Gluhwein time
Springing up in city centres all over the country right now are so-called ‘German Markets’ – a new trend that sees people huddling in the rain around small wooden huts selling overpriced sausages and gluhwein.
It’s actually an innovation I quite approve of. When I lived in Germany in the days before they exported their markets, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this nice ‘old-fashioned’ and sociable way of celebrating Christmas, meeting up with friends at a stall after work for a quick drink, and often wondered why the British hadn’t followed a similar path. Of course, Christmas markets become rather more alluring when they are standing in a pretty bohemian square and dusted with twinkling snow, rather than plonked in the middle of a concrete shopping centre and assaulted by rain and tumbling plastic carrier bags.
I hope that this sudden influx of a tiny bit of ‘german culture’ may go a little way towards helping the british get over their neglectful shunning of Germany as a cultural and holiday destination, because I don’t think most british people have any idea what a lovely country it is, and how remarkably similar we are in character (loathe as we are to admit it). For years Germans have been visiting Britain in a spirit of friendliness, and perhaps its time for our middle classes to overturn their irrational predjudices, leave their french holiday home enclaves, (which are, after all, full of annoying french people) and look to buying property in the Bavarian Lakes.
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