Schwaben Bräu Volksfestbier

We finally made it to Stuttgart and caught the U-bahn across to Mercedestasse to try and find the camping ground. we soon found out that the camping ground backed on to the festival grounds - ripper. Upon locating reception we were informed that by a big burley German dude that if we didn't have a reservation then their was no place there for us. At this stage we were a little peeved - there is no mention of reservation on the camping ground website, and the Stuttgart tourism website mentions that the camping ground does not take reservations! After a little bit of chatting, we were permitted to stay one night due to the small is size of our tent and the fact that we had no chance of finding any other lodgings in Stuttgart that late in the evening, especially during the volksfest. Anyhow, we set our tent up quick smart and set out to explore the party!

For those of you who are unaware of the Cannstatter Volksfest, it an annual two week festival in Stuttgart, that starts a week after Oktoberfest. Although the Volkfest is not strictly speaking a beer festival, it is considered by many to be the second largest beer festival in the world after the Munich Oktoberfest. It attracts about 5 million people each year of which next to none are tourists. So basically its nearly as big as Oktoberfest, but you don't get hoards of backpackers, Aussies, Kiwis and college boys from the USA. For more detailed information, you can check out the Wikipedia entry.

After refueling on some currywurst, we hit the tents! The first couple of tents we tried to enter we were turned away from. I am not sure if this is because;

(a) We are not German?

(b) We were half cut after drinking all day?

(c) They were reservation only, and it was the opening evening of the fest?

Anyhow we were finally let into the Schwaben Bräu tent, and a nice local family let us sit at their reserved table. The first thing we noticed was that the beers were being served in porcelain kruges here, which are way heavier and keep the beer way colder than glass.The second was that it was a lot more rowdy that Oktoberfest! Everyone was getting into it. The beer was pretty similar in style to Oktoberfest beers, but only 5.5%, but was still malty in a Marzen style.

We made a few friends throughout he evening and stayed until stumps. I ended up acquiring a T-shirt that loosely translates to "What's your name" in drunk style slurred German on it.. classic. Being quite tanked up, we refueled on a meter long bratwurst baguette and headed back to our tent. At least Stuttgart was not as cold as Munich!

Crazy going on within the Schwarbenbrau tent! http://www.schwabenbraeu.de/