Neustadt am Kulm Almabtrieb Goat Festival
It was a cold and rainy Sunday in October…. and you better believe I was excited to be out in the elements. It was goat festival (or Almabtrieb) day!
Neustadt am Kulm Almabtrieb Goat Festival
See, even the goats were excited.
Anyway, I suckered my friends Amy and Teanna into accompanying me to the festivities. I probably should have made it clear that there would be only around 10 goats… even though the entire fest is centered around them. But they are so stinking cute with their flower crowns and their wreaths, and their dislike of walking on leashes… I would probably go even if there were only 3 goats!!
We got there early and hiked up to the top of the volcano hill (the town’s name is “the town between the volcanoes”) to wait for the goats to also… hike to the top. You know, so they can be brought down.
While we waited an old German man hit on us for a while… I am not sure why it is socially acceptable for old men to shamelessly hit on young women – no hinting either just shameless, unabashed, flirting (and when I say flirting, I mean he said he could give us babies… yeah… creepy much?). And when they don’t speak good English, it makes it even more “OK”. We laughed it off, but at the same time – a little bit creepy old man, a little bit creepy! When things got started we learned he was one of the musicians…
Just watch the video 😛
So the goats showed up and got all fancy. All of the kids in the parade looked pretty snazzy in their dirndl and lederhosen (why does it want to spell check lederhosen to tenderloin?!) also…
Neustadt am Kulm Almabtrieb Goat Festival
Neustadt am Kulm Almabtrieb Goat Festival
Yeah ok, they might be as cute as the goats… I told Amy if kids looked like this ALL the time, I might want one… JUST KIDDING, I will take a goat, please.
So we watched the parade (complete with lady handing out shots of schnapps to the crowd) and then followed it down the mountain to the festival where they had a stage set up for dancers and speakers. We went for the food, because, you know, we don’t speak German and understood nothing.
So we went straight to the food stand and got Bratwurst sandwiches… and Gluhwein … and beer … and Tiramisu. It was delish. I don’t think you can go wrong in Germany with fest food. It is ALWAYS good!
After that, we went and played with the goats before doing some shopping. There was a woman spinning wool into thread and she was so sweet to explain everything to us. She even had a drop spindle which I would LOVE to learn to do. It looks like it would be quite fun! She also let Olive (Amy’s daughter) feel all of the wool and yarn. There was another man working with metal which we watched for a while (you can see a clip in the video). But metal takes a while, so I don’t know what he was actually working on haha. Then we watched a man working with wood on a lathe. Which has me wishing our lathe was here and not in storage… because I really want to play with it now!!!!
Then we went back and fed the goats some more before calling it a day and heading home. I WILL be back next year 😀
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