This was the 13th annual Christmas market in the Mülheim Altstadt, which is very popular and advertised throughout the Ruhr.
It is organised and owned by people living in the very pretty Altstadt area, and is not open to Commercial enterprises, just to private persons and Associations.
It is a “silent market”, meaning that loud music is not allowed on the stalls.
Every evening at 7 pm visitors are given sparklers and light them while the bells of the nearby St. Peter’s church are ringing. Over the 2 weeks of the market over 100,000 sparklers were lit.
In early November we purchased Mrs Darlington’s jam and chutney – 96 jars of various kinds – from the indoor market, and along with Christmas cakes and puddings, brandy snaps, shortbread, Christmas cards, Darlington fridge magnets and other items, had them transported to Mülheim.
Gill and I flew out on the 23 November to stay with our friends Karl and Ingeborg, and spent 3 great afternoons on the stall with our friends from their TTA.
The weather was excellent for the time of year, and we met many people who have links with Darlington, and together with our friends, who had also supplied many things for the stall, sold everthing!
The stall will almost certainly be at next year’s Christmas market and we look forward to going and having an even better time there, and hopefully maybe a few more people from Darlington will make the trip with us.
Many thanks to our friends from Mülheim who organised everything and worked with us on the stall;
Alfred Braemart Beate and Hermann Kamleiter, Helga Richter-Lonnecke, Ursula Ritter-Thomas, Karl and Ingeborg Schaefer, Dieter and Ilse Steinberg, Ingrid Zimmermann.
Report By: Tom and Gill Nutt