The Schubi!

The Schueberfouer has opened, not too far from my house. Signs for it are spread across the city, and my daily walk home has me pass by the construction site. The lights and sounds are dazzling on the evening commutes. And on Tuesday, I finally got to go! 

The "Schubi" is Luxembourg’s largest fun faire, and Europe's longest running (since 1340!). Everyone here is so excited about it, and people come from all over Luxembourg to participate. 

I finally made it out on Tuesday. A colleague and I walked through it briefly, before I went to a friend’s to drop my bag and walk it out properly. W and I came in through the entrance closest to our house and spent about 2.5 hours doing a figure eight through the complex. There's a giant Ferris wheel that looks beautiful against the blue skies, but also adorable against the lights at night. The tallest ride is the flying swings, said to be the "best view in Luxembourg" from the internet. There's a few more amusement park-esque rides. W and I rode on a laser-gun car ride and had fun shooting the targets. We explored the weird statues carefully placed in front of rides, and the interesting themes- sailing, Mario, King Kong, USA, and more. There were also many of the typical fair stalls, with ring toss, rubber duck games, and rifle games. 

The food smells incredible. There are lots of fair stalls, but also a good number of proper sit-down restaurants, and even a few 2-story restaurants that have been built for this fair! There's pasta stands, tiny Dutch pancake stands, piles of large circle grills over open flames loaded with sausages, gyro stands, fries, sweet corn, and tons of candy stops as well.  We got chimney cakes- strips of dough wrapped around a mold and then coated in something. The spiral nature of the cake makes it fun to eat, and we traded halfsies on caramel and cinnamon. Since I hadn't had dinner, I also had some fried fish nuggets. The girl at the top fries the food and sends it down a small side to the servers on the bottom who plate it and give it to you. Mine was accompanied by a simply fantastic garlic sauce as well. While greasy, it was delicious! 

There were lots of shopping stalls as well, selling everything from figurines, barrel pickles, kitchen wares and knives, essential oils, and much more. 

I wasn't sure what to expect about the Schubi. It reminded me of a larger Home Days, like we have in Ohio, but a bit less flimsy. It felt very much like the first part of Cedar Point, with activities for all ages. 

I'm not thrilled about going again, but I will be on Monday. I'm not a huge ride person, and certainly not one to jump at the chance to participate in a pop-up ride, but the food was good and a great price! 

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Monday update: this was a different experience, as I went with three colleagues. We arrived and it began pouring rain, so we took shelter under a large umbrella for a drink. I managed to drink 75% of a Schubi beer! After that, as the rain let up, we went for food. My colleagues both got a ham and cheese crepe and ciders, but I held out for the potato pancakes! They were greasy, but well-seasoned and delicious. S kept trying to convince myself and M to go on a ride, but we valiantly held out. However, when the 4th member of the party showed up, we were outnumbered. All four of us went on the magic carpet ride: it was intense, but the views as it paused at the top were simply delightful. Seeing the dark city lit up was really nice. We also did bumper cars- my body will take a bit to recover from that! M and I got chocolate covered strawberries and raspberries on a stick, and they were really delicious, the 2nd of 3rd food items to complete my Schubi dreams! We had drinks at one of the pop-up restaurants built for the Schubi, before heading to the beautiful "Luxembourg Eye" Ferris wheel. The little gondolas were really nice, with smooth music, air conditioning, and simply spectacular views of the Schubi and the city. Finally, as our night wound down, we stopped for Schubi fries, and got ours topped with sour cream, guac, and fresh tomatoes. The fries were hot and salty and the perfect ending to a wonderful evening shared with excellent company. 

Tonight I will grab my final Schubi dish- a sausage in a roll, and bid addi to this fair until next year!