The Protester

I participated my very first demonstration yesterday.

In the state of Hesse, some changes to the kindergarten laws are about to happen. I'm not sure how far the process is at the moment, but I know that it would bring a lot of negative changes to the everyday matters.

For example, in the groups of small children (under 3 years old) there are two teachers and they can currently take care of 10 children. After the change, there could be 16 kids in every group!

Not good, not good at all.

So, yesterday there was a demonstration against this new law held at the Kochbrunnenplatz in Wiesbaden.

There were quite many participants - mostly kindergarten teachers and parents with their children.

Unfortunately the weather was not the best possible ( -1°C and windy), so we didn't stay there for very long time.

But on our way home, we saw the first signs of spring!

*****
Hessenin osavaltiossa suunnitellaan lakimuutosta, joka toisi selviä heikennyksiä päiväkotien toimintaan. Esimerkiksi nykyään alle 3-vuotiaiden ryhmissä voi olla kymmenen lasta kahta "tätiä" kohden. Uudistuksen jälkeen lapsimäärä voitaisiin nostaa kuuteentoista! Eilen täällä Wiesbadenissa järjestettiin mielenosoitus lakia vastaan ja mekin osallistuimme. Ensimmäinen mielenosoitukseni! 

Vaikka keli oli jäätävän kylmä, löysimme jo ensimmäisen lupauksen tulevasta keväästä: kukkivan puun.

Sunday Lunch At Schloss Johannisberg

You have seen this pavement before, right?
Now you know where that picture was taken.

Like I told you last Sunday, we took my mother to Schloss Johannisberg for Sunday lunch. I have only tasted the selection of local specialities there, but I can highly recommend it for a light snack to enjoy with a glass (or three) of local wine. We now shared two servings between my mother, Herr Well, Fräulein and me. Also the desserts in the table next to us looked delicious. You can find the menu *here*.

Two almost finished servings of Johannisberger Brotzeitteller

Schloss Johannisberg is a vineyard in the Rheingau wine area, about 25km from Wiesbaden. This vineyard was the first in the world to plant only Riesling (in 1720).

The bare vines in early March

I have been told that Schloss Johannisberg is now owned by Dr. Oetker's family. Yes, the guy with the frozen pizzas.

The entrance to the palace

Dr. Oetker's garden in October.
I could see myself walking in this garden sipping sparkling wine...

The palace is located on a hill and, as you can see also in the garden picture above, the view is amazing.

The view in October, when the vines were green.

The palace is located at the 50th parallel north.

And what would be the point visiting a vineyard, if you couldn't buy a few bottles as 'take-away'?

The 'Wein-Cabinet' is open every day of the week.

The Christmas Spirit of Rüdesheim

Now that our daughter finally has the new car seat (she has grown out of the old one a while ago...) we decided to go for a test drive. We ended up at the Christmas Market in Rüdesheim. Rüdesheim am Rhein is a small city about 30km southwest from Wiesbaden. And like the name indicates, it is located right by the Rhein.

We had heard some nice comments about the city and as they have a Christmas Market of their own, this seemed like a great time to visit. And we weren't dissappointed. The city has really put an effort in the market, like you can see on the web site www.w-d-n.de of the market (also in English).

What made this Christmas Market special and different from the markets in Wiesbaden and Frankfurt, was that it was located on narrow streets in stead of a market place or a square. We need to get back to Rüdesheim on summertime to see how the city looks like in without all the Christmas Market decorations.

Although it was already dark outside, the Christmas lights lit up the market area nicely

The Rabbit Town

The Sunday dinner for two

Little Finland in Rüdesheim

The narrow streets enhance the atmosphere

In Frankfurt I was not able to get close enough to the carousel to take a picture,
here I could not get far enough!