In the six months I have lived in Germany it really does seem to have more public holidays than anywhere else I have been, there have been times I didn’t even realise until I went into town and found the shops were closed! Last week Bavaria celebrated two holidays; 500 years since the
Reformation, on the 31st of October (not, as I thought, for Halloween) and the annual All Saints Day (Allerheiligen). Whether it was due to the holidays, Halloween, the festivals in town, or a combination of everything it’s fair to say there has been a very festive atmosphere in the city and a lot of things going on!
I have been surprised to see how many Halloween decorations and costumes that have been in shops, and the amount of jack-o-lanterns in the suburbs of Wuerzburg. Perhaps it is because Wuerzburg is a university city that there were many Halloween parties arranged for the night of Reformationstag, and that evening I headed into the centre of town to meet some friends. While waiting at the tram stop downtown I could hear music in the distance and saw quite a few gruesome and bloody-looking passers by – I only found out later they were heading home from the
Wuerzburg Zombie Walk! As we walked further into the city centre, we came across a crowd by the Altemainbruecke, complete with loud music, costume make-up stalls and photo booths. Even though I was fully aware that it was Halloween, it felt quite surreal to be completely surrounded by people (and animals!) in convincingly creepy costumes. I am still not totally sure what the event was, but it just goes to show you can stumble across anything here!
We ended up in the beer cellar of a hotel called
Till Eulenspiegel. As it turns out, this hotel is as fascinating inside as it is outside. The façade is completely covered in ivy and illustrations of the hotel’s namesake; a trickster from German folklore. The atmosphere inside the cellar was especially fitting for Halloween – it feels almost like a fairy tale tavern with low timber ceilings, and tables tucked away in every nook and cranny! We ordered wine, beer and an enormous pretzel (see below - it was enough for four people!) while watching their weekly karaoke night... it will take a few more beers for me to take part in that!
The second festival I experienced actually started on the 28th of October, and once again was something I wasn’t expecting! I was surprised on the evening of Halloween to see the Marktplatz outside the
Marienkapelle full of little stalls that resembled gingerbread houses advertising mulled wine, candied almonds and waffles. As we are still four weeks out from December I was slightly confused, but after asking around I found out it was the annual autumn market (
Herbstmesse). Though almost everything else was shut on the 1st of November for Allerheiligen, the market was open so I went to check it out. You can smell the market before you see it, and once you catch that scent of caramelised sugar and winter spices its very hard to walk past! The market is open until the 11th of November so I highly recommend stopping by to grab a paper cone of almonds, chocolates or fries and checking out the craft stalls.
The last festival of the week was the
Honky Tonk music festival that took place on Saturday night, throughout the city centre. The music festival is annual line-up is mainly local German bands, though the music varies a lot and going by what I saw on Saturday night it is very popular! A group of my classmates and I took advantage of the student deal and bought a wristband for the entire night. One of my favourite things about the festival was that I discovered a lot of bars and music venues I had no idea even existed. We began the night listening to a metal band at the underground bar of
B-hof before moving on to
Café Klueg to watch a cover band. Like every place we went that night, Café Klueg was overflowing with people, the band was a lot of fun and our photos actually ended up on the
Wuerzburg Mainpost website… exposing my regrettable dance moves to the world! Afterwards we squeezed into
Irish Pixie for some acoustic guitar, and finally to watch a classic rock band from Berlin before ending the night in
Club Katze. All on one wristband – I’d say it definitely was worth it!
After last week I’ve definitely decided to keep more of an eye out for the festivals and events in Wuerzburg. Where many cities seem to go into hibernation over the winter, it seems like here there is no shortage of things to do here. I won’t look too hard though, there’s still something to be said for running into a group of zombies or a waffle stand when you weren’t expecting!
Zuletzt geändert am: Dec 01 2017 um 3:57 PM
Zurück zur Übersicht
