Postings from Germany

Second Advent

We've lit the second candle on the Advent Wreath. The Poinsettia is still with us!

It is a bit more seasonal temperature-wise today, but not much! Low-50's is really quite warm for December. Add that it is a wonderfully sunny day, and for lots of people it felt rather spring-like. We saw groups of people on bikes, joggers in shorts - even we opened our jackets and loosened our scarves a bit taking our afternoon walk.

This is high season for the Weihnachtsmärkte, the Christmas Markets. Some who study German in the US know it as the Christkindlmarkt - the Christ Child Market - but that's because there's a clear south German (read: Bavarian) influence in all the books there, and we are NORTH Germans! But it doesn't really matter what you call it, the theme is the same everywhere.
See the tree on the ship? It's a good 10 feet high, but looks pretty puny. This is the Schulschiff Deutschland, a training ship that now is permanently anchored where the Lesum flows into the Weser. Graying and dusk, but it's still festive.


Here's a "mood" shot of the entrance to the pedestrian zone here in Vegesack. We have our own Weihachts markt of course, but it town it's much grander.

There are always lots of stands selling goods that are suitable for gift-giving or decorating or for sustaining you while you look for things for gift-giving or decorating! So there are stands with Bratwurst, Glühwein (mulled wine), and other snacks and drinks. It's not the same atmosphere as the Oktoberfest, but people do get together and wander through the market and enjoy the sights and each other's company.

We were in town Friday to do some shopping and could hardly avoid the Markt at the main square. Here's Werner - among the hundreds and hundreds every day - with the Rathaus in the background.


Saturday as we were heading - as usual - to the open air market here in Vegesack, we noticed some activity at the local church - they were getting ready for a little market of their own. We stopped on the way back, watched a bit of the children's theater piece and enjoyed the small-town atmosphere of the bazaar.



Later I decorated the tree. That is still a "me" thing: Werner can always find something else to do. It's OK; I put on the Christmas music, listen and decorate away. I think next year we'll have two trees - one for all the pelicans, one for all the Santas! Then he can have his own to decorate.


Sunday, still sunny and not cold, we ventured out for a walk and found ourselves in Eggestedt, founded in 1273 as you can see here on the stone. I don't think any of the farms there were quite that old, but I'm pretty sure the village isn't much bigger now than it was then.

Winter rye has been planted and starting to come up, so those fields are a deep, deep green - however this rye will be harvested for grain, not just mowed for lawns.

We still don't have a tripod for the camera, so taking pictures of ourselves is a singular affair. Here's a rather ghostly composite of two singular shots. But we look happy!