Christmas Market

A very German way to celebrate Christmas is going to a Christmas market. If a craft fair and a state fair loved one another very much and had a baby all through December, that's a Christmas market. Except without the "my animal/vegetable/mineral is bigger than yours" posturing.

My city is on the small side and its market is sized accordingly, so I spent this afternoon in Wiesbaden on the recommendation of a friend who used to live nearby. She told me the market was nice, and she was right. I arrived around 3:30 to preserve a bit of daylight for taking pictures. My camera gives up at night.

Market Church, in the main square.

 

It looked really pretty as the sun went down.

Ambulances standing by, just in case. How German.

An example of the stalls.

This orchestra played for over four hours.

Ooo, sparkly!

The light is fading...

This gives you an idea about how many people were there.

So I wandered about and ate gingerbread and drank Glühwein (mulled wine, essentially) and thoroughly enjoyed myself. The problem with the crowds was that you couldn't actually walk in some places, you had to be sort of carried along in a collective slow movement. This got rather frustrating sometimes, especially when the process was further slowed by not having designated lanes.

The market is called "Sternschnuppenmarkt"...

which translates to "twinkling star Christmas market"

Slightly blurry, but dramatic nevertheless.

The Germans do love their sausage.

The market was especially pretty after dark.

 Not that my camera cares to show you, but it's true - all the trees were hung with lights and most of the stalls were edged in them. Everything smelled good, everything looked good, and we had live Christmas music the whole time. It was great.

No nativity controversy in Germany.

A final shot of the lights.

The flowers-made-out-of-light threw me off a bit. They were everywhere and very bright, but unlabeled. I'm debating between poinsettia and tulip. Thoughts?