Sandkerwa

Last week was our favorite traditions of the year - Sandkerwa! 200,000 people come to Bamberg (the city of only 70.000) to celebrate the Church "St. Elizabeth". Ok - really people just come to enjoy a beautiful town with friends and enjoy good food and drink (but the Church Celebration is the excuse for the party!) It is such a "mainstay" among locals and everyone heads into the city for the occasion. We were able to go for 2 of the 5 nights and had such a great time with friends.  It was really nice this year because Bailey got to experience the fun with her friends as well. It always amazes me too, how with all of the alcohol and beer krugs and wine glasses that there aren't any problems! Oh how I love everything about this town!!!! They really know how to celebrate life! My heart hurt to leave after the weekend, to go back to our new city :-( - It isn't bad, but it isn't Bamberg!

The enthusiasm as everyone heads into town is fun!

They build beer tents on the river for the occasion (you can see the white one across the river. During the day, they have a jousting match on the river - the first one to get wet (fall in) is the loser.

The bridges have the best food!

Every corner is filled with celebration!

lots of people!

The day slowly turns to night....

This is the "bottleneck" in pedestrian traffic - luckily there are short cuts to avoid this place...

This was a neat picture that didn't come out so well- we went into one of the Breweries and it was fairly calm inside, but outside it was nothing but a sea of people. The window was open and the flower was there - wish I was a better photographer :-)

We ran into this scene the second night. The raising of the tree (Kerwa Baum) is standard at all of the Church celebrations (and there are thousands of celebrations in Bavaria each summer - you could literally stay busy every day of the year here!) Check out the guy with the horse and the beer (prior to this photo, the horses had carried the tree into the city with a wagon)

The tree is being raised

The horse gets to celebrate a "prost" too (yes - you read that right!)

And an elder of the church gets interviewed

Fun was had by all! This is the bridge where the teenagers all congregate. 16 is the drinking age, but there doesn't seem to be any problems...

Can't wait....

for next year...