Christmas Market in Germany / Day 2 / Frankfurt

I left Wiesbaden early hoping to get to Frankfurt by 10 AM, when I presumed that stores would be opening and I could get some shopping done before they closed early in the evening ... at least that was my assumption from the way things were in France, where even during this holiday season, shops open only from 10 AM to 7 PM.

Not so in Germany.

The main shopping street in Frankfurt, the Zeil, was open for business as early as 9:30 and the larger department stores, Kaufhof and Karstadt, were open as late as 22:00 or 10 PM. I walked the length of the Zeil several times and made some side trips to the Dom/Romer square where the Christmas Market is based (do you remember the area with reconstructed old-style buildings, and wall-to-wall people in the market?) to drink wine and collect some new mugs (collective sighs from the parents). But this year I found something new: a ceramic cup that could be used for green tea, smartly decorated with Frankfurter Weihnachtsmarkt logo.

(Incidentally the market is not only in that square, it actually stretches all the way down through several alleys and there are also similar booths located along the Zeil shopping street itself. So no shortage of sausage booths and hot wine.)

In the end I bought few things at the large shops (except for one pair of boots for the rainy and snowy winter for 40 EUR ($55)) and instead ended up with foodstuffs from a supermarket located near my hotel.

(The hotel was the same one as during the World Cup, the Alexander am Zoo located not far from the zoo in a quiet neighborhood, rate: 52 EUR for a large single, breakfast included.)

Things I bought: goulash mix, Jaegersnitzel mix, and because I wasn't going to have time to pick up bread for the new week ahead, germany dark brot bread which I've been eating over the last few days. Things are much, much cheaper in Germany, perhaps because of looser regulation and more imports of food?

There was a real interesting drink that I bought to try in my room: a combination of beer and wine. On the label it read "Perlwein" though I'm not sure what that means.