3 Tage Marburg

This past weekend there was a festival in Marburg (where I live and work in Germany) called 3 Tage Marburg (3 Days Marburg).  It was pretty fun but the weather was not very cooperative so attendance was down (from what the locals told us).  Johanna and I started out in the main square and saw all of the Dragon Boat team's costumes (you'll see the Dragon boats with Sunday's pictures).  Everyone was drinking and eating and having a good time.



We were a little early for the symphony so we headed down to the Church to see if anything was going on there.  There was not, but since we were there we decided to play with the art in the center of the street.  We drive by this thing all of the time and see that the shiny silver balls are in different spots, but we had not rearranged them ourselves.



As an engineer I naturally had to arrange them symmetrically.  I thought I had one small, medium, and large ball but when I put them in a row I discovered I had one small and two large balls.  This got a thumbs down from me.  I rearranged the balls so they were symmetrical and this got a thumbs up.

Next we headed up to the symphony.  There was some good music and some stuff I did not recognize.  I remember they played Wagner, Sousa, and John Williams.  There was one other composer I recognized and two or three that I did not recognize but I am blanking on those names now.



You can see the lady who sung some opera pieces.  Her voice was pretty good but she really knew how to put on a show.  She exuded charisma.  Always rubbing the boy's hair as they played their instruments and here you can see her (in the red dress) climbing on the conductors stand to caress his bald head.  Naturally they saved Star Wars for the fireworks and finale.

After the fireworks we hung out downtown until pretty late and then got up again on Saturday for day 2.

Day 2 was mostly walking around and looking at the booths and listening to so more music.  There was one main theater stage (where the symphany was) and then four or five other stages spread out across the city and every stage had a band on it until late in the night.  You could just walk around and enjoy the music, eat bad booth food, and shop.  Pretty good times except for the weather.  Saturday wsa on and off rain all day, so we were in rain jackets.



Saturday night continued well into the night (about 3 AM) and I saw some hooligans near the main church.  A group of Novartis employees and myself were standing outside talking after leaving the bar when these four young students walked up to a window and threw something through it.  The cops chased after them but I do not believe they were caught.  It is hard to drive through Marburg and very easy to run.

Sunday morning was another day of festivities with again, more rain (but not as bad as Saturday).  On Sunday the big Dragon boat races take place.  The Novartis boat did well and won their individual race, but did not advance.  I'm sure they had fun either way.

• In the top right four pictures you can see the bridge before people threw bread over (no ducks), after bread was thrown but before the boats, the boats approaching, and finally the ducks scattering mid race.


• In the bottom right you can see that the NYPD is everywhere, even Germany.

All in all a good weekend, though the weather left something to be desired.  Of course by the middle of the following week it was beautiful and warm, but that is the way it goes here.  On and off good weather with lots of light rain and overcast.