Volksfest=Carnival

Something I quickly learned in my German class after I moved here, was that a high percentage of words in German actually describe the thing or action they represent.  Such as Volksfest...literally it would mean "people festival or party".  This helped me to remember a lot of words. Sometimes it can get really funny.

Anywho, we went to the Volksfest in Nürnberg on their family discount day.  Everything was half price!  You can't beat that.

 If you enlarge this picture you can see the entrance for the Volksfest.

 Of course the kids loved the rides.  Anne couldn't stop smiling.  They did this ride, the carsosel, bumper cars and a miniature train.  Katie felt like such a big girl.

We didn't go on the ferris wheel, but I just loved the Bavarian them it had.  There we murals of famous Bavarian sites and rulers on it.

So typically German.  The brown things you see on the roof are dried hops.  That is what the beer is made of.  A couple weeks ago we past a tractor hauling these harvested hops to be processed. In the back of the huge wagon was a man sitting there.   I should have taken a picture, it was so picturesque.

One section of the Volksfest was dedicated to the old-fashioned Volksfest.  They had rides from way back when and displays.  Here is a sampling of it.

 Since I am so fascinated by all the history here of course, I had to take some other pictures.

This is part of the parade grounds from WWII.  They use it as road and parking now.  Hitler built it for the troops to march along as they wound there way to the arena and past him.  Look all the way down. The road stretches about a mile and then turns and continues on to the arena.  Can your imagine what a site it must have been?

This is also a remnant of Hitler's time.  He was building this coliseum, but never finished it.  Later it was used as a prison and now is a museum.  It is huge.  The arena, coliseum and parage route are surrounded by ponds.  These are where they quarried the stone to make all these landmarks.  You can even see on some of the buildings a discoloration where the nazi eagle hung on the building.  Everyone needs to visit Nürnberg.  It is such a historic and beautiful city.