Weinachtsmarkt

In the spirit of Germans loving to squish their words together, I give you the Weinachtsmarkt. Which is the Christmas Market. Lots of town in Germany have Christmas Markets. They get their town squares or other downtown pieces all dolled up for Christmas. They squares are lined with booths, hundreds of them, selling food, drinks, gifts, everything. We went to the one in Mainz a couple of times, the one in Wiesbaden once, and the one in Rudesheim once. They were all a bit different, and all pretty fun. The drink of choice for most adults is Gluwein, a spiced wine served hot. For kids, it's Kinderpunsch, a hot punch drink. For me, I like my heisse shokolade (hot chocolate). You buy them at one of the many stands in the markets. They come in real mugs, for which you have to pay a deposit. While most people might think that they need to get their 2€ back afterward, we decided to keep the 2€ mugs. Well, one for each market, at least.

Here's the Mainz market. None of the pictures we took really did it justice (we forgot the camera, so only had the phone), so I swiped this one from the internet.

Here's one that we really did take

 

Emma says- They were awesome, they were awesome, they were awesome! Kinderpunsch is delicious. It tastes like love. I was able to earn a patch by going to three markets and answering some questions. I haven't gotten it yet, but I should get it in the mail any time now.