Chocolate, Fest, Pumpkins, and American Shopping!

September 27-28, 2008 Lisa Marie and I took a short trip to Stuttgart for the weekend! There was a lot going on in Stuttgart! We started our trip with a stop at the Riter Sport Chocolate Factory just outside of Stuttgart!!! The trip was educational and of course delicious! The wonderfulness of this stop came to fruition when we got our free sample at the end of the museum and then saw all of our chocolate choices in the gift shop (ok, we took a sneak peak before walking through the museum!!) The gift shop had flavors not sold in stores (raspberry yogurt and blood orange yogurt!) Saturday evening was spent at the Cannstatter Volksfest - lots of food, games, rides, and beer tents. After exploring every corner of the fair, riding the ferris wheel, and shopping in the market we went back to our hotel on post and watched Dante's Peak and passed out from exhaustion! (let's be honest, we were both pretty tired from our social activities the night before - a band of fellow employees at the hausberg for me; oktoberfest and cold play concert for lisa marie) Sunday, Lisa Marie and I went to the world's largest pumpkin exhibit!! This year's theme is "Journey to the Stars" - including zodiac signs, an ufo, the mars rover, an astronaut, and a rocket! A pumpkin fest wouldn't be complete without some pumpkin soup! Lisa Marie and I were hoping there would be pumpkin soup but we had our doubts...but oh man were we proved wrong - there were limitless pumpkin food options! Our very orange meal consisted of pumpkin soup, pumpkin quiche, and pumpkin wine!! what a very, very orange meal! After all this it was time to make our way to Stuttgart's huge PX! We spent an embarassingly long time in the PX because it was extremely overwhelming compared to our super, super small PX in Garmisch! We seriously felt like we were in Target or a large department store! We found a lot of great buys and were happy to be spending dollars instead of euros! but somehow that still didn't help when we saw the damage we had done at the cash register! Broke and tired, our weekend had yet again flown by! Another great trip! My favorite part of the weekend was the pumpkin festival, hands down! The weather was great and felt like fall and oddly enough the pumpkin festival reminded me of home - too bad there weren't hay rides! I'll have to let you know how Stuttgart's Volksfest compares to Oktoberfest - stay tuned. more pictures

The fair from the Ferris Wheel

Lisa Marie and I on the Ferris Wheel

The "Ich Liebe Dich" (I Love You) cookies at fest - the cookies have other sayings on them as well but these candy stands are very common - cookies, candied almonds and other nuts, etc.

Pumpkin Exhibit at Ludwigsburg!

Me with my sign, Taurus the Bull

Mars Rover exhibit!

Our very orange meal - pumpkin wine, pumpkin soup, and pumpkin quiche :)