Sunday we had a friend arrive coming for a conference for a couple of days. To help keep him awake so he could try to sync up with the time change, we were tasked with entertaining him on Sunday.
We took him to the Canstadter Volksfest, the Stuttgart version of the Octoberfest in Munich.
We had heard that it too could be a big mess, so we went straight there from the airport. We got there around 10 AM and walked around a bit. Around 11 AM we settled into an early lunch of Pretzels, White wurst (veal sausages) and beer in the . There were only a few people in the tent at that point, but the band still played for us. We were in the Dinkel Acker tent, which is a brewery just down the street from the Underwear Factory where I work and close to our first apartment.
The tents are quite elaborate, considering they are only around a couple of weeks. I think the ones in Munich were sheds, so they are up year-round. Inside, they have wooden railings and the supports were decorated in wood painted to look like columns. The stages were elaborate and they even had some raised decks for extra seating area. Munich had bigger and more elaborate tents, but overall Stuttgart and Munich were very comparable. Munich had 2-3 real roller coasters (loops and all) but the overall amount of area seemed very similar. Stuttgarters like to talk about the two Ferris Wheels at Volksfest vs. only one in Munich. A lot of dangerous carny rides, a lot of fair food booths, a lot of kiddie rides. Judging from googlemaps, Stuttgart is nearly the same size as Munich with nearly the same number of big tents.
Stuttgart did have a nice section that was something different. One corner of the festival had booths that were decorated in a more traditional manner. The facades were done in wood and the roofs were wooden shingles. There were no rides in this area, just booths for food and goods. It had a much more natural feeling to it than the rest of the fair. They had a medium gazebo for beer drinking and a small rotating gazebo for beer drinking. This was definitely my favorite area.
Our perception of German liability was reinforced here. They have a lot of rides involving sitting in a chair chained below a rotating arm, some of which lift the swings up to maybe 60-80 feet over the crowds. I have not seen many of these in the states. We put our son on a kiddie sized bumper car, and they turned the machines on before he was belted in. I was still out in the middle dodging little kids in their bumper cars!
We got out around noon and the streams of people were just coming in. We made it out just in time! We also managed to see some of the parade, with marching bands and horse-drawn wagons. We got behind one of the horse-draw wagons on the way in, just slowly walking down the four lane highway. After the Volksfest, we went over to the Mercedes Benz Museum. There is a lot to see there, we have always been rushed through because of the kids. Later, we were a bit lost so we ended up walking the length of Königstraße to find the Hotel we needed to get to, so we had quite a busy Sunday.
Dinkel Acker Volksfest - Ok Pilsner, not my favorite. Anything in a 1 L mug can't be all bad...
Liability?
John, using my special 1000 mL lens.
