Mannheim Adler & Stuttgart Bierfest
Jared Pelletier
So, somewhat out of date, but a good story nonetheless.
During the weekend of September 25th, Amanda and I joined a few of my classmates to go see the Mannheim Adler hockey team. We were told that these guys are the defending national champions, so expectations were high. Although 'Die Adler' had a rough record going into this game, they were matched up against Dusseldorf EG who had a similar W/L ratio. In the end, the local team lost to the guys from the north, but it was fun to watch nonetheless. I will say, however, that the players are considerably less physical than in the NHL; most players didn't finish their hits and most players seemed to complain about the softest contact possible in hockey.
On the Sunday, I went to Stuttgart to take part in the second biggest bier festival in Germany (Bad Cannstatt). We took the regional train pass since it was the cheapest option. Unfortunately this pass does not allow for transportation on the ICE or EC trains (the fast ones), so it took about 2.5 hours each way. This shouldn't be surprising as it costs 35eu for unlimited transportation for 5 people for the entire day. In the end, this only gave us about 2 hours at the festival, which was enough time to crush 3 litres of cold genuine draft before heading back home. This festival has apparently grown a lot over the past few years, and is especially popular amongst locals since Oktoberfest has become so popular. If you are around Stuttgart at the end of September, I definitely recommend it.
More to come soon about Oktoberfest!