First we checked out Marktplatz, the location of the Vereins Kirche, Maibaum and Christmas Pyramid. The hexagonal Vereins Kirche was the first church built by the German immigrant settlers. It also served as a fort, storehouse and meeting hall. Demolished in 1896, locals rebuilt it in 1935.
The Maibaum or Maypole tells the story of the history of Fredericksburg, including negotiations with the local Comanche Indian tribes, cowboys, dancers, grapes and peaches, hunting, transportation and Sunday houses. These houses were built by farmers who came to town to shop on Saturday and stayed overnight to attend church on Sunday morning.
The Christmas Pyramid was made in Germany. It reminds me of small Christmas centerpieces that include candles. The heat from the burning candles makes that centerpiece rotate.
Would you believe they have an outdoor ice skating rink in Marktplatz? The temperature was 79 and it seemed out of place. Today I'll bet not many young people are skating because of the cold and wind.
We roamed through lots of the shops, along with crowds of others. This is a great place to do you Christmas shopping. Thankfully, we completed ours before we left Arizona. We noticed these ceramic flowers in one of the shops. It turns out they are holders for tea lights.
In addition to all the shoppers and their vehicles, main street in Fredericksburg is a through highway with lots of truck traffic. We saw at least 5 of these long wind turbine blades being hauled through town.
In past visits, I don't remember there being as many wine tasting rooms in town and vineyards in the surrounding area. Here are just a few of the signs that we saw for wine tasting rooms.
It was a fun excursion but we were glad to get away from the crowds when we were done.
Welcome back to Texas.
ReplyDelete