It’s been snowing for three days, big fluffy snowflakes that stick to everything, and it’s quite beautiful outdoors. The blizzard started dramatically on Thursday afternoon with sudden high winds, dark dark clouds and – get this – thunder and lightning. That was a first for me.
We’re off to do our groceries in a few minutes. Saturday is market day, most definitely a mass activity. The stores aren’t open on Sundays or in the evenings during the week, and they mostly close at 4PM on Saturdays. The resulting Saturday crowds in downtown Munich would rival December 24th in any North American mall. We avoid the crush for the most part by visiting a small farmer’s market down the street, one of the many collections of travelling caravans that pop up in city neighbourhoods on various days of the week.
Germans are hardy souls. Snow and cold won’t stop an outdoor market, or the people who shop there. I guarantee there will be lineups at the vegetable and fruit stalls, the cheese cart and baker. People will be standing around upturned wooden barrels enjoying a beer, and others will be munching on roast chicken fresh off the butcher cart rotissery. We’ll load up our knapsacks because there’s too much snow to drag our wheeled shopping cart through, though others will strap their purchases into the baskets on their bikes and wheel away, snow or no snow. More often than not, the winter cyclists are middle-aged women and I swear they could navigate their city bikes in the Artic.
Like I said, hardy souls.
POLLENATRIX 