Second Advent

All alone this morning, Werner and I.  It is quiet, except of course for the joyous ringing of the church bells.  It is Advent, after all!  At 8AM it was rather normal but the 10AM ringing was clearly more celebratory.  If it isn't as grey and rainy next week as this morning, I'll try and capture that.  We're between the older Lutheran church and the newer Catholic church and sometimes we hear them both.  It's a confusion of sound that is nevertheless pleasing to the ear.
 
After breakfast and the lighting of the second Advent candle, we headed off to Schloß Hagen, located between here and Bremerhaven.  There was a Christmas market and since I've been out so little these last weeks, it seemed ideal for a little walk and a little look at a small town market.  Ah, but our timing was off!!  They were still setting up when we arrived.  But we checked out some of the stalls and walked around the Schloß.  It's even more rustic than ours here in Schönebeck, but still nice and certainly in its time infinitely more elegant than the surrounding village homes.
 

There was a life-sized Nativity scene; next to it, bleating sheep.  Boy were they bleating!
 

 
At the Scholß entrance, the door holder caught my eye.  It must be pretty old, though I have no idea if it's original. But isn't it fun!?  Not just a clip for the door, but a dragon to hold it fast.  Or maybe dragons are in the eye of the beholder.

They had set up a carousel, first in service in 1868 with curious wooden animals figures and chariots for the little ones.  It was so cold!! We wondered how many little customers they'd have.  But all the Christmas markets are really set up for the children so you just have to be prepared.
  

After a leisurely ride back to town and a dinner of leftovers (yummy, since we'd made too much the night before of coated and fried pork filet, broccoli and potatoes) we went to see a performance of the African Choir of Jacobs University.

You'd think they'd be black, all these members of the African Choir, but not.  First of all, not all the African students at Jacobs want to sing and all those who want to be a part of the choir aren't African.  They're Asian and Dutch and German and American and Indian among others.  But most important to us, was Nickolet was a part of the choir.

Isn't she pretty!  Friends at home had sent this native costume to her. 

And we were really impressed with their performance.  Later I'll add a snippet, so come back.