The One with the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival

It's been on my bucketlist to visit the pumpkin festival at the Ludwigsburg Schloss for a couple years now and I'm so glad we finally got to go! We loaded up in the car and made the almost three hour drive to the city. Founded in the early 18th century, Ludwigsburg today is a place where history and the present meet. Magnificent castles, romantic gardens, bustling shopping streets, and sensational festivals are waiting to be explored. In the past the kings of Württemberg resided here.

The pumpkin festival is held on the grounds of Residential Palace, often called "Swabian Versailles."

The gardens were laid out for the 250th anniversary in 1954, partly following historical plans, but also with new elements based on Baroque designs. 

As we walked through the grounds it wasn't long before we started seeing signs of the pumpkin festival. Fox really liked the pumpkin dragon and I thought the gray/white pumpkins marking the path to the event were particularly neat. The theme of this year's festival was "flight"so all the pumpkin sculptures were based on that.

I couldn't believe all the varieties of pumpkins!

Another palace just across the way.

The kids having fun. | A giant pumpkin. While the grounds of the palace were beautiful, we were here to see pumpkins!

See that trough full of pumpkins?

Here's what it looks like up close. Happy fall ya'll! The pumpkin exhibits are built upon support structures constructed mainly from locally sourced wood and straw and then covered in pumpkins. Pumpkin village.

Pumpkin in an outhouse. | Statue of Icarus. Polka dotty pumpkin. | Pink flowers. Every year they hold a pumpkin weigh off contest. The German record from 2013 was set at 793.5 kg! 

Last year for the 9th year in a row, the winning pumpkin at the European Championship weigh off set a new record for weight. Beni Meier from Neftenbach, Switzerland achieved the amazing feat of growing a pumpkin that tipped the scales at 1054 kg! A new world record!  They had an area full of straw where kids were rough housing and playing. I think we were picking straw out of the kids' hair for days.

You've cat to be kitten me right meow. | Such a lovely day.

The pumpkins are grown primarily in the district of Ludwigsburg. About 80% come from the Eisenmann fruit farm near Marbach am Neckar, while roughly 20% are grown by pumpkin producers in the greater Stuttgart region. They also had pumpkins from all over the world on display showing the incredible variety available.

I had to. Throughout the festival vendors were serving all kinds of pumpkin grub. I got spaghetti with pumpkin sauce but Chris declined. He's not a big pumpkin eater.

The kids on the path back up to the palace. Family selfie! The Evans family at the Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival on Friday October 16th 2015.

The non pumpkin eaters, i.e. Chris, Fox, and Jane, got some döner and currywurst at a food court in a mall close by.

After that it was time to drive to Stuttgart!