Die Herbstmesse

On October 23, 2010 began the 540th Herbstmesse here in Basel.  Every major square throughout town featured carnival rides, amusements, tasty treats and locally-produced goods.  This wonderful festival has the spirit that places like Disneyland try so hard to emulate.  The festival runs every day for about 16 days, even on Sundays!  Indeed, one of the highlights is a Sunday afternoon in which many shops around town are open for business!

This is the oldest part of the festival, which has been running for 540 years and is 5 minutes from our apartment.  It has a really crazy name that we can't spell correctly.  In the middle of the hundreds of booths offering sausages, candies, cheese, and handicrafts is the most beautiful carousel.

Roasted chestnuts!  These are featured in every Swiss town and are so wholesome and delicious.  They are especially satisfying after a nice, long hike.

A little piece of home, Vegas style. This has nothing to do with the festival, but we found it very amusing.  So far, we have seen this Hummer and another yellow one here in Basel.  Everyone else drives sedans or mopeds.

The festival officially begins every year here in this square.  The mayor comes out and gives some kind of speech.  Then somebody comes out and plays some flute-like instrument.  We couldn't see anything, but that's what it sounded like.  Then the church bells start ringing, signaling the official beginning of the festival.  They continue ringing for about 45 minutes.

This is the oldest house we have seen yet.  It is in the square where the festival begins and has been around since 1270.  That's right 1270.  840 years.  That's a dang old house.

This is the church in which the bell tolls.  For many, many minutes.  On a side note, many of the churches here ring their bells like crazy every Saturday at sunset.  Helps us remember that it is time for a cocktail.

The throngs of people leaving the church yard to go enjoy the festival.  Surprisingly, no one pushes over little old ladies or anything.

This is the ginormous Ferris wheel located in the square adjacent to the Munster.  It affords wonderful views of the city.  We rode it at night but never got around to taking a day trip as well.  Oh well, there's always next year!

The super swing!  This one was also super fun!

This was not the magnificent carousal near our house, but we didn't photograph that one, so this will have to suffice as the representative for the festival.  And no, we didn't ride this.

Here is some more action on the Klein Basel side.

The free-fall!  V made Jon ride this and it was tons of fun.  Gives a good adrenaline rush for sure.

I pity the fool who don't punch my bag!

Veronica always listens to Mr. T.  And yes, she is a rebel and played it backwards.  Austin was not pleased with this activity and displayed his distaste by jumping and barking at her while she was playing it.

This large Corn Man welcomes you to the Herbstmesse.  "And while you are here, please purchase some delicious snacks from my abdomen."

Wieners, and sausages, and hot dogs, oh my!!  These are so stinkin' good.  There are two options for buns.  In one version, they stab a big piece of bread with a metal pole and then squirt condiments in there followed by the hot beef.  In the other version you get to pick a hunk of bread to accompany your giant sausage.

Many, many people come to Basel to enjoy the festival!  V managed to give some visitors directions to the festival without using German , Swiss German, or English.  Go gesticulations! In the background you can see the Meier, the scariest ride we went on.  It is a humongous pole which has seats for 16 at the base.  It swings like a pendulum while the seats rotate 360 degrees.  We had to use a tree to support ourselves after this one was over.

Every European event has a discotheque.

Dear God.  Jon hates this trash can with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.  Jon feels that this is not even worthy of his garbage.  Just look at it!  Don't trust it!  Go away stupid clown trash bin.

Please ignore what we said above, this is the beautiful 2-story carousal in the middle of the market. 

Jon enjoying an amazing treat of hollowed out bread, filled with fondue.  So good and we got it for free because it was the last one!

Veronica enjoying a tasty treat from the festival.  Is it fondue?  Is it candy?  Rahmtäfli?  We'll never know because she ate it so fast it evaded detection.

No festival is complete without ponies!

The majestic Ferris wheel at night.

Veronica really wanted to go on this "scary" ride to see if there were any major cultural differences.  Jon made it especially enjoyable for her by screaming like a little girl at every object. Yep, just like the ones at home.

Boney McBonerson.  There was also a bouncy spider on a string that was positioned to hit passersby on the head.  Shenanigans!  It made for some good people watching.

The cute, reusable tickets you get on the rides.

An old relic from the festival that was on display.  Not sure what it is/was for.  He looks like 18th century Elvis.

And no festival is complete without Snoop smoking a blunt on the ticket booth!

Spiderman watching over us like usual!

The super swing at night, the best time to ride it.

Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!

OMG!!! The chocolate-covered fruits were unbelievable.  Somehow they manage to coat the fruit in Swiss chocolate and nuts without freezing or ruining the perfectly ripe fruit.  It made V a believer in the great possibilities of combing fruit and chocolate, leave it to the Swiss to accomplish this flawlessly. Bananas, strawberries and pineapple were the most common options.

We went to the festival multiple times this year and we are already looking forward to next year's festival. Bis nächsten mal!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To view more photos on Flickr, follow this link:  More Herbstmesse pictures