This evening we are having dinner at the Hotel Restaurant Graf Bernhard to celebrate spargel or white asparagus. Who would have thought that Germany has a festival to celebrate this vegetable, but there you have it, they do. Tonight the restaurant is having a buffet with spargel as the main feature, however, there are plenty of other dishes to tempt even the fussiest of eaters. I have a schnitzel, with potatoes and of course spargel. There is a rather delicious sauce served with the asparagus dish. A variety of desserts is also on offer, and no, they do not feature asparagus.
And of course, the beauty of a buffet is that you can go back as often as you need to, and Cedie, being vegan, was in her element and found the asparagus dish most appetizing.
Beelitz Spargel Festival in Germany
I didn’t know that Spargel festivals are a big thing in Germany. Travel certainly opens your mind to new experiences.
Not far from Berlin is the town of Beelitz which is known for its spargel. every year they hold the Beelitzer Spargelfest. This year the festival was held from May 31st to June 2nd and during this time the city held a parade and a celebration where you can visit food stands, and they also have live music. Beelitz has a spargel museum where you can learn everything you need to know about asparagus. Wow, all in honour of a vegetable.
There are a number of asparagus farms in the area that you can visit and buy fresh spargel. The season happens to be at the same time as strawberry season, so you can pick up a box of strawberries to have for dessert.
Check out the vegetables in the supermarkets and you may well find that Beelitzer Spargel is one of the most common brand names sold.
You can also go on a driving or cycling tour along the Badische Spargelstrasse. This is a 136 lkm route that runs from Schwetzingen to Reilingen to Karlsruhe to Rastatt. On the way, you will find plenty of places to stop and try spargel, and you may find attractions such as the fastest spargel peeler and live music along with an abundance of delicious spargel dishes in the local restaurants.
Earlier in the Day
We spent this morning at the Adlerwarte Berlebeck wild bird show and then we went onto see the ancient rock formation of Externsteine, so it’s been a pretty full on day.
On the way back to Steinhagen we stop to pick up cake as Lucia’s grandmother and some friends are stopping by. Word of warning to anyone visiting smaller areas in Germany, you will need to know where your bank’s ATM is as smaller firms don’t take credit/debit cards from outside Germany. They only accept cash or German credit cards. Fortunately we managed to rustle up enough cash between us to pay for the cake.
No amount of discussion about what our banks and travel card agencies had told us were of assistance. It appears that non-German cards are only accepted at larger establishments such as Aldi, Edeka and Lidl. So be prepared.
After we had deliberated and discussed which of the goodies on display, we were going to buy, we set off to Lucia’s parent’s house armed with some delicious cakes that we enjoyed with Lucia’s grandparents and friends Niels, Anke. Later in the afternoon, more friends arrived, so we now had enough people to play some backyard games such as soccer, croquet and bocce.
Niels, Varinia. Ayla and I decided to play croquet. I haven’t played the game before and it turns out I am quite hopeless at it. Ayla blitzed it and won, and Niels, bless his heart, was very gentlemanly and held back to let me come in second.
It turns out that croquet is thirsty work.
After croquet, we played bocce with Seb and Lucia showing how it’s done. Meanwhile, Demelza, Cedie, and young Finn played soccer. and before long the afternoon passed into evening and it was time to get ready to head off to the restaurant for the Spargel experience.
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