We were expecting a bunch of wine tents, some music, and maybe an "uppety" feel, but what we got was more of a carnival! The first thing we saw was a giant ferris wheel, then we saw the rides and rollercoasters that were set up around the perimeter. This place was huge and there were hundreds of cars packed in to every tiny parking lot. We pulled in to a lot that was all full, so we had to keep driving down the road and ended up parking on the side by a vinyard. I'm glad we parked there because it was free and I really don't know how we would have maneuvered out of that lot. Those cars were parked unbelievably close together.
We took a few pictures and started walking toward the festival.
The atmosphere of this festival was like our local fair times 10! There were rides, food and wine vendors, little shops set up selling everything you can think of. There was even a booth selling nothing but dog toys (the germans love their pooches.) They also have concerts and fireworks, but we didn't stay for those. The first thing we had to do was get a picture of the giant wine barrel. This is supposedly the largest wine barrel in the world (although I do remember the same thing being said of the one in the Heidelberg Castle).
Maddox found a ride with cars and trucks, so of course he had to ride it.
Twice.
After we dragged him off the ride we set out to find some wine. To my surprise they give you this huge glass of wine, but only fill it half way. The other half is filled with sparkling water. It didn't taste very good, but we drank it anyway.
I was getting a little stressed out because there were so many people crammed into these little streets. Maddox wanted to get out of the stroller, but I wouldn't let him for fear of losing him. We turned a corner and found a park! Thank goodness! This provided some relief from the chaos. We spent a good deal of time there, drinking our wine and letting the boys play.
We took a stroll through the gardens and found the Rathous (town hall).
We kept walking down a little path and found a play park hidden in the trees. They really know how to blend in with the land here. They even used a hill to make a slide out of stone.
By the time Maddox was done playing, we were pretty hungry. We got a slice from a not-so-little pizza stand. I thought it was pretty darn good, but Ben wasn't a fan of the clumps of cheese.
Here is the ferris wheel that you can see from miles away, and underneath is a wine tent. We noticed they all had bottles of water next to their wine glasses, so maybe this is done at the festivals to help with hydration??
We decided it was time to go, turned in our 2euro glasses to get our deposit back (unfortunately 1 broke first), and headed to the car.
On to adventure #2.........
Ben knew there was a castle ruin nearby, so we drove for a little bit and found the Hardenberg Castle ruins.
We had to park in a lot at the bottom of a hill and figure out a way up. I remembered seeing steps up from a residential area while we were driving and Ben looked at a map and found a little road. I thought the steps would be closer and faster, so we decided to go that way. As we walked by the houses we looked through a gate and someone had donkies in their yard!
We found steps and started up the hill. It didn't take me long to decide this was a big mistake! It was quite steep and exhausting. Carson had gotten much heavier since the last time I wore him in this wrap. I had to grab on the Ben's belt to get a little help on the way up :)
We finally made it to the top and Maddox had to go pee-pee (one of the pitfalls of potty trainig). We followed the signs to the "toiletten", but it was closed. Ben took Maddox in the woods and he went pee-pee outside for the first time! Yay, Maddox! (no pictures of this)
We walked around a little bit, but we couldn't go inside because it was closed. Here are few pictures from the castle ruins.
On the way home we drove through Mannheim and saw a McDonad's fitness center combo. Very funny.
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