Thought I should correct that mistake before my family here or the geography police catch up with me.
We went to the Frankfurt Christmas Market today. Bigger and more expensive than the one in Goettingen, but otherwise the same, except also much more crowded. More mulled wine with Amaretto, a bratwurst, and roasted chestnuts. First time I have had chestnuts and I wasn't totally impressed, but maybe if they had put chocolate on them? I commandeered (okay, I took as keepsakes, ok, I stole, but they halfway expect you to or why would they make them so fancy?) the four mulled wine mugs with the Frankfurter Weihnacht's Markt stamp on them that we used and threw them in my nifty bag. Which now, along with my gloves, smells like, uh, old wine and amaretto. Pleasant.
Then we were off to the airport to see Martin, one of my German brothers, who was on his way to Korea for business. He had before him a nice little 12 hour flight with at least that many time zones, and just for 3 days. Poor fellow. But at least the Frankfurt airport is relatively civilized: people without tickets can come in and sit in the restaurants with travellers and aren't kept at bay by horrendous security checkpoints and naked footed people right at the entrance. Here, they do the security searches right at the gate. Sure, a person could come into the airport and do something disruptive at the airport Starbucks, but still not get to a plane and I guess they figure that is the main thing.
I think it is much better for airport business to allow people without tickets to come in and buy expensive things while waiting for friends and family to come and go, but we Americans have just grown that paranoid. We could probalby improve our economy if we changed this. In fact, I am pretty sure our economy went south right after they moved the security checkpoints to the front doors, but I need a fact checker. I haven't taken a shoe off at an airport since San Francisco and haven't missed that crazy scramble that occurs when people are looking for their stuff in stocking feet, one bit. Is it just me, or are my sentences starting to seem more like they are in German written and then into English translated? Whatever.
Tomorrow afternoon I have been invited to attend a gathering at a church right near here by the four Wiesbaden Rotary Clubs who are having a get-together for the holiday season. Nice German church with a nice boys choir and then afterwards, finally, nice kaffee and kuchen!! I have been eating the special Christmas Stollen the entire time I have been here, a sweet bread and perfect for the season, but I want now to have my cake and eat it too please. If it goes well, I will probably attend one of the club meetings on Monday at a fancy hotel in the heart of Wiesbaden, where they also have a spa. I promised myself I would splurge on a nice massage while here, and if Hartmut and Valeria's contact doesn't call here first thing Monday morning, I am going for the glitzy hotel massage right the meeting after.
Caution, I say to the wind throw.
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