Author: Ann Laemmlen Lewis

Today we drove about 2 hours to Rottenburg ob der Taube (up over the Taube River).  This is the hotel we checked into when we arrived.  Then we had the whole day to wander and take it all in.  Rottenburg is known as a Christmas town with a great local Christmas Market.  We loved being here.  I love the small town feel of it.  People know each other and you  can tell they are proud to live here.

Here is part of the Christmas Market area, but the little shops and booths were scattered around the town.

We stopped here for a really delicious Brat.  It was so good that we came back for a second one later.

 

From the 1600s:

Here’s another treat we tried.  These are pastry strips rolled into “snowballs.”

It was really good.  We got one with apple and cinnamon.

Here’s how the old town is laid out, with a rampart wall around the old city.

There are 2 large Käthe Wohlfahrt Christmas stores here.  More about that in the next post.  These are my FAVORITE places!

                              

One of the local bakeries made a huge gingerbread house.  Tonight they took it apart to share the gingerbread with the children, who were so excited to receive a piece!

More delicious Brats–John had one of these and I went back for the long one.

This afternoon our work team went to have a Christmas meal together before we all go our ways for the holidays.  Dinis, our manager, has already gone and we missed him today.

We went into Frankfurt to the Jewish Museum Deli where we had our weekly team meeting, then we enjoyed some great kosher vegetarian food.

To me, this sculpture in the courtyard reminds me of the scriptures in the Bible about roots and branches, descendants and posterity.  It also represents being grounded or uprooted, the history of the Jewish people here in Frankfurt.

You can read more about it here.

Antisemitism in Germany is on the rise.  This little deli has had some attacks, so we went to show our support as the war in Israel rages on.

We pray for peace and try to help in small ways.

Flags hanging now at the Frankfurt Christmas Market:

Today we had our German Christmas class with Sister Enger.  She always makes things so fun for us.  Today we learned how to make another ornament to hang on our trees.

Then we had a surprise visitor–look who came to the door with a sack of goodies!

St Nicklaus read something from his book about each one of us, then we had to perform or recite something in German to receive our gift.

Erika’s home is an oasis for us while we are away from our homes.  We love her and we love our time together.  Frohe Weihnachten!!

The church fleet folks keep close tabs on all the missionary vehicles.  Ours was one of the older ones, so today it was traded out for a new one.  The car had more than 30,000 miles, so it was at its optimum trade value.

They let us pick from a few colors.  We’re grateful to have a car, any car!

Sister Garber and I returned to the Frankfurt Christmas Market this evening.  She wanted to pick up some things for her missionary Christmas gifts.  It was fun to go back.

Here are a few of the things we saw this evening:

The 100 foot tall Christmas tree.  Imagine what they have to do to hold that up!

This time there was time to go into the Katie Wohlfahrt shop.  These are my favorite Christmas ornaments!

The German Rauchermann, commonly known as a “German smoker,” is an incense-burning decoration from the Ore Mountains (the Erzgebirge). These German smokers are wooden figurines usually carved into small men. The upper part of its body is hollowed out so cone incense can be placed inside.

The handmade wooden ornaments are my favorite.  But they are costly.

It’s fun to look at the detail.  I’m deciding which ones I’d like to take home with me.

Here are a few other things that were interesting:

For dinner I had the most delicious baked potato with a mushroom creme sauce and cheese.  It was hot and hit the spot!

The shop booths can be pretty elaborate:

Freshly dipped fruits

Wishing all a Merry Christmas!

We had a fun zone activity this evening–German bowling.  It was quite fun.  We had the place reserved, with all 4 lanes.  The bowling balls are small with 2 finger holes.  The 9 pins are tied to strings.  Everyone takes turns.  You throw the ball once for your turn and count the number of pins you knock down.  You add the number of pins down after each turn.  Then the pins are re-set. The first team to 100 wins.  BUT, if your count lands on a double digit number like 11, 22. 33, 44, or etc., you have to go back to zero.  That happens more often than you’d think.  We had 4 teams competing against each other, with everyone divided between the teams.

We had good snacks–apple juice and fresh pretzels and some things to dip them in.  Lots of laughing and fun.