Ludwigsburg Palace Pumpkin Fest
Do they do pumpkin things here in Europe? Turns out pumpkins are big here. In size and varieties and availability. I’ve seen so many pumpkin stands on the side of the road, especially the further out of town I get. There are the typical pallets of them at the grocery stores and the mini varieties of all kinds inside. I’ve seen them in decor, too, and almost every restaurant and bakery has something pumpkin on the menu.
But no pumpkin spice…at least not the way Americans do it. My taste buds are used to rich cinnamony flavors with nutmeg and cloves. The spice here leans towards spicy (think cayenne), and it’s good!
When I heard that Ludwigsburg Palace, called the “Versailles of Swabia”, was hosting their annual Pumpkin Festival – Kürbisstellung Fest – I knew we had to go and check it out. It opened August 26 and runs through mid December with different special events, like a pumpkin regatta. Yes, people hollow out pumpkins large enough to row in and race.
The palace itself is impressive and the gardens are beautiful. Construction began in 1704 and the story goes that it was called the “sin palace” by the locals of the time. This gives you a pretty good idea of the activities of the Duke and Duchess there. There are 452 rooms across 18 different structures, Baroque and Neoclassical in design. It’s now used to host musical concerts and theater productions, and welcomes the public for tours of palace and gardens and holds various fests and events throughout the year.
The Pumpkin Fest takes place on the grounds with over 450,000 pumpkins, some used in sculptures based on a theme, and displays 600 different varieties of pumpkins too. This year’s theme was “Rain Forest” so there were animals, birds and bugs. Even Mowgli and Balou from “The Jungle Book.” There was really unique pumpkin carving and also sand sculptures of different things around Europe. And the food! One of the best parts of any fest in Germany is the food, and with this being Pumpkin Fest all the food was…you guess it – pumpkin!
There was pumpkin soup with Maultaschen (kind of like a big, filled ravioli), pumpkin soda, pumpkin fries – these were so good! Sliced acorn squash roasted in a crispy chili coating – and pumpkin seeds (these were sweet but with chili too), and pumpkin waffles, and pumpkin nutella, and pumpkin oil, and muffins, and beers…ALL pumpkin!
But, NO PUMPKIN SPICE. And I kind of loved that.
While we didn’t do the hour tour of the palace interior (I will probably do that on my own another time), we did explore the Fairytale part of the estate with Rapunzel’s Tower. Brian and Nola loved all the hidden pathways and things to explore.
I’m documenting all these beautiful and fun things because they make me so happy. I love that we get to live here, even though there are definitely things that are different enough that it feels hard. There’s also just the regular, normal, mundane parts of life that continue no matter where you live. And my kids…they’re still kids. They didn’t want to get out and go anywhere on this day and protested loudly that they just wanted to stay home and play with friends. There was a lot of whining and complaining and wanting to just give up and go home when our GPS took us on an unexpected detour to find parking. Eventually they loosened up and loved it, and I bribed them with pumpkin soda and fries and a waffle, but I felt so worn down by the time we got home. Being a mom is so fun and so hard all at once.
Walking back to the car I was already thinking about coming back to tour the palace, just by myself, another time. Maybe with friends.
