Christmas and Germany

I’m back from a wonderful week in Germany, visiting Claudia (the Wollmeise). I have been over there to see her before, but never at Christmas time. And I have always wanted to visit the German Christmas Markets ! (Christkindlmarkt) Last year I clicked on the Pfaffenhofen town square webcam several times during the month, and I so wished that I could teleport and visit that market and see Claudia and Andreas. So this year, I planned a trip. Not only did we visit her town’s Christkindlmarkt several times (a bird’s eye view shown here), but we also went to about half a dozen other ones in surrounding towns while I was there. Every town has them. Some towns have several. The markets go up the last week in November and stay up until around Christmas Eve, open every day. The booths are little wooden huts and walking around – day or night – is so fun. You’ll find food, wine, handcrafts, candles, nativity sets, and souvenirs. And Baum Striezel. Bread baked into a cone, then rolled in butter and cinnamon/sugar while it’s still hot. It was delicious.

Here’s a picture of their town hall, where the webcam is located. See that little arched window above the clock? That’s the camera, and it shows the view in the photo at the top of the blog.

In their town square, there are lots of buildings – offices, businesses, flats. Each day in December, they light an additional one with different holiday scenes, like an Advent Calendar by Building. You can see some of them lit on the webcam, and I hope I remember to check in on 12/23 to see more of them lit up!

We went to one of the markets in Rosenheim during the day and it was just as fun in the daylight.

We visited Munich and their Christkindlmarkt, where I also said hello to the Glockenspiel and gorgeous old buildings.

And popped into a nice yarn shop (Die Mercerie) which was long and narrow and filled with beautiful displays and yarn. They also have tea/coffee/desserts, but who has time for that when there is shopping to be done? I covet their button display. Do pay them a visit if you find yourself in Munich.

Of course my favorite yarn shop is Claudia’s Wollmeise shop. I always try to plan my trips so that I am there over one of her shop weekends, so I can sit on the couches and knit and get to know some of the other knitters. My grandparents were from Germany, so I love sitting and listening to the German language, even if I don’t understand what is being said. And I always come home with new patterns that I want to make. Can’t wait to cast on a Sandbank now. It takes one skein of Wollmeise Lace and I saw two finished ones there that were gorgeous.

The other thing I love about visiting Germany and staying with Claudia? Her cute cat Xaverl. (She has two colorways named after him.) He hung out with us in the kitchen when we had breakfast, and he also liked curling up in a cute felted bag when we were knitting in Claudia’s living room. He was just a kitten when I visited two years ago, so it was fun to see him all grown up.

 

 

Now I’m back home, just about over jetlag, and startled to find that Christmas is only a week away. Yikes. When did that happen? It is dangerous to be gone for 9 days in December. (Oh, but it was worth it.)

And guess what? There are Christkindlmarkts in the U.S., too. I see that Denver has one, so we are heading down there to check it out this weekend. Hoping they have Baum Striezel …

Sheri whodoesn’tneedanymorebaumstriezel.ButdidImentionwarmbread/butter/cinnamonsugar?