Herbst Festival

So! Here it is Sunday already and since I promised you a post... here I am! I took some photos yesterday at the herbst (Fall) festival that I attended here in Hannover with my husband and mother-in-law. We had a really nice time and the weather was perfect for being outdoors, low 80s and sunny with some clouds but pretty clouds. :)

We enjoyed all the sights and sounds, though we arrived to see that some of the shows we thought we'd catch were only going to be on Friday and Sunday, so we missed those. But in the end, it was okay as there was a lot of booths to shop in, good food to eat, and nature to enjoy. I loved all of the booths with plants and flowers that so many were purchasing for their gardens and balconies. Here in Hannover it is common for people to have a patio or balcony attached to their apartment, much more common than in downtown Boston for instance, so people usually enjoy their small outdoor space very much -- decorating them with potted plants, herbs, small vegetables, flowers and often if there is space, a table with chairs for eating out on the balcony. We often join my mother-in-law who lives next door to us because we don't have an outdoor space and she does, so we like to eat on her balcony when she invites us over for mittagessen or Kaffee und Kuchen. :) Anyway, back to this lovely fest that I attended... I think that is why this type of festival is quite popular here in Hannover - people love nature and often have a tiny little space to enjoy their plants and flowers at home. Here are some impressions for you to enjoy so that you can feel as though we went together, okay?

Taking a break with coffee...

So, what's at this festival, you ask? Well, obvious from the photos -- lots of plants and flowers and also many tents with products and services for sale/hire. Each vendor (over 130) had their own white tent and there were many of them to enjoy. One had only soap from France. Another booth had fudge, cookies and candy from the England, Scotland and France. My favorite was a new vendor from Baden Baden, Germany called "Café König" -- you can see the photo of the tent with the two girls and all of the chocolate bars above... They even have an online shop in case you are interested. I purchased some lovely bars with lavender in them and can't wait to enjoy a square (or two!) with my tea later on today... I must confess, I thought the French "owned" the market when it comes to chocolate and though it's true -- Germany and Switzerland has THE best chocolate in the world. Even the basic supermarket brands, like Milka, are really, really delicious making American chocolate bars nothing one could ever eat again after consuming a steady diet of chocolate from France, Germany and Switzerland. And of course Austria too. Any country in Europe that speaks German or French, you can guarantee, will have the finest chocolate in the world. :) In my most humble opinion of course. And then you had booths with fresh herbs, oils, seed pods for decorating (along with horn). You could find tents selling handmade clothing, felt products, home items, gardening supplies and lots of tents with lovely things for dogs since it seemed as though everyone who attended brought their beloved pooch. I "met" a dog called "Arnie" and the owner was so lovely to me, allowing me to take his photo holding his dog. It was so cute. There were tents with fresh jams, berries and marmalade from this region, and a beer garden (of course). There was even an Indian import shop with clothes, beaded boxes, and elephant chimes (which I picked up one in the most lovely turquoise, I'll share my garden fest loot later). If you were hungry, you could find tents selling lachs pizza (pizza with salmon), salami pizza, vegetarian pizza and salads with fresh vegetables and homemade dressings. You could put raw dough on a stick and grill it over an open pit for a real southern German experience. Of course, there was plenty of nutella available for adding to the bread once you'd cooked it. You could find cheese tents from the region, a gourmet cheese spread tent from France (yummy) with fresh bagette, nougets of all shapes, flavors and sizes, coffees, teas, homemade loaves of bread, cheese bread, honey from this region, pumpkins, ice cream, plum cake, cherry cake, pumpkin soup, herb soup, curry chicken with Spätzel (the best noodles!), I could go on and on... And animals! You could watch dog shows, horse shows and even see baby hedgehogs and rabbits. There was even a sweet "adopt a dog" section where you could meet your potential new friend and adopt it right there. How nice of a concept this is! Unfortunately all of the dogs were too large for my apartment... Bottom line: Germans like their festivals and parties and they do them very, very well. The next festival is next month in the same garden and then in May, another one. There is also a fabric market outdoors that comes here from Holland which will take place next Saturday, and another regional festival indoors called the INFA will will be going on in October. Then in November and December you have the annual Christmas markets that cover about one mile of the city where you can find wood toys, bake forms, candy, cookies, hot food from all over the world, gifts, you name it... And this is only in my little city. If I go an hour north to Hamburg or east to nearby Berlin, there are hundreds more. And then all the towns around Hannover like Celle, Hameln (the famous town of the Pied Piper) Lüneburg... Sigh. (images Holly Becker for Haus Maus)