Esslingen, Germany

Here we are at a local cafe'. Its quite French in decor yet German in everything else. Yes, we still enjoy our chocolate cake.











This Thanksgiving weekend we decided to visit Esslingen and see their Christmas market. Esslingen is a little south east of Stuttgart. Everyone told us we would love it and it certainly lived up to the hype. We took the train and found it to be utterly enchanting. Here are the guys taking in the view at a bridge. These are a few of the pictures from that day.
















This is a view of the surrounding hills of Essinlingen. It might surprise you to find out that all around us is wine country. You might not be able to see it, but there are wine grapes in them thar hills! I haven't had any German wine yet, but my landlords own a vineyard and I am hoping to taste test some of their wine soon.




This is not a real person, but I thought it was such am imaginative piece of art that I had to photograph it. This tower has a bakery on the ground floor with a sign in the masonry showing when it was built. It has been there since the 1400s. How cool is that?!


Here are two pictures of the the classic Christmas market in Germany. You can't get more German than the first photograph. This piece of art stood a good 30-40 feet high. I was not only impressed by the size, but also by the detail of the art and craftsmanship. My father-in-law would have loved seeing all the wood working here. There seems to be a very large community of wood workers who love to show off their work.