European Travels

(Joe wrote this post a few months ago, but for some reason never posted it. Enjoy!)

Lyon

Nate Hook in Lyon, France

In June Betsy had a conference in Lyon, France.  And I came by train half way though the conference.  It was a chance to meet up with some friends from Boulder.

Rhône and Saône rivers converge in Lyon, and that was a reason why the Romans made it the capital of Gaul.  Therefore Lyon has a lot of Roman ruins to see.  And there are also a lot of Catholic churches we visited.

Barcelona

Sailing in the Mediterranean

Betsy & I bought “blind booking” tickets from the discount airline German Wings.  These cheap tickets are ideal for weekend get-a-ways, because you can choose a few options of what type of place to visit (beach, culture, party, etc.), but the actual destination is not known until you pay for the ticket.  We ended up going to Barcelona, which turned out to be very fun.  Everyday we went swimming in either the Mediterranean or in the outdoor pool used in the 1992 Summer Olympics.  We toured the city by bicycle and public transport.  We also sailed into the Mediterranean for 2 hours.  The food was very good too, and we learned a lot about the Catalan and Spanish culture.

Oktoberfest & Bavaria

Paulaner tent at Oktoberfest

Andy (Betsy’s brother) & his new wife Amanda came to Europe for their honeymoon.  We took them to Munich’s Oktoberfest, known locally as "die Wiesn".  Wow!  Oktoberfest was good to experience, but I don’t have any desire to go back.  It is just like a US state fair, but all about beer – high alcohol content (~6%) - and served by the liter.  We had to go in the morning because we didn’t have a table reservation, which is required for an afternoon or evening.  Oktoberfest has well over 6 million visitors during 2 weeks, and on average each person drinks well more than a Liter of beer.

Venus Grotto at Linderhof Palace

After Oktoberfest we visited Schloss Linderhof which is one of the castles commissioned by Ludwig II of Bavaria (Herrenchiemsee and the famous Schloß Neuschwanstein are the others). It was very luxurious.  I think the room of mirrors was one of the more spectacular things to see.  Betsy really enjoyed seeing the Venus Grotto, which is an artificial cave/grotto and stage for a Richard Wagnerian opera.

Stuttgart

Last weekend we spent a day in Stuttgart. Because we had not visited anything in Stuttgart (besides the airport and train station), we figured we should spend some time investigating Stuttgart.  We went to the Stuttgart Volksfest, which is the world's second largest beer festival (Munich’s is the largest).

Poltringer Fasnet

It started less then a week after Christmas. We noticed the young men of town out stringing flags over all the main streets. They look like Nepalese prayer flags, but faded by many seasons of use. Then we got a booklet in the mail describing the events for the upcoming Fasnet season. OK, at least we knew a bit of what we were in for, since we'd gone to a Fasnet parade in the nearby town of Rottenberg last year.

Fasnet flags guide the way to the Rathaus.

I still wasn't quite prepared last Sunday, jetlagged after returning from the states the day before, when we started hearing music and Schwäbisch dialogue booming from a sound system as our town prepared for the the Umzug (parade). Just before 1pm we bundled up and turned right from our front door and into prime parade grounds. Traffic was being diverted around the entire town.

The "Bockmoster" from Poltringen

We were surprised by the lineup of 60 "Fasnetsclubs" from neighboring villages that proceeded to march past us. The parade in Rottenberg last year was huge, but it seems that even our little village of just a few thousand could put on a good show. The parade lasted two hours! And each Catholic village near us has put on an equivalent parade in the past few weeks. These fools and witches have been busy!

A kind fool from Bondorf hands out treats.

Tübingen is not a Catholic town, so there is something special to be experienced by living in a village such as Poltringen. Last Thursday (Schmotzinger Donnerstag) we went to the Rathaussturm (Storming of the Town Hall). I enjoyed a Rote Wurst (local sausage variety) and beer as we again watched one of the Fasnet rituals just steps from our house. Under moonlight the children and witches paraded past the Rathaus and finally we saw each of the Poltringer Fasnetsclub groups perform. It was quite eery to watch the masked witches dance with traditional brooms around a burning cauldron. I cannot quite accept this as a Catholic ritual, and indeed my Schwäbisch colleague Karin confirmed that Fasnet is a tradition in Southern Germany, Switzerland and Austria that pre-dates Christianity. It was the people's attempt to scare away winter with these strange spirits!

Fasnet is wrapping up this week. Last Thursday during the Rathaussturm the mayor symbolically gave the key to the town hall to the Narren (fools). But on Tuesday they have to give it back. No more fun, as we go into the Lenten season. Joe and I will head to the Poltringer Fasnetsclub Halle (yes, they have a headquarters) for the Fasnetsverbrennung (Fasnet burning). We're still not really sure what a Fasnet actually is, but this somehow involves burning a witch. By Joe's estimation, witch burning is an adequate representation of Catholic history in Europe.