Germany

Amanda has been nursing a cold since she arrived. A headcold of the kind that makes you wish you could cut off your own head at the neck. I feel for her.

On Tuesday we took a trip to Frankfurt. I won't write much of this trip because, frankly, there is not much to say. We got lost in the city and couldn't find the Christmas Markets. The best we could do was to find a decent oriental restaurant for lunch. In the scheme of things, Frankfurt is a large city. It has 4 to 5 million in poplulation, which is easily ten times that of the Strasbourg area. Consequently, one can't just trust to luck in finding and following the right signs. Prior proper planning.......definitely required. The only good thing about the trip was that we stopped off at a Walmart in Karlsruhe on the way home. Seems that Walmart has a fairly large presence in Germany resulting from their purchase of a local chain of "hypermarkets". In Karlsruhe, they have, by far, the largest Walmart I have ever seen in my life. Heaven can be defined as anyplace where you can buy Charmin toilet paper. By this definition, Karlsruhe is heaven.

Wednesay was a lost day. Theresa and I had to get our "carte de sejour"...which is the final document that allows us to stay in France (legally) for more than three months. Like all good beauracracies, the French immigration service required us wait in line for four hours. Specifically, we had to be in front of the Prefecture by 7:30, stand outside until the doors open at 8:00, wait for another 30 minutes until the police sorted out the mob trying to get in (Europe in general and France, specifically, do not form waiting lines very well.) , and then finally, wait another 3.5 hours until our number came up for service. I cannot bad-mouth France about this, though, because it seems that the USA has become far worse for entrance since 9/11/2001. In the end, we have the required visa in our passports. That is all that matters.

The adventure for Thursday, then, was to go to Freiburg, Germany for the Christmas Markets. This took a bit of courage after the disaster that was Frankfurt. Freiburg, however, is a much smaller city. The city center was easy to find, allowing for a couple of U-turns thrown in to rectify the lousy driving. Once found the city center was absolutely charming.

First off, Freiburg sits in a picturesque setting at the foothills of the mountains that make up the Black Forest. Put some mountains in the background and any city will automatically look ten times better.

Second, Freiburg has a beautiful old cathedral in the city center.

The cathedral (or Munster as the Germans call it) has a bit of folklore to it. It seems that, during WWII, the entire city center was destroyed in air raids. Destroyed, in this case, means absolutely flattened. ABSOLUTELY FLATTENED. Miraculously, not a single bomb touched the cathedral. And this is a HUGE building. Statistically, it is impossible to explain unless you believe in higher powers.

Here is a picture of a stained glass window in the Munster. I really like this one because it has images of pretzels in it. (Look toward the bottom and you can just make them out.)

The Christmas Market in Freiburg is very much more intimate than the markets in Strasbourg. It is much smaller and feels much more home-grown. The biggest measure of this is in the food. The Freiburg market offers an assortment of food including an incredible array of sausages, sauerkraut, fried potatoes, beer, mulled wine, chocolate-dipped bananas, and dried fruits.
The selection of ornaments was not so good. We set out looking for a tree-topper. In the end, we went home empty-handed. However, we did manage to fill up on some pretty good sausages and chocolates. All-in-all, I find myself agreeing with my German friend who said that the Christmas Markets in Germany offer more charm and authenticity than do the ones in Strasbourg.

And finally, the markets in Freiburg win my heart because they have springerles. There is nothing more peculiar and special in my Christmas memories than these rock-hard cookies. I cannot remember a Christmas where these cookies were not made by either my mother or her mother or her relatives. Moreover, I don't think I've ever seen one outside the context of a family get-together or gift exchange. Yet here they were, in Freiburg, for sale as a common item as if people would acutally choose to eat them out of taste, rather than ritual.

The picture above shows 12 springerles. The first 6 were purchased in Freiburg, Germany. The remaining 6 were sent by my momma in a Christmas care package. I defy anyone to tell the difference.