my first real taste of germany

Rich and I had planned to visit Wiesbaden's Christmas Market this past Friday night, but he'd traveled to another base a couple hours away for work during the day.  Since he arrived back at the Lodge later than he'd originally thought he would, we decided to wait until Saturday to go.  

First, though, we had a few things to do on Saturday morning.  We're both keeping our American cell phones, but we also need German phones that will allow us to call local numbers here.  And, in order to get German phones, you have to have a German bank account.  Luckily, Rich knows a guy here who just arrived here a couple weeks and just went through the whole process.  Gerald is from Arkansas, and he and Rich were stationed together in Honduras years ago.  Anyway, Gerald offered to go with us to guide us along.

Sidenote:  The Commissary is within walking distance from the Lodge, as it's only about a half mile away.  From the Commissary, you can walk down a big set of stairs down the hill to get to the area where the PX, movie theatre, cell phone store, bank, florist, bookstore, and more are housed.  I explain this part only so you'll understand that the Commissary is up on a hill, and at the top of the previously mentioned stairs is an absolutely amazing view of Wiesbaden (pronounced, by the way, VEEZ-bah-duhn):

View of downtown Wiesbaden from the Commissary.

We went to the bank first to get our account set up.  This went pretty quickly.  The lady who opened our account was from either California, Texas, or Oklahoma (she mentioned all of these!), and the other lady who came over to sit in on the process was a local German.  Both employees were very polite, but the second lady was quick to inform me that should Rich die, I will be immediately sent back to the States, the account will be immediately closed, but to rest assured that I can keep the money.  Thanks, German Lady.  Just for the record, I would like to report that Rich is in great health, great spirits, and isn't feeling deathly in any way.  Touch wood, everyone.  I know, it's weird.

With our new bank account info in hand, we then went next door to the cell phone store.  For those of you familiar with my husband's love for his trusty Blackberry, I want you all to know that he has now STEPPED INTO MODERN TIMES AND NOW HAS AN ANDROID!!  I will be using a prepaid phone that had belonged to someone who just PCS'd from here.  I'm great with this as all I'll really need to do with it is call and text Rich and other friends here.

The three of us had lunch at the food court, swung into the PX for a few things, then came back up to the Lodge.  Rich and I got ready to head downtown to the Christmas Market--the highlight of the weekend for me!  Once we were layered up and I was armed with my camera, we stopped by the front desk and got a map of the city.  

The walk wasn't bad at all.  We were both pretty chilly at first, but we quickly warmed up from the walking.  Before we got downtown, we stopped off at St. Josef's Hospital to use the restroom since we didn't know what the public restroom situation would be at the Market.  From there, we ventured down a side street to get back to our planned route.  Ummm, as it turns out, side streets in Germany produce magical sites for people like us who are amazed with historical buildings and beautiful architecture.  At this point, my camera was still in its bag--not for long.  

The detail in this home's facade is gorgeous.

Again, the detail here...wow.

Zooming in on the photo above, you can see the carved face just below the arch.

My handsome husband.

I wonder what she has seen from that vantage point over the last 117 years.

What I find most amazing about this kind of intricate architecture is that these houses were built over 100 years ago (and by European standards, that's just a blink of the eye...).  There were no computers, no AutoCAD, none of that.  They were just this skilled.  This is art.  

And then, I started to notice something else.  These tall, exquisite spires seemed to top about every other house or so.  I see a future post dedicated to just a collection of these that I find across Germany:

That's not the only pattern I saw.  I predict another post dedicated just to the ornamental iron fences I find:

Seriously?!  I never would have thought that I would be so fascinated with something so menial as fences.  

After we made it back to the street that led us down to the Market, we could see the Marktkirche (Market Church) in the distance.  I've seen this beautiful church in many of the videos and websites we researched prior to moving here, but seeing it in person is breathtaking.  Rich noticed as we were walking that the sun was setting and casting this perfect glow on the western side of the towers, but I couldn't get the shot in time.  This is what I did get:

In the foreground is Erbprinzenpalais, a palace built in 1813 for Prince William of Nassau-Weilburg.  I had no idea this was a palace when I took this photo.

Then, we took another unplanned detour into the Warmer Damm (warm pond) Park.  It was designed around 1860 as a landscape park.  I'd seen this park a couple of days before as we sped by in a car, but unfortunately I didn't get to see much and I was so disappointed.  But here we were, standing in the middle of it, and I was again in complete awe.  Here's why:

From bottom to top:  Warmer Damm, outdoor ice skating rink, and the Hessian State Theatre and Colonnade.  Construction on the Theatre began in 1839 and was completed in 1894 on behalf of Emperor William II.

The buildings in the distance line Wilhelmstrasse, or Wilhelm Street.

A bunny hanging out in the grass.  Keep in mind, this is in the middle of a city.

We moved on toward the Marktplatz, and my jaw just drug the ground for a while in absolute amazement.  This place is magical.  I don't know how else to describe it.  And you know what I find so exciting about that?  Wiesbaden is only the first city we've even begun to explore in Europe.  I feel pretty certain at this point that the next four years will be one ridiculous experience after the other.  

We took a few cell phone pics of each other:

Is that Albert Einstein?

See that monument behind Rich at the top of the steps?  It's a fountain.  More photos of this below!

That fountain I mentioned above behind Rich?  Beautiful.  I feel like I've used that word way too much in this post, but I assure you that it is complete accurate.

Some other cool things we saw in the immediate area:

An apothecary, or pharmacy.  I worked at Eckerd in high school...it didn't look like this.

This guy was the lookout of a doorway just outside the Market.  

And now, the pièce de résistance...Christmas Market time.  There was an awesome lit entrance:

Sternschnappenmarkt, or Wiesbaden's Twinkling Star Christmas Market.

Christmas markets in the area began back in the Middle Ages.  Vendors sell different types of food, drinks, gifts, and seasonal decor like nutcrackers and ornaments from open-air booths.  But the highlight (and the most common thing I've heard the most about from friends who have lived or visited Germany) is the glühwein, pronounced like glue-vine.  It's a thick, mulled wine that's served hot in souvenir mugs.  

We spotted a glühwein vendor right away; assuming that the huge crowd outside was an indication of the quality, we got in line.  This is when we started to notice that lines in Germany are not the same as lines in America.  You know how we're generally polite, and wait our turn, and rarely ever blatantly break in front of others?  Yeah, this isn't America.  I do not mean to imply that Germans are rude.  This is just a culture shock to me, and I am learning.  

Rich had handed me a €10 note and nudged me in front of him to keep our place.  Now, let me explain here that I am a bit claustrophobic and don't react well to chaos.  Standing in line for the magic hot wine is not a good time to remember either of these things.  I didn't panic, though.  When the very gruff-looking German vendor stared at me, I managed to mutter, "Zwei glühwein please."  Yep, I used two languages.  But whatever, she understood and gave me a €1 coin back in change.  So each cup of wine cost about $5.50 in American dollars, but that includes the beautiful souvenir mug.

The photographer wife says, "Hold it!  Don't move!"  And the husband says, "This is HOT, hurry it up!"

Okay, if you're reading this and you're a huge fan of glühwein and think it's delicious, please skip to the next paragraph.  We didn't love it.  It wasn't the worst thing I've ever had, but it's not something that I want again anytime soon or maybe ever.  I've scanned through a few online recipes, and I'm finding that most versions call for cloves and/or cinnamon, and I hate both.  Neither of these tastes were very dominant, but the presence of these could be why I just didn't care for it.  Or maybe it was the temperature, as I generally prefer sweet, chilled wine.  I'm not sure.  But I won't have a craving for the stuff, like, ever.  I thought I'd never reach the bottom of that mug...

We began walking toward the other vendors, mugs of hot liquid in-hand.  And that's when we learned our next lesson about the locals:  They do not care if they bump into you.  At all.  Or if they bump into your husband's hand, that's holding his mug of very hot liquid, and it spills onto his hand, and the sleeve of his jacket, and his new wool sweater, and onto his shoes.  And if you know Rich, you know that he didn't take this with a grain of salt.  There were some expletives and some what-on-earth looks cast, but the offender just kept walking as if nothing had ever happened.  

As we made our way further into the Market, I was still being as polite as I'd been raised to be, saying "excuse me", smiling at passersby, etc.  But I was getting mowed over and Rich reminded me that I wouldn't survive the next four years unless my Southern skin could toughen up a bit.  *Enter the side of the Southern girl that's had enough of something and you start to see that she's totally capable of being the opposite of sweet but still with a smile on her face.*  I learned.  I bumped right back into people.  And I moved through the crowd.  And you know what?  We had a great time!

There was so much to see that I'm not sure we even saw half of it.  Vendors were selling beautiful Christmas ornaments, ceramic village houses, chocolates, smoked meats, toys, scarves, dishes, and so very much more.  Some things were quite pricey, so we had to be careful not to let ourselves get carried away.  And believe me, that was hard for someone like me who LOVES Christmas and collects ornaments from places she visits.  

Smoked sausage and huge loaves of bread.

I asked the young lady at this booth who made the baskets.  She said her grandma made every one of them.

Beautiful Christmas village houses.  I'm sure we'll collect some of these during our time in Germany.

"Christmas tree sale"

We only purchased a couple of things, but we never found an ornament that had the year on it like we've heard about.  We're hopeful that we find some at a regular store in town, but it's likely too late to get any for this year!

Some other cool things we saw:

A guy singing to passersby and playing his guitar.  I didn't see a tip jar...it looked to me as if he was just happy to entertain.

An amazingly colorful carousel for children.  I really, really wanted to ride!

And this little girl who caught me photographing her.  Oops.

New City Hall, completed in 1887.  Old City Hall, which I haven't seen yet, was built in 1610.  1610!!

I took a few more photos of the Marktkirche:

I wish I'd been able to take more photos of the vendors and their wares, but there were so many people that stopping in the flow of traffic to get a shot was very difficult.  I was nervous the entire time that someone would spill their glühwein on my camera.  We were both getting tired, so we decided to call it a night and head back to the Lodge.  

All the markets will close for the season before Christmas, so we won't get to make it to any others this year.  We've already planned to start early next year and check out other markets around Germany--Nuremberg being a must!  

As always, thank you for taking the time to read about our adventure.  I sincerely hope you'll come back soon.  We'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment for us below!