The life and times of a pop-culture junkie and music addict living in Arlington, Virginia
One of my favorite sweets is a candy that appears at the local Aldi stores in November or December, and it vanishes again by late February or early March- the Winter Kipferl. Kipferl is a type of cookie, so these are delicious chocolate wrapped cookies in bar form. Each box contains eleven individually wrapped sticks of delicious chocolate joy.
I stock up as much as I can, but I miss this like crazy during the summer.
What’s your favorite seasonal-availability snack?
Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, or Silvester to the locals. They’re not directly analogous. Silvester is a religious holiday, the Feast Day of Pope Sylvester I. They both fall on December 31st, though. It’s traditional at this time of year to take a look back and see what you’ve accomplished over the last twelve months.
I visited these places that were new to me:
I repeat visited a few places:
I saw some great concerts and shows:
I had some new experiences:
I had some other things happen that were interesting:
Did you have a good year? What’s the most memorable thing you did this year?
One of the things I’ve wanted to do since I arrived in Regensburg was to see a performance- any performance- of the Regensburger Domspatzen.
The Domspatzen (literal translation= Cathedral Sparrows) is a world famous boy’s choir based at St. Peter’s Cathedral, the tall pointy church known to Regensburg locals as The Dom. The choir was founded in the year 975 by Bishop Wolfgang of Regensburg, and they’ve been present here ever since. The institution is not just a choir- it’s a boarding school for boys aged 10–19 and a private secondary school with emphasis on musical education.
The Domspatzen sing both regular mass services as well as concerts around Germany. Jenny also was curious to see them sing, so we went to the Holy Mass services on the Sunday before Christmas. Advantage: It’s free, at least until the collection plate comes by. Disadvantage: It’s a Roman Catholic Holy Mass, so there’s a ton of ritual, chanting, kneeling, and the swinging of incense which is catnip for migraines, as I discovered. I’ve been to Catholic mass services before, and my ability to follow the ritual was about the same in German as it is in English. Still, it’s a good way to see the Domspatzen in their native habitat, and you get a sense of what they sound like without going out of town to attend a full concert.
The Dom is an amazing structure. The altar space is very tastefully appointed, and very large:
I didn’t take very many photographs, because this was a religious service. The majority of the people present were locals attending their church, not tourists. I try not to be too disrespectful. Still, you can get an idea of the size of the Domspatzen by seeing the group fully assembled:
Since I wasn’t partaking of Communion, I used that time to try to get a little bit of the Domspatzen singing. This clip is the older boys with the black vestments in the back. If I’d kept the video running for another ten seconds, the younger group in red would also have been audible.
Because my video isn’t a complete song or a very good example of what seeing this group is like, I’ve gone out to the Tubes Of You, and found two pretty good clips that will give you an idea of how they sound.
Have you ever seen a world famous boy’s choir? What did you think?
For those who celebrate it, Merry Christmas! The Christmas markets have only two more nights before they’re closed for the year.
This is one of my favorite Christmas comics, created by the geniuses at http://www.shoeboxblog.com/:
I decided a while back that I wanted to see the Nuremberg Christmas Market this year. The Nuremberg market is one of the most famous, and it’s a big attraction for tourists. It sees about two million visitors a year. This is what it looked like at around 5pm on a very rainy Saturday night.
It was pretty difficult to move up and down the aisles because of the volume of people visiting. This was more crowded than my visit to Oktoberfest, although that was a weekday rather than a Saturday.
It’s held in the Hauptmarkt, a large courtyard between a big church and a big pointy fountain in the Nürnberg Altstadt. This is the fountain:
There are booths and decorations on all the connecting streets as well. This little fellow was in front of a store.
The market has the usual things you find in any Christmas market – hot nuts, Lebkuchen, Bratwurst, handmade goods, and Glühwein.
Nuremberg also sports the world’s largest flaming punch bowl. I took some pictures of the flaming punch bowl, but they really didn’t come out very well so they won’t be included here.
While I was there, a German chorus was singing English Christmas music in front of the Church.
When I stopped for a closer look, the director (in the red cowboy shaped hat) asked the audience if there were any Americans in the audience. He seemed disappointed with the lack of response- apparently the Americans are usually noisier.
Perhaps it’s because all the Americans were enjoying the Glühwein- Nuremberg had the white variety seen here. It’s not quite as sweet as the usual red wine flavors of Glühwein, but it was very delicious. A hot steaming mug of this was enough to make me forget it was raining the entire time I was at the market.
What is the most crowded event or festival you have visited?
Whimsy. Tacos. The DMV. 