THURSDAY

SEPTEMBER 16, 2010

It was the BIG day in Nesselwang......the big celebration

VIEHSCHEID

(or better known for us Americans as the 'cows coming out of the mountains' event!

These are held every year all over southern Germany (at least in the Bavaria area where we visit). It is a HUGE event and always well attended.

Before the cows 'come home' they are preceded by a local band......rain or shine this event is held.

Then the band is followed by the cows......and sometimes they come really fast.....better move out of the way because there is no stopping them!

Lots of tents are set up, including a really, really big one that is used for the band playing and the locals drink HUGE mugs of beer and eat their bratwurst sandwiches. We caught up with several cousins and had a quick picture taken......and Christop wore his traditional 'outfit' that was passed down from his father when he passed away about 1 year ago.

After the cows are 'herded' into their little corrals, the bells are taken off and piled up.

We kept walking around Nesselwang to find a 'hot spot' to catch up on e-mail and send out

e-mail. We found one such spot on the steps of this building! We sure got some strange looks.

It was time to meet Gottfried at the church where he is the organist so we could hear him play the organ and let Tina try her hand at playing it!

Gottfried was very nice and let anybody who wanted to take a turn play it. And everybody (except me) took a turn. I think it was probably the first and only time LDS Hymns might have been (or will be) played on this organ!

Gottfried then played a couple of tunes for us. WOW....he is sure good.

We drove around Nesselwang a little bit before heading over to Gottfried and Andrea's home in the evening for dinner. Beautiful view of Nesselwang overlooking the red-roof lined scene!

Dinner was absolutely delicious....traditiional German food, of course.

We always LOVE to be in their home. They are so wonderful.

And so MUSICAL. They played some music for us.....we felt like we had our own private concert going on!! The entire family are very, very musical.

And, again, they let us try our hands at playing their instruments. So fun.....