The last day of the year in Germany is called "Silvester". On this day, the Holy "Silvester" is celebrating his Name Day. He died on December 31, 335 a.C. In Rome as Pope.
On December 31, all shops are closed from noon on. In the churches, services are held to thank for the past and ask for the Future. This day is comparable to the Christmas party on December 24th in Japan. The evening is spent with friends eitherat home, at a party, in a restaurant or in a theater. It has become a popular tradition,to watch "Dinner for One" on TV. "Dinner for One" is a British sketch about a lonely old lady named Miss Sophie and her butler, who at her 90th birthday, takes on the role of long-dead friends and get very drunk. At midnight you toast with a glass of sparkling wine or champagne and wish each other „Prosit Neujahr“, „Ein gutes neues Jahr“ oder einen „Guten Rutsch“. Every now and then, lucky charm as chimney sweeps, four leaf clover or small marzipan pigs are given away.
Of course, should a large fireworks at midnight not fail to drive away evil spirits. These traditions date back to ancient Germanic rituals. In earlier times, the noise was made with drums, trumpets and gunshots. Even today, the church bells ring at midnight.
After the fireworks, some people like to take a look into the future in the form of lead casting (Bleigießen), horoscopes or card reading.
You melt the little lead pieces. Then you pour it into cold water. The results could be something like that: Elefant=elephant, Golfer=golf player, Hund=dog
Lead casting set.
For the lead casting (Bleigießen), small pieces of lead are melted down and poured into cold water and the resulting objects are interpreted for the new year. Depending on the mood, the rest of the night is celebrated together, often with plenty of alcohol.
Very popular is to eat fondue or raclette at New Year's Eve with friends. At Fondue, meat pieces are cooked in hot oil or broth at the table then dipped in various sauces and eaten with baguette and salads. The Raclette is originally a Swiss specialty. It is layered with ham and vegetables in small pans and baked with cheese. It is eaten with steamed or boiled potatoes and pickled or fresh vegetables. The remaining time until midnight is spent with board games or just a party.
Raclette
Fondue
The next day (New Years Day) is a public holiday and is used for sleeping in or going for a long walk.
For the Germans, the Christmas season is the most important holiday of the year on which the whole family comes together.
The pre-Christmas period corresponds to the four weeks before Christmas eve and begins on the first Sunday of Advent, the fourth Sunday before Christmas. The apartment is decorated for Christmas with fir branches, Christmas decorations and candles. On the table is the Advent wreath, a wreath of fir twigs with four candles.
Every Sunday in Advent, a candle is lit. The children get an advent calendar at which 24 doors or little bags are. Every day until Christmas, the children are allowed to open a door or bag. During Advent, the children also write their wish list for Christmas.
On the Advent Sundays you often get together to have some hot drinks (e.g. punch, tea, hot chocolate), and cookies, gingerbread and stollen (Christmas bread) to eat and to read Christmas stories to children. This custom exists since about the beginning of the 20th century.
Nikolaus:The holiday season offers children even more "excitment": On the evening of December 5th, the children put their freshly polished boots at the door or in front of the fireplace and wait for the St. Nicholas who fills the boot with sweets and fruits at night. Sometimes, even a little toy.
In some areas, St. Nicholas is still accompanied by Knecht Ruprecht, who punishes naughty children with his tree branch.
Weihnachstmärkte: The traditional Christmas markets open their doors with the Advent season. At the numerous light decorated stands, Christmas tree ornaments, candles, mulled wine (Glühwein) and all sorts of other Christmas specialties are offered for sale. Christmas or Christmas Kindle markets have been around since the 14th century. In order to sell their goods before Christmas came once craftsmen and confectioners came up with the idea to build in the marketplace stalls with their goods. This custom spread quickly and to attract more visitors at the market, toasted almonds, chestnuts and walnuts were offered (read more here: Der Weihnachtsmark - The Christmas Market)
The "Romantische Strasse", is the oldest tourist route in Germany, with a length of 350 kilometers (217.48 miles) between the Frankish Würzburg and Füssen.
I will take you along the "Romantic Road" starting in north (Würzburg)and ending in the south (Füssen).
Würzburg:
The university and convention city on the Main, is in the heart of the Franconian wine country. Worth seeing: the old cathedral, Neumünster, Mary's Chapel, New and Old Main Bridge. Numerous museums (Mainfränkisches Museum, Museum am Dom, Museum in the Cultural Memory), theater and attractive festival highlights (Mozart, Africa Festival, Würzburg Bach days). Recommended are visits to wineries and travel through the Franconian wine country.
Tauberbischofsheim:
Is one of the oldest cities in the 'lovely Tauber Valley'. The symbol of the city is the watchman's tower. Around it, is Kurmainzische castle, a must see. The neo-Gothic city hall, in addition to a plethora of historic houses, is the most striking buildings on the square and also worth visiting. Bike ride and hike through unspoiled nature.
Lauda-Königshofen: A Wine town with magnificent churches from the heyday of the Franconian Baroque, historic bridges, imposing half-timbered houses and shrines of six centuries. Museum (emphasis wine), guided tours through nature, culture and wine trails, leisure facilities including indoor heated swimming pool, indoor pool with sauna and solarium. Directly on the Bike-Trail "Charming Tauber Valley", starting and ending points of the Main-Tauber-Fränkischen Rad-Achters, short and beautiful hiking trails through idyllic countryside.
Bad Mergentheim: Enjoys an international reputation for decades as a health and holiday resort. Bad Mergentheim is known by the Teutonic castle and museum with the Stuppacher Madonna, the bathing and wellness park Solymar or the wildlife park. Around the market square with its magnificent Renaissance town hall and the Cathedral of St. John and the Cathedral Treasury you will see half-timbered houses and Baroque palaces.
Weikersheim:
Weikersheim is a state-approved health resort with a beautiful Castle, a marketplace with its gorgeous state office building and a village museum. A must see, the Gothic Church and the Rococo fountain is just of singular unity. Weikersheim is nestled in vineyards by the magnificent Renaissance castle with its spacious and beautifully landscaped palace garden in the style of Versailles. Weikersheim has well-developed hiking and bicycle trails.
Röttingen: This friendly town, offers several spectacular facilities. Röttingen was named the first European town in 1953. It is know by its historic town center with charming half-timbered houses (Fachwerkhäusern).
Some of the historic buildings are:
Castle Brattenstein (12th century)
Parish Church (12th Century)
St. George's Chapel (15th Century)
Town Hall (18th Century)
Fortress with seven towers
Creglingen: Creglingen is located in the district of Baden-Württemberg in the Main-Tauber-Kreis. The Celts founded this town around 200-100 B.C. If you travel in the month of February and love horses, make sure to plan a visit on the second Wednesday on every February,Creglingen has a special event since over 80 years. The horse market. This event offersallhorse loversfrom theTauber Valleyandthe Bavarianneighboring communities, a mixture ofoldhorse markettraditionand modern horse market.Besides awarding the best horses, the highlighton this day is the traditionalparadefollowed byopen-air concert.
If you don't care much about horses (by the way, I love horses!), then take a Historical tour through Creglingen.
Information boards will provide insights into theCreglingerhistory of past centuries. The "Mühlweg" will lead youtothe "Herrgottskirche" (God Church) that is approximately 1 km outside of the city, with the famousaltarby Tilman Riemenschneiderand unique Thimble museum (Fingerhutmuseum).
The tour takes you to: the Schlosserturm, the Jewish Museum, theLindleinturmMuseum, theRomschloss, the Old Town Hall, the OldSchoolHouse(now theTown Hall), the HistoricalPharmacy, to the vicarage, the Courtyard-historicalSchlossbäck, Old Jewish Cemetery, thethimbleMuseum and theChurch ofGod (Herrgottskirche) with the Riemenschneideraltar.
Here is a pdf file with the historical sights, provided by the city of Creglingen:
The 177th annual Oktoberfest is starting September 18th and will last until October 4th. I have been once to the "real" Oktoberfest and it was fascinating! Definitely not a place for people with OCD ;-)
Here are some things that I thought might be interesting to know:
How is an Oktoberfest beer mug "Stein" made?
Did you know that a complete series of all Oktoberfest steins is worth several thousand euros. Each step, to make the Stein, requires precise manual work, so that each of the limited edition Oktoberfest steins a little work of art.
I researched it a little bit for you and I found out, how the mug is made.
The "Stein" also called "Maß" is made out of clay. The first step is to form the Stein without the handle. Afterwards the handle will be carefully added to the mug.
With a damp sponge, the transitions from the handle and the mug are smoothened out, so that the whole surface is evenly and smooth.
In a large brick furnace, the mugs are then brazed at about 1000 degrees Celsius until they are hard like stone ;-) (get it? Stein = Stone)
After the "Stein" has cooled off, the official Oktoberfest logo is carefully placed by hand on the mug and smoothed out. Now the beer mug looks almost like a proper Oktoberfest beer stein.
With a fine brush, colored edges are painted around the mug. A rotating disc, on which the Oktoberfeststein is placed, mades this procedure a little bit easier to do.
Next up, the "Stein" is put back in the furnace. With this procedure, the Logo is inextricably linked with the mug. Now the collector "Stein" is read! For the "Stein" that is used at the Oktoberfest, a tin lid is added as a last step in this procedure.
A solid, handmade tin lid is added to the "Stein". Every year, a different embossed lid is placed on each mug. this year, the lid will have an embossing from Crown Prince Ludwig and Therese Hildburghausen's royal wedding.
I have my Bavarian "Black Beauty" up for sale. It has a 6-speed Manual Transmission, just like a German car suppose to have ;-)
It is a great car, but it's time to move to something a little bigger. No, not an SUV but maybe a BMW Touring. This Dinan 5 is truly a special car. Anyone who loves a fast, comfortable ride, will love it! It just has everything: Torque, Speed and Comfort... what else do you need?
Please check out the auction on eBay: http://bit.ly/adhNVI and please feel free to forward it to anyone who might be interested.
Theo Albrecht died Saturday in his home city of Essen, Germany.
Theo Albrecht was the secretive co-founder of Germany's worldwide discount supermarket chain ALDI and co-owner of Trader Joe's in the United States and one of Europe's richest men.
When I used to live in Germany, Aldi was one of the grocery stores I went to a lot! Great products and cheap. Why? Because they did not sell the name. Aldi had "No Name Brands" but it was the exact same product then the "Brand Name" products, just a lot cheaper. Why pay for the name! I used to love shopping there.
Then I moved to the States and I found Trader Joe's. My favorite grocery store here and who new, it was the same owner then Aldi! I did not know that until about a year ago. They are totally different stores, yet something about them makes them great! I guess it's the price/quality they have.
Rest in peace Mr. Albrecht. Thank you for opening those great stores!
Danke!
This is an Aldi close to where I used to live
This is how an Aldi looks inside. Really nothing special or fancy but easy find the things that you need.
This is the beer sections! And yes, most Germans buy it in the case!
Want to see nice cars, airplanes and more, view more than 3,000 exhibits from all areas of technical history on more than 30,000 square meters of indoor space and in our open air ground. The exhibitions include a genuine CONCORDE from Air France and the Russian Tupolev TU-144, more than 300 classic cars, 200 motorcycles, 40 racing cars, the largest permament formula-1 exhibition in Europe, 60 airplanes, 20 locomotives, and much more.
