Hochheim, Germany

On November 8, 2018 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Germany2 Comments

Located just couple of hours outside of Frankfurt, we visited Hochheim for a quick day trip from the city. It is a small town surrounded by vineyards and still retains its medieval charm. It was early November and the town was holding its annual festival and market, so it was a lot busier than it normally would have been, but that also made it fun for us. It was a quick train ride from Frankfurt and since we had monthly passes for the train, we simply had to pay a little extra to get to the nearby town.

After walking up the hill from the train station past the vineyard and the church, we entered the town through its main gate. After walking the quiet streets for a few minutes, we found a nice Italian pizzeria called La Botte to grab some lunch and have a glass of beer and wine. After lunch we continued towards the heart of the town and quickly realized that we had come to Hochheim on the right weekend as the market was in full swing. We certainly weren’t the only ones who had decided to come to Hochheim for the day.

The Hochheim Market has been held since 1484 and is actually considered one of the biggest fairs in Germany. A combination of fair, market, and festival, there was plenty of food, gluhwein, crafts, and rides for the children. It is a seven day festival and market, which happened to just be starting. A banner for the local winery welcomed everyone into the market and it got busier and busier as the day went along. This would be the first of the many markets that we enjoyed during our time in Germany, so it has a special place in our hearts.

As the sun started going down and the crowds became overwhelming, we decided to find ourselves a pub to grab some dinner and a drink before heading back to Frankfurt. It was a quaint little place with signs from the 40’s and 50’s adorning the walls and ceiling. As with most places that we visited, the people were warm and welcoming, even with the language barriers. It is hard to believe that it has been almost two years to the day since we visited Hochheim. You can read about our initial thoughts about the Hochheim Market here.

Bloody Mary Festival in Denver, Colorado

On October 24, 2017 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Colorado6 Comments

Food and beverage festivals can be a great way to sample a variety of specific foods from area restaurants and specialty stores. We have gone to many different ones in the past from barbeque festivals to a bacon and beer festival. Over the weekend, we went to Denver and participated in the Bloody Mary Festival, which included 15 different types of Bloody Mary samples as well as a variety of food and other stands selling goods and handing out free samples. We always enjoy a good Bloody Mary, so we were excited to see all of the creative drinks as well as toppings that were going to be offered.

One thing that we learned relatively quickly is that sometimes people can get too creative with their ingredients. A popular ingredient seemed to be pickle juice or pickling spices, which can be fine in moderation, but these were a little over the top. Another that we tried had fish sauce in it, which we didn’t care for, but perhaps that is just our taste preference. You could get a green Bloody Mary with orange and pineapple or one that was made with beer. It was good that almost every stand had a list of ingredients so that you knew what you were about to drink before giving it a taste.

In the end, when it came time for us to vote, we ended up selecting a more traditional style of Bloody Mary. Our favorites were from the Highland Tavern and Tupelo Honey. We like ours a little spicy, but found the more exotic recipes to be a little too much for us. Although you could drink as much as you like, we just took a few sips of each one, just enough to get a true sense of the flavor. After a while, even if you like a good Bloody Mary, the acid from the tomatoes can start to get to you. We will continue to keep our eyes open for any upcoming festivals that seem unique and interesting.

Hochheimer Market

On November 7, 2016 By Isobar ExpeditionsIn Germany3 Comments

We didn’t go far this weekend since we needed to take care of some much needed shopping while the stores were open, but that doesn’t mean that we didn’t have a good time over the weekend. As we have mentioned before, all of the stores in Frankfurt are closed on Sundays, so if you need anything, you have to buy it during the week or on Saturday, therefore we spent Saturday taking care of buying a few things for our new apartment. On Sunday, though, we took a short thirty-minute train ride to the town of Hochheim to visit a market that one of our new friends here in Germany had told us about.

It is one of the oldest markets in Germany having been established in 1484. Based on the crowds, it is also one of the most popular, we can only imagine what the Christmas markets are going to be like once they start at the end of this month. There are stalls selling sausages, hot mulled wine called Glühwein, nuts, popcorn, and candy galore. There are also rides and carnival games, but it was hard for us to see much of anything through the wall-to-wall crowds.

Bratwurst, Currywurst, Rindwurst, and More

We had some of the Glühwein and enjoyed a wonderful bratwurst as we scanned all of the crafts on display for sale. We even found a nice children’s book as a souvenir, but we did not take a photo of it to share. We shared a German market from Denver last year, but clearly it did not prepare us for the size of this market. They even jammed the use of cell phones so that there was no risk of anyone detonating anything with all of the large crowds. It was a quick trip, but definitely a fun one, but the size of the crowds made it a little difficult to enjoy everything that the market had to offer. We look forward to many more festivals and markets during the months ahead.