Yesterday we took a little trip to Frankfurt for the Dragon Boat Festival. It’s something they’ve been doing on the Main River since 1991 but we’ve never been there ourselves. Although it’s not one of the biggest events they hold down along the edge of the water, there were quite a few spectators, especially in the afternoon when everyone realized what an incredibly gorgeous day it was turning out to be.

The race course (which I think was about 300 meters long) was marked with inflatable buoys and six 12.5 meter (about 41 feet) boats race at the same time for the finish line. You can see them lining up at the far end of the course in the photo below.

Twenty-two people power each dragonboat: 20 paddlers, 1 beating the drum and 1 steering the craft. The boats are decorated with a dragon head and tail.

Our reason for finally going this year versus any previous years is because we actually had a friend on one of the teams. Jenny, our friend, was racing on her university team and they’ve been training for months now. Unfortunately there were a lot of really good teams, though.

It’s a very picturesque scene for the paddlers and a really good atmosphere. Even if they’re not winning, people were still having fun. And the ages of the team members ranges greatly. A lot of the teams are from businesses in Frankfurt such as Deutsche Bank, Fresenius and KPMG.

But make no mistake – having fun does not mean it’s not hard work! Look at those determined faces 🙂

One of the teams was to sponsor the release of Ice Age 3. Clearly I’ve been living under a rock because I knew nothing about it – guess that’s what happens when you have no TV. A few celebrities from the movie were there such as Sid the sloth. The crazy squirrel was there as well but I didn’t get a shot of him.

And as far as true celebrities goes, one of Germany’s best know comedians, Otto Waalkes, was there! He does the voice of Sid in Ice Age and has been performing for decades here. Notice the Baltimore Oriel’s hat? He’s one of the prominent Germans who spends most of his time living in the U.S. Can’t say I blame him!

I thought I would add a little clip of Otto for those who may not know him. He speaks mostly German in the clip and the English he does say is a rather crude rendition of Hansel and Gretel…but the guy is just great. And you can see a little bit of his craziness. Although he was rather young here, he’s still pretty much the same now. The video is actually Otto singing several different versions of Hansel & Gretel, which only get better as he goes on.

Since Mackenzie is getting pretty big now, we decided to take her in the Deuter Kids Comfort II carrier we ordered. It’s one of the few carriers which is deemed manly enough for Stefan to wear…and I can’t blame him. Although I love our BabyBjoern, we saw a guy on the street wearing one and it just was not cool. Mack is still a bit small for it but she’s having another growth spurt so it shouldn’t be long before she’s still in there just right.

Here’s our dragon boat star, Jenny, hanging out with Mackenzie. Since her team was comprised of a lot of college students, we thought we’d feel a bit uncool with all these “youngsters” around (yes 5-8 years does make a difference now) and that they would find us especially weird because we had a baby with us. But as it turned out, we had to keep a close watch on Mack so no one would rung off with her! There were alarms going off on biological clocks all around us. But I did assure them that not all babies are as cool and relaxed as Mack most of the time lol.

Mackenzie snacked on a bit of pretzel in her daddy’s lap. It was so warm out that even had her socks off which she loves. Those little monkey toes get latched onto everything!

Mackenzie also wanted to remind everyone to stay hydrated out there. We had a couple bottles of baby fruit tea with us since we knew it would be a warm one. Thankfully there were a few small trees for shade too.

Since we missed the first two races of the day (one because they were running about an hour ahead of schedule), we wound up staying for several hours. Mack was getting pretty tired towards the end and as soon as we had her in the Deuter headed back for the car, she fell asleep. She missed the walk to the car as well as most of the drive home. Not even me almost screaming because of two kamikaze pigeons in the parking garage made her stir.

The one family member who didn’t get to come (and probably would have had a great time) was Ayla. We knew it was supposed to be up in the 80’s during the day and that’s pretty warm when you’re wearing an extra thick black fur coat. We didn’t want to get pulled into the water for her to take a dip and had no idea how many people would be around for the festival so we left her at home. But as it turned out, she would have had a great time. There was lots of shade and we even saw another Newfie there. So next year if we know any competitors, we’ll go again and take her too.