Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas Markte #4 2011--Kaiserslautern

We went to the Kaiserslautern Christmas Market last Friday evening. It was almost a rubber stamp, exact replica of last year but still a very nice market. But, we did find something this year that made this Christmas market a little different from all others we've been to before. Here’s some of the sights and sounds.

Glühwein is the mainstay of just about all Christmas Markets in Germany. The direct translation is Glow Wine and, I imagine, in this context of “glow” it probably means the warm, glowing feeling you get from drinking this hot, spiced wine. On a cold, chilly visit to a Christmas market it certainly does a great job of keeping both your hands warm as well as your insides.

Here’s a typical Glühwein stand.  The lights and people make you feel warmer even before your first swallow of Glühwein.

Years ago, when you visited a Chrismtas Market in Germany and you wanted a Glühwein, that’s what you got, Glühwein; a hot, spiced red wine. Now, there’s much more of a selection and one of the main choices is Weiß Glühwein, white Glühwein; made with white wine. Very tasty. In addition, the Germans now add a little bit of something to the Glühwein if that’s your preference. On this sign you can see they’ll put in a shot of Amaretto, Vodka, Kirschwasser (cherry schnapps) or any other number of Schuß (shot).

Another favorite at any Germany festival, summer or winter, is gingerbread. Here’s a typical sweet vendor which you can see sells a lot of gingerbread. You can get just about any size and all kinds of shapes of gingerbread but the most common is a heart; with or without frosting.

Germans are a little more liberal with their acceptance of fire at a festival like this. This is actually a quite cozy setting to eat your bratwurst and sip on a Glühwein.

Now here’s the thing that made the K-Town Christmas Market different and something special. Jeff and I had never seen this before; Glühbier. Yes, hot, spiced beer. As you can see, the beer is from Belgium and is a fruit beer of some type, probably cherry.

There it is, Glühbier in hand. It really was very good. Tasted very similar to a red Glühwein but with a bit of fizz.

After the Glühbier we decided to stop in at one of our favorite spots in K-Town, the Spinnrädl; the Spinning Wheel. It’s the oldest gasthaus in Kaiserslautern. Isn’t this a nice Christmas image, a poinsettia and two König (King) Pilsners?

Walking around the K-Town Christmas Market again before driving home we found this fire log. They split the top with an axe, use small wooden wedges to keep the cuts open, melt some wax down into the cuts and let it burn. Makes for a nice fire.

Again, the Germans have a different idea about fire, festivals and crowds of people. Here’s one log pretty much burned up and another just lit.

Finally, a little Christmas Market video of the a few sights and sounds at the Kaiserslautern Christmas Market.

#4 Christmas Market in the books and there's a lot more to come.

1 comment:

  1. I didn't know that Gluhwein meant Glow Wine...interesting. I made it twice this Christmas (first time making it). I made it with Liz and then Will. They both really liked it. I loved smelling in in the house...reminded me of all of our Christmases and Germany.

    That's so cool that they have different Gluhweins now. I have only tried the traditional kind.

    I loved the video! Daddy drinking the Gluhwein was perfect!

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