Matt learned of a village next door to Ingolstadt and their famous fest while at work one day. They claim to be the oldest. longest running festival in Germany. It's called the Barthel Market has ties to the days of Roman rule. Romans built the military outpost of Oberstimm (the current name of the town) in 40 A.D. It had a horse and cattle market way back then. The festival is centered around having a horse auction, even today. It's held early Monday morning, but the party goes on from Friday morning till Monday night, the last week in August each year. We heard and saw glimpses of the fireworks each night. The first real written record of the festival dates from 1354. It's been running solid since then except during the two world wars. They bring in tens of thousands of people each day.
We popped over one afternoon. We drove to the fields between the towns to park and walked the rest of the way and beat the slowly crawling traffic. We were passed by at least a hundred bicycles with traditionally dressed men, women and children. I guess in Bavaria people pull out their lederhosen and fancy frocks for fests. We didn't see any sign of horses, but there were booths selling all kinds of goods from clothes, to cleaning supplies, to toys, to garden stones. There were food booths with sweets like chocolate covered fruit and candied nuts, and more sturdy fare for a real meal, including the biggest pretzels ever. Jessica's eyes bugged out when she saw them. There were many rides including a mousetrap-like roller coaster. I went with the kids while Matt took pictures. They loved it. It gave me a headache. And of course there were beer tents with booming oom-pa-pa bands playing and singing. They were packed, but we tried to go in to sit and eat our food and learned you can bring whatever food in you want, but no drinks. The Coke and Apple Juice were banned. So we found a grassy spot to stand instead.
We popped over one afternoon. We drove to the fields between the towns to park and walked the rest of the way and beat the slowly crawling traffic. We were passed by at least a hundred bicycles with traditionally dressed men, women and children. I guess in Bavaria people pull out their lederhosen and fancy frocks for fests. We didn't see any sign of horses, but there were booths selling all kinds of goods from clothes, to cleaning supplies, to toys, to garden stones. There were food booths with sweets like chocolate covered fruit and candied nuts, and more sturdy fare for a real meal, including the biggest pretzels ever. Jessica's eyes bugged out when she saw them. There were many rides including a mousetrap-like roller coaster. I went with the kids while Matt took pictures. They loved it. It gave me a headache. And of course there were beer tents with booming oom-pa-pa bands playing and singing. They were packed, but we tried to go in to sit and eat our food and learned you can bring whatever food in you want, but no drinks. The Coke and Apple Juice were banned. So we found a grassy spot to stand instead.
Isaac is in a Navy blue t-shirt, Makenna is behind him in white with sunglasses. Jess is left of Makenna in pink with sunglasses. Both parents stayed on the ground for this one.
See the couple behind us? More than 1/2 the people were dressed up. Fun!
The PRETZEL!
It was twice as big as her face. She got full and had to ask for help. Isaac is enjoying his wurst and pommes, served with mayo, of course.
Matt got pretzel holding duty whenever Jess wanted to take a drink.
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