Sunday 2nd October - Bad Schussenfried, Germany

Despite the fact that we could hear every song very clearly in the van last night, we dropped off to sleep almost immediately and had an excellent night's sleep.

We were determined to get into the tent today and headed to it in the late afternoon just after the church service had been broadcast from it across the fields to Henrietta. This time here was no crowd outside – they were all inside! There were hundreds of people sat at tables in the vast marquee but there were plenty of spaces so we chose a table in front of, but not too close to, the large stage where a band was setting up. By far the majority of people were wearing traditional dress – very pretty dirndels for the women and, not so pretty in my opinion, ledenhosen for the men. A leaflet gave us a menu and drinks price list and also showed the programme for the weekend in the festival tent. It appeared that the only chargeable events were in the evening, the remainder being free entry. It has always been one of my objectives in life to drink beer from one of those enormous 1 litre steins (known as a Mass) that they have at German beer festivals. Here was my opportunity, in fact there was no choice as that was the only way they served it. Many couples were sharing one between them and we did the same. When we ordered a refill, difficulty in translation resulted in a horrible error – we ended up with a litre of Radler, a lager shandy. I drank some of this but couldn't cope and was forced to order my own Mass of Schusserieder Original No. 1, leaving the shandy to Jane.

The food was good and the music was good, again punctuated by that drinking refrain and, yes, they did all raise their steins of foaming beer whilst singing it. We, or at least I, could have stayed their all afternoon but I probably wouldn't have made it back to the van later, so we headed of to the town to investigate it in the daylight. On the way we admired a display of vintage tractors, some with caravans attached.

The former abbey was very pretty, as was its church. The Brewery Museum bar was packed and there were crowds sat out in its beer garden enjoying the sun (the mist cleared earlier today) and another oompah band. Back in the main street we came across another band who played humorous songs (judging from the crowd reaction but lost on us) and also Beatles numbers. At the end of their spot they played an encore of 'My Butterfly' – Jane was somewhat taken aback as she had been given a copy of that single, in French, as a present when she was on a German school exchange visit nearly 40 years ago!

When we got back to the van we found four tractors with their caravans attached parked up by us!

The evening was spent watching a DVD before going to bed with the lullaby of the oompah music.

Photos: The Oktober Fest marquee showing about a third of its area; Two drinkers enjoying their beer; These two circulated inside and outside of the marquee selling bread shaped like pretzels; A vintage tractor and trailer that had travelled twice on a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in Spain – they must be very keen tractor and Roman Catholic enthusiasts!