Volksfest in Stuttgart

We arrived in Karlsruhe at about 4pm. Yoshimi and Fridi came and met us. It was great to see them. I've been lucky enough to catch up with Yoshimi five times now while I've been in the UK. That's less than once a year but that's not too bad considering how it's likely to be a while before we see them again. We're very glad to be able to spend time with them.

At the moment there is a "Volksfest" on in Stuttgart. That's about an hour away from Karlsruhe. On Sunday we went out there. There's a large market plus lots of fairground rides and, of course, the tents full of drinkers. We had a great day. Luckily they also have alcohol free beer so Fridi could enjoy some beer too. There is great food too...I know I'm always mentioning the food but what's a tour of Europe like if you don't enjoy the wonderful foods! They had roast chicken and pork. Both were done to perfection.

We went on one ride. A short but very fast rollercoaster. Quite a few of us were tempted to go on a kind of ghost train ride. It was called "Psycho" and advertised itself as having live actors. Certainly, just in front of the ride they had this guy dressed up in a white coat like a doctor holding what looked like a brain. He had blood over his clothes and was holding tongs which he kept clicking while walking backwards and forwards staring at people. Very freaky. The person controlling who was let into the ride was brilliant too. She (I think it was a "she") would just stare at the next people in the queue in a really disturbing manner.. Sometimes suddenly rushing towards someone in the queue. Very funny as some people couldn't deal with it. One girl had to go and stand behind her boyfriend because it got to her so much. It's a shame we didn't go and see whether the rest of the ride was as good. Nevermind...can't do everything.