Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/157485
More than six million people attend Ok seven million litres of beer – making it th "We made it!" I shout over the din as we clink our glasses together, beer sloshing on the table. Before they can respond, the music changes, and suddenly everyone at the table has lifted their mugs along with ours. With free arms draped over neighbours' shoulders, we all start swaying to the music, singing the lyrics that we've learned through repetition: "Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit. Ein Prosit, ein Prosit Der Gemütlichkeit." And then the music stops and everyone counts in the Bavarian dialect: "Oans, zwoa, drei, g'suffa!" We all crash our Maßkrugs together and drink deeply of the amber elixir. We made it indeed. When Shawn invited Hughe and me to celebrate his 40th birthday in Munich, it was a no-brainer. Oktoberfest was an adventure I'd dreamed of ever since I first travelled to Europe on a backpacking trip 20 years ago. The stars aligned when we learned that Shawn's birthday would fall on the final day of the festival. We fly into Frankfurt Monday, planning to be in Munich by Friday. After spending a couple of days in Frankfurt, and visiting a German family Hughe once stayed with on a high school exchange, we drive south to check out the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. We stay overnight in a Schwarzwald p36-43_Oktoberfest.indd 38 (Black Forest) cottage, amid low mountains carpeted with a patchwork of farms and forest. Our final stop before Munich is Neuschwanstein, the famous castle built in the late 1800s by Bavarian King Ludwig II, which later inspired Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. After a tour, and a bratwurst and pilsner in the shadow of the castle, we head north to Munich and the festival. More than six million people attend Oktoberfest each year, consuming more than seven million litres of beer – making it the biggest beer festival in the world. It's also a giant fair, with amusement rides and food stalls. The first Oktoberfest, in 1810, celebrated the marriage of Prince Ludwig (the castle builder's grandfather) and his bride, Therese. It lasted six days, culminating with a horse race. Nowadays, the fest ends on the first weekend in October, beginning in mid-September to take advantage of warmer weather. But autumn beer festivals were common in Bavaria long before Ludwig and Therese's nuptials. In those days, brewers couldn't make beer in the warmer months, so they produced one final, special batch of beer in March (called Märzen, after the month), which they stored in cool, ice-filled caves for consumption in spring and summer. Brewed extra-strong, with more hops than usual to help preserve it, the result was a dark, malty beer that matured well. Following the late (dancers and boy) Alamy/All Canada Photos, (beer) iStock, (Schottenhamel) Joe Wiebe 13-08-14 1:27 PM s t s f a t