Pumpkin Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday. After letting me sleep in late, the husband made me breakfast.  As we sat down to eat, he claimed he forgot something in the kitchen and went back to get it.  He came back out with my birthday present, a new guitar.  I don't play, yet.  However, I do have an unprecedented amount of time on my hands these days.

Meet my new hobby.  Am I even holding it correctly?

After breakfast we went out to a neighboring city for my dream activity:  the world's (or so they claim) largest pumpkin festival.  Pumpkin is one of my favorite things and this festival on the grounds of Blühendes Barock Palace (an old summer residence of the King of Wurtemburg) had it all, including Pumpkin gastronomy.

Front of the palace

Victory!  Now we know we're in the right place.



We still had to find our way through the huge grounds to the rest of the pumpkins.  Good thing we know the German word for pumpkin is Kurbis.

 

Getting closer.



Finally we find the good stuff.  The first place pumpking weighed over 600 Kg.  And was German.

It was love at first sight.

Frog Prince pumpking art.  It was also a working fountain.

A few of the over 400 different pumpkin varities on display. 

Nightmare Before Christmas Pumpkin.

True Blood Season 2 Pumpkin.

Poor mouse pumpkin doesn't stand a chance.

Happy Ending!  The mouse gets the cheese.

These scared me for a second until I realized what they were.  More crazy pumpkins.

Swiming with Whale Pumpkin.

Pumpkin rice.

Me with our pumpkin themed spoils.  The soup was the best!

So good that my jacket was trying to save some for later.

Pumpkin Sekt.

Me pinching the pumpkin butt.

The husband giving the pumpkin butt the credit card.  Cruel.

Swimming in a sea of pumpkin fish.

Pumpkipus.

At the entrance of Fairlytale Land.

Boat ride around Fairytale Land.

Breaking all the rules by going without accompanying a small child.

Feeding leaves to the goats.

At work.  He makes delicious pumpkin seeds too.

Can I do it?  Can I make Pumking Aurora a reality?

The final product.

Pumpking Aurora lives!  She sure is cuter in person though.

Saxon Wine Country

As part of a side trip from Dresden we were able to get a taste of the Saxon Wine Country.  I never knew the area was big on wine, but apparently it is. 

The label of Weingut (Winery) Schloss Proschwitz.

The best part (besides the wine tasting) was that we got a small group tour led by a real life prince, the Prinz zur Lippe.

The Prince himself posing with grapes (lifted from their website)

Our group was perfectly polite and we were all appreciative guests as we toured his winery, personal palace, and restaurant.  However, cracking jokes about his name never got old.

Weinberge (Vineyards) in the Elbe River Valley.

Schloss Proschwitz, the home of the Prinz zur Lippe

Vats

The barrel room was lit by candles.  They were trying to set the mood for the aging wine.

Us out in front of the little cottage where we ate and had our tasting.

Running through the vineyards.  And this was before the drinking started.

Dresden, Germany

We have had several questions about the structure of the husband's fellowship program.  Here is a brief explanation of the different parts.

German Language Training

Location: Berlin

Seminar 1

Location: Berlin, Stuttgart, Dresden, and Prague 

Work Stage #1

Location: Stuttgart

Employer: Staatsanwaltschaft (Public Prosecutor's Office)

Seminar 2

Location: Munich, Cologne, and Hamburg

Work Stage #2

Location: Karlsruhe

Employer: Bundesgerichtshof (Federal Court of Justice)

Seminar 3

Location: Brussels, Istanbul, and Berlin

The following few posts will mostly be about places we visited during his first seminar.

Even though we lived in Berlin and experienced the history of the GDR (former East Germany) through East Berlin, I feel like Dresden was my first real experience in former East Germany.  I found the story of Dresden's recontruction to be the most interesting.  It was completely destroyed (mostly by American bombing) and left in ruins after WWII.  Now, it is picture perfect. 



Then:  Over 90% of the city center demolished.



Destroyed.

Now:  Beautiful.

Even in cloudy, rainy weather.

Me in front of Zwinger Palace, which we found out was never really a palace.

David on Neumarkt Square.

In front of the Furstenzug—the Saxon sovereigns depicted in Meissen porcellan.

Close up of the porcellan wall.

The view from the top of the Frauen Kirche

Dork.  He is copying the pose of the golden angel on dome in the background. 

We drank beer here.

We shouldn't be shocked that we also met a German who can only be described as "an ass" here.