The annual Autumn Fest is being held in Oberursel this weekend. While this is in its 17th year of running, we are in our 18th year of residing here. So much for the two years we had initially planned on being here…

Yesterday evening, my husband and went out for our not-so-often weekly Friday night date. Last Friday, we couldn’t as he sat in the ICE to Paris and the Friday before, he was sitting on a bus returning from a school trip to Austria.

On our way to our Stammkneipe (regular pub) “Zum Adler”, we happened to cross paths with the Herbsttreiben Fest in Oberursel. A good Bratwurst smell was coming our way and so we made a little detour to find that a real fest was going on.

Here are some photos of how Germans can celebrate in all kinds of temperatures – yesterday, it was 8°C – 14°C only, but feasible with a bit of alcohol, good company and the right clothing.

At first glance, I thought we were hitting the Christmas market in September.

The Thuringia vendor, where the Bratwurst smell came from, also sold roast suckling pig. But after seeing the pig on display, I decided not to order it.

This must be something for the hard-core meat lovers.

Instead, I went for the Kohlroulade mit Bratkartoffeln (stuffed cabbage with fried potatoes for€ 5,50) and I honestly expected a 10 cm (or four-inch) long Kohlroulade stuffed with seasoned mince meat.

But what I got was a double in length and quadruple in size. My, oh my, these Thuringians (former East Germany) are very generous with their helpings. The Kohlroulade was almost as big as our pork roast on Sundays.

Next we passed the 2012 Ebbelwoi (apple wine) tasting area. It was crowded with young people, working their way around the St. Ursula Brunnen (fountain), tasting the many new wines. They seemed to have a lot of fun doing this.

Now, in regards to the charge for the apple wine testing, the proceeds are going to the Kinderkrebshilfe (children’s cancer support group) which is a noble thing to do.

Regarding the advertisement though, calling this a Vertestigung, someone was either trying really hard to be playful with words or just had had too many already. This is not a German word and probably never will be.

Trinken für einen guten Zweck  (Drink for a good cause) – you’ve got to like this one.

Just before night was settling in, I was able to take this photo. The drink-for-a-good-cause folks were still making their rounds around the fountain, while testing, talking, and occasionally dumping what they didn’t like.

It got a bit fresh by this point, so we headed to our Stammkneipe for a sundowner anyway.

For more information about the fest (14 – 16 September 2012), visit AllThingsGerman.