Räuchermann are German Smokers, figurines that you place incense in and then the smoke comes out of the figure, in this case, Santa's mouth where a pipe hangs from. I got this beautiful one in the medieval town of Rothenburg Ob Der Tauber. This type of crafting is from the same area of Germany that created Nutcrackers, Christmas Pyramids, and Schwibbögen. Souvenir Saturday is an every-other week series on the items that represent travel memories.
Walking around Rothenburg ob der Tauber I kept seeing these snowball-sized round balls. They are called Schneeball (Snowball) and are a local creation. It is pie dough wrapped into a ball, deep fried, and traditionally covered in powdered sugar. As you can see, many different varieties are now sold! Try one if you find yourself in Rothenburg!
Today is the first snow in Colorado. I prefer to be warm over fashionable in winter. That means lots of layers and completely bundled up. The above photo was my look for Germany in 2011. But the further back I go I see more examples. For example, I sported this stunning blue look in Venice 2005. To be fair it was running and snowing on NYE, and so it was especially cold. However, my mother is always fabulously dressed, so I wonder where I get this... Oh yeah from Dad! He looked even more intimidating at night with his hood on. Also
Walking the old Medieval Walls of Rothenburg right after Christmas was cold, but beautiful. Looking down I saw this beautiful tree with winter berries. Every Friday Lili shares her favorite photography & the stories behind the photos.
As I've written before, I really enjoyed the "Night Watchman" tour in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. On my last day in Rothenburg I stopped by the large Christmas store Käthe Wohlfahrt to get some souvenirs. This location is their head office, and actually spans multiple buildings and has its own Christmas Museum on site. One item that caught my eye was a wooden and leather mini Night Watchman Nutcracker made by Ulbricht. It stands a little less than 5 inches tall, but is beautifully crafted. He carries with him a traditional symbols of his job: the halberd and a lantern. I'm glad
We'll continue our Travel Missteps series in Rothenburg ob der Tauber, one of the best preserved Medieval towns in Germany. While this town is primarily touristy, it was beautiful decorated and thankfully deserted for the holidays when I was there in December 2011. Me posing with the Night Watchman. One of the key attractions is taking a "Night Watchman Tour" ( 7 EUR) to learn this history of the town. We had planned on doing this on the first night we got there, but as what commonly happens, we were too tired and so kept putting this tour off until the