Rutenfest: A German Experience

Ich war letzte Woche bei eine Familie in Ravensburg. Ich war von meinen Kollege eingeladen.Also wir sind am Frietag abend in Ravensburg angekommen. Dannach gerade sind wir zum Rutenfest gegangen. Also das Fest war echt toll. Viele Viele Leute, Essen, und Unterhaltung gab es dort. Ich kann erklären, aber es ist besser, wenn man darüber auf Wikipedia liest. Am Freitag und Samstag waren meinen Kollege und ich im Bierzelt. Vater von meinen Kollege arbeit bei einem Brauerei Leibinger. Also wir haben viele Massliterbieren kostenlos bekommen. Am Sonntag war ich in Markdorf für den Tag. Am Montag sind wir früh aufgestanden, um in Stadtmitte den Umzug zu sehen. Also bitte schau mal die Billder an!

The branches are called Ruten

Aerial View

Last week, I had the privilege to travel to Ravensburg to celebrate Rutenfest. Rutenfest has been celebrated for more than 600 years. Ruten is an old word for a type of tree. But like any festival in Germany, it is usually the three Bs:Bread, Bratwurst, Beer. So I arrived in Ravensburg late Friday with my friends. Right after we got home, we left for Rutenfest. The downtown Ravensburg was full with people, food stands, and rollercoasters. After we walked around for a bit, we then of course got in to a massive beer tent. Since friend's father worked in a brewery as a financial manager, he had tokens which got us a lot of beer. So after a festive evening/night with my friend and his friends, we went back home. Sunday, I was in markdorf for a day at my friend's house. Monday was very special. We got up early and went to downtown Ravensburg for the famous parade. I dont think I need to say anything other than please enjoy the pictures!

Few pictures

Mexican Music Festival (Part of Sommerfest in Stuttgart)

Pretty sure the train was a mile long all loaded with expensive Mercedes

A Tour of Stuttgart

So long story short, I met a nice friend from church and he turned out to be a famous local photographer.

Inside Buchhaus Wittwer in Stuttgart

As you can see...

So we met up near the Buchhaus Wittwer in the evening. Even though I have lived in Stuttgart for about 2 months, I have not toured the city. With the help of a stuttgart native, I was able to experience the immensley beautiful architectures of Stuttgart. I also found some really nice cafes like this one. 

Un café, s’il vous plait!

I learned that the word Stuttgart comes from Stutte-Garten. Because as you can see above, this used to be a stable for female horses. And Stutte is a female horse in German. And Garten as you can guess means Garden. So Stuttgart is a 'female horse garden.' How strange! But it makes sense now!

The Beautiful Schlossplatz

Classical Music is All You Need...

After I got back from work, I was quite exhausted. It was a long 12 hour day. I really felt like playing some music. So I went down to the piano room and I started to play. The choir room has a beautiful Bösendorfer baby grand piano. It was a fairly big room and the acoustics were nice. I played Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms Sonatas and Yiruma, Schubert, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, etc. About 10 minutes passed,  people heard the music outside of the room; they came in and stood and watched me play. I thought, if i wanted to attract more people to listen to me, I should play something famous and German. So I started playing the Mondschein Sonata (Moonlight Sonata), Pathetique Sonata. Sure enough more people came in!    After I had finished playing both Sonatas, there were at least 20 people. It was overwhelmed and in a exuberance. There were brave listeners sitting in the front, so I asked one of them of their favorite piano piece. One old lady answered the 1st Posthumous Nocturne by Chopin. Luckily, I knew that and I played it. After I had finished, she suggested the Prelude No. 15 "The Rain Drop" by Chopin. Then Clair de Lune, Mozart's Famous Variation. After everyone had enough, of course including me, as I was trying to leave, one of the old ladies came up and introduced herself and we talked for 5 minutes and all of a sudden she bluntly invited me for dinner. Of course as a poor student, I was not able to say no to a free meal.

Music is all you need for a free meal..... :)

Amsterdam

I had a week off from work, so I went to Amsterdam to visit my cousins and my brother. I used mitfahrgelegenheit again to go from Stuttgart to Amsterdam. It took about 9 hours, but it only cost me 40 Euros compared to 150 Euros going by train. I met my brother at my cousin’s house on Wibaustraat. We had a nice dinner at my cousins house soon after. On Monday, we went to Zanvoort with my other Cousin. After we completed the beautiful trail through the forest, the beach and the plains, we headed home and took a nice tour of Amsterdam.

I realized couple things about Amsterdam……

1. People are really fit. (biking everywhere)

2. People are ridiculously good at English (no dubbing movies, TV shows)

3. I thought the people really resembled some of my friends at Calvin. aka ‘Dutch connection.’

4. So many tourists

5. Cuyp markt has the best Stroopwafels


Some pictures!