Thursday, 31 July, 2003

Stocherkahn Rennen

i haven't told you about the traditional punting race amongst the numerous Fraternities (that still exist in modern day!) here in Tübingen along the river Nekar. this event occurs every summer. lucky me, i managed to witness the race this year in mid-June, after battling the crowd gathered at the Nekarinsel and along the Nekar bridge.

stk01

punts carrying men and/or women all dressed either in their Fraternity glories or in some theme-clothing paddled with their hands as their only punter pushed and steered their punts, first downstream along one side of the Nekarinsel (a wee rectangular island that splits the course of the river) then making a turn around the pillar of the Nekar Bridge before going upstream along the other side of the Nekarinsel to the finishing line, thus completing a figure-of-eight.

stk02

two of the main tricks one could use in this race are either to push your opponents off-course or try to capsize their punts so that yours won't be the last punt to arrive at the finishing line. otherwise, you would have to down a bottle of "Libertran"; some sort of cod liver oil which, people have claimed, is absolutely disgusting! these days, the race is more fun and full of banter than serious,and Fraternities are no longer male-dominated. yet, the stigmatised view of them being "conservative/Right-winged" still remains?

(pics from http://www.tuepps.de/stocherkahn.html)

posted by ~overacuppa~ on Thursday, 31 July, 2003 at 19:00 hrs
Comments

Oh, this is so fun! Haha...that Incredible Hulk team in that pic looks so funny! Cool stuff...perhaps S'pore should consider having some dragonboat race for fraternites down the S'pore River!

Posted by: joan on Thursday, 31 July, 2003 at 15:39 hrs

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