Pferdemarkt!

Guten Tag!

So the Pferdemarkt (horse market) actually happened the first weekend I was in Germany but it seemed more relevant to talk about Marburg first; so pretend like this just happened.

Bietigheim-Bissingen Pferdemarkt!

Our good friends the Grözingers invited us down for a long weekend to enjoy the Pferdemarkt; a large annual event that takes place in their town. When we arrived a welcome feast was waiting for us!

This is everyone (minus Eric who is taking the photo) eating a delicious homemade cake in the Grözinger's garden. After we settled in we headed to the fair. We had a nice time walking around and looking at the fair side of things. There was an absolutely crazy Oktoberfest tent with people wearing durndels, standing on tables and singing along with the band. After two minutes in the tent I think everyone was ready to get out, which we did. (Side note: the next day the tent had a handful of old people sipping beer. More our style).

I didn't take very many pictures but I did capture Eric reliving his childhood on the swing ride. He made fun of me when I didn't want to go on the ride (it made me sick last time I went on one). After the ride was over Eric told me he was starting to get sick. Sweet Justice.

The next two days we spent at the Pferdemarkt. The carnival was there the whole time along with booths to shop at (in my last post I mentioned all the brush stands we encountered), places to eat and horse activities! Here are Elke and Alyssa with the German version of elephant ears. The one on the left had yogurt and cheese on it, the one on the right powdered sugar.

 On the first day we encountered a pony exhibition:

But the main event was the jumping competition. I spent a lot of time at this part of things but other people were not as enthusiastic about the horses and wandered off. I have a ton of pictures from this part but I will only throw in a few.

The most popular horse event was the mounted police demonstration, a ton of people showed up to watch. These horses are extremely well trained and the police demonstrated by shooting blanks, putting flags over their heads, having siren cars drive up right next to them and jumping over burning things! It was pretty impressive.

The last day of the Pferdemarkt was the parade which Elke says is the most important part of the Pferdmarkt. We came prepared! Gerhard brought some cider for us to drink while we watched.

The parade was fun and had a lot of horse drawn carriages with people in period clothing. The best part about the parade was all the free wine! About 4 or 5 different groups in the parade walked by and poured wine into people's cup. Eric was a frequent customer.

This cute dog was in the parade. He was slacking because he was sitting and not handing out booze.

Right after the parade we went to the local castle because there was a pumpkin sculpture exhibition going on in the gardens! Here is the castle:

I didn't take a ton of photos (honestly, the statues were kind of creepy) but here are a few to give you an idea:

 

 

Overall it was a very nice time. The Grözingers are amazing hosts and always go out of their way to make you feel welcome. I am not giving the weekend its proper due because there were many delicious meals, eating fruit out of the garden, fireworks, present giving, and tasting of homemade schnapps that went on as well. Eric and I are already planning on coming back next year!

Next week I will get to the promised Mini Adventure post.

Auf Wiedersehen!