Colors of Freiburg

Saturday morning the kids and I (and Jet) drove to Kandern to spend the day with a friend.  Kandern is a 30 minute drive from Freiburg so we decided to go the Christmas market there.

Here are some pictures of the day spent in the Freiburg Christmas market.  There were stalls on various streets, but I found the places near the cathedral were the most colorful (and least crowded!).  The pictures I took were mostly of this area.

It would have been practically impossible to take any pictures of the stalls in some other areas as we were reduced to sardines.  There is nothing artistic or interesting or captivating about a sea of people being squished together trying to see things while walking along.

This is one of many signs indicating a street harboring Christmas market goodies.  Ivan is seated there with his notepad in hand.

Ivan with Christmas market kinderpunch.  It is grape juice with mulling spices in it.  Just for the record, Frankfurt's kinderpunch beats out this watered-down jello-ish tasting over-priced junk by a long shot.  We drank it anyway and Ivan kept the mug for a souvenir.

Does this look crowded? Oh no, it isn't.  There is still air molecules around everyone...crowded is when you are literally forced to squish out all the air molecules between everyone walking and sometimes not in the same direction.

This is German humor.  It is kind of quaint.  Do you see the four santas climbing up the building?  Just for the record, you will see this type of "decoration" and variations of this same theme in any German town you go to in the month of November and December.  

This is possibly the most obnoxious street singing group in Freiburg.  Note the open mouths and that will give you an idea.  However, as time wore on I do think they started coming together a little better.  Think Latin dance and you've nailed it.

This is the plaza where the cathedral stands.  You can see a corner of it on the left.

more cathedral plaza pictures....

colorful...

and bright....

not much color on this side of the cathedral, but here you can see a good portion of it.

more of the same

The best part of this Christmas market are the lights and the flower stands.

The sun is setting and the flowers begin to stand out under the artificial lights.

If you could imagine yourself there you could smell delicious gingerbread and suffocating gluiwein (pronounced glue vine).

In our cozy room for the night.  We had a very nice time together.  Tomorrow we have a 3 hour drive back to Frankfurt.