Tag Fünfundachtzig (Day Eighty-Five)

After waiting around for over half of an hour for one late person to show up, our bus finally left Marburg, Hessen. Destination: Nürnberg, Bavaria! Four and a half hours later…we had arrived. Our first activity was a walking tour of part of the old city, around the market square. Our tour guide showed us a lot of really neat sights, including several old churches, some Albrecht Durer statues and paintings, Nürnberg’s castle, and the Christmas Market. Nürnberg is famous for their Christmas market, and this evening was the “official” opening. Every year a girl is voted on to become the “Christmas Angel” for the opening ceremony, a job that includes visiting a lot of locations around the city for Christmas events. The opening ceremony is comprised of all the lights in the Christmas market (called “Christkindlesmarkt” in German) going out, spotlights coming up on the church at the market square, pinpointing the “Christmas Angel,” on a balcony high up on the front of the church, who then recites an opening speech. This is followed by several traditional Christmas songs being sung by a choir, and with that, the Christmas market is officially open for the year. I spent several hours walking around the market with friends. Since this was the opening night, it was very full with people. I tried Glühwein, the traditional German Christmas drink, as well as Lebkuchen, the traditional German Christmas cookie, tasting a lot like gingerbread. After coming back to the hostel, I worked on some reading for class and called it a night.