Number 5: Wermelskirchen Christmas Market

Here is the rest of the weekend story for J's Christmas Market Monday. Fortunately Schloss burg is already in so Wermelskirchen is just icing on the cake. Also, follow his link to see other markets: http://www.jbittner.com/germany/2006/12/christmas-market-monday-warriors.html

We had a bus transfer in Wermelskirchen and time to eat dinner since the buses are not timed well. We went walking toward the center of town and spotted this, Ye Olde Sausage Stall. It was the signpost at the end of the street that signaled the beginning of the market.

We were not planning this one which made it even better. It was a tiny market, six food stands, a Unicef stand, two stalls with Xmas ornaments, and one that sold socks and crystal thingys that need to be dusted often. There were posters in the market also, it was a special shopping Saturday, the stores were open until 18.00 instead of the usual 14.00 or 16.00. Whoo hoo!


In addition to the stands, there was also a large tree, and a stage featuring live music, which was Xmas favorites, modern and traditional, in German and English. My after dark photos aren't so great, but you get the general idea.

















I had some holiday Reibkuchen as that was the only vegetarian options. The old standby, baked potatoes, were nowhere to be found.

However, this market had the very cleanest public toilet I have ever seen in my entire life. One porta potty marked for ladies and the other for gentlemen. The ladies one was clean smelling, two full rolls of toilet paper, a tea light for light, and a full container of waterless hand cleaner. The whole thing, from top to bottom was immaculately clean. Two thumbs up!

While enjoying the Reibkuchen at a shared table, a man had left his pipe set sitting on the table. When he came to pick it up, he gave each of the four people around the table a little gift, a Gutschein (the little paper in the center of the table).














It was good for a free Gluehwein. We weren't positive about where we could use it exactly since there were two stalls selling the stuff, so we asked the older couple who also received two from him. The kindly explained how it worked exactly. Then, as they went to leave, they somehow had an extra coupon, so they gave it to us to split. How kind.

Shortly after that the market was wrapping up at at was to close at 20.00. We walked back toward the bus stop and who do we see? The Knight who we took with us on our 5 person ticket earlier in the evening. Except that now he was in street clothes instead and he said hello. I'm sure he had an interesting story to tell the friend he was with, as to why he was greeting the foreigners. I love small town Germany!