Kürbis, Sterne und Planeten Fest

This post comes with a medical warning....
If you have a problem with pumpkin allergies, it is best to look away now!

The last good weekend for the year dawned (see the Spreewald post), and we decided to head down to Klaistow, south of Potsdam, for the annual pumpkin festival at Buschmann Winkelmann Spargelhof . It is the same place where the boys recently went climbing the high rope course, and where we went last year.

The weather was fantastic, and we met our neighbours at the festival after a slow start to the morning. It was a fantastic afternoon - again incredibly relaxed. A few beers, watching the kids play, chatting in German with our friends, lunch and coffee, seeing the animals and displays, and for Alexander and Cameron, a go on the quad-bikes.

This year's theme was Stars and Planets.
Cameron with Leo. Crab made of pumpkins
Astronaut in a moon buggy
One small step for man......
Watch out for pumpkin aliens
The boys about to be taken away by a spaceship
maybe the sun? I am not sure about this one???
Off in a rocket!

On the way out, we bought enough pumpkins to ensure that the menu for the week would be pumpkin based. There were so many to chose from, it was a difficult task! The kids had an icecream, but stuck to chocolate and vanilla, instead of the pumpkin flavoured icecream! Another relaxed Sunday.

and if you don't like to eat a pumpkin, you can carve it out and use it as a vase!

My new red shoes...I love them!







For the pumpkin freaks you can learn all the names of the pumpkns....I like this litle white one called "Baby Boo"
The kids had a great time on the "Luftkissen"

Hamster children!

A street market is always good fun, lots of different things to see, food to taste, beer to drink.

The "Autumn in Pruessenallee" street festival was on for the weekend, and we had a few hours spare on Saturday evening. Alexander had Isiaih over for the night, so we all went to see what it was like.

The kids enjoyed having a dance to the funky music, and then we found these Hamster Balls...

Step 1:

Shoes off, and stick dusting gloves on your hands.

Step 2:

Climb into large plastic ball, and cover your ears while the man attaches the leaf blower to a hole and blows up the ball.

Step 3:

Run, Run, Run

The kids were supposed to have 5 minutes in the ball for 5 euros. It was quite expensive really, but the novelty was too good to pass up. It was late in the evening, and most of the kids had already left, so the kids got to stay in there for over 15 minutes, because there was no line. The owner thought it was better advertising to have kids in the balls having fun, than having the balls deflated on the ground. So in the end they got good value for their money.

By the time they got out of the balls, they were all hot and sweaty, ready for a delicious crepe!

Spreewald

We planned with our new neighbours, Antje, Thorsten and 2 year old Jasmin (3 month old Josafine stayed at Oma and Opa's house.) to visit Luebenau, in the Spreewald. We chose a day deep into September, when Autumn should be starting. We had heard for the last 4 or so weeks from our German friends "This is surely the last good day before Autumn starts" - every day it was nice. We looked at the weather - and it looked like the 'last good day before Autumn' (for the record...it was not the last great day of weather!).

Cameron was having a sleep-over at his friends Felix's. So I had to use the public transportation system to go and collect him, because it was also the start of the Berlin marathon, and Felix lives right on the course.

Felix, Max (another friend from school) and Cameron had a great time at the sleep-over, and Felix's dad, Ulli, took the boys down to watch the marathon. Their house is right near the first drinks station, and they watched the leading runners collect their drink bottles, slurp down the drinks, and throw the bottles away (the boys collected them!). After this, the 'hoardes' came through, and they had cups of water filled from large buckets fed from fire hydrants. Cups were strewn everywhere, and the boys thought it was hilarious that everyone was running over so many plastic cups.

After retrieving Cameron, we packed the last of our picnic things and headed out. We followed our neighbors down the highway and soon turned off in a picturesque little town - Luebenau.



The Spreewald is a Unesco protected region about 80 km from Berlin. It is beautiful countryside, with over 1000km of canals. We started by having lunch and a few beers, and then had a one hour punt ride on the canals.

The region is renowned for its gherkins and pickles. Of course, I had to try one, Nicole and the boys totally refused!! Unfortunately we bought it at a 'canalside' stop, so I couldn't get a beer to wash it down with!









After the lovely hour cruising the canals, we found a lovely grassy area for our picnic. The kids ran around collecting grass-hoppers, we ate a bit more from the picnic baskets, had a few cups of coffee, and relaxed in the afternoon sun.


Finally we packed up our things and drove back to Berlin - a great way to spend a Sunday.