My good friend and co-worker, Reiner kindly invited me and Jeff to his home for a weekend in December to experience the wonder of Weihnachten (Christmas) in Germany. I had been to the area before on a business trip which happened to coincide with Stuttgart's Beer Festival. Stuttgart's version is not called Oktoberfest since that name references Munich's festival. The Cannstatter Wasen (or Reiner just calls it the Wasen) is the Stuttgart version. Here is the evidence.
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| Those are BIG BEERS! |
Reiner's wife, Heike and one of their daughters, Simone met us there. Many of the young people dress up in their authentic German lederhosen and dirndl, the name for the German woman's dress (as seen in the St. Pauli Girl ads). Simone had the cutest pair of short lederhosen! If I were 25 years younger, I may have bought some. I'm sure Chase will thank me some day for not buying him any! The Wasen is everything that you imagine. I was surprised at how GIANT the beer tents are and the fact that they look like permanent structures. As is the custom, as the night goes on, people begin to stand up on the benches and sing songs. You aren't allowed to stand on the tables and thank goodness the benches are nailed to the ground! Not to be missed!
So, lucky for me, another business trip cropped up in early December, so this was the occasion of our stay at the Kronmeuller home. I can't say enough about the hospitality extended to us! The first night, we went to a small Christmas market nearby that was very beautiful. When we arrived home, both of their daughters and their two boyfriends were there and had prepared the raclette. Raclette is a cheese that is melted and eaten with any number of meats or vegetables. The way it works is you use a table top raclette grill and each person has a couple of little trays that you combine your choices of ingredients from the table into and then cook. So, like fondue, having raclette is a great way to enjoy lots of conversation over a long yummy meal.
So here is the crew at the local train station heading into Stuttgart for the The Weihnachtsmarkt. Christmas Markets are found all over Germany, but Stuttgart's is the biggest. You can buy just about anything at the market, but the staples are mainly food and drink for immediate consumption, traditional crafts and odd things that you would expect to see on a TV ad at 2:00AM?
We did not have the smoked fish but we sampled several glasses of gluhwein. My boss says it is like hot sangria, which is pretty accurate.
All the market stalls are decorated with scenery on top. Here are some of the cutest.
So, we highly recommend Germany at Christmas time! The Kronmuellers were such amazing hosts and we really hope to be able to return the favor when they visit the US this summer.
