A virtual trip to Germany
My brother-in-law, Jeff, had to be in Germany before Christmas for his job, so he and my sister, Kim, decided she would fly over and meet him and they’d experience Christmas in Germany.
Kim took a lot of food pictures to show me and she went through them this weekend and sent a bunch over. I was amazed by the gorgeous gingerbread displays, the brats and Wienerschnitzel and pastries. At Christmastime in Germany, they have lots of big outdoor markets where they sell food and other goods. As you will see, Kim and Jeff spent some time at these markets.
I put the photos in a slideshow so we can take a pretend trip to Germany on this dreary Monday. Thanks for sharing the pictures, Sis!
To experience this slideshow properly, click play and then immediately click the bottom right button with the four arrows to expand it to fill your screen, then click “Show info” at the top right of your screen to see the captions describing the photos.
Have any of you been to Germany before? What’s your favorite German dish?
January 14, 2013 - 10:38 AM
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My grandparents were German, and I lived in Germany for 4 years as an adult during which time both my sons were born. Christmas was absolutely the best, and I miss Germany every Christmas season. We’d go to all of the Christmas markets in the little towns and large cities, walk around with our gluhwein and bought so many nice decorations and ornaments.
My favorite German Christmas memory is from when we lived near the Rhein. A man dressed as St. Nicklaus (not Santa)would go from town to town on the river by boat, get out at each town and give a small speech to the children. Everyone got a small bag of oranges and nuts.
I’m jealous of your brother in law, Lindsey.
Neat memories, Kristen! I’d love to go to Germany one day.
Lindsey, I’ve seen ads for lots of Christmas time tours. In the meantime, the Rhein River Inn up in Buchanan does a pretty good job with their food. If you’ve never been, it’s worth a trip.
I’ve been to Germany several times, thanks to my husband, who is a citizen of that country. The food is magnificent. We always love the schnitzel, the pastries, flammkuchen (sort of a thin crust, German-style pizza topped with bacon, creme fraiche and onions), currywurst from the schnell Imbiss (street vendor) stand…I could go on and on. I’ve not been to Germany at Christmastime yet. That’s definitely on the agenda for a future trip to the old country!
I also had German grandparents, a German mother and aunt. Mom didn’t cook much German food except for spaetzle which she would make with a pork toast. Gramma and my aunt cooked more German, schnitzel, sauerbraten, red cabbage, etc. Gramma never measured anything but everything always tasted good. She made a pastry that was like a kruller that she deepfried and dusted with powdered sugar, they were so good. I’d like to try the place in Buchanan one of these days.
Kathy, my Oma made a similar fried cake, sort of like a doughnut. She made them around Ash Wednesday and they were named Fastnachtskuechler…Fastnach is German for Fat Tuesday. They were puffy and we tore the corners off and filled them with applesauce. Yum!
I was in Germany twice, only briefly, as part of a European tour. However, my most visceral memory of Germany is my childhood best friend’s mother. She was native German (met her husband as a young lady at the end of WWII). I will always know what real spaetzle tastes like, and there is NOTHING like it. Plus, she passed on wonderful traditions to her family, like May Day baskets and wonderful Ginger-bread and short-bread cookies at Christmas.
I was born in Germany when my dad was in the Army. I went to kindergarten and first grade there. I don’t remember the food unfortunately, but I do remember how beautiful the country was. At Christmas I remember St. Nicholas being in the town square sitting in a very ornate chair.
I also remember a place where you could buy flowers, and they had 2 fields full of flowers. One field was tulips and the other was roses, both in all kinds of colors. I remember a picnic with family friends, near an old castle one time. I would love to go back.
My son in law is supposed to go to France sometime this spring, for work and my daughter is trying to talk him into taking her along.
Did Kim say how the prices were?
I went to Germany many years ago and would love to go back someday. Back then everything was extremely expensive – shockingly so, in my opinion. I think my favorite dish was Jaegersnitzel, pork that had been pounded thin, then simmered with a creamy mushroom sauce and served over noodles. I’ve found a few recipes for it in the years since, but none of them are quite as good as the first I had (or as I remember it, anyway).
Debbie – the prices didn’t seem unreasonable but when you factor in the currency exchange rate at the moment we definitely came out on the short end of the stick. Even so, it wasn’t terribly expensive overall.
Vickie, I think my favorite thing I ate was the Jaegersnitzel and I adore German potato salad. We had so many tasty things while we were there and unfortunately I wasn’t able to take pictures of all of it.
This was my second trip to Germany and I fell in love with it the very first time. The food is great so all foodies should go there if the opportunity arises. I also highly recommend going at Christmas to experience all of the holiday goodies and just the atmosphere in general. I was a very lucky girl!
I love the open-air markets in Europe. The pictures of them and the food shots were great and makes me wish I could go there. I was lucky enough to accompany my brother to Paris on four different occasions and I never passed a market-place or a Patisserie without stopping to look! Or to buy something!
We have a favorite schnitzel dish we make around here….pound out pork cutlets, bread and fry, then top with ham, swiss, mushroom gravy and put under the broiler to melt the cheese. Served with egg noodles it is yumtown.
Sandy, I read that Market Street is going to be closed off to traffic downtown by the vendors…maybe there will be new food options once they do. I’m hopeful.
I lived in Nurnberg in the mid-1950s and in Munich in the mid-1960s because my father was in the military. I remember the ChristKindl Markt in Munich, but my favorite food was a full-out sauerbraten dinner: marinated beef (venison if you could get it), kartofelglas (potato dumplings), and blaukraut or rotkohl(red cabbage. My mother got the recipes in during the Nurnberg tour and I still have them.