Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival
A mere two hour drive from Nuremberg is a beautiful town that goes by the name of Ludwigsburg. See, Germany is very very good at hiding all of its amazing cities somehow, and only when a friend of a friends neighbor tells you they heard from their cousins dad's half sister twice removed that there is something going on do you discover such amazing towns. In my case a friend posted on Facebook (pretty much the same thing) about a great big pumpkin festival she visited. I, the American who is constantly being bombarded by Facebook status updates referring to the godly Starbucks pumpkin latte that of course does not exist anywhere else in the world, am DYING to have anything pumpkin! So I gather a few friends, fill up the tank, and hit the road, which is also as pleasant at the destination with color changing leaves, mountains in the distance, and the fact we are going way over the non-existent speed limit on the autobahn!
We arrive and of course it takes 30 minutes to find a parking spot and we end up parking in a neighborhood 10 blocks away. After a few turn arounds and stops to take pictures, we arrive at the gates of an enormous palace, which if I didn't know of the pumpkins calling to me from the backyard, I would have ended up spending my day roaming around the palace instead. (That will be for another trip.) Entrance to the entire palace and grounds was 8€, which may have been a dot high but you quickly forgot about the money when you saw the sculptures and beauty that came into view as you walked down the grounds.
Millions upon millions of pumpkins, squash, and things I've never seen in my life that I assume are a cousin of the pumpkin, liter the lawn. Organized into pathways, stuck together to create wonderful sculptures of knights, lions, Elvis, and more. The smells make you want to melt, and the invisible magnetic force they possess drag you to a large tent situated in the center of it all where you can eat and drink all of the pumpkin to your hearts desire! my only disappointment was the lack of pumpkin pie! As much as Germans love their sweets, all we could find was pumpkin muffins! I guess I will just have to wait for Thanksgiving in the US to get some pie.
Enjoy the day on the grounds, check out the worlds creepiest “Fairy Tale” gardens, equip with out-of-date anamatronics that descibe fairy tale stories in german, and the amazing beauty of the flowers and plants that follow every path through the huge grounds. This really was a full day of fun for all ages, and I would recommend all to get in the car and hop on over before all of the good pumpkins are gone!
