Lebendiger Neckar

Once a year, the bank of the Neckar comes alive with dozens of activites literally for miles and miles as various towns along the bank of the river band together to organize a huge festival called Lebendiger Neckar - Neckar alive. This year we were blessed with perfect weather and Alex and I spent the whole day exploring.  There were literally hundreds of activities and thousands of people. We focused on just a few including a long stint in a bouncy house, a stroll along a kids flea market (where Alex scored part of a knight's uniform, some playmobil people, and a few books). He probably spent the longest time playing at a man-made beach (basically a big pile of sand on the meadow).

We had a snack break consisting of berries brought along from home, and a sausage and fries (Pommes as they're called here) from one of the vendors. I think most food groups were represented.

The highlight of the event was the so-called Duck Race. For weeks already, the local Rotary Club had a booth on one of the main squares in Heidelberg selling rubber ducks. Participants could purchase their ducks and decorate them (or not), then return them and today they would all be entered into a race. They were gathered in a truck and then dumped into the Neckar from one of the bridges and propelled forward by fireboats spraying water behind them. It was quite the spectacle!

We had scored a great spot near the finish line, so we could see the ducks coming in. The organizers had tried to rein in the ducks by creating barriers on the river, but at one point a bunch of ducks got away and local boaters etc. out on the river for the day came to the rescue and got a huge round of applause from the onlookers and organizers.

Finally, the first ducks made it to the finish line! What a fun event.

One of our final stops was at the booth of the Kulturforum (see post below) where they had all sorts of tools and supplies necessary for basket-weaving. I thought I could dodge this activity, but Alex was enthralled and so we settled down to weave our first "basket" together. It was much harder than I thought!

Here's the final product. We've been using it as a house for some of Alex's stuffed animals, but I have explained to him that we cannot take this back to the US.

Even though we were out for many hours, we saw only a small fraction of the activities. Nevertheless, we had a blast! Great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.