Wiesloch @ Sochi

Love Wiesloch and love living here. Feels proud to have our own Wieslocher Laura Grasemann at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi. Part of the feestyle skiing team from Germany at Sochi and cool to note that she is part of the Ski club in Wiesloch.

Cool, to see Laura's picture as you drive into town.

Storming of the city hall

Got to see and take part in a very interesting carnival tradition in our local town of Wiesloch yesterday (Mar 5 2011). It was called the Rathauserstürmung or the storming of the local city hall.

 According to tradition the mayor has to hand over the town hall key to the carnival revellers. A more of a symbolic hand over of the keys than a real act.

Yesterday in the old city center of Wiesloch it was nice to see all the people dressed up in their carnival costumes and the mayor Franz Schaidhammer officially handing over the city hall keys.

Everybody was in a jolly good party mood, little bunny also went up and shook hands with the mayor and was beaming with pride after having done that :-) Also bumped into some friends who also live in town and who also decided to start their weekend by partaking in this local tradition.



A nice way to start a lovely weekend indeed!!!

A little bit of Java and a little bit of Ghatotkacha

Now don't even begin to think that I got busy last weekend writing some Java code if that's what you inferred from the title of my post :-) I was actually refering to some real authentic Javanese culture from Indonesia called Wayang theatre and a refresher on the life of a very important mythological character from the Mahabharata called Ghatotkacha. I did not have to travel to Indonesia or go to India to have this unique and very high quality experience but stay right here in the little town of Wiesloch.

Professor Dr. Peter Schneider and his wife Christina run a theatre in Wiesloch called the Marionetten theater. So this month they put up a  shawdow puppet performance called Wyang Kulit and the play was around the life of Ghatotkacha the son of Bheema who was the strongest of the Pandavas. The Wayang Kulit is a flat puppet with a very intricate design made with buffalo leather. They are manipulated behind a white screen with a back light, so that the audience see them as a shadow and hence the name shadow puppets.

Back in Java I understand that these plays last for the whole night, very similar to the Yakshagana performances back in India. But this show was customized to the German audience so it lasted for 2 hours which was also perfect by my standards. It was my first exposure to Wyang Kulit and I figured out as we went that to signal the beginning or the end of the performance or even a scene change the Dalang or the Puppeteer Mr. Schneider would use a puppet in the shape of a mountain called Gunungan. The evil characters were always on the right side of the screen and the good characters were on the left side of the screen.

I loved the scene where Ghatotkacha very bluntly proposes to his lady love Maurvi asking her to marry him. Dr. Schneider modulated his voice and spoke the parts for all the characters brilliantly. The shyness of a lover, the anger of a hero, the evil wickedness of a villian, the pain of a mother in parting with her son all orchestrated in perfect harmony and brought alive through the puppets and through the puppeteer's voice.

Michael Zimmermann who played the guitar was a perfect substitute for the traditional Gamelan orchestra who normally accompanies the Dalang in traditional Wayang.

At the end of the performance it was nice to see the puppets all laid out on the stage with individual name tags all set for the performance next evening.

A very exhilirating experience indeed and like I said that does not always have to be through Java programming and without having to leave the confines of your friendly neighbourhood theater!!

Feldbahn museum

Last Saturday the Feldbahn Museum in Wiesloch had opened their doors to little children and also their parents. The Feldbahn is a locomotive that was used during the first world war, mainly used to transport agricultural and industrial goods.

 All of us got to actually take a ride in one of these trench railways. There was also a guided tour for the little ones taking them into a nearby mine and how the the Feldbahn or the trench railways were used to transport the materials from these mines.

The kids were particularly fascinated to understand how a carbide lamp which was very popular in those times really worked and how it was used for mining purposes.

The children got to take an additional ride on the Feldbahn after the guided tour.

The team from the museum also had a nice bonfire going and it was nice to warm yourself at the end of the tour.

Winzerfest in Wiesloch

August and September are the months for all the wine festivals in the wine producing regions in Germany. Entire villages get decked up for the occasion and you can sample some of the regional wines and also pair the wines with some of the local cuisines. Besides this there are tons of fun stuff for children.

Wiesloch is having their week long Winzerfest and like every year we got together with some friends and checked it out. The giant wheel in town of course was a major attraction for the kids.

I did not dare try it out but little bunny seems to have mastered the art early on. Luckily she went along with some of our friends and we told her that we would rather give little rabbit some company on ground level. It was fun for the kids to try out the bungee trampoline where they could wear a climbing harness and jump up and down on a giant trampoline.

I thought that the bumper cars was more my kinda thing but after two rounds I definitely had enough.

Hot waffles, crepes with nutella and lots of candy and I think despite the weather we made the best of the day.

Summerfest and celebrations

It was the Sommerfest in Wiesloch starting Friday 2 July until 4 July. The best part of the festival was on 3 July after 18:00 pm.

The whole town was celebrating the victory of Germany against Argentina 4:0. The match was just unbelievable.
I was ga ga over the last match already but this one beat all expectations. I mean, come on Argentina of all teams and such a major defeat.

Well it was party time in Wiesloch and we all had such a blast. Now again I am nervous thinking about Wednesday evening where Germany will meet Spain in the Semi-Final.

I hope to post more such pics of jubilation next week as well :-)

Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in town

Our local town opened their Christmas market on the 27 Nov.



Yes it is that time of the year when every little town sets up their own Christmas market.



With kids it's always better to get there before it gets really crowded.



I really enjoyed the bratwurst and some kinder punch.



Definitely plan on checking out some more of these markets in the coming weeks.