An Addendum

As a short addendum to my previous post about the Christmas market in the Autostadt, I was incorrect in stating that English was used (in this case) for its 'hip' factor.  As Vicki and I recently learned (at a lunch of traditional Russian fare with a colleague from the Ukraine and his family), the Autostadt has a different theme every year for their Weihnachtmarkt.  This year's was Britannia, and thus the English signs.  Last year's was the United States and the year before that was Russia.  However, it is not uncommon to hear English words inserted in everyday language (as well as large swaths of Internet jargon pronounced German-ly) for the aforementioned 'hip' factor.  As news publications often write following corrections, I apologize for the error.

Winter Scenes from the Autostadt

In December we visited the Autostadt a number of times and, aside from the winter market, there were other nice things they offered.  Here's a small collection of sights and experiences from the Autostadt in winter:

Santa welcomes you to the Autostadt.  Hello, Santa!

 

The trees next to you are really pretty.  Did you decorate them yourself?

 

Wait a minute Santa, is that a rave inside the Autostadt?  Are you gonna part like its 1999?  (Full disclosure, there was no rave inside, but a concert.  A concert with lots of smoke and colored lights.  Pink Floyd comes to mind. . .)

Well, Santa, just be careful out there with your friends.  Don’t let peer pressure make you do or take anything you wouldn’t otherwise.  Like strange pills that make you see random colors.

Whoa, those greenhouse bulbs are kinda trippy. . .

Why are those bulbs everywhere?  Leave me alone! Stop following me!!!

Where did that lion come from?  What is going on here?

Bunnies!

Finally, a Christmas tree.  That I can understand.  Quite a tall Christmas tree.

And a wide one at that.

What’s that present under the tree?  She looks familiar.  Hmmmmm.

Hey Vicki.  Wait, where are you going?  To a fire pit?  It must be cold outside for outdoor fire pits.  It has to be, what, -18 degrees Celsius?

Vicki’s now a happy girl.  Be careful of that fire.

Hey look, an ice rink.  I haven’t seen one of those in forever!

Just when you thought Ebenezer Scrooge was only on the silver screen flying around in the three dimensions – BOOM – four dimensions, and on ice.

Well, I guess I’ll start to wander out of the Autostadt.  Just take a look at what they’ve done with the four towers of the VW factory.  (They were lit one after the other each week leading up to Christmas, just like an Advent wreath.  Here it’s week three.)

See you later Santa.  It’s been a lot of fun at your party!

Well, I hope you enjoyed these winter scenes from the Autostadt.  Every time we visited there it was frightfully cold, but it was still a real fun experience to see the festiveness.  Vicki will be back with some more typical blogs in the upcoming days about our recent trips to Berlin, Stuttgart, and Cologne.  Tschau!

Denglish

Just when you thought we were done with winter markets. . .

The fifth and final Weihnachtsmarkt that we went to was at the headquarters of VW, the Autostadt.  While there was a Christmas market in the city center, most didn’t consider it to be a ‘real’ market.  Volkswagon, of course, wants to put its own touches on the tradition and put on quite a nice market.  One thing that set this market apart from the others, and one of my personal favourite aspects of Germans, is the use of English to be ‘hip’.  In my former German classes we always called the combination of English and German ‘Germish’, but as they refer to their language as Deutsch, to them it is ‘Denglisch’.  Please enjoy the following examples of ‘hip’ English from the speakers of Denglisch:

Sadly, there were no kits of how to make a zip line out of chewing gum, paper clips, and a bottle cap.

 

No, they were not made with hemp.

If you didn't believe he was a lord, he'd send his bunnies after you:

 PS: Totally a coincidence that the bunnies were there.  If you didn’t see it earlier, a previous blog of mine focused on the subject.

  

We decided to stop here for food.

Sadly, we didn’t heed their advice, but instead opted for a scotch egg.

 

The egg was . . . interesting . . . but at least it was warm on a very cold night.  Maybe it would’ve been better with some magic stars in it

Read it twice.  No, really.  It took me a couple of days to realize they didn’t intend for a mean angel to be sent.  Though, maybe all bets are off if an angel has to wear plaid.

False advertising.  Definitely had to wait.  Though the Bratkartoffeln were quite good.

 

We decided to stop here for a cupcake and hot cocoa to warm up.

Magic stars!!! (okay, just candy decorations)

 

They had a wonderful half chicken here.  Finger-lickin’ good!

Is anyone else out there reminded of the 1989 Ben Savage / Howie Mandel movie?  And should I be admitting this?

 

She must have been typecast.  The next one is for all of you who have been patiently waiting for some poor grammar:

 

(looks to the sky while shaking fists) PREPOSITIOOOOONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  

Eggs?  Horses?  Men?  Puzzles?

No, crepes.

(okay, maybe some eggs.  but, c'mon)

 Perhaps Germans aren’t familiar with the notion of seventh heaven, but you’d think a simple Google check on the TV show would suffice.

Similarly, I was told Americans must have more joy in their lives as we can be ‘on could nine’ while the Germans are only “auf eine Wolke”.

(“See, I’m fun to be around AND educational.” – Charles Sackett)

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Finally, the ‘Tour de force’ of the signs:

 

 'Nuff said.

We didn’t eat here, but we saw this sign:

If you didn’t believe them, they had the cans to prove it:

To any soul brave enough to have haggis on a pizza, I commend you.

We ended our evening here with a nice glühwein.

Well, I hope you have enjoyed the English signs from the Autostadt Wintermarkt.  Next time, random winter scenes from the Autostadt.

Hannover in December

To continue our winter market series, the following weekend we visited Hannover, a town Jo knew well from his student days.  It is about an hour drive west of Wolfsburg.  Mike and I were very excited to go somewhere other than Wolfsburg and Braunschweig.

Jo remembered that the main church in the Hannover city center offered free concerts every evening, so the first thing we checked out was the musical offerings for the night.  Miraculously, we arrived with about forty minutes to spare before a service with a bassoonist and a vocalist (to avoid performance fees, Germans tend to combine concerts and recitals with church services).  It had been a while since either of us heard a talented musician play, much less a bassoonist, so we both enjoyed ourselves.  The church was also quite beautiful.

Set up around the church was a series of nativity displays from various time periods and in many different forms and interpretations.  They were very interesting to compare.

Some were more traditional.

 I like the color in this one, but there is something unsettling about the use of different materials.

The details can be pretty incredible.

Again, different...

This was the placard for one of my favorite versions.

I thought it was a very cool setting -- West Side Story-esque?

The line was moving quickly, so this is a very hurried close-up of Mary and baby Jesus.

My other favorite.  All of the figures are made of painted stone.

Yet another close-up (courtesy of Benjamin).

This last one is completely made of wood.  It was beautiful, but unfortunately, baby Jesus had not arrived yet...

After the concert we did the usual wintermarket deal... lots of food, shopping around the stalls, searching for good Gluhwine, and trying to stay warm.

This wintermarket also had a giant European candle mill.

Jo has a favorite bookstore in every city that is not Wolfsburg, so of course we had to visit the one in Hannover, which was open late.  We ended up spending a good amount of time there (Mike and I like bookstores, too!), especially because they had a massive music section in the basement.  In honor of pets, below is a picture of a book in the store that looks exactly like my family's cat Berlioz back in MN.