The Duck Race

We had a nice weekend here in our town. They had several things going on - the biggest being the celebration of 500 years of the German Brewing Purity Law (you can only use Water, Hops, and Malt to brew beer here). 500 years - is quite the tradition for sure! The weather was a little (ok ALOT) funny. We had sun, rain, warmth, cold, and SNOW!!! So weird! Anyway... one of the things that we participated in was "the duck race". You could buy an adult duck, a baby duck, or an entire family of ducks. The duck had a number on it and was brought to the starting line to be dumped into the River to see which duck came in first (all for charity of course). We bought ours last minute, so we didn't decorate it, but some of the ducks were decorated adorably! We didn't win, but did enjoy it a lot. They even had a nice festival for kids at the finish line. It was a fun weekend!

This was the sky on Friday morning. The trees are blooming, but it looked like snow! Then on Sunday came the real Snow Flurries - Crazy!!!

Celebrating 500 Years of the German Purity (Beer Brewing) Law

The beginning of the duck race. All of the little ducks were put into a box  behind the blue sign on the bridge. The big ducks were the business entries...

People did a great job in decorating their ducks

Our little duck (poor thing) had to go naked :-)

The box of ducks to be dropped

And the big guys went first...

And then it ws time for the little guys...

And they are off!

They were cute as they headed down the river...

They all seemed to be pushed to one side by the currant

Lots of spectators...

Mia cheering for our duck :-)

They had a nice festival at the finish line - lots of old fashioned games. 

And at the end, they collected all of the ducks and dumped  them on the ground in hopes that their owners would find them. Miraculously (even with over 6000 ducks) Mia found hers. Sadly, he wasn't a winner, but lots of fun anyway :-)

And the "Stadt Brille" - (City glasses) - you can see the reflection of the "spectacles" and if you look closely, you can see the poor guy in waiters having to push all of the straggling ducks up stream!!!