Fest Season! Bad Durkheim Wine Fest and Stuttgart Canstatter

Well we arrived in Germany just in time for fest season!! This was one part of living here that I was really looking forward to.  I don't really know what I thought tests to be exactly.  We saw a Volkfest in Nuremburg when we were visiting, but didn't go in.  I knew enough from seeing the outskirts of that fest that it involved rides and a carnival!  Here is Germany, these fests are even cooler than fairs in the states!!! They are swarmed with people, dressed up in lederhosen and dirndls, and provide amazing beer/wine and music!

For the hubby's 31st birthday we wanted to hit up the Bad Durkheim Wine Fest.  This is the largest wine festival in the world.  You may remember me visiting Bad Durkheim with a great gal that I met here in Germany! Its a cute town and luckily only 20 minutes or so away from our village.  We had friends in town and celebrated that morning with cake and ice cream for Ryan.  Our other friends came over also to head to the fest together!  We were initially going to take the train from our village, but we ended up having a ride and made our way to the fest!

It was definitely a fun fest with tons of different vineyards represented from Rheinland-Pfalz.  Each stall and a bar and benches and you could order wine by the 1/2 liter.  It really can sneak up on you, so I now recommend to order the wine schorle (half wine half sparkling water.)  We met up with other friends there and had some drinks.  Then we hit up the big tent where the music was starting up!  The music was fun and full of people dancing and singing! I really liked this fest and wish we would have stayed longer.  Next year, Ryan and I want to ride the rides and walk around a little more than we did! I think it could be fun to just go from stall to stall and taste the wine first and then sit down and order a schorle!

A few weeks later it was time to bring out the outfits and hit up another local fest!  This time my friend arranged the train tickets and fest tickets so we could have a table reserved in the beer tent!  It worked out great since we live so close to the train station.  We got up early, got ready, made gluhwein, and walked 5 minutes to the train and headed to K-town.  From there, we met up with the crew and hopped on our train headed toward Stuttgart.  

The train ride was pretty uneventful.  It took about 2 hours or so to arrive to the fest and we quickly found our way to the Volksfest and beer tent.  Really you just follow all the people dressed up and you will find your way there!  With our ticket to the fest it included our seat, 2 liters of beer, chicken and a roll.  We also purchased some apple strudel on the side because we simply love it. 

 My lumberjack 

 That's one sexy man in lederhosen!

After our time was up in the tent we walked around the fest a little got some pizza.  We all headed back toward the train and thats when it got exciting.  We found an elevator that looked like it went up to the street level, so we along with 10 or more others piled into the elevator.  We hit the button and started to go and as we got maybe 3-4 feet off the ground, we stopped.  At first, no one was freaking out, but we quickly realized that we were stuck in a very hot and crowded elevator.  I crouched down to be able to breath better and people were scared, yelling, banging on the doors, and yes most of us were freaking out.  We called 911 and about 30 minutes later we finally had a firefighter crew there to save the day.  They pried the doors open with an axe and set us free!!! I've never had to pee more in my entire life!! Luckily, we found a restroom and our train.  It definitely made for an interesting ride home.  But overall, I enjoyed fest season!  I can't wait to hit up more of then next year! It really is "festive" and fun to hangout with locals and Americans alike.