Christkindlmarkt opens with Snow

This morning Regensburg awoke to bitter cold and falling snow. Inner child awakened, I dressed quickly and dashed out.

The wind stung my face with the tiny ice crystals as I walked to the Steinerne Brucke and crossed, successfully avoiding German drivers who, to my surprise, seemed to lack any idea of how to drive in snow.

Traffic of every description—cars, buses, bicycles— slipped and slid through the streets. An elderly man took a fall right in front of the altestadt bus and was pulled out of danger by two bystanders as the driver hit the brakes and the bus skidded to a halt only a few yards from the bicyclist.

Today Chriskindlemarkt officially opens. Venders are set up in every platz and Regensburg looks very Christmassy indeed. I thought the dealers would loose sales because of the snow but the crowds kept building all through the day.












By sundown, as time for the lighting of the tree approached, several thousand people had jamed Neupfarrplatz. I joined them to hear the Mayor's speech extolling the joy of Christmas (its all about the children) while warming my hands and other parts of me drinking a mug of very potent hot mulled wine.












After a bit, the crowd got to be a bit much so I drifted back to the more intimate less frantic gatherings at Krautererplatz, Rathausplatz and Haidplatz.

Germans practically invented Christmas as we know it -- from the tree to Silent Night to the toywork shop. In Germany, however, Kris Kringle doesn't do the chimney scene. Childlen leave there shoes outside the door filled with hay or carrots for the old boy's white horse (no reindeer-drawn sleigh). But globalization may be overtaking German tradition. The representation of Kris I've seen around town looks less like the slender, distinquished Kringle and more like the classic American Coke-a-Cola Santa. More's the pity.













http://www.weihnachtsmarkt.weihnachten-info.de/regensburg/