I think I may be getting the hang of the selfie biz…

Yesterday, Bill and I decided to visit the Cannstatter Fest by ourselves.  This is actually kind of a big deal, because although we have lived in this area for a total of five years during two different stints, we have only attended the Cannstatter Fest three times.  Both times prior to yesterday, we went to the fest as part of a group of Bill’s co-workers.  We had never before attended the Wasen as just a couple of people looking for a meal and live music.

Yesterday, I put on the pretty blue dirndl that I bought last year off Amazon.de.  I was feeling a little sheepish, since I wore my dirndl to the Weindorf last month and ended up feeling out of place.  I needn’t have worried, though.  Since it was Sunday, a whole lot of people were headed to Bad Cannstatt.  I watched in amazement as a whole bunch of young Germans decked out in their traditional finery boarded the S1 train to Stuttgart.  And this brings to mind another point I want to make.  Bill was under the impression that the fest would be quiet on a Sunday.  He was very wrong.  It was packed yesterday with people in a partying mood.

We pushed our way through huge crowds of people and made our way to the tents, deciding to enter the first one we saw.  This year, we ended up at the Fürstenberg tent, which was different than in prior years when we went to the Schwaben Bräu tents.  Spotting an open table, we plopped down and Bill ordered us a couple of Maßkrugs of beer.  I got busy filming and taking pictures.  I probably should have gotten up to dance, but it was a lot more fun watching other people.

This is part two of yesterday’s fun…  Part one refuses to upload properly and I may just give up on it.  I actually think this video is more interesting because it focused on what people were doing on the outskirts of the action.  I caught one guy being hustled out of the tent by security for whatever reason.

The band we encountered was decent.  They kept the music upbeat and I noticed they knew most of the words to the English songs they sang.  One of the singers was perpetually flat, but he played a mean guitar.  I was surprised they didn’t play “Take Me Home Country Roads” or “Looking for Freedom” by David Hasselhoff.  Maybe they did play those songs earlier and we missed them.

My computer is being very wonky this morning and it may be time for a new one.  I’ll do my best to share yesterday’s fun, anyway.

This was the first thing we saw as we entered the fest… The people on that ride must be true adrenaline junkies!

That thing went almost all the way up with people dangling on it…  Maybe twenty years ago, I would have tried this, but I wasn’t interested in peeing myself yesterday!

Here’s a wine tent for those who prefer vino to beer.  We should have stopped in.  The weather was perfect yesterday.  No clouds and a very crisp, not cold, temperature.

But we were more into the beer scene.  I was surprised by how busy the tent was, but I will admit to being naive.  Of course people will show up for the fest on a Sunday, especially when the weather is so great!

I said something dirty to make Bill laugh…

And he did his best to make me laugh.

Bill limited himself to one of these.  I had two.  Last year, I had four over several hours and that was a disaster.  Never let it be said that I don’t learn from my mistakes.  Fortunately, the involuntary personal protein spill happened after all the people we knew had left.

 

Although I didn’t do any dancing or kiss any strange German men, I thoroughly enjoyed watching other people dance.  Some of the people I was watching were quite inebriated.  I saw one guy marched out of the tent by security.  I don’t know why they were kicking him out.  I doubt it was because he was loaded, though.  Lots of people were drunk yesterday.  I was not among them!

We had wonderful chicken for lunch, although they also had pork knuckles, roasted duck, sausages, and sweets.  We saw a lot of people enjoying the pork knuckles and quite a few folks ordered what looked like high tea.  It was served on a tiered dish.  We read that that was basically dessert for the whole family, capped off by sparklers.

Not the greatest photo, but you can see the sparklers lit up on top.

Second round.  They always think the coffee is for me!  The coffee mug Bill drank from was included in the price of the cup, so we got a little souvenir of this year’s festivities.

One thing I did notice about the tent we visited this year was that the bathrooms were spotless.  Yes, we had to pay to pee, as usual, but the Klofraus did an excellent job cleaning.  I don’t mind paying if the toilets are stocked and clean.  Bravo!

After a leisurely lunch and a couple of hours spent watching people dance, sing, and stagger about, Bill and I decided to head home.  We did notice that as the sun began to sink, the crowd got wilder.  I’m sure last night’s festivities were a lot of fun.  Our table was reserved by the fire brigade at 5:30pm and I bet they were dancing on the benches!  I don’t actually enjoy big crowds, though, so it was okay that we were leaving.  If you like a lot of action, you might prefer visiting the tents at night, when people really go wild.

One lingering shot before we made our exit.

 

If I thought it was crowded when we arrived at the Volksfest, I was mistaken.  The grounds were positively congested with people, many of whom were wearing dirndls and lederhosen.  It was really packed, so much so that it was actually hard to walk back to the train station.  I thought about visiting the WC one more time, but there was a big line of women waiting.  I ended up using the one in the station, which again requires 50 cents.  It was mainly clean, though not as clean as the one in the tent.

A few more thrill rides!  The last three pictures were taken when we arrived.  It was comparatively peaceful at that time of day.  You can see that there are plenty of food options available for those who’d rather get on the rides than sit in the tents.

 

I think Deutsche Bahn was running extra trains yesterday to deal with the extra crowds.  We got on a relatively empty train to Vaihingen, although we were ultimately headed to the last stop in Herrenberg.  Actually, I didn’t mind the extra stop, since it gave me a chance to whiz again.  I encountered the dirtiest toilet of the day in Vaihingen.  It was in one of those coin operated public toilets.  Let’s just say it was pretty gross, although I have experienced worse by far.

Well… that’s probably gonna do it for us and festing, at least until the spring.  We haven’t been to the spring fests yet, so that’s something to look forward to if we survive the winter.  The Volksfest runs until next Sunday, so if you’re local and want to party, head on over to Bad Cannstatt before the fun ends.