What else did we see?

Well, after exploring the Christmas market and holiday decorations and lights on Saturday (plus doing a little retail therapy for both the Budman AND me), we decided to walk the city a bit on Sunday. As you can see by the photos, this is indeed one BIG port city. Even after having seen the ports of Hong Kong and Shanghai, we still found this one quite impressive in terms of its sheer size and volume of traffic. Supposedly, it is the second largest port in the world (behind Shanghai). So, it is no wonder that this city has thrived as a merchant city for hundreds of years.

View of Hamburg from the port; St. Michaelkirche, the signature landmark in Hamburg is in the distance.



Hamburg’s port.







Buddy on a tour of Hamburg's Port.



As is our habit, it is important to check out the local architecture as well. In most German cities, the churches often provide some of the most interesting and beautiful architecture, although in the case of Hamburg, there is a lot of new/modern architecture to be seen as well. Not usually being a fan of modern architecture, I must confess to feeling that the “old” and "new” were rather balanced in this city.

Most of the churches in Hamburg were destroyed multiple times (i.e. fire, war, etc.), notably in WWII. All but one has been restored to working churches, including St. Michaelskirche and St. Katharinenkirche. OK, so they are not the Gothic works of art we saw in France in September, but still….



One church, Alte St. Nikolaikirche, was all but virtually destroyed during WWII. One spire and a few ruins are all that remain of this church which today is a monument and reminder of the ravages of war.



Interesting footnote: Hamburg is a city of canals. Canals are everywhere, as you can imagine, being that these water roadways were used to bring merchandise and goods up from the port and stored in warehouses for further distribution. Today, many of these old warehouses are still used for storage facilities; however, more and more are being converted into retail space, offices, and residential housing. Very cool.

One of many Hamburg canals and footbridges.





Freihafen Hamburg (free port) and Speicherstadt (warehouses); these are the buildings being converted more and more to other uses.

St. Nikolaus’ Day

St. Nikolaus' Day, celebrated on December 6th in Germany and many European countries, is favorite holiday of all children, as it is a gift-giving day. (Heck, it is a favorite day of mine, if gifts are involved.) St. Nikolaus is the patron saint of all kids, bakers and seamen.

The story of St. Nikolaus, the bishop of Myra in Minor Asia who died on December 6th, 343, dates back to the 4th century. History tells us that he was in the company of Knecht Ruprecht ("Knecht" meaning "servant"). Historically, Ruprecht was a dark and sinister figure wearing a tattered robe with a big sack on his back in which, as a legend says, he would put all naughty children. As the gift-giving function of St. Nikolaus began to shift to the events of the Christmas season and an emphasis on the birth of Christ, Knecht Ruprecht became the servant and companion of the Christchild. In this role Ruprecht, became the patron saint of Christmas and was called "Weihnachtsmann," Father Christmas, or Santa Claus.

Here’s a photo of St. Nickolaus at one of last year’s Christmas markets.



A little different from “Santa Cycle Dudes” we saw this last weekend in Hamburg.





Originally, children left hay and straw for St. Nicholas’ horses but now they simply put a shoe or boot outside their bedroom door, window, or by the fireplace on the evening of December 5th, hoping to find it full of sweets, biscuits, nuts ,and fruit the next morning.

Another tradition kept for this day is baking Stutenkerl, or Printenmann (e.g. gingerbread). Not being the baker, I’ll opt to follow the gift giving tradition (smile).

Hamburg Christmas Market

A weekend business conference for the Budman required him to visit Hamburg, so we decided, “OK, we’ll go to Hamburg this weekend and check out the Christmas Markets as well!” After concluding his meetings Saturday noon, we headed to Hamburg’s Old Town. And can I say, I was quite pleasantly surprised by this city, the second largest in Germany. Great shopping, lots of pedestrian-only streets (so no car dodging required), and the multitude of canals weaving through the city make it a very easy (albeit, urban) place to visit.

First, I was surprised to see the Rathaus, as it quite unlike those in other German cities and towns. First, it is HUGE! Bigger than Buckingham Palace, with 6 more rooms (how do guidebooks figure that out?). Begun in 1866, it was built by sinking 4000 piles into the marshy, soft land surrounding the market square. Finally completed in 1892, it contains 647 rooms and an imposing clock tower. No tour of the interior this year, as the Budman and I had “all things Christmas” on the brain; maybe next time.





The market(s) were spread out in 3-4 locations around the main square in Altstadt where the Hamburg Rathaus is located, as well as along Jungfernstieg, one of several lovely shopping areas in Hamburg.



Unbeknownst to me, Hamburg is not only a port city (and a huge one at that); it is also city of canals. More on that tomorrow. However, some of Santa elves were apparently have some crew races this fine Saturday.



Just about the time we arrived, the market was in full swing, and when I say in full swing, it was so crowded we could barely walk through the stalls. We did persevere for a few rows, however.

















Of course, Christmas markets are about the food.









One of the more clever things at the Hamburg Christmas Market was a “surprise” visit by Santa; as you can see from these photos, he flew through the market square sharing his brand of Christmas cheer. As his “ho-ho-ho” echoed across the loud speaker, I can say that several of the dogs were not thrilled that Santa was making a visit.







The Christmas Market by night…













Hamburg’s nightly Christmas parade.

Not sure why I was surprised…

I am walking through the Dusseldorf train station last Friday evening when it caught my eye; I spied it up ahead, and out of sheer curiosity, had to walk toward it, if only to verify that my eyes were seeing things clearly. And yes, there it was….

A child of no more than eight of nine years of age (with luggage in tow, a.k.a. rollerbag), chatting away on his mobile phone with his BLUETOOTH attached to his ear. I don’t even have a Bluetooth!

What exactly does a child of eight need with a mobile phone, much less a Bluetooth? Are those play dates just getting more difficult to schedule? Or does today’s “child on the go” really need to go “hands-free” when talking on his mobile? I guess the answer is yes!

Not sure why I was surprised….

St. Barbara’s Day

Today is another one of “those” holidays during Advent season that I am not familiar with.

As the story goes, Barbara was the daughter of a rich merchant, Dioscuros, in what is present day Turkey. Dioscuros decided to lock Barbara in a tower with only 2 windows while he took a journey, in order to protect Barbara’s ”innocence”. During his absence, the tower now showed 3 windows. Many saw it as a sign of a miracle as the third window was seen to symbolize the sign of the Holy Trinity; Barbara was baptized by a priest during her father’s absence.

As the legend continues, this was all done without Dioscuros’s consent; thus, Barbara was accused, tortured, and condemned to death. As a branch of a cherry tree had gotten caught in Barbara’s dress when she was locked in the dungeon awaiting her execution, Barbara watered it with the water from her drinking cup. On the day of her execution which the angry father had personally made (in the winter of 306), the branch bloomed.

From this comes story comes the notion of Barbarazweig, the custom of bringing branches into the house on December 4th to bloom on Christmas. In some areas of Germany, St. Barbara's Day is also the day to bake Kletzenbot (a fruit cake).

St. Andreas’ Day (St. Andrew’s Day) (again)

Well, the day has officially passed, and when someone reminded me of that, I sadly could not remember the significance...even with a post on it this time last year. Reprint...if only for my feeble brain.

Not being Catholic but living in a predominantly Catholic part of Germany, a few of the Christmas traditions and celebrations are not familiar to me. November 30th, known as St. Andreas’ Day, is one such day.

In the evangelical, catholic and orthodox churches, Saint Andreas, the brother of Saint Peter, he was one of 12 apostles accompanying Jesus and was a witness of the Ascension Day. Martyred under Emperor Nero, he is remembered is remembered on November 30th, which is traditionally considered the date of his martyrdom in 60 A.D. He is said to have died on an X-shaped cross, which the Romans sometimes used for executions, thereby coming to be called St. Andreas' cross.

St. Andreas' Day also marks the opening of many of the Christmas Markets, and many Midwinter customs and folk superstitions are connected to this day.

One of these customs is known as "Klöpfelnächte." Throughout different regions of Germany, this event describes groups of Christmas carolers from who walk from door to door. After knocking (klopfen) or ringing the doorbell (glocke), they sing for gifts. Some sources say that this symbolizes the angel bringing the message of Christ's birth to Mary; others ascribe it to earlier rituals of driving out evil spirits with loud knocking sounds.

Whatever the symbolism, for a long time it was one of the few ways by which the poor could earn a meal during the winter season. The duration of this tradition varies widely and can last until Epiphany (January 6). Today it is mostly performed by children, who try to collect gifts for themselves or donations for charity.

Reflections on Christkindlmarkt – Year 2

Even before making our home in Germany, I had heard about Christkindlmarkts , the German Christmas Markets. Their reputations do precede themselves, but I am starting to observe that this generic term applied to this traditional German Christmas activity does indeed vary from city to city.

After all, I am no longer a novice to the Christkindlmarkt. Last year, the Budman and I probably explored somewhere in the neighborhood of 10-12 different markets. Yes, they all have the food stalls: gluwhein, bratwurst, printen, candy, backfleisch, etc. It is the difference in merchandise at the various booths that surprises me.

Before I go any further, for those of you who are not familiar with the concept, and did not catch the blog article last year (smile), a bit of context for you.

Every town has their own little "Christkindlmarkt", kind of a market-fest, where people gather to enjoy the Christmas time. These markets offer baked goods, sweets and toys and feature local and regional specialties. Larger cities like Frankfurt or Nuremberg have large markets, and attract many tourists, both local and foreign. They open before the first Sunday of Advent, around the time of Thanksgiving in the U.S., and usually continue until December 24th at 12 noon.

For example, Nuremberg's Christkindlesmarkt (Christ Child Market) is the most famous and one of the oldest. The first official record of this pre-Christmas market dates to 1628. A list of notices for stallholders from 1737 shows that nearly all of Nuremberg's craftsmen were represented. Back then 140 persons were given the right to sell their wares. In 1998 there were 190 stalls with 200 stallholders.

Fast forward to 2007, and the concept of the Christmas Market is still alive and well. So, allow me now to ramble just a bit:

* Call me crazy, but I suppose I expect to see a preponderance of “German” products, as opposed to the “international” merchandise I’ve seen so much of this year: Turkish and Moroccan lamps, African bric-a-brac, Russian nesting dolls, just to name a few. I kind of wanted to “OD” on German ornaments, nutcrackers, German gifts, etc. After all, it is Germany.

* Being a gal that tries to see the glass half full, maybe the Germans (the people predominantly shopping at the Christmas markets) are ready to shop for other things. Heck, they live in Germany after all; they can get those traditional German knick-knacks all year round.

* Which brings me to my second point: if you are touting Christkindlmarkt as a tourist destination, trust me, tourists want to see “all things German”, rather than the Turkish smoking pipe or the Chinese lantern. How many bees-wax candle booths can really be sustained in any one Christmas market? Clearly, someone has the franchise working on that one.

* It must be tough to differentiate yourself as a city from the Christmas market in the next town. I mean, I’ve already visited Dusseldorf’s Christmas Market, but if I did not live here, I probably would not have made this one of my 2007 Christkindlmarkt travel destinations. It is almost rather humorous to see what the “draw” is going to be for each city’s market: Cologne – medieval Christmas market, Dortmund – the tallest Christmas tree in Germany, Dresden – the oldest market, Frankfurt – the largest market, etc.

* I’ve already hit 3-4 Christmas markets this year, albeit some of the lesser known ones. Perhaps, I am playing this right be leading up to the “mother” of all Christkindlmarkts, the Dresden Christmas market. As we are not scheduled to visit Dresden until the 15th or so, I can only base my comments on this market’s reputation. I’ll have to get back to you on that one.

* Stating the obvious, Christmas markets are better without the rain….

* All said, how much variation can there really be between one Christmas market and another? Can’t it really be said that “if you’ve seen one Christmas market, you’ve really seen them all?” Well, so far, I’d have to agree with that somewhat, but I’d like to do a bit more “investigative” research on that before I confirm. Sure…I am always up for another reason to take a weekend trip!

So, after weekend #1 of the 2006 Christkindlmarkt season , a few markets for your viewing pleasure: Cologne, Aachen, and Dusseldorf.

















Yes, this was a first at a Christmas Market…he was just too cute!









Lest, there be any doubt, though, they are charming, cute, fun, and a true experience, especially if you have never visited one.