Another fine Messe you've got me into.
Despite the fact we haven't really finished exploring Salzburg (and I'd be happy spending another day at the festival) it's time to move on.
Within minutes we cross the border into Germany and experience the longest border delay so far. Seems like German immigration are stopping occasional cars and briefly questioning drivers. The car in front of us experienced this 30 seconds delay whilst we were unacknowledged. But even a 30 seconds delay to the occasional car causes a 5 minute tail-back. Not that we experienced that. We pulled out of the traffic queue into the adjacent service station fully intending to refuel but at seeing the price I drove on and out the other side of the petrol station, about 4 minutes ahead of the queue! Nice one!
We soon turned off the motorway and took a smaller road. Picturesque or what! These are the meadows below the Alps, now slightly in the distance behind some rolling hills. Verdant neat fields with wooden chalets, cute as a chocolate box. Window boxes filled with blooming flowers. They seemed to be found out of their way to impress.
It's not far too Munich and we made reasonable progress past less beautiful villages but now with stunning maypoles, many in the blue and white Bavarian colours.
Camping for Oktoberfest is at Munich's Messe, conference hall complex. It's huge. The campsite is in just one car park but offers around 1500 camping places, half of which are with electric. We didn't book so don't get the option of electricity (not that we really need it). The site is expensive at €35 per night but does boast its own bar, supermarket and shop selling lederhosen. And yes, I would LOVE to attend Oktoberfest in lederhosen, check shirt and long socks but let's face it, getting on for close to £200 could be better spent!
This is not a pretty campsite, long lines of vans in a parking lot, interspersed with tents on any green areas. I'm sure that late evening will be noisy and many, many people will be well pissed. Oktoberfest beers tend to be 6% abv and people seem to be buying bottles from the shop to preload before the 3 minute walk to the tube station. It's gonna be interesting!
We opted out of trying to find a seat in one of the main tents this late in the day and went for a local walk instead. About three-quarters of a mile away is a large shopping mall. Just before it is a large complex of pre-fab huts which looks as if it must be accommodation for refugees. Looks like cycling lessons are being given to a couple of African women. I hope they enjoy their new-found freedom.
Think we'll go see how rowdy the bar here is is!
Here's today's quite short journey:
