romantic fire lit date night

Feeling brave and Christmas-y, George and I set out for a Christmas market with a vague location that was advertised as just ONE day, in the middle of woods, with the biggest gingerbread cookie in the area, and a genuine St. Nick. We took the tram to the end of the line and with our trusty map set out into the woods as the sunset (16:30).

Our meandering and uphill walk - full of promises to ourselves to come back maybe in the spring, maybe when it is warmer, or maybe when it is light - took us up to lookout tower, a brass band, lots of merry makers, beer and gluwein tents, St. Nick handing out chocolate and the typical German countryside restaurant serving nothing but wurst and salat. The proprietess gave us a talking too about coming to dinner so late (17:30?) and expecting the oven to be on. So, I asked her to suggest my dinner because she knew what was good but she declined saying it was all good because it was local and she did not know what I liked. So, I asked her to suggest my dinner because she was the only one who knew what was actually available. This is why I ended up with a Frankfurter, which is a large hot dog. But our fellow patrons reassured us that the food was "Made in Germany" and therefore the best, as they continued full of holiday beer and cheer and song.

(This is for another time, this "Made in Germany." Usually when I am most frustrated with the price or the options or the situation, someone will chime in and say in English "Made in Germany." It is a phrase that to Germans is about pride and economic security and so on.)

After dinner, we wandered around eating candy covered almonds, admired the view of the cities lights, and being very happy we did not have to keep track of Ben in the dark.

But how were we going to walk back through the now dark woods? Luckily, for sale there were huge fire sticks with a long wick of paraffin dipped muslin and a beer mat to protect your hands from dripping wax. We tentatively followed another group down the hill and, in spite of my fears they would lead us to no-where and we would end up begging for a ride or walking for miles, we actually ended up next to a different tram stop. Germany, is your public transport really that good? And we made it home, but 10 minutes late.