Sausage fest...

Today, Sun Sept 12th we took our first family car adventure. While not long by American driving standards, spending an hour in the car in Lux will likely get you into France, Germany or Belgium. We stayed just inside the Lux boarder as mom got us out of the house to attend the Fetes des Prunes -- a prune fest, no shit (or maybe yes, shit, depending on how much you like prunes). Luckily for all, no prunes were discovered, though we did find ourselves with an ample supply of sausage options. Like a frat bar on 1 dollar pitcher nights, a full on sausage fest. Between two different festivals, I had three sausages, a huge plate of fries and a really killer bowl of sauteed mushrooms.

The Fetes des Prunes was at Robescheier, Munshausen, where again, no prunes were detected. We did, however, see a "display of Ardennes Shire horses and forestry" which was really cool. The Shire horses are working draft horses that you see in the Budweiser commercials, only these are their badass cousins from the old country. Not the Hollywood fakers that we see in Superbowl commercials. These things were tanks. We watched as different horse owners (ranchers, I guess) walked their Shire horse through an obstacle course while towing a tree. Literally, the horse was dragging huge 15 foot long log around a course while a little dude in spectacles followed them with a clip board and stopwatch. Good stuff. It was just after seeing the horses that I ate my third sausage of the afternoon.

I should backtrack just a bit...before we even got to Munshausen, we stopped at a street market in the town of Clervaux for some sight-seeing and munching on local grub. It was there that I ate my first and second sausages of the day, along with the wonderful shrooms.

There was also a special treat in Clervaux -- a truly amazing photography exhibit of the works of Edward Steichen. Oh, and the exhibit was in a freaking castle no less. His are some of the most compelling and recognizable photos ever taken and have graced the pages of numerous Life Magazine covers and photo spreads. Steichen was born in Lux, but lived in America for part of his life if I remember correctly. Incredible photographer.

Out front of the castle was an old Abrams tank from WWII which was sole surviving tank from its battallion in the 9th armored division. It was retired in 1944 after protecting that very castle. Also very cool.

It's a few hours later and we're at home now and I'm happily reliving those sausages every 15 minutes or so with a tasty burb or two. I told Sara that I don't think I could get full on sausages and I stand by that statement. I really have no accurate guess as to how many I could plow through if given a good half-day or more of walking around festivals and street fairs eating and drinking beer, etc. If I were a betting man, I put the over-under at 7.

OK, now I have to figure out how to load pics onto this site so we  have reminders of what we've eaten and where.