A Georgia Girl in Germany

Before describing the Schoss Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival, here's tonight's snow update: there ain't much. Zachary was disappointed with how little of a dusting we woke up to this morning. We could still see the green blades of grass under the white powder. Yes, it's been so warm that the grass is still green! We're under another weather advisory for up to 5 inches overnight, but I'm not holding my breath after yesterday’s forecast. It sure is cold though--I don’t think we even broke freezing today. It was 29-degrees when I went out for lunch, and the wind was brutal so it felt much colder!

Now, on to pumpkins...

Since I missed out on taking my traditional October pumpkin patch photos with the kids last year, when I heard that Schloss Ludwigsburg was holding a pumpkin festival, I jumped at the opportunity to grab my camera and snap away. I don’t know what it is about the orange gourds, but I love taking photos of the kids surrounded by orange. This year was no exception, especially after what we discovered at the castle.The grounds in front of the castle were minimally decorated with pumpkins around the main decorative pond, but the real treasure was tucked away behind the castle. You can’t see it very well from here, but the top of the hill where the kids are sitting was lined with pumpkins. Nearby were the 4-H type pumpkins: displays of the largest pumpkins in several different categories. Boy, were they massive! Just down the hill from there was the main attraction: TONS of pumpkins and gourds of all shapes, colors and sizes. What’s more is they weren’t simply laying around in piles or bins to be purchased, but instead were parts of elaborate works of art. Totem poles, horses, buffalo, cowboys, stagecoaches, cacti…the traditional American west created with pumpkins!

I’m sure you’ve all heard of ice sculptures and butter sculptures…well, welcome to the world of gourd sculptures. Benjamin liked this swan, complete with several eggs in her nest.

I thought the punked-out cow below was trying to give Zachary a kiss.

MacKenzie liked this giraffe, as well as the elephant behind her.

Of course, I had to get at least one traditional shot with the multitude of orange surrounding the kids.
There was also a display of nearly every type of pumpkin and/or gourd imaginable. The display wrapped around all four sides of this building. There were several entries from unexpected places around the world (several from Asia, even).

After we explored the pumpkin display and the kids burned off some energy jumping off several hay bales, we entered the Märchengarten (Fairytale Garden) and nearly got lost discovering numerous mechanical figures acting out various fairy tales. We figured out most of them, but not quite all. There was even a boat ride that follows the story of Pinocchio, beginning in Geppetto’s workshop and ending after riding through the belly of a whale.
We even found a shrub maze to navigate. At the center were two frogs that shot water at anyone who walked across stone blocks between them. Benjamin was surprised when they squirted him...and froze as they continued squirting him. Fortunately, I had a change of clothes for him, and we quickly got him out of his soaked clothes into something dry. After that, he refused to walk near the frogs again.

Labels: Benjamin, Germany, MacKenzie, Travel, Zachary