A first look at a Christmas market

Sunday, Dec. 16, 2012

We spent our first night in our house!  Everyone slept well.  Lea fell asleep so early that she was up at 4 am! She napped by 11 am.  The house and the neighborhood are very quiet.  We ate delicious pretzels and bread for breakfast.  Brad, Lainie and I walked over to see where the small local grocery store is.  It's very close!  Too bad they are closed on Sundays...hard for us Americans to grasp :)

Our neighborhood looks like a typical little German town....

narrow streets, cool looking houses.  This street is one over from ours and has bigger homes than our street. One even has a southern US-looking wrap around porch!  There are many Christmas lights and decorations everywhere.

Our friend Karen picked us up with her 2 kids and we all went to the Augsburg Christkindlesmarkt which is the Christmas market.  I just about blew a gasket with excitement!!  It reminded me of an art fair.  There are rows of different vendor booths.  Some sell food, some are handmade items, some are not.  Some sell Christmas items, some don't.  I was totally in heaven!  And it all happens in the City Center in front of the Rathaus (city hall).

That is the Rathaus in the background next to the Perlach Turm (tower).  So beautiful!!  We walked around to see what they had and I purchased a tiny Nativity scene.  The bottom is a stone, the background is a little twig and the figures are carved from wood.  Baby Jesus is a tiny pearl :)

We then bought a traditional Christmas market drink which is Gluehwein or mulled wine and Kinderpunsch was a mulled cider for the kids.  I, of course, had the Kinderpunsch!  These drinks are sold by several vendors and each has it's own ceramic mug they serve in.  You can keep the mug or return it for your deposit back.  We kept ours and then I bought an empty one at another vendor because I liked the cup!

We were ready for lunch so we all got some good stuff.  I had a Flamm Kuchen which is a delicious little flat bread thingy that comes in different flavors.  Mine was spread with some kind of sour cream or cream cheesy stuff, then has green onions and ham on it.  OMGermany it was spectacular!  Lea had a giant wurst of some kind smothered in onions.  Lainie had Schupfnudeln which was sauerkraut and potato noodles.  Brad had a steaksemmel which was thin pork chops and onions on a roll.  He then topped it off with a crepe filled with bananas and Nutella.  YUM!

 Crepe with bananas and Nutella, above

Flamm Kuchen

It was very crowded and only got more so as time went on.  I saw this lovely picture spot with greens in the background and a cute little Santa statue.  I was like, "Karen!  You have to take our picture here, it's so cute!"  Then as we got close I realized....it's a garbage can!!  LOL!!!

We got another good family shot as we were leaving, in a less trashy spot!!

We then went back to the Erath's house to hang out and wait to see Udo when he arrived home from out of town.  The kids all get along so well!  They had a blast playing the Wii and hanging out together.  We had a great meal that Karen pulled out of her belly button (LOL, you had to be there!) and good laughs.  

An amazing day!!!  We are blessed.