The Bad Vilbel Castle Festival has all the requirements for a great night out: beautiful gardens, top-notch cuisine, a great wine selection, and an excellent theater stage. Wine, dine, and theater in the ruins of a medieval castle…Enjoy!

In this first segment, Yabla’s own reporter Diane interviews artist Monika Kaeser about her exhibition in the Faust Archive and Museum in Knittlingen, Baden-Württemberg. Ms. Kaeser takes impressions of carvings etched in the walls of medieval towers by those imprisoned there long ago and transforms them into fascinating watercolor images!

Not too long ago, American actress and film producer Katherine Heigl, best known for her work in Grey's Anatomy, visited Esslingen, the birthplace of her grandfather. Now she is back visiting Germany, where she particulary prizes the food: bratwurst, sauerkraut, and above all, spaetzle. Guten Appetit! Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]

Hochheim, a small town in Hessia, is the annual scene of the lively Hochheim Wine Festival. Rhein-Main Szene reporter Thomas Raudnitzky is there to show you the chainsaw wine angel sculpture and to interview the Hochheim Wine Queen. Prost!

The class continues working out the details of the relative clause pronouns dessen and deren. Mia finds herself rebuffed when she suggests that the woman whose husband has disappeared is now entertaining another woman, leading to a discussion of the difference between unterhalten and sich unterhalten. Viel Spaß beim Lernen!

The soccer champions BVB Dortmund and FC Bavaria Munich both have their eyes on the prizes again this year. Hear some of the club managers tell their strategy to get to the championship game, which will take place at Berlin’s Olympic Stadium on May 12th this year.
Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]

The German Schlager duo Die Amigos are an excellent example of the kind of music that appealed to your grandparents’ generation, yet for some reason still command an audience today in Mitteleuropa. Strictly for fans of the surreal! Kopfhörer aufsetzen, Musik aufdrehen!

Imagine discovering an old animal footprint in a rock, and then finding out it is 316 million years old! An amateur geologist in North-Rhine Wesphalia was out walking with his kids and discovered exactly that: the footprint of a pre-dinosaur, which when it lived was about the size of a pig. This sensational discovery will be exhibited soon in Bochum’s German Mining Museum. (Video copyright dpa)

Check out this interview with members of the indie rock band Madsen, who were about to go on stage at the Hessentag Festival with German bands Juli and Wir sind Helden. Brothers Johannes and Sascha Madsen discuss their music plans and how it’s best not to think about it when you are on the stage in front of 50,000 people. A short clip from their song “Mein Herz bleibt hier” [“My Heart Stays Here”] is included. Viel Spaß!

Barbara leads the students through further examples of relative pronouns, with a nice detour through film history, discussing the merits of Hitchcock crime films versus horror films. Jacob tries to say "Film Noir" in German, but nobody gets it when he says "ein schwarzer Film". A brief foray into the passive verb tense has everyone on their toes: To be continued... Viel Spaß beim Lernen!

Kitsch or cult? Since the major role of a garden gnome in the (ironically French) film Amélie, and the trial of artist Ottmar Hörl for his garden gnome giving a Nazi salute, gnomes have been a constant presence in the media. Protest gnomes giving the middle finger or baring their behind have led to court trials, and judging from a few of these dirty little gnomes in the video, you can see why! Viel Spaß!

The third single from their third record, the song “Krieger des Lichts” (“Warrior of Light”) was a top-ten German hit for Silbermond, a pop band from Bautzen in Saxony. Kopfhörer aufsetzen, Musik aufdrehen!

In many cities around the world there are groups of tourists running around on these strange, silent two-wheeled things that look more like pogo sticks than a means of transportation. Welcome to the Segway, a two-wheeled, self-balancing, battery-powered electric vehicle. This video report from the Darmstadt-South-Hesse Magazine gives us a Segway driving lesson and takes us on a Segway tour of some of the beautiful tourist attractions in Darmstadt. Gute Reise!

Film expert Ronny Thorau isn’t pulling any punches in his “Cinema Tips” review of the German-overdubbed version of the American film Battleship, which was loosely based on the eponymous board game. He is much kinder, however, in his appraisal of the Liam Neeson German-overdubbed version of The Grey and of the German-overdubbed version of the French film War of the Buttons. Viel Spaß beim Zuschauen!
Copyright: Deutsche Presse Agentur [The German Press Agency]

The 99 Fire Film Awards offer a 9,999 euro prize to the best 99 second short film. This short film entry from 2012 entitled “Fabien” appears to be a trailer for a film that has not yet been made, but it looks like it could be a great one. Watch it yourself and decide!