For Nigel, Paul & Phil

Yesterday was the start of the Oktoberfest in Munich. Probably (not officially) part of the reason for bringing back controls at Bavaria's border to Austria was the fear of Munich coming to a standstill over the 16 days of the festival which attracts some six million visitors. Like the refugees, the majority of visitors arrive by train.

Yesterday starts with the parade of "Tent Landlords" in horse and carriages. Today it's the turn of the "Shooting Clubs and Costume Groups" with almost 10,000 participants. This, now tradition, was first started in 1835 to celebrate the then Kings silver wedding anniversary with bride couples from each part of Bavaria parading in theitr traditional costumes followed by a group wedding ceremony. The parade was repeated from time to time increasing from the original 40 odd participants to 1400 in 1895 and since 1950 has become an annual event and one of the highlights. The route is 7 km long through the middle of Munich.

The shooting clubs are a mandatory part of almost every villages social life, along with the voluntary fire brigade and music group. Our parish made up of two villages with around 2500 and 700 inhabitants. We don't have one of each of these groups but each village it's own shooting and  music groups and own fire brigade.

Each year there is a "Kings Shooting" competition for each club, then several regional levels ending in a Bavarian State champion. The person top right is the winner of one of these levels. wearing the chain with the names of previous winners.

The Blip is a cheat - we weren't in Munich today, the collage was taken from the evening repeat of the parade shown on TV. Some time during the next two weeks Angie will no doubt spend an evening there after work. I doubt I will make the trip. I do try to go every four years when the Agricultural show takes place for the first week of the festival. 2016 is the next date. The Agricultural show takes place on the car park alongside the normal festival site, causing great problems for the visiting hundreds of buses. Until 2010 this had only been a problem for the first week but in that year, a "Traditional Festival" was erected on the site to commemorate the 200th anniversary. It was so popular that it is now an annual event (except when the Agricultural show is on). Here only traditional music in the tents and only at least 40 year old fairground rides and they only charge one Euro per ride.

The traditional festival would be the ideal place for a future cricket tour meeting. We oldies aren't up to standing on benches and swinging the hips let alone spinning around on noisy LED lit fairground rides. May just get Phil to take a spin on an ancient motorbike on the Wall of Death.