Pumpkin Fest

September 28, 2019

It is considered the Largest Pumpkin Festival in the World. So already, there is buy in right? Everyone loves to go to a pumpkin festival, it reminds you of going out with your family to a farm and picking a pumpkin and having a good time.

Michelle's co-workers met up with us as we all drove the 2 hours from Kaiserslautern at Ludwigsburg Palace in Stuttgart. The drive there was quick, I think we are starting to get use to distance driving. Many people from the mainland are already use to driving long distances, however, driving long distances coming from Hawaii is hard for me, I'm just not use to it.

Parking here was very hard to find. We came at a time when it felt busy. We drove for what seemed like 1/2 an hour. We finally found a spot on hill in a residential area. Usually we park at a parking structure, but parking in a residential area is free, not ideal because of the walk, but can't go wrong with that.

The festival is on the Ludwigburg Palace grounds. Already, the site is beautiful as they keep the area well maintained. We entered the premises through the gate and walked down the Marching Garden. Many animated fairy tale displays were set up along the path. It took some time for everyone to meet up, but we eventually did. We met the Cheever family, Clark, and Rhonda's family at the festival.

By far it is the biggest pumpkin festival I've been to. Way bigger than Aloune Farms, but Aloune Farms has its own charm.

The food was really good, all everything pumpkin. We had pumpkin spatzle, pumpkin schorle, pumpkin soup, pumpkin french fries & pumpkin ice cream. All of the food had a fresh hint of pumpkin and it really did taste like pumpkin.

After eating we walked around the area. The area is huge, I mean its a palace for goodness sake. The highlight of the event are these pumpkin statues made out of the different varieties of pumpkin. My favorite statue was the dragon which was made up of 85% pumpkin and 15% wood carving. Some of the other statues were wood carvings mainly with some pumpkin decorations.

Finally the palace garden was another great place to visit. I got a great picture of the fountain and the palace in the background.