Lovin' the Tightrope

The Germans are active - that much is obvious on a nice, sunny day when the hikers are on the trains going into the mountains with their boots, hiking poles and daypacks. They're always out biking, hiking, swimming and generally exerting themselves before sitting down for a beer, breze or dessert of some kind.

But what isn't obvious is the amount of circus wannabes in this country, too. I'm sure the image of the locals in sequins and tights was not one you needed in your mind, and I can assure you that they don't go that far thankfully. Sequins aren't very practical after all.


Tightrope-walking aficionados in Passau

On a good day in the local parks (and even on our daytrips), we come across youngsters tying up their tightropes good and tight. It seems like they spend hours taking turns at perfecting their mad skills on the tightrope. I haven't really seen anyone practicing tricks, but they do seem to like to jump off them, too. Either that or they make it look like they're falling off on purpose.

Greg and I even tried it ourselves at one of the fairs last year with unsuccessful results - we both fell off. One of us was more determined to get to the end than the other though (as you can see in the pictures below).


Right before I fell off! The German lady behind me doesn't look very impressed with my performance.

Greg got pretty far, but he raced across. He fell off right after this picture was taken, if I'm not mistaken.