It has not been a good year for the Christmas markets in Germany. With so much damp and wet weather, many people have been staying away from them. After all, it is not much fun drinking Glühwein in the rain.

It has only been the last weekend in December when the temperature sank below zero – actually it sank a long way below zero – and there was some snow on the ground.

So rather than the planned series of podcasts from local Christmas markets, here is a summary of our attempts to visit them during the past weeks:

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Download the MP3 file

Christmas market at the book shop…

To finish off our series of visiting Christmas markets in the area, we went to two smaller ones.

The first one was in front of our local supermarket and organised by the book shop there.  There were stands selling waffles, mulled wine, crêpes, and of course books.  But there were also stands from local organisations such as our Kindergarten selling home-made decorations and biscuits.

A local Nikolaus appeared at one point and took the children into the shop for a story.

… and at the animals’ home

Our second visit was to the local Tierheim (animal home).  This was a good chance to see inside the home, and although the market itself was somewhat spread out and not that big, we did partake of coffee and mulled wine, as well as buying a Christmas pyramid at the flea market.

To find out more, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file

The ice rink in Bad Homburg

This week the Monday Podcast visited the Christmas Market in Bad Homburg, well at least part of it.

The market has been split into two parts this year, with the main market being at the castle, whilst there is a smaller set of stalls in front of the Kurhaus.  At the smaller market, however, there is also an ice rink and this was our main destination.

I’m not sure why the market has been split in this way.  It is a shame for the parents of children who want to go on the ice, as they only have a limited selection of stalls that they can visit.  It would have been much nicer to have had everyone on one site.

To find out more, listen to the podcast:

(Press the “play” button to listen to the podcast)

Download the MP3 file