About 5 minutes away is the town of Neustadt Am Kulm. It is a cute little village, that I drive through every morning to get it to work, that has it's very own traffic light! Those are very rare in the rural area of Bavaria where we live. When we first got here and I didn't know how to pronounce the town names, I gave them nicknames and called Neustadt, "the hill town with the traffic light". Haha.
Once a year the town of Neustadt Am Kulm has their Annual Goat Cattle Drive, where they bring the goats "home" from the mountains! It's actually pretty funny because the town doesn't really have goats, they bring goats in from another town, dress them up with pretty wreaths and flowers, bring them up the hill and bring them back!
The parade down with the goats started at 1330, weather was dreary, cold and raining, and we thought about not going, but I had plans to meet up with a friend, and in the 2 years we've been here we've never seen the parade. So we headed to the town, bundled up with our big Jameson Umbrella in hand.
The little parade is pretty cool, the children dress up in their Drindls (dresses for girls) and Lederhosen (leather pants for boys), it's considered traditional Bavarian wear, and along with a band and the goats, walk down the hill. They even have someone handing out quick shots for you to take!
Some people carry pumpkins in their wagons, other people carry their children!
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| He was so adorable! |
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| Waiting for the parade to start |
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| It's gluhwein season again! |
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| They were dancers on the stage! |
The goats are everywhere!
There aren't many goats in the parade, I think it's just a tradition that the town has, because there's a little festival afterwords. I think that the German's will use any excuse to eat and drink! I don't blame them either, that's why we go to festivals, I go for the food, Drew goes for the drinks.
After the little parade, the goats are placed in a wooden cage and the kids and big kids (like us) are able to take pictures of the goats and even feed them corn. Or in one goats case, he gets to eat the wreath they made him wear.
Even with the bad weather it was a great little afternoon. I've learned to be prepared for all kinds of weather otherwise you'll miss out on a lot of fun! This festival is only once a year and I'm glad we were able to experience it before leaving.
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