Cannstatter Volksfest Archives - Living in Stuttgart

Moritz and I are planning our honeymoon at the moment. And thus it came in handy that one of the biggest touristic trade fairs, the “CMT – International exhibition for caravanning, motoring, tourism” is in town.

We visit the CMT each year. There is always something new to explore and as we love travelling, we are always looking for new destinations and inspiration. 😉

This year, we are planning our honeymoon. We want to spend it in Australia and have already had contact to various travel agencies. One of them is Boomerang Reisen in Stuttgart and as they have sent us a very interesting offer, we went to their stand first to ask some more questions.

We already got some good advice when we asked for an offer via email and our experience at their stand was equally convincing. Very helpful and professional. So maybe we found our partner for the big trip… 🙂

After Boomerang Reisen, we went to SK Touristik. They are experts when it comes to Canada and Alaska and we have already booked two trips with them in the last years. You might ask now why we visited their stand when we have already decided to go to Australia this year… Well, Moritz is just such a great fan of Canada in general and of SK Touristik that he cannot attend a CMT without going and seeing what’s up at their stand… and taking some brochures… and discussing some destinations with the staff… and whispering to the guy behind the counter that he “has to go to Australia this year” – maybe there was even an “unfortunately” involved, but I am not sure… 😉

But as we think about going to Alaska in 2014, we got some useful information for the future and didn’t carry all those brochures he took for nothing. 🙂

When we left SK, we could put a tick behind the two main points that brought us to the CMT and were free to stroll around and see what else is there.

I like how the different regions and countries present themselves. The area of the black forest (Schwarzwald) was decorated with a huge Bollenhut, a traditional hat of the region which consists of a hat out of straw and some red wool balls on top of it.

Egypt did a great job as well by putting up the huge statue of a Pharaoh.

If you don’t mind the high prices, you can also sent your taste buds on a journey as some countries also offer typical food and drinks. We saw cocktails from the Caribbean, two beer gardens, fruit cocktails and smoothies and much more.

We kept on walking and passed a well-known sight: A hut from the Cannstatter Volksfest, which takes place every year in Stuttgart!

When we came to the stand of Delta Airlines I couldn’t resist and tried their new Business Elite seats where you can turn the seat into a flat bed.

Very comfy indeed. I would have loved to take a little nap there… 😉 But time was ticking and there was still so much to see, like these two ladies for example…

… and to try, like the Sagway parcours:

Another “I like” goes to this fake Mercedes (which suits me just fine, I think… 😉 ):

But a huge “I don’t like” goes to the things, people try to smuggle into Europe. Shocking what the customs had on display at their stand…

Disgusting!

After a quick break…

(sorry, I HAD TO put up this picture, I think it’s hilarious!! :-D) we checked out some shops like this African one…

… this Mexican jewellery shop called URBANIA…

(I liked their really creative necklaces. All their jewellery is designed in Mexico, in Taxco to be more precise… I could hardly resist!)

…and some shops where they had backpacks and other travel related stuff.

The great thing about a fair is, that most of the exhibitors offer interesting discounts. Some of these backpacks were 50 percent off.

For Moritz and me, one of the highlights of every CMT are the caravans. Not that we think about buying one, no, but we love looking at the newest models, stepping into some campers as big as trucks and discussing which one we would buy IF we would buy one… 😉 Does this sound strange??

Hmmm, could this be something for us IF we would look for a camper?? 🙂 Oh, and that’s a nice model for our next trip to the Arctic…

But I am not sure if this one offers enough space for us… I mean, who want’s to take only the Smart when going camping?? 😀

OK, at the end of the day, we had to face the sad truth that THIS is the only model that suits our wallets…

…but at least it doesn’t need too much fuel… 😉

Last but not least we had a look at tents. There is this company called “3 DOG camping” which we found last year already and they have these tent trailers and rooftop tents which I think are just awesome!

You put them up within seconds – and the same is true for putting them down again. Well, maybe… one day… 🙂

We had a great day at the CMT and will go again next year for sure. But let me give you one last piece of advice: Do wear comfy shoes! Even though they don’t go well with the rest of your outfit! The trade fair is HUGE and you will walk miles and miles and miles. Even though I was in my tracking shoes, my feed hurt at the end of the day…