Last updated at 13:29, Friday, 09 November 2012

TRIP: The main square in Altotting – a place for peaceful contemplation before the madness of the Munich Oktoberfest GARETH JONES

FOR longer than I have been on this earth, my dad has been speaking of one of his dreams.

But unlike many others, it was not to play professional football or open a bar. His desire was to visit the Oktoberfest.

Every Christmas, he and my uncles would state “this is going to be the year” the trip to the Munich beer festival happens and would pledge to research travel plans that never came to fruition.

Being the good son I am, when the opportunity came to visit Oktoberfest I jumped at the chance and immediately rang my old man to rub it in.

The 16-day Oktoberfest festival takes place in Munich, the largest city in the region of Bavaria in southern Germany.

I flew direct from Manchester to Munich with Lufthansa, and although the flight took only just over two hours, I had already worked up a thirst on arrival.

Luckily, you are never far away from a beer in Bavaria and the airport has its own brewery, Airbrau, which serves beer brewed only metres from the runway. Bavaria is a very diverse region, which spans from the Austrian border in the south up to Franconia in the north.

Before embarking on my liver shuddering mission, I had a few days in the countryside to relax and prepare.

Altotting is situated around a 90-minute drive from the airport and features an array of attractive Gothic churches. The town is one of Germany’s most sacred sites, with pilgrims flocking to the area since the 1500s.

To this day, many Christians still visit the Gnadenkapelle church in the town as they seek help in recovering from illness or injury.

After a tour of the town in what was a glorious September day, we retired to the Graminger brewery, which specialises in producing weissbier.

This cloudy beer is produced using wheat instead of barley, giving it a fruitier taste than standard lager, and it goes down nicely with the rich Bavarian cuisine, which focuses mainly on roast pork and dumplings.

The further south you travel in the region, the more dramatic the surroundings become. Lake Chiemsee is flanked by the Bavarian mountains and visitors can take boat trips to several islands, including Herrenchiemsee which features the residence of the great Bavarian monarch King Ludwig II. The village of Ruhpolding acted as the perfect venue for preparing for the Oktoberfest.

After relaxing in the steam room – an experience which was marred by my towel being stolen by a naked German man – of the Wohlfühlhotel Ortnerhof hotel and taking a stroll in the forests around, I breathed in the clean air and knew that a good night’s sleep was in order to ensure I was prepared for the next day’s beer consumption.

Ruhpolding is also one of the world centres for biathlon, a sport which combines gruelling cross country skiing with shooting, and hosts the annual Biathlon World Cup. After firing a few rounds and deciding my chances of making the British biathlon team for the 2016 Olympics are non-existent, it was time to make the pilgrimage to the beer drinker’s equivalent of the FA Cup final.

I was lucky enough to have visited Munich before, but the city is transformed during the festival, which runs from mid-September until the first week in October.

The streets are filled with merry partygoers, many donning traditional Bavarian dress – lederhosen for the boys and dirndl for the girls.

We were staying in the Maritim hotel, which is two minutes walk away from the central station and around a mile from the Oktoberfest site, the Theresienwiese park.

There are 14 tents situated in the festival, which have capacity for between 4,000 and 11,000 people.

Arriving at the Oktoberfest is a bit like visiting a drunken Walt Disney World. Thousands of people make their way towards the complex while those who have already attended go in the opposite direction, many of whom look “tired” after a long day on the beer. The tents book up months in advance of the festival and those who have failed to make reservations join the long queues.

There are fairground rides, junk food and of course 14 different beers available – what more could one want?

We were in the Schottenhamel tent, one of the bigger tents at the festival which caters for a young, rowdy audience.

The first thing that hits you is the noise, entering the tent is like stepping out into a football stadium.

And that is before the band starts playing, with the traditional German ensemble belting out less conventional sing-a-longs such as Sweet Caroline and Robbie Williams’ Angels.

Every 20 minutes the music stops and the audience must sway their glasses (or to be precise one litre steins) while chanting the Oktoberfest toast, followed by a gulp of beer.

Although dancing on the tables is banned on the balcony, it is definitely permitted, almost encouraged, downstairs.

Drinkers from all over the world join in on what was the biggest party I’ve ever been to, and although the beer flowed it was all good natured fun and many glasses were raised for a plethora of different reasons. As the beer began to kick-in, I felt Oktoberfest had definitely not disappointed.

I even felt slight guilt for gloating about my trip towards my dad and might have to take him to the festival so he can live his dream. And then, I drank, and drank, and drank until my body could take no more.

First published at 16:59, Friday, 02 November 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk