Wendelinus Market

Candied almonds, cookies, candy

Italian cookies

The master peeler shows his wares and his skills

Flammkucken, the German version of thin crust pizza

Fresh, herbed focaccia

Ok, fess up.  While you Protestants finish your sodoku, or stare out the window, can any of you Catholics tell me who Wendelin was?  All you backsliders give up?  St Wendelin is the patron saint of plague.  I know.  It was right on the tip of your ecclesiastical tongue, right?

St Wendelin’s history is shaded in the lore and scraps of history from the middle of the first century after Christ.  Apparently, the son of a Scottish king, he embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome.  On his way back, he stopped off in Trier and became a hermit.  Criticized for just hanging out, he took up sheep herding and along the way acquired a heavy rep for curing animals.  When a pestilence hit cattle of the area in the 14^th Century, his intercession was credited with saving the herds.  There’s even a city in Germany named for him, St Wendel.

Way back at the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, when local cattle were threatened with disease, one German town held a festival in St Wendelin’s honor.  Services, I’m told, were a relay situation, lasting twelve hours, with participation by several priests.  That was back in 1710.  After enthusiasm died out for twelve hour sermons, not to mention all the wars and pestilence St Wendelin couldn’t handle, the custom gradually withered.

Flash forward to 1986, when the merchants of Ramstein saw a golden opportunity to combine a market day, tradition, religion, and the heartwarming cacophony of cash registers.   Wendelinus Market lives again on Saturday and Sunday of the last weekend in October!

But, even with commercial interests in the fore, at least some remnants of religion and tradition remain.  You can still bring your animals to be blessed.

This year’s festival featured African foods and articles, as well as twenty French stands selling everything from soap to cheese to sausages.

Like any good fest in a German town or village, there was plenty to eat and drink.  The fragrance of hot wine and roasting meat wandered with the crowds down the narrow streets and into the open air of the old market place. With the advent of much lower temperatures, Glüwein was once again in evidence, but also the obligatory wines and beers and schnapps, wursts and potatoes.

Once you go to a German village fest, stroll with a Brat in your fist and a warm Glüwein in your other fist, you’re addicted.  The air is always frosty and clean.  The crowds are always friendly.  St Wendelin would be proud.

A woodturner at work...

...and some of his work

Amazing what you can do with paper and light.

Ribbons for her hair...

Neatest fried potatoes I've seen...and delicious.

Very nice, but at 147 Euros or $195, pretty pricy for a wreath.

Music and Flea Market – Another Sunny Day in Homburg

As sunny day and friendly crowds

Trash and treasures!

 I get frustrated when I hear people complain about nothing to do, right here in Germany, in the living, breathing heart of central Europe.  Right.  After you’ve been to all the weinfests, bierfests, historic cities and towns, sampled the huge varieties of foods, including special seasons for strawberries, asparagus, and pumpkins…  Well, I guess there really is nothing to do.  Wait a sec!  I left out flea markets and music festivals that spring up when the weather turns warm.

Homburg, just up A-6 toward Saarbrücken, has both. Every first Saturday, there’s a huge flea market.  It’s located a few blocks from the old market square. All you have to do is ask and people will point you in the right direction.  Vendors from all over Germany and France, as well as locals, bring their trash and treasures and display them in the open air. Very extensive.  It’ll take you over an hour to wind in and out and around the new Rathaus area.  Of course there is wurst and bier, along with crepes, sweet waffles, and soft ice cream.  It’s a bargain hunter’s paradise. Great selection of middle eastern carpets.

Another thing you don’t have to worry about is a shortage of cash.  In Homburg, from April to late October, there are free rock concerts every Friday night at 1900 and jazz concerts every Saturday, from 1100 to 1430.  What kind of rock and what kind of jazz?  Oh, you beggars are soooooo choosy.  Varies.  The bands change every week and in the case of jazz, it goes from modern to Dixieland to traditional big bands.  These are accomplished musicians.  Seldom do you see sheet music or music stands.

These folks change instruments as easily as you and I change hats!

A plethora of styles mix seamlessly.

Nobody can resist a good book.

Karl Marx and Truman Capote dropped by.

Hemingway was asked what he did for inspiration.  He said he went to the Prado and gazed at a few canvases.  You could say the same for music, or dance, pottery, or goldsmithing.  Art has a direct connect to the soul.

Homburg is a magical place on Saturdays!


Music, as with most art, soothes, relaxes, and takes you to a floating island of sentiment, high above your cares.  Think I’m wrong?  Hear a few bars of rock from your high school days and you sing along.  Can’t help it. As you sing, faces and places float past, a panorama of triumphs and failures, loves and loses.  You gain glimmers of acceptance, thin slices of understanding.  In the same way, jazz washes you in moonlight and the scent of roses.

While you’re making that connection, sit back and order a bier, or a wurst, or a full meal (all at normal prices) and enjoy the show.  Don’t feel like eating or drinking?  Enjoy the music for free, in one of the most quaint old market areas around.  The cobble-stoned market square has a beautiful stone fountain, surrounded by buildings that date back to forever, with their gabled and tiled roofs. Bars, restaurants and shops are all around you, as well as vendors selling fresh produce, cheeses, honey, and sausage.  The old Rathaus (city hall) is also on the square, complete with a crest of arms that indicates this city was once a part of Bavaria.

Nothing to do?  Well, go back to your warm milk and cookies and TV reruns.  Meanwhile, for the rest of us, rich man, poor man, or beggar, there’s a rainbow of activities going on in Homburg every weekend.

"Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life."
--  Berthold Auerbach (German novelist, 1811-1882)