Six Ways to Describe Otterberg's Frülingfest

1.  Long walk.  After the parade in town, we all (the whole village and then some) take a walk together.  One of the oom-pa-paa bands stands in the farthest traffic circle down the road... to play us all up the hill for about two miles.  It's kind of a long walk, but we figure if the cute old ladies can do it, we can too.  Only pansies take the shuttle bus ;o)  A big thanks to Jesse and Dana for carrying the girls in the ergos.  Sam was able to power nap on the way up the hill.  must be nice to be a munchkin.

Once we get to the fair grounds in the woods... you walk down into a magical little clearing where everyone gets ready to celebrate the coming of Spring.

2.  May pole.  I'm not sure if the Germans actually call it a May pole... but it's essentially the same idea.  There's a pole in the middle of the fair grounds and if the kids can climb to the top, they get their choice of a prize.  These are my landlady's daughter's... Lilo's granddaughters Hannah and Nora.

They made it look easy.

3.  Good food and drink.  We ate so much delicious food.  Brats with brötchen.  Gyros (yes, not quite German fare, but so so good) and flammkuchen.  Also not German fare... it's a very thin crust pizza of sorts.  It hails from France and is a heavenly concoction of a creamy sauce, onions, and bacon.  We definitely enjoyed some German beer and the girls had their first cotton candy experience thanks to Aunt Kississ.

4.  Beautiful forest.  Nothing says "Spring is FINALLY here" like beautiful weather and a magical clearing in the middle of the woods.  They carve steps into the dirt hill and put tables everywhere they can balance them.  There are band tents, beer tents, and food tents.  They cut down greenery and weave it into every part of the decorations.  The theme is definitely "bye-bye winter blues, hello green things!"

5.  Music and entertainment.  Drums, bands, the Otterberg Princess, games, pony rides into the woods... we've got it all!  It's so fun to have the carnival feeling in the middle of the woods.

6.  Friends and family.  This fest was a blast for me.  Of the ten Germans I know in Otterberg, I think I saw eight of them!  My hairdresser Nina came up and gave me a huge hug and finally got to meet Jesse. And she was sitting near enough to us that Lily kept going over to her to say hi, which of course awarded me "Mom of the cute kid" points ;o)  At various points, we also saw our "upstairs neighbor" and our across-the-street neighbors.  All of whom greeted us very cheerfully, though only in German.

I really enjoyed hanging with Kirsten and Dana, as well as K's awesome friend Tabatha who was visiting for a couple weeks.  It was so fun to have close friends with us.  When you're this far from family, close friends ARE your family.

We also got to hang out with Attila the Hun (that adorable dog) who graciously and patiently entertained Lily and Sam... and coincidentally belonged to our local mechanic who has worked on the Mercedes a few times ("it's a small town after all...")  Dogs totally count as friends when you're under the age of five, right?

And I'm going to add a seventh way to describe Frülingfest...

7.  My favorite German festival.