We traveled to Sommerhausen this year to visit the unusual Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) there. It's just a small town, a little south of Würzburg. It's on the Main river, and on our trip from Würzburg to Sommerhausen we passed an unbroken string of vineyards covering the slopes on both sides of the river valley. When we got to Sommerhausen we entered through the city gate of the old walled town.
We walked along the cobble-stone streets bordered by the fachwerk (half-timbered) houses to our small, family-run hotel, which has a schnaps distillery behind the house (run by the same family). After checking in, we had to take the tour and taste the intermediate product!
In the picture to the left, in front of the house, you can see a wooden pen; there was a ewe in there with a newborn lamb, all spindly legs and short woolly coat nursing frequently as Mama chewed her cud. The pen was on the end of a shed selling woolen things - slippers and sheepskins and knitted items. Mama and baby were there the whole weekend; we walked by this pen to get to our little hotel.
With all the vineyards around, the most popular beverage was wine, of course. We tried a Glühwein (hot spiced wine) made from the local white wine and spiced according to "Great-Grandma's recipe". It was delicious. So was the goose and pork loin that Kathy and I had to eat. This was at the restaurant run by the same family who runs the hotel and the distillery!
The picture at right is one of the local establishments that has framed its windows in old wine barrels. This place was famous for its game dishes and goat cheese.
A Weihnachtsmarkt is outdoors, and so was much of this one, but instead of all the booths being in one central square, there were a lot of displays packed into little corners and in the little courtyards throughout the oldest, medieval part of the town. Even the cellars and the entryways of the houses where the craftsmen have their studios were used to display the wares. At the left you see Kathy in front of one of the other distilleries where we tasted and bought some of the end product.
The Weihnachtsmarkt was full of handcrafts; that's not the unusual part. The unusual part was how many fine craftsmen displayed their wares, and how artistic the wares were. We saw a glass blower making Orchid holders. This brought back fond memories of our trip to Lauscha two years ago. He made some tree ornaments with a hole on the side where a lit candle can be inserted (see picture above taken of our own tree). We had to buy a few of them.
We visited a potter who made a fine white porcelain candle shade that glows when a candle is lit inside. We had to buy one of those.
On the main street was a shop that sold hand-turned wooden items such as bowls and fountain pens made from the pilings of the historic bridge across the Main river. There was beautiful work for sale in many little galleries, including unique clothing; beautiful, colorful glass items; water color paintings and painted porcelain items. The prices were very reasonable, considering the high quality of the work (by reasonable I mean a price that was not out of my reach for a unique piece of artwork that I would really enjoy looking at). Richard saw a pair of painted porcelain espresso cups and saucers that he really liked. They were beautiful, and Kathy encouraged him to buy them, but he thought they would be too precious to use. One of the pictures above is from the paper artist who cut silhouettes and other paper art.
In the castle courtyard (which belongs to a family-run wine maker) there was a booth selling exquisite pralines (chocolate truffles and fancy chocolates) in many tempting colors and flavors. The castle was more mansion-sized, but the town does have an intact medieval double fortification wall with all of its gates intact, so there must have been a local lord to run things!
We bought some liqueur made from a berry called Schlehen (called blackthorn or sloe in English). There were plenty of opportunities to taste the liqueurs and schnaps along the way. Of course, we enjoyed hot roasted chestnuts.
These are the things we love about spending Christmas in Germany: the centuries-old traditions, the emphasis on traditional food and drink, on high-quality handcrafts, and the opportunities to enjoy great music. Next weekend we have tickets for a Christmas symphony concert performed by members of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. We are really looking forward to it. Last weekend we went to a concert of traditional Bavarian Christmas music.The songs and music were new to us, and it was all played on traditional instruments, including guitars, brass instruments and hammered dulcimers, and sung by a four-voice men's group and a women's choir. Very nice way to start the season. Afterwards we visited a couple of the smaller Nürnberg Christmas Markets, including the largest Feuersangenbowle (hot mulled wine mixed with melted sugar from a rum-soaked sugar cone set aflame in a huge kettle) in the world. We bought a "little prune man" (Zwetschgenmänle) at the Christmas Market (Christkindlesmarkt), which is traditional to this region and hard to find anywhere else. It was snowing very atmospherically and the city was all lit up with Christmas lights.
We wish all of you a safe and happy Christmas season full of happy memories of friends and family and the things you love about Christmas! May your days be merry and bright!
We walked along the cobble-stone streets bordered by the fachwerk (half-timbered) houses to our small, family-run hotel, which has a schnaps distillery behind the house (run by the same family). After checking in, we had to take the tour and taste the intermediate product!In the picture to the left, in front of the house, you can see a wooden pen; there was a ewe in there with a newborn lamb, all spindly legs and short woolly coat nursing frequently as Mama chewed her cud. The pen was on the end of a shed selling woolen things - slippers and sheepskins and knitted items. Mama and baby were there the whole weekend; we walked by this pen to get to our little hotel.
The picture at right is one of the local establishments that has framed its windows in old wine barrels. This place was famous for its game dishes and goat cheese.
A Weihnachtsmarkt is outdoors, and so was much of this one, but instead of all the booths being in one central square, there were a lot of displays packed into little corners and in the little courtyards throughout the oldest, medieval part of the town. Even the cellars and the entryways of the houses where the craftsmen have their studios were used to display the wares. At the left you see Kathy in front of one of the other distilleries where we tasted and bought some of the end product.
The Weihnachtsmarkt was full of handcrafts; that's not the unusual part. The unusual part was how many fine craftsmen displayed their wares, and how artistic the wares were. We saw a glass blower making Orchid holders. This brought back fond memories of our trip to Lauscha two years ago. He made some tree ornaments with a hole on the side where a lit candle can be inserted (see picture above taken of our own tree). We had to buy a few of them.
We visited a potter who made a fine white porcelain candle shade that glows when a candle is lit inside. We had to buy one of those.
On the main street was a shop that sold hand-turned wooden items such as bowls and fountain pens made from the pilings of the historic bridge across the Main river. There was beautiful work for sale in many little galleries, including unique clothing; beautiful, colorful glass items; water color paintings and painted porcelain items. The prices were very reasonable, considering the high quality of the work (by reasonable I mean a price that was not out of my reach for a unique piece of artwork that I would really enjoy looking at). Richard saw a pair of painted porcelain espresso cups and saucers that he really liked. They were beautiful, and Kathy encouraged him to buy them, but he thought they would be too precious to use. One of the pictures above is from the paper artist who cut silhouettes and other paper art.
In the castle courtyard (which belongs to a family-run wine maker) there was a booth selling exquisite pralines (chocolate truffles and fancy chocolates) in many tempting colors and flavors. The castle was more mansion-sized, but the town does have an intact medieval double fortification wall with all of its gates intact, so there must have been a local lord to run things!
We bought some liqueur made from a berry called Schlehen (called blackthorn or sloe in English). There were plenty of opportunities to taste the liqueurs and schnaps along the way. Of course, we enjoyed hot roasted chestnuts.
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| Largest Feuersangenbowle in the world! |
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| Nürnberg Christkindlesmarkt |
We wish all of you a safe and happy Christmas season full of happy memories of friends and family and the things you love about Christmas! May your days be merry and bright!
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| Zwetschgenmänle |
1 comment:
Just reading your comments and feeling the tone you impart to the words along with the pictures makes the season here in our "young" country take on some of the lights and feelings. Tradition, Tradition!!
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