Das Fest und Eine Kirche

I'm afraid to say that I haven't done much this weekend. For lunch on Friday everyone at the institute got together and enjoyed a grilled lunch of steak and sausages in the backyard, and that's always exciting.

And like I said earlier, this weekend was "Das Fest", apparently the largest free festival in Germany. Melissa and I ended up going around 10:00pm or so, expecting it to last for a while, which I'm sure it did, but the last group to play in the main amphitheater was just finishing up as we got there. The festival took place in a park in southern Karlsruhe and had five or six different stages for music. Even though it was raining a little, the place was packed, and I would have said that there were at least 100,000 people around. I found out later that on Sunday, the second busiest day of the fest behind Saturday, had more than 400,000 people in attendance, so I think my estimate for Friday night might even be a bit low.

We left around midnight, after listening to a rap group from San Franscisco. And that was about all I did this weekend. The next couple of weeks are going to be really busy, so I figured I could afford to take it easy for a while. I mostly worked on my book and got caught up on Dr. McNinja. Always a good use of time.

On Sunday I went for a walk around the palace gardens (which is really more like a giant park than gardens). During this walk I stumbled upon a large red-stone chapel that was easily as old as the city itself (around 250 years old), if not older. It had a pretty large central spire when considering the building's footprint. It was completely adorned with gargoyles and had an external entrance (sadly locked up) to the basement crypts. Outside of the giant cathedrals and monasteries, this was easily the coolest church I have ever seen. I wish I could have gone inside, but it was all locked up. I will do my pest to go back and take photos (the one time I don't have my camera with me....).

So with that said, "Woot for lazy Sundays: Narnia, anyone?".