It's Fest Time!

I'm told that the Germans take any opportunity to celebrate and hold a festival.  Over the long weekend I got to take in two local festivals.  The first one was the Cannstatter Volksfest, an annual two-week festival.  The locals in Stuttgart commonly call it Cannstatter Wasen.  It is supposedly the second largest beer festival in Germany behind Oktoberfest in Munich.

A wonderful couple that Tom and I met here at the hotel journeyed down to the festival grounds with me on Saturday, as Tom headed back to the States Saturday morning.  We traveled on the U-bahn, a terrific railway system here in Stuttgart.  People openly drink alcohol on public transportation and the sight and sound of empty beer bottles rolling around the floor of the train car was the ambiance as we neared the fairgrounds.

I didn't know what to expect at my first beer festival but it was essentially a giant carnival.  There were lots of rides, including two Ferris wheels, roller coasters, carousels and free fall ride.  There were also game booths, market stalls, tons of food vendors and of course the quintessential beer tents. 

Here is a picture of me on the train platform and you can see part of the festival behind me.  I didn't take as many pictures as I might have because the weather was pretty bad most of the day and rained off and on.

I have to apologize because it wasn't until I got home Saturday night that I remembered that my camera takes video and that I should have taken video inside one of the tents.  Everyone was having a VERY good time.  Here are some pictures from inside two of the tents.  We walked through some of the tents but all the tables were 'Reserviert' until later in the day so we weren't able to sit down and order drinks or food.

   

 

It was definitely a bit odd walking around the festival grounds as none of us know German yet so it was very unusual to be in a situation where we couldn't read signs and we couldn't communicate with people.  It also took quite a while to settle on what and where we would get some lunch. 

At the center of the festival is the fruit column.  It's a wooden pillar decorated with fruit that is 26 meters high and weighing 3.5 tons.  The festival has been going on since 1818 and started as an agricultural trade fair. 

All-in-all it was a good day.

I'll write later this week about the festival I went to on Monday.  It was the annual Pumpkin Festival held on the grounds of the Ludwigsburg Palace, it is the largest baroque palace in Germany.  The palace was built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig between 1704 and 1733.  It has 452 rooms in 18 buildings.  It is called the "Swabian Versailles." 

One final picture taken when we were heading back to the hotel.  The leaves here are changing quickly so I'm trying to get pictures before they are gone.  There is a row of trees leading up to the entrance to the military post where I'm staying and they are a beautiful golden right now.  Check back later this week for photos from the Pumpkin Festival and Ludwigsburg.