The Imkerei

 Uwe, the Imkerei, where I work at the Weihnachtsmarkt

Imagine a busy city street lined with temporary red and white striped roofs. At night, lights sparkle and shine from within every shop and hang above, suspended in the air. A huge Santa sits before an even larger standing Toy Soldier. They keep me entertained every night while I wait for the double decker M19 Bus home. With all of the shops and decorations one can hardly notice the modern works of art, including a big water fountain or the two huge churches that are the signature for Breitscheidplatz here in Charlottenburg. One of the churches (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche) was halfway destroyed during the 2nd World War but was left standing. A second church was built next to it. It is a very modern church with small square windows that shine blue from instense blue light that illuminates the huge cross with Christ within. They are literally steps apart from each other and as contrasting as possibe. Berlin typically mixes the old with the new, the historic with the modern.

The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirches side by side.

 

The Imkerei shop (where I work) at the Christmas Market is not far from these two churches. It is sandwiched between a dark shop illuminated by rich blues, oranges, reds, purples, greens and more for a visual delight of handcrafted lights in the shape of stars and flowers and a shop for Handschuhe (gloves or literally: handshoes), Mütze (winter caps) und Schals (scarves). Most of the time, Jens works there. He always has a twinkle of mischief in his eye and comes by often for honeywine and conversation. He's a painter of walls but earns money selling laterns.                                        

There are many characters that visit the Weihnachtsmarkt. Just yesterday, we had a very interesting woman accompanied by her two male friends. She wore red boots with red stockings, a short red adn white pok-a-dot skirt and an open red, shiny and puffy jacket (keep in mind it's freezing). She danced about, twirling radom stiff Germans and singing in a screechy voice burned out from shouting, cigarettes and alcohol (yes, including honey wine). Uwe, my boss, doesn't care much for the boistrous visitors but I enjoy them. Uwe is a beekeeper. He makes honey, propolis, candles from beeswax and MET (honeywine). What is honeywine? It's only honey and water that goes through a process that eventually turns into a form of wine. It has the same alcohol content as other wine (10-14%), depending on the type of honey he uses. He has many colonies of bees, each housing 60,000 bees with only one queen bee.

Weihnachtsmarkt in Charlottenburg: Inside Europa Center (L); one of the many outdoor booths- this one for sweets (R)