Faschings Parade!!

Sunday, Feb. 10, 2013

This morning we were invited over to the Erath's (surprise!) for a traditional Bavarian breakfast.  This consists of pretzels, Weisswurst (sausage) with sweet mustard and beer.  Yes, beer.  Brad has told me about this breakfast and I thought he was making it up.  But I did see it on a menu once so I had to start to believe him.  I thought it was a ploy for him to drink beer for breakfast.

Here we go!  It was so beautiful on the way over.  The trees were covered with ice!  (Excuse the stinky camera spots.  They are making me so mad!)

Thankfully the roads didn't match the trees!  We arrived quite safely.

Many egg cups to choose from for the soft boiled eggs.

Organic eggs (never refrigerated over here!), egg cooker and cutter

Fancy schmancy coffee machine, cranking out the cappuccinos!

The reason came over today was to attend the big parade for the holiday called Faschings.  Zusmarshausen has a big parade every year.  Faschings is Mardi Gras, Carnival, depends on where you are.  Here in Bavaria it's a week long reason to get drunk celebration! Everyone dresses up in costumes like our Halloween.  The Erath's have many spare costumes so we could all participate!  Promise not to laugh!

Wow, what a tiny bunny!

Lydia, take 1

Me and Udo, the cow pie.  (Half cow half pirate.  Get it?  German humor, LOL!!!!)

Aren't we cute?

Lydia's final choice.

Christoph...yikes!

Sprechen Sie Spanish?

Lea

Jailbird.  I always knew this would happen.

LOL!!

Getting close to starting time!

What a crazy looking family!

This next pic is just one small example of the parade and how different things are here!  Here is a parade watcher with open alcohol.  Just wait, it gets worse!  LOL!

Marching band

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They throw candy to the crowd.  Lea was in her stroller and it was sticking out.  She raked in the candy.

They look like teens, you say?  Yeah, they are.  Legal drinking age is 16 here.  The people on the floats and walking in the parade were all drinking!  It was like a big drunk fest!  Something you will never see at home!!  

It IS Germany.  Legos must be represented.

This lady was crazy.

This lady was riding around offering alcohol to the spectators.

Protesting the nuclear reactor nearby

If you are drunk and fall off, it's your own dumb fault.  No one to sue, like in the States

Representing the local brewery!  This is what beer cases look like here.  This float was powered like Fred Flintstone's car and cup holders for their beers.

This one had a swing

This one had a lesson in reproduction.

Smurfs

Super Mario float

Windmill people

 It was the LOUDEST parade I have ever been to!  Each float was booming and we could feel it in our chests.  People were dancing and crazy!  It was really fun!  This is not the kind of thing a typical tourist would do, we are lucky the Erath's shared it with us!!

We went back to change.

The view from their house

Horses behind their house

Karen plays beautifully!  And here she is with Lydia singing along.  They are very talented!!

We came home and hung out for just a bit, and then it was time for our next invite. Lainie plans on coming over here this summer and staying with her friend Emma for a week or so, then they fly back to our house and Emma stays with us for a few weeks.  We know Johanna but we hadn't met Andy yet.  So they invited us over for coffee.  (With the fancy schmancy coffee machine, of course!)  Lainie came, too, to hang out with Emma.
It was a great meeting!  Like most Germans, Andy speaks English well, too.  We all got along well and it will be such a great experience for our girls to travel to each other!!  They are such a nice family and it's going to be great!!

We ate leftovers for dinner, which we seem to have a lot of.  Then we all did our own thing: computers, TV shows, Grandma reading her Girl With The Dragon Tattoo books.  We got her hooked!

Tomorrow is her last day here and we are going to tour Brad's office building and have lunch there.  The 2 weeks has flown by!!