The sky was so clear, the air so crisp...what a perfect day for a walk!
It may sound strange, but I can't really say that this is something that we do regularly in the States. I mean, we do walk, but it is not so much a way of life as it is here. Of course one deterrent to this could be that we don't have pedestrian walk ways on every street like here.
But is is always fun on holidays when we get that stuffed and overeaten feeling to get up off the sofa and move. It really is a special family time of visiting and exploring all the wonders of being outside.
It was fun dragging our cameras around and my husband and his sister had a great time taking photos. We flipped to black and white mode which I think tells quite a different story in itself, but is still able to capture just a small glimpse of the German way of life.
My husbands family has somewhat altered the customary bratwurst and potato salad evening meal and replaced it with smoked trout and eel served with a cold potato and tuna salad, oven baked bread, and an assortment of cheeses and salamis to round the meal. Not exactly what I would consider to be the typical meal that makes it to the Christmas Eve dinner table in America, but nonetheless tasty. The Christmas tree was lit by flames dancing atop the carefully and strategically placed beeswax candles, again something that one would not see on the other side of the pond. Christmas trees in Germany would be more simply adorned with straw ornaments and apples or red bulbs, while the average Christmas tree in America would be somewhat over the top, colorful, blinking, and so bright it looks like candy you can eat kind of a tree.
Our Christmas morning started late with the standard German spread of food including cheese, salami and wurst, the ever essential butter, jellies, honey, and spreads, and the staple of every German meal....bread. One might argue that all those items are not so uncommon, but for me as a breakfast meal they are still strange and unfamiliar for the American palette. What else, of course, would follow brunch on a holiday afternoon, but family members lazily spread over the sofa reading, visiting, and nibbling on chocolates. The following days the evening feasts repeated their yearly routine with oven-roasted goose for the first Christmas day and wild deer for the second Christmas day, and of course the ever expected staple in the renowned German cuisine... potatoes and red kraut.
I suppose on the surface one could quite easily assume that there are no real differences to this common institution of eating and drinking, time spent with family and loved ones, love and laughter, lights, gifts, and music. At it's core, this holds some truth, but for the one on the surface who notices all those minor differences, those slight distinctions are the very things that makes the day what it is in mind and in heart.
But of course I don't just go for the architecture. I guess if you make it to the third year of doing the same thing as the previous years, it has officially reached the status of tradition... really a staple. I will dream of this until next year's Christmas market....."meat on a stick"! My new annual tradition...
Another difference between Germans and Americans is that Germans like to keep it real. And by this I mean that they don't like to use fake, plastic, flimsy paper and styrofoam plates, cups, and utensils. They like to use the real thing. It is very common and normal, even as such public events to get your food or drink in a real porcelain mug or plate. You pay a fee upfront and when you return the dishes, you get your money back. I have to say that this beats the way Starbuck's does it!
Just about every Christmas market boasts a few standard items, that if left out would make the market quite incomplete. Things like candied almonds, glühwein (spiced wine), bratwurst, wooden children's toys, and of course, the ever popular gingerbread heart cookies with a love confession to that significant other or birthday wishes to a beloved niece.
I guess I have always been traditional to the core. I have always loved it, thrived on it, and now....I am living it!
