seat in first class that delayed departure for 90 minutes. (Not my seat. I was in steerage.) I took a train from the airport to the city’s center to meet Mere and Matt, who had taken a train from Garching, the station closest to their home in the small town of Unterneukirchen. We were going to explore some of Munich that first day.

The train quickly filled up with folks clearly going to Oktoberfest — men wearing lederhosen — leather shorts usually embroidered — with suspenders and nearly knee-length socks. The women often wore drindls — low-cut bodices accompanied with puffy-sleeved blouses, along with high-waisted skirts and an apron. Young men often held fistfuls of beer bottles, apparently intent on getting an early start on drinking beer. I was grateful we were delaying returning tomorrow to Oktoberfest, since I was seriously jet-lagged. I simply can’t sleep on a plane.

We stored my luggage at a nail salon that had a nice side hustle going using the app “Bounce” to make money storing suitcases. Nobody was getting their nails done on this day, the tiny shop crammed with suitcases and backpacks. Munich’s town center is a fascinating mix of modern shops and ancient buildings. The New Town Hall, located in Marienplatz Square, boasts the Rathaus-Glockenspiel, a giant clock with life-size characters — a giant version of a cuckoo clock. Unfortunately, we arrived both too late and too early to watch them in action as they recreate scenes from Munich’s history twice daily.

We arrived in time to watch the surfers in the English Garden. Munich, of course, is nowhere near any ocean. That doesn’t stop hundreds of surfers from testing their skills at the manmade Eisbach River, which rises from underground in the garden and is popular with tourists and surfers alike. The surfers wear wetsuits to protect themselves from water that even in the peak of summer stays below 68 degrees and is considerably chillier in the winter. That’s colder than Austin’s Barton Springs. A “standing wave” just below a bridge near the art museum provides a whitewater challenge that few, while we watched, were able to conquer for much longer than a rider can hang on to a rodeo bull. The turbulent wave stays in a small space beneath bridge, giving intrepid surfers plenty of chances to hang ten.

More adventures await on this latest trip to Bavaria and beyond. Stay tuned.

Source URL: https://garyborders.com/surfing-and-beer-drinking-in-munich/

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