Ducks, thousands of plastic ducks

yep, it's that time again. Time for the 15th annual Erfurt Duck Race! Around 5000 plastic ducks were raced this morning in our lovely river, the Gera. My roomate and some friends bought some ducks, painted and decked them out, and entered the competition, hoping to win the grand prize of a trip to Disneyland Paris. But alas, some other duck beat us. Of our group, mine reached the finish first, after about an hour of travel through the city. Here are some pictures of the race:

Our ducks. Mine is the red doctor with sunglasses and blue jeans. I called him Herr Doktor Spass (spass means fun)

And they're off. 5,000 ducks coming at you

Tons of ducks, including the crew team of ducks (click on the pic to see it bigger)
Making over several waterfalls, the ducks floated on

My duck decided to take a nap while floating towards victory

Jack Sparrow

Going under a bridge full of spectators, the ducks barely broke a sweat
The finish line at our Merhants Bridge (longest housed bridge in Europe)

What to do with all the ducks? Give them back to the people of course.