Tree raising

Hopefully this will work. This is at the end of the raising of the tree. I have a lot of other, probably boring, video of it as well.

Fasnacht 2012

Here are a few photos from the tree raising in Güttingen. Hopefully the pictures will be in roughly the correct order.


















This is what we saw when we first arrived. The people in red and black are the local band, the Bad Bulls. They drive around the village in a wagon pulled by a tractor playing music early in the morning on Thursday.
















Please excuse the port-a-potty, but Tim wanted a photo of the sign and this was farthest I could zoom. The sign has a dialect for 'Greasy Thursday', which is "Schmotzige Dunschtig". 'Fasnachts Dienstag" is the night that they will burn down the tree and possibly a straw witch, so you definitely do not want to have your car parked there then!
















This was to show the technique they use. Near the top of the tree they have rope tied around the tree to help get it hoisted into the air. They gradually work their way toward the bottom of the tree until it's standing in place.




















Slowly making progress



















They are getting closer! It looked like hard work, especially at the end.



















They did it!



















On final shot as we left. I noticed that several of the band members had a beer holder on their instruments! Genius.

Video from the closing ceremonies of Fasnet. You'll hear all the people mourning in the first video.

In the above video you can hear and see the people mourning as they process in (I like the white haired man) and then they wheel in the witch!

In this one you cannot see much, but I like the song and you can see the outline (exciting, I know) of the clap board costumes.

The burning of the witch. I don't think I have video the fireworks shooting out from it.

This video has a song that is new to us. Neither of us remembers it from last year. After the witch was finished burning, everyone that paraded into the center then skipped around the witch playing this song. This video has the song as they are parading/skipping back out. If you listen carefully, you can hear the clapping of the clap board costumes.

There are more poor quality videos, but I think this is enough.

Here are some video clips from Fasnacht 2011.

The villagers coming to the Institute. It was not until much later that I realized what some of the costumes were and how some could be seen as offensive.

After the villagers stormed the castle, the Baron gave a speech, music was played and food and the Baron's homemade Schnapps were passed around. This is the closest we've been to the front of the castle.

The Wooly Mammoth from the car races! This was Tim's favorite. They only ran down the hill once, I'm pretty sure they did not win the race for fastest.

More video to come later.

Video from Tim's Birthday weekend

Tim starts at the top, he's easiest to pick out about mid point when he appears to nearly collide with a little kid.

This morning Tim had to do some work at the Institute. When he came home he asked if I'd looked outside yet. It currently is difficult to do so because of all the snow on the sky lights, but I had been out on the balcony. And oh my! The Alps were out in full force!! Amazing! So we had lunch and went for a walk. I took a little video, but as always, it does not capture the beauty.


It was such a pretty and peaceful walk. Until some hooligan decided to sled down the hills on their back. How immature.



But it was too much fun! I had to climb back up the hill and go again :)

Oktoberfest

Here are a few of the video clips from Oktoberfest. They are not the best, but fun anyway (at least to me!)!


This clip shows how the people going on the ride get up to the level of the stairs. It looks like fun!



This is not a great clip, but it gives you an idea of the atmosphere and size of the tent.



The very end of the 'Ein Prosit' song. If you listen carefully you can hear me trying to get Tim's attention, as usual I have to say his name at least twice.



A little more of the song.