Ludwigsburg Pumpkin Festival 2015

For our wedding reception almost 6 years ago, we used pumpkins as decorations, and I thought it was the cutest idea ever!  At the time, I was in the middle of my senior year of college, beginning to study for my boards exam that was 6 months away, Eric was about to interview for a full-time position with the National Guard, out 1st grader kept us very busy, and I thought it would be a greeeat idea to carve somewhere around 40 pumpkins the week before our wedding....because in the name of "cuteness" I'll sacrifice just about any form of comfort...like sleep.   
Everything turned out to be really cute, and I had my perfect fall wedding, but after carving 40-some pumpkins during one of the most stressful weeks of my life, I thought that I would never want to see another pumpkin ever again!

But I've always been a sucker for all things fall (except pumpkin spice... pumpkin spice anything is disgusting, {blech, gag, shudder}), and 6 years later, I am still in love with everything October- pumpkins included!  

There is a large pumpkin festival in Ludwigsburg every year and I have been wanting to go so badly, but Eric was gone last year, so we decided to wait until this year when we could go together.
Ludwigsburg is an easy 2 hour drive from our house, so we jumped in the car and spent our day surrounded by all things fall! 

"Flying" The theme of the festival was flight/flying- note the pumpkin spaceship in the background.

The festival was perfect for families, especially families with small children.  Since it was just Eric and I we spent a few hours walking around, talking, taking pictures, and being thankful that we weren't carving 40-some pumpkins like we were 6 years ago.  

Buuuut.... we were also a little bored since we aren't small children.

Since we were pretty sure we were too old to do all of the fun things they had available for the kiddos, and since we were pretty sure we weren't allowed to like elbow little kids in the face or anything to get them off of the fun little swings and stuff so that we could play too, we decided to tour the Ludwigsburg Palace instead.

The Palace was huuuge, and gorgeous!  I felt bad that I didn't realize that an amazing tour-worthy palace was just an easy 2 hour drive from my house sooner!  But thankful that we did discover it before we leave Germany, and that we got to tour it during the prettiest time of year.

"Blooming Baroque"

"Germany's biggest pumpkins"

Eric and I had pumpkin soup, a pumpkin brat, and a few sips of pumpkin wine before heading back home.  The pumpkin sculptures were adorable, but I noticed a serious lack of carvings & jack-o-lanterns....so not quite the complete fall experience I'd like, but still pretty darn great!

I'm gearing up for a very busy week this coming week- which just so happens to be the week before our wedding anniversary!  Coincidence?  I don't know... but we will not be carving 40-some pumpkins this time.