Archives for November 2007

Hessenbollen

November 30, 2007 By Graham 3 Comments

At the Oberursel Christmas market I discovered something new today – Hessenbollen.

The stand selling them had a big vat of hot fat, and they were bobbing up and down in it, much like fresh doughnuts.

As it turns out, the mixture is not that much different, but rather than being formed and baked, the Hessenbollen are scooped out with an ice-cream scooped and then turned over and over again until they are golden brown.

Once out of the fat, they are filled with a mixture of cream and apple juice (or even apple wine).

They taste very much like filled doughnuts, but there is much more filling that you would get in a Berliner. In fact, the doughnut-type casing is not as think as Berliners are, leaving much more space inside for the filling.

Filed Under: Christmas, Food & Drink Tagged With: Christmas, Doughnut, hessen

Oberursel Christmas Market

November 30, 2007 By Graham 3 Comments

The Oberursel Christmas Market is relatively small – a hand full of stands around the Rathaus selling mainly hot drinks.

There is a merry-go-round and a steam train ride for children, and a stall selling advent crowns. But the food available is very limited. There are sausages and a stand selling fried potatoes. I even saw fish rolls, plus the usual sweet stand. But otherwise I found it pretty much uninteresting.

The main pedestrian zone has some handicraft stalls, but these seemed to be mainly jewellery and not really the type of crafts that I have seen at other markets in the past.

The highlight was trying a Hessenbollen – more about that in another post.

Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t too good either – cold (but not so cold) and drizzle. Better luck next time?

Filed Under: Christmas

A trip on the Rhine

November 30, 2007 By Graham 3 Comments

This is the final part of the series about my weekend walking between Rüdesheim and Oberwesel. Part five can be found here.

The final part of our journey was to take place on the aptly named boat “Jeverland”, run by the Köln-Düsseldorfer line. We boarded in Oberwesel and sat back to enjoy the journey to Rüdesheim.

The “Jeverland” at the berth in Oberwesel

The slow pace allowed us to look at the paths and places that we had been to the previous day, as well as seeing part of the Rhine that we had missed by sitting in the train. One example of this was Burg Pfalzgrafenstein. Built in the first half of the 14th Century and positioned in the middle of the river, this was once a customs house and has the unique form of a ship.

Burg Pfalzgrafenstein, standing in the middle of the Rhine

Next we came to Lorch, where we had stopped to eat the day before.

Lorch, seen from the river

After Lorch came the vineyards – here we could see the route that we had taken.

The vineyards on the slopes south of Lorch

After that – the part of the path that went through the woods. In the photo you can see how the vineyards suddenly stop and the slopes are covered with trees.

The woods and vineyards between Assmannshausen and Lorch

After the next vineyards we passed Assmannshausen. In the background are the school that we walked by, the start of the steps that we used to go down to the town and the chair lift.

Assmannshausen, seen from the river