Stocherkahnrennen

So every year in Tuebingen, they hold a Stocherkahnrennen (Stocherkahn Race). It took place about two weeks ago on a Thursday when everyone had a day free of classes! Needless to say, everyone was down at this race. I walked down, as all the buses were full, to the Neckar Island with Hannah. Once there, we saw just how crazy it was. We eventually found a spot to stand so that we could see most of what was going on. We had a few hours before the actual race started, but beforehand they parade around on the boats to show off their costumes. All the teams get really into it.

The bridge was completely lined with people, as was the island. The Germans also started to drink at about 12. We saw one guy fall into the water, and then another guy try to help him, but fell in because he had had too much to drink and hit his head going down. It was quite a spectacle.

All the boats lined up before all the teams arrived.

Dedication. They made it into a bus. All the guys in it were jumping up and down. I'm surprised they stayed standing.

Is that a plane, you may find yourself asking...

Why yes, yes it is. They made their boat into a plane. They also shot little poppers to simulate the machine gun.

The pirate boat.

This one was pretty creative. You have the two guys who ferry the dead bodies to the other side. All the guys inside the boat had toe tags on them.

Protesters.

Charlie Brown and the Peanuts gang. Don't ask why Charlie Brown's head is so small... because I have no idea. I guess he's just not that creative with paper-mache.

Wholesome, Germany.

Those guys must have felt pretty confident. Also, notice the hand prints on the butts. They got a lot of applause from the crowd.

The party boat. Smoke machine included. They had the whole wall of people up there doing the YMCA. It was fun to watch.

People way up on the church tower. I don't know how well you could've seen from up there.

And finally, after waiting for so long, the race began. This first boat zoomed past the others. It was a boat of all these super buff girls.

Now, I thought that the people inside the boat don't do anything... but I was wrong. What they do is: they paddle with their arms, and they even alternate sides so that one arm doesn't have to do all the work!

 You can see them paddling away! Intense!

Now, as the boats went by... you would start to see the guys standing on the back drenched. I guess falling in is not that uncommon an occurrence. But the Germans cheer every time anyway!

There we go! One guy fell out.

Another guy dropped the big stick that they use to push the boat, and had to jump out and swim back for it. Sound familiar Christina?!

Another guy had the strategy to hold on to the boat in front of them. That way they wouldn't go any faster.

A lot of the boats would also run ashore every once in a while. Well, they would hit the trees and would get stuck for a bit. Falling into the water happened a lot at this point.

A lot of the boats had taken on a good amount of water.

The no clothes option did not seem to make them any faster or aerodynamic... as they were pretty far towards the back. Sorry guys.

It was a lot of fun to see the Germans getting all wacky all for the sake of this tradition. The winners get to drink beer, while the losers have to drink cod liver oil. Yuck!

It was fun, and well worth it to make the journey out to see it! Glad I was able to go!