CHRISTMAS MARKETS (WEINACHMART)
What a good idea! Have a market where all kinds of local and imported goods are sold and people can shop for gifts and decorations while they eat and drink and meet friends and neighbors. Actually, Mexico and Spain have them, Italy has some, but the US just has those darn shopping malls, so we must be too civilized for this sort of thing. But they are such fun! The temptation to buy everything was strong, and so I was quite thrifty, instead being content to look for the next booth that sold hot wine (gluhwein). You pay a deposit for the first cup and then keep the cup and turn it in each time and get the wine in another clean cup for a little over a euro. We came home with two mugs as souvenirs from 2 of the 3 markets we went to.
Depending on the market, the cozy set-ups were like small stores, and some were even in whimsical shapes, like the train engine booth. There was an amazing variety of products for sale. One booth had only brushes and brush related items, like a brush cleaner set. Another had only wind up toys. Many booths had traditional cookies and candies, and in the three markets we attended, there was always a bees wax candle booth, wooden candle pyramid booths, and native and Polish pottery. We bought a pair of tongs from a booth with only kitchen accessories, and we purchased ginger candy, cinnamon sticks, and hot wine spices from a crowded tea and spices booth.
The Frankfurt weinachmart is the oldest in Germany, having been started in the 1300s. It is in the middle of the historical center of Frankfurt and has grown so that today it extends down the busiest shopping streets of the city. The permanent buildings in this area are just gorgeous, many of them being reconstructed after being destroyed by allied bombing in World War 2. We spent a lot of time there as it was by far the biggest with the most variety. The booths there were really little houses transported for the occasion, and their relative permanence made these clever establishments the most solid looking. A soup booth there looked like a good sized well-equipped kitchen with a raised linoleum floor and 5 giant pots on heaters around which the five employees moved, efficiently filling orders. A sausage booth was a huge suspended revolving metal cage enclosing sausages that could be moved over the coals or to any part of the booth to fill customers orders. Ingenious! And after eating German sausages in Italy that do not have the proper spices, eating the knockwursts and bratwursts and rindwursts were a real treat.
The Heidelberg market was set against the beautiful castle that we had visited on our previous trip here on the mountain above the city. This city also had set up a skating rink close by the market and as on our last trip, it was full of tourists. The other smaller market we went to in Ladenburg was full of local products and quite amateurish in relation to the other two. But there was such a warm and pleasant feeling about this small market set up in the picturesque town square! Here we saw groups of people encountering and greeting each other, so much so that it seemed we were the only ones in town that did not know everyone else. Their gluhwein cup was the most interesting, being in the shape of a boot. I cannot report on its taste, though, since by that time I had realized that it was the hot spiced red wine that was giving me such headaches in the middle of the night! Steve tells me that it was quite good. That night we had supper in a cellar where our meat came on a stone so that we could cook it ourselves. Good beefsteak is another luxury we do not have in Sicily.
And with all the walking and eating, I did not gain a pund!
Depending on the market, the cozy set-ups were like small stores, and some were even in whimsical shapes, like the train engine booth. There was an amazing variety of products for sale. One booth had only brushes and brush related items, like a brush cleaner set. Another had only wind up toys. Many booths had traditional cookies and candies, and in the three markets we attended, there was always a bees wax candle booth, wooden candle pyramid booths, and native and Polish pottery. We bought a pair of tongs from a booth with only kitchen accessories, and we purchased ginger candy, cinnamon sticks, and hot wine spices from a crowded tea and spices booth.
The Frankfurt weinachmart is the oldest in Germany, having been started in the 1300s. It is in the middle of the historical center of Frankfurt and has grown so that today it extends down the busiest shopping streets of the city. The permanent buildings in this area are just gorgeous, many of them being reconstructed after being destroyed by allied bombing in World War 2. We spent a lot of time there as it was by far the biggest with the most variety. The booths there were really little houses transported for the occasion, and their relative permanence made these clever establishments the most solid looking. A soup booth there looked like a good sized well-equipped kitchen with a raised linoleum floor and 5 giant pots on heaters around which the five employees moved, efficiently filling orders. A sausage booth was a huge suspended revolving metal cage enclosing sausages that could be moved over the coals or to any part of the booth to fill customers orders. Ingenious! And after eating German sausages in Italy that do not have the proper spices, eating the knockwursts and bratwursts and rindwursts were a real treat.
The Heidelberg market was set against the beautiful castle that we had visited on our previous trip here on the mountain above the city. This city also had set up a skating rink close by the market and as on our last trip, it was full of tourists. The other smaller market we went to in Ladenburg was full of local products and quite amateurish in relation to the other two. But there was such a warm and pleasant feeling about this small market set up in the picturesque town square! Here we saw groups of people encountering and greeting each other, so much so that it seemed we were the only ones in town that did not know everyone else. Their gluhwein cup was the most interesting, being in the shape of a boot. I cannot report on its taste, though, since by that time I had realized that it was the hot spiced red wine that was giving me such headaches in the middle of the night! Steve tells me that it was quite good. That night we had supper in a cellar where our meat came on a stone so that we could cook it ourselves. Good beefsteak is another luxury we do not have in Sicily.
And with all the walking and eating, I did not gain a pund!
posted by Sicilian Mama at 7:19 AM
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