Stuttgart To Munich
Cannstatter Volksfest Parade
September 24, 2007
 

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I packed then went down to the breakfast included at Le Meridien.  It was a very good buffet.  They had the veal sausages and they also had some cheese filled sausages that were really good.  I checked out, left my bag with the concierge and headed out to see the Constatter Volksfest Parade.  I got there about 10:00 AM but the parade didn’t start until 11:00 AM and I was near the festival grounds so the first sight of the parade wasn’t until about 11:20 AM.  I had a good picture taking spot right on a corner where the turned down the last street to the parade entrance with great light.  The only problem I had and everyone that had lined up at this location early had was they giant sized cop was very lax on people not behind the barrier set up.  It amazes me how much people don’t think or only think of themselves at times.  We had all been there an hour and these people would just wander in from the cross walk and stand in front of us.  The cop would say something to them any time a bus would come through.  By the way, Stuttgart has incredibly nice Mercedes Benz busses.  People from behind the barrier would start yelling at the people and mostly they would just look back bewildered that we were mad.  Sometimes people are just morons. 

Some of the highlights of the parade were a Porsche made tractor, a group of midgets that were running a beer cart led by goats, a huge break in the parade that we found out when the gap closed was a herd of pigs they were trying to run down the street, beer and wine sellers giving beer and wine out to the crowd, and all the amazing costumes.  My personal favorites were the pigs.  When they got to our corner they decided to stampede and came right up to the barrier I was behind.  A bunch of people had crossed the barrier and were sitting in front of it with a bunch of kids who kept running out to get candy, bread and any other thing the people walking the route were giving away.  They just freaked out when the pigs came running.  All of a sudden you realized why the barrier was put in place.  One pig peed right when he got to the barrier and another pig, being the pig he is started drinking it up.  This of course freaked out the people in front even more. I liked to think of it as pig justice for the people behind the barrier.

Oh yeah another and actually the last display was some completely inappropriate display of people who really liked the United States old west.  They came down in cowboy outfits, people dressed up and acting like wild Indians, and the kicker is they had Confederate and German flags on their Conestoga wagon including one giant Confederate flag that covered 70% of the top of the wagon.  I guess they don’t know how controversial the flag is now, or they do and don’t care. 

There were about 110 different organizations in the parade and it was pretty cool.  I guess mostly for me because I was standing there and wondering if any of my old German relatives had ever been at the festival which is over 100 years old or even Oktoberfest.  And I wondered if any had dressed in any of the authentic garb that was worn by the people in the parade.  Except of course the Cowboy and Indian display.

The parade ended about 1:30 PM so I headed back to the hotel, got my bag and walked back to the train station.  I stopped at the Schlossgarten Beer Garten for a beer and listened to a band play a medley of American tunes from the 70’s from the Eagles, 3 Dog Night and Dylan.  There was this funny old man who was dancing up a storm in front of the band the entire time.  He was having a blast.  It was another beautiful day and the Schlossgarten Park was full of people sunbathing.  I got to the train station and caught the 3:12 PM train back to Munich.  This train didn’t have any electrical outlets but I did get about half of my pictures downloaded and caught up on most of my journal.  I was back in my hotel room about 8:00 PM.  I went down to Champions hoping to catch some American football but the girl told me they didn’t have the rights to show it.  I can’t believe they did in Frankfurt but they don’t in Munich.  I had their triple play combo of a burger, cheese fries and chicken wings. The chicken wings were great.

I came back to the hotel room got on the internet and checked my email.  I tried to call dad and the Ryan’s with no luck but then found Bedlow.  He was Glenn Duncan’s watching the Redskins.  Finally, good Redskin news.  They were pounding the lowly Texans and Mark Brunnell had broken the consecutive pass completion record of 21 with 22 straight completions.  Go Redskins. 

Return To Munich To Stuttgart & Cannstatter Volksfest
September 23, 2006

Continue To Munich - Old Town North Ludwigstrasse & Oktoberfest
September 25, 2006