We'd received an email from our friends Kate & Charles earlier in the week that they were going to the Pumpkin Festival at Ludwigsburg Palace in Ludwigsburg. It's not related in anyway to King Ludwig II, whose castles we've visited. King Ludwig II was a king in Bavaria, but this palace is only a 20 minute drive from our house in Stuttgart, which is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg. It was built by Duke Eberhard Ludwig in 1704 of the region that was then known simply as Württemberg. For a short time it replaced the Altes Schloss (Old Castle) in Stuttgart as residence of the royal family, and Ludwigsburg became the capital of the Württemberg region. His successors later transferred the capital back to Stuttgart, which remains today as the capital of the state now known as Baden-Württemberg.
Some of you might remember that I'd been to this palace before. When a friend of Shanna's & mine, Patrick, visited back in June, he & I went here. It's called Schloss Ludwigsburg, so the thought was this was a traditional castle. But as we quickly found out, a palace is a more accurate description. Shanna had never been, though, and we'd heard the Pumpkin Fest was fun to go to, so we decided to meet them up. We took the U-Bahn to the Hauptbahnhof, met Kate & Charles there, then hopped on the S-Bahn to Ludwigsburg.
When we got to the palace, we headed to the back where the Gardens were, which is where the Pumpkin fest was. I have to admit...I was impressed. I was just expecting rows & rows of pumpkins, but they had artists who had come in and made all sorts of animals and creatures from pumpkins & various gourds. The one below was a fountain made from pumpkins...I thought that one was particular impressive.
As we approached the fest area we noticed a section where they had three HUGE pumpkins. The sign in front of them said they were Europe's largest pumpkins for 2010. The largest pumpkin weighed in at 668kg, or just under 1,500 lbs.
We looked around for a bit, and even bought some pumpkin seeds to munch on. They had three different kinds. One was cooked with Cinnamon, Sugar, and Vanilla extract, one was cooked with Chili powder and the last was cooked with Sea Salt. They were all good, but Shanna & I decided to share a package of the Cinnamon, Sugar, & Vanilla ones. For lunch, EVERYTHING was Pumpkin orientated. Except for the beer of course...if you've never tried Pumpkin beer, you're missing out. Dogfish Head Punkin' Ale is one of my favorites, but with the German Purity law in place in regards to what brewers can use here, I knew I wasn't going to find any there. For lunch, Shanna & I had a Schwabien classic (the nickname for the people & the region we live in is Schwabien), Maultasche, but with a twist. Maultasche is similar to ravioli, but larger and stuffed with meat & cheese. The ones we had were stuffed with that, but also pumpkin. Plus it was served in a bowl Pumpkin Soup. It was GOOD.
We ended up walking around the palace grounds for a little bit more, then headed out. ESPN College Game Day started at 4pm, so we had to be home in time to catch that. :)
The rest of the weekend was fairly quiet. Shanna had to go into the office on Sunday, and since she had to do manual labor, I was able to come in and help. She had been tasked with cleaning out & organizing their storage room, and they have a ton of old computers, monitors, and other equipment in there, so I was able to help with the heavy lifting.
Well that's it! I'll post periodically with how things are going. Click here or any of the pictures above to see the rest of the Pumpkin Fest pics.
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