05th Dec 2008
Wurstfest 2008
From Wurstfest 2008
Wursfest is a sausage festival which happens in New Braunfels every fall. It started way back in 1961 when a bunch of crazy Germans got together and put on a demonstration of how they used to make sausage in the old country. The festival just grew from there. What goes along with sausage and other festival food than beer…and lots of it. So sausage, potato pancakes, whatever-you-can-think-of-on-a-stick, funnel cakes, fried everything, and sweets galore can be found in the main food hall and vendors in the park area. The main Dance Hall is a massive cotton gin filled with family crests from Germany. For a full week Landa park is filled with polka bands, lederhosen, and families taking it all in.
Whilst being at Wurstfest is one of my favorite things to do, the drive back to Austin is not. This year my sister and I went down to scope out an RV space that we could park my folks 5th wheel at close to festival and camp out at, rather than run the the IH-35 gauntlet. We found an awesome spot called Camp Huaco Springs where the spaces were large and clean, the scenery was beautiful, and the folks were friendly.
That Friday I drove down to hook up to the RV and pulled it the few miles form storage down River Road to the camp site. Set up was quick and easy, which as I have discovered with RV-ing, takes practice. Linda drove down from Austin later on that night and met me at the spot. I put on some Texas country music and cooked some burgers on an outdoor grill and we enjoyed a quiet night on the river, except for some kids that extended their slide out and broke a water pipe, which was quickly fixed by the on-site maintenance person.
The next morning friends arrived at our camp site to meet up with us before heading down to the festival. We walked along the trail that followed the river and took photos of the scenery before heading down to the park.
Amanda met up with us at the festival a little later on and we commenced to try and do as much damage as we could. We luckily got a table inside the main hall thanks to our friend Mike. Food that was acquired included the famous 5 kinds of sausage on a stick, fried olives, pork ribs on-a-stick (which were absurdly tasty), potato pancakes (which you must wait almost an hour for but totally worth it), and fried pickles; a favorite of Abraham’s. We started off drinking Spaten Pilsner , but just went straight to the Dunkel after that. Next year I’m not pansying around with beer you can see through, the darker the better for this crew.
We ate and drank and danced until we had to call off the dogs. We heard polka music and watched professional cloggers. We danced the chicken dance about 10 times and started to wonder if it was scheduled, as in “Chicken Dance on the eights, every hour”. Amanda learned how to dance a polka and waltz, and we did our best to keep up with Cotton Eyed Joe.
At the end of the night we bid farewell to our friends, and Amanda carted us back to the campsite. Hilariously enough we actually stopped at a river bar on the way back but they were charging a 10 dollar cover like they had Robert Earl in there or something so we took a pass, and opted for our Shiner summer brew we had in the cooler back at the RV.
So if you ever go out drinking with us and we get a little crazy and give out a big German style “Ticky Tacky Ticky Tacky, Oy Oy Oy!” all you have to remember is: “Prost!”
For us that day: In New Braunfels ist das leben schoen! (In New Braunfels, living is good!). See you there next year!
Enjoy the photos!
- My gallery
- Abraham’s gallery (includes photos that Amanda took!)
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