The Bultmans and Gunninks (Part 1)

From March 2 to 12 we had a house full of visitors...my sister, Katie, and her husband, Kyle, and their friends, Justin and Shawnna Gunnink.  We were so busy while they were here that I didn't have time to update the blog, so now I'll spend the next few posts updating you on what we did while they were here with some pictures.  I took a few pictures of my own, but most of the pictures are ones that Kyle took (since he has a much nicer camera than I do!).

Katie and Kyle arrived on March 2 at the Stuttgart airport.  I had to pick them up from the airport and this was only the second time I had ever driven the car on my own and the first time I had driven on the Autobahn.  Thankfully, everything went just fine and we made it back to our apartment safely.  We didn't do a whole lot on Wednesday since they were pretty jet-lagged from several days of traveling.

On Thursday, we decided to do a few things in town which ended up being much more exciting than we had expected it to be.  Before we left, we had to get a picture of our bird feeder because there were so many birds there and new ones that I had never seen before.

We met Brian at work and took the bikes to McDonald's for lunch.  Katie wanted to see the McDonald's here since we had spent so much time there when we first arrived here since we didn't have Internet.  After lunch, we headed into town to H&M since that is a store that Kyle can find clothes that are long enough for him since he is so tall.  Katie and I both ended up with some clothes there too, so we were pretty happy.  When leaving H&M we heard something that sounded like a gunshot and a voice over a microphone or something.  I knew that it was coming from the Rathaus (city hall), so we decided to walk that way and see what was going on.

The time that our visitors were here is called Fasnacht in this part of Germany.  It is a holiday right before Lent where the people pretty much go a bit crazy before they have to settle down and be religious for Lent.  It's a pretty crazy holiday and one that I don't completely understand.  It is similar to Carnival or Mardi Gras in the US.  What we ran into in the Rathausplatz was a celebration for Fasnacht.  Most of the celebrations are parades or big gatherings of people where lots of people are dressed in crazy costumes.

It was pretty fun to run into this celebration because we were able to see a lot of the different costumes.  We didn't understand what the man at the microphone was saying, but we could still enjoy the music from the pirate band and enjoy watching the witches dance with their brooms.  So crazy!

There is a pole in each city that is raised for this holiday and we got to watch the one for Friedrichshafen be raised.

And...of course...beer is always involved when it comes to celebrating in Germany!

This guy had probably my favorite costume because of his mohawk!  His whole family was dressed up like chickens.

All of the costumes are handmade and handcarved.  I thought the witch masks were the best.

Here's a funny picture that Kyle got without trying.  The girl's face is hilarious!

These green costumes were pretty sweet too!

For the last month or so, the streets of the city have been decorated with these flags.  Every city in this area has different flags.

In addition to all the costumes and dancing and music, there was food!  They had 3 booths with food in Friedrichshafen.  One had waffles, one had gluhwein, and the other had wurst.  I had to make sure that Katie and Kyle tried some of these German goodies, so we all got waffles and Kyle tried some of the gluhwein.

On Thursday evening, we took part in a bit more of the celebration for Fasnacht.  In certain towns in the area, people dress in white nightgowns and parade through the streets in the evening to chase away winter.  Our friends Gus and Lindsay had done this last year and invited us to come along with them this year.  Brian ended up having to go back into town to rent snowshoes for the weekend, so he didn't get to go to the parade with us.  Since none of us actually have white nightgowns, we just wore a variety of white clothing that we could dig up.  We didn't look took silly because a lot of other people were dressed quite similarly.  It was great fun to walk through the streets because there were two different bands playing music and lots of dancing and fun things to watch.

Here's Gus and Lindsay dressed in their "nightgowns".

Here's Katie and I in the midst of the other crazy people dressed in white.

The parade ended in the town square with the bands playing, so we were able to get some great pictures of the crowds of people.

When we got back to Brian at the car, we had to have him take a picture of all 3 of us so that we could show everyone Kyle's "dress" which was really just a sheet he wrapped around himself.

Stay tuned for more stories of our adventures with our guests!