Went to Oktoberfest in New Ulm with my date today, an event I like doing annually. We did stop at a few places along the way, like in St. Peter at a Swedish shop so she could get candy, licorice apparently, I tried some of it. Then it was on to Sleepy Eye to get a picture of the Linus statue there. It is in front of the library on the main road in town. We saw how the heart in his hand had been bolted back on, so it's much less likely to have the same problems with vandalism like before. This is especially true when there were floodlights surrounding it. This was the best time to get the picture, when the town is just 14 miles from New Ulm.
We did find many of the buildings in New Ulm on the National Register of Historic Places, but there were so many it would have been hard to find them all. A good number of them were ones I had seen before, like Turner Hall, where I like to have a drink. There were some painful reminders of how the town, like many other small towns, have been left behind by the economy. I saw some empty buildings near the middle of town where the festival was held in the afternoon. One of them was a convenience store that had a sign in the window, saying it was to be sold at a 'tax forfeiture auction' the previous month. Not sure what that is, wondering if it's much like a foreclosure auction. We did do the horse wagon tour, it did go near the B and B that was destroyed by fire in July. It was a downer to see it charred and a fence surrounding it. The tour guide said there were no immediate plans for it, unsure why. It may come down to who owns it now, since the owner died in the fire. And it is part of a historic designation, but it looks like it would be hard to salvage or rebuild it.
As usual, I not only made it to Turner Hall, but also to German Park. It was nice to pause in front of the fountain and read the pillar from the Wanda Gag home with the poem about kindness. Also made it to the winery outside town and my date bought 2 bottles of wine there. I climbed to the top of the 'Hermann the German' monument and got a smashed penny souvenir on this site. A new thing I did was go to Martin Luther College, where we found Old Main as it's on the National Register. Nearby, there was a statue of Luther himself. We saw part of a glockenspiel show shortly after arriving, and I pointed out the Wanda Gag home. There is a sign out front now, with a cat on it as she was famous for writing a children's book called 'Millions of Cats'. We finished the evening at the Holiday Inn, where I made it in time for the keg tapping. The food and music was good as usual, we listened to some polka music in one room and then went to the main room or 'poolside' where we eventually went up front and danced a little. I liked seeing the costumed Narren characters, found out it means 'fools' in German. We heard some college football games on the radio on the drive back home, and some asked me how the Iowa Hawkeyes did today. I told them they had the week off, no game scheduled. I was wearing my Hawkeye sweatshirt. I had hoped to see the couple from Plymouth that I first met at the Fest many years ago, but I heard from them by email and was informed how they are going on the second weekend.
We did find many of the buildings in New Ulm on the National Register of Historic Places, but there were so many it would have been hard to find them all. A good number of them were ones I had seen before, like Turner Hall, where I like to have a drink. There were some painful reminders of how the town, like many other small towns, have been left behind by the economy. I saw some empty buildings near the middle of town where the festival was held in the afternoon. One of them was a convenience store that had a sign in the window, saying it was to be sold at a 'tax forfeiture auction' the previous month. Not sure what that is, wondering if it's much like a foreclosure auction. We did do the horse wagon tour, it did go near the B and B that was destroyed by fire in July. It was a downer to see it charred and a fence surrounding it. The tour guide said there were no immediate plans for it, unsure why. It may come down to who owns it now, since the owner died in the fire. And it is part of a historic designation, but it looks like it would be hard to salvage or rebuild it.
As usual, I not only made it to Turner Hall, but also to German Park. It was nice to pause in front of the fountain and read the pillar from the Wanda Gag home with the poem about kindness. Also made it to the winery outside town and my date bought 2 bottles of wine there. I climbed to the top of the 'Hermann the German' monument and got a smashed penny souvenir on this site. A new thing I did was go to Martin Luther College, where we found Old Main as it's on the National Register. Nearby, there was a statue of Luther himself. We saw part of a glockenspiel show shortly after arriving, and I pointed out the Wanda Gag home. There is a sign out front now, with a cat on it as she was famous for writing a children's book called 'Millions of Cats'. We finished the evening at the Holiday Inn, where I made it in time for the keg tapping. The food and music was good as usual, we listened to some polka music in one room and then went to the main room or 'poolside' where we eventually went up front and danced a little. I liked seeing the costumed Narren characters, found out it means 'fools' in German. We heard some college football games on the radio on the drive back home, and some asked me how the Iowa Hawkeyes did today. I told them they had the week off, no game scheduled. I was wearing my Hawkeye sweatshirt. I had hoped to see the couple from Plymouth that I first met at the Fest many years ago, but I heard from them by email and was informed how they are going on the second weekend.
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