Cannstatter Volkfest

September 28, 2019

Beer! Germany! It is like a marriage in the history book that goes back thousands of years. Germany is the best producer of beer. They have all the ingredients grown in their country, all they have to do is find the correct recipe and produce. They love their beer here, heck they love alcohol in general. You can start drinking at the age of 14 with parent supervision and you can buy alcohol at the store at the age of 16. They don't even check ID at the cash register.

I knew we weren't going to get to the Oktoberfest in Münich this year, but going to Cannstatter Volkfest was a complete surprise. It was a last minute invite, but we appreciate the opportunity to go with Michelle's co-workers who are drinkers.

Some background on Cannstatter Volksfest. The name itself needs to be translated. First Cannstatter is the city of Bad Cannstatt. Volksfest is translated to carnival. In its basic translation it means the Carnival of Bad Cannstatt. However, these Germans have history going back a long time. At Volksfest, I bought a krug which translates to jug in German. It says "200 jahre" which means 200 years. The festival started in 1818 by King Whilhem who wanted to have a festival on his birthday in late September. There was also a famine going in Germany at the time. I'm not sure the exact motivation for this festival. If King Whilhem wanted to start this festival because of his birthday or because he wanted to bring food to the Germans.

People consider the festival to be the 2nd Largest Beer Festival in World behind Münich's Oktoberfest. This is a 3 week festival and they have over 4 million visitors each year.

We stayed at a Mercure Hotel near Stuttgart. The train station was a 30 minute walk from the hotel, so we had to catch the bus. Going on at the same time was a Turkish wedding. They were rowdy to say the least, lots of people trying to find parking in a limited parking zone area. We eventually got to the bus stop and took a ride to the train station. The train took us to Bad Canstatt. Everyone appeared to by hyped up. It was 8pm.

One thing we wished we would have done was reserve a table because you can't go into a beer house without reserving a table. Those beer house's were crazy busy and lit up. The first thing we bought was a bratwurst. This thing was huge, over 12 inches long. I wanted to take it slow on the drinking. Beer was cheap for a festival €5. The food here wasn't as good as Bad Dürkheim Winefest. Since it was past 8p already, everyone was getting pretty drunk, people staggering, and talking loud. I was feeling good, it was a bit chilly at about 50F°.

It was good to hang out and talk with everyone while having a few beers. I didn't drink a lot. German beer is filling and it is hard to drink a lot of beer. For now, this is probably the most memorable experience in my short time in Germany.