On Thursday, we spent most of the day inside, being lazy. Swimming at the pool, heading to the hotel lobby to watch whatever movie was playing in the kids area, and a little souvenier shopping. Later that evening, we attended the traditional Bavarian Festival held in Garmisch.
As we were waiting for the buses to pick us up, I put the kids in front of the fireplace for a few quick shots...
The festival was held in a very large lodge, complete with traditional German decor.
The food was A. MAZ. ING.
Cooper enjoyed the music...
... and Annie and Noah seized the opportunity to run up on the stage and boogie.
There were traditional German dancers, all teenagers. They did about 4 dances total. I love the dresses.
Lots of drinking and cheering and toasting. Speaking of drinking...
Pete and I ordered 5 juices- 2 orange and 3 apple- with our dinner. We were expecting at least a glass full of each. What we got was about 8 oz. of each drink ordered (that's less than a can of soda) for 13 Euro, or about $20.
The people sitting at our table were drinking beer, vodka and wine at 2 Euro a glass, or about $3 per glass. To see how big the mug of beer was, see the
post below.
We would save money here by drinking alcohol rather than juice and water!
This guy liked having his picture taken....
He was playing what resembled a xylophone, as quickly as he could....
... then he grabbed a partner.
These guys were awesome! They played music using rather large whips, with what looked like a fly-fishing tie on the end. They cracked the whips to the beat of the song playing.
We were all told to sit in our chairs for safety, however, there was one woman who decided to was too close to the whips, stood up and was smacked in the forehead by another whip.
She survived. She was drinking... it didn't hurt that much.
I'm totally getting one of these outfits for Pete.
Then all the kids headed up to the stage to dance with Major General Czerw (pronounced Surf), the head of the Army DENTAC. This guy is the top-dog dentist in the army, and higher than anyone in the nation.
Cooper was excited....
... but it quickly turned to worry...
...Noah enjoyed the whole thing.
Major General Czerw grabbed Noah at the end of the Chicken dance and began dancing around with him. He picked him up and threw him in the air, spun him around....
...made some awesome chicken hands...
... and boogied.
Then he grabbed Annie and did the same thing. She wasn't quite as excited, although most of that was because she was exhausted. By this point, she had been asking for an hour to go back to the hotel so she could sleep.
Again, Cooper looks thrilled beyond belief.
The night ended with the boys coming back on the stage for one final dance. This was a dance representing a day in the life of a German lumberman. They chopped logs....
... drank a bit....
... which led to this:
