Pumpkin Obsession = Complete!

      We are back from our trip to the Ramstein bazaar and the Pumpkin festival. The bazaar was great! Lots of vendors but I honestly wasn't expecting everything to be so expensive. Maybe it was just the things I liked were expensive. We did buy a few things, 2 Christmas decorations and another gift for someone so I can't say what it is :) The crazy part about going to Ramstein was seeing the PX. Holy crap that thing is huge!! It makes Vilseck seem like a little dump on the side of the road :( I know Ramstein is a huge air base so they need bigger things but good grief! If you've never been there and happen to be in the area I would stop by! They have a Jonny Rockets restaurant and hubby and I got a milkshake and oh my was it delicious! Crazy how when you don't have access to something then you finally get it, it just tastes so much better! After the bazaar we drove to Ludwigsburg to stay the night and get up for the pumpkin festival. The fest started at 9:00 and I think we got there around 9:30 and I am so glad we did! By the time we left there was a huge line and it was so crowded! But there obviously were lots of pumpkins and pretty awesome sculptures made from pumpkins. The best part was the food! There were so many choices and it was definitely hard to decide what to get! I got a pumpkin strudel with whipped cream and hubs got pumpkin cake. After eating that we only wanted more but we weren't hungry! We walked around some more to work up another appetite and enjoyed the beautiful grounds of the Ludwigsburg palace. We then made it back to the food area to try to eat something else pumpkin! We ended up with fried pumpkin potatoes and pumpkin applesauce which they served together and was strangely very good together. And don't forget the pumpkin store where we bought goodies to bring home with us. We got pumpkin muffins, pumpkin wine, pumpkin chutney, pumpkin noodles (not sure what I'm going to cook with them yet) and cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds! So much pumpkin and I wanted more! Just looking at all the other food people were eating was making me want more even though I was not hungry! It started to get really crowded and hubby and I don't enjoy crowds much so we finally decided to leave. On our way home, along the autobahn, we saw a castle off in the distance so we decided to check it out! Eh, not really worth it. It looked way cooler farther away. It would have been awesome if only they would let you inside! We are always dying to go inside, or through a random door to see what they're hiding but we never get the chance. Until today, on our way back to the car we noticed a tower with tiny stairs going almost straight up! We decided to check it out. It was the smallest, steepest and most narrow stairs I've ever been on but it took us to the top of the tower. Coming down was little difficult be we managed. If you are ever driving around and see something off in the distance, just go! We've done that a few times and it usually turns out to be something pretty neat. Most people probably have a "bucket list" that has something like "get on a random plane to somewhere" but who really has the money to do that? So, take your car! If you're out just take a detour and explore. If you don't find and actual location then I'm sure the drive will be beautiful.