Ludwigsburg: Of Brides, Gardens, and Pumpkins.

On Saturday, October 2nd, we drove north to Ludwigsburg, which is a city in the same state as Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, to the Ludwigsburg Palace. (Get ready for a lot of pictures.)

We parked our cars and walked toward the palace, which really was everything you'd expect a palace to look like: a beautifully edged green lawn, a gated entrance, a fountain, a beautiful expansive courtyard. As we walked through the palace courtyard, we saw at least five brides. It felt almost like walking on Temple Square in Salt Lake City during the springtime where the brides nearly outnumber the flowers. I'm not sure why, but I only took a picture of the first one I saw. Old news, I suppose, by the time I saw Bride #2, and #3, and #4... and so on.

Bride #1 and her entourage.

But what a beautiful setting in which to get married and take pictures!

Even though we weren't there to celebrate wedded bliss, we stopped to take a few shots of our own in that massive courtyard. To be truthful, the grounds of the castle, both in front and in the courtyard are quite large, so as each of the five (or was it six?) brides was not stepping on the heels of another. I don't think we ever even saw them cross paths.

Emery, Fred, Linda, Sarah, and Andrew. Ludwigsburg Palace. October 2010.

As soon as we exited the courtyard on the opposite side, I felt like we were walking into a forest. Almost like we were suddenly transported to the setting of one of Grimm's fairytales.

The palace has such exquisitely manicured baroque gardens, which we wandered through finding statues, bridges, beautiful tree-lined paths, ponds, Rapunzel's castle (duh, Emery... Rapunzel IS a Grimm brothers fairytayle), and finally the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival (Kürbis-Ausstellung in German), which was to be the main event of our day.

Can you see Rapunzel's hair?
It was SO fun to hear the little German children
calling up to Rapunzel to let down her hair!

Fred, Sarah, Linda, KDJ, and silly Andrew near Rapunzel's Castle.

I love this pathway.

Here I am, loving the stone archway under the bridge.

Just one librarian to another.

The theme of this year's Pumpkin Festival was "Under the Sea," which, as you'll see below, inspired some very interesting creations.

Shamu in pumpkins.

Ariel.

I loved this sea turtle's face up close.

Are you getting the full perspective of the palace gardens?

I also enjoyed looking at the various species of pumpkins (Kürbis auf Deutsch) from all over the world. Most of them originated in the United States, but many species were from parts of Europe, South America, and Africa.

My favorite is the one with the pink scarf.

There were hundreds of them, lining the walls of the Kürbis store, which sold all sorts of pumpkin flavored goodies. I still wish I would have gotten a small bottle of Kürbis oil. It was so tasty as a garnish on the pumpkin soup we had. It was undoubtedly the best pumpkin soup I've ever tasted.

We all had an afternoon snack of Kürbissuppe. Yum.

Andrew wrestling down one of the bigger ones.

What a wonderful outing and a great way to help us feel the fall flavor of Germany.

Next, we're on our way to Oberammergau! What a treat! You certainly don't want to miss this.
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