I tried some Husten- und Bronchialtee recently when I had a cold, but it didn’t seem to help, perhaps because I didn’t believe in it enough. Tee (tea) has a wide meaning in German and most of these teas sound like the condition they are supposed to avert. As one of the tweets quoted by Bettina says, Blasentee (bladder tea, diuretic tea) is not the same as bubble tea.

Glassblower at Fürth Altstadtweihnachtsmarkt:

Traditionally, the golden arches change to green during advent:

Some of the locals having a sing-song outside Drogerie Müller:

A Fortuna Düsseldorf fan risking her life in Fürth:

View of the Christkindlsmarkt in Nuremberg – from Fleischbrücke- possibly with more snow than they reckoned with:

What they do in Nuremmberg with the annual surplus of prunes:

The representative of Bar in Montenegro in a nice hat:

On my walk yesterday I saw Katharina das Große in the window of a health care shop:

Amazon reviews are very harsh on this mobile phone. The main objection seems to be that it isn’t mobile – it won’t fit in a jacket pocket or handbag, so it gets left at home. People also feel they are being treated as if they were disabled. In addition, there may be some functioning problems.

If you scroll down here, you can see it’s at least four times the size of a normal cell phone.

The metal plate has been released to say ‘auf eigenes Risiko gestattet’ – it usually says just ‘verboten’, I think. But at -15°C, too cold – only two skaters at 13.00.

Meanwhile, here is a warmer headcovering (my upper cheeks have been getting very cold):

And here possibly a Scot:

or two

It’s very cold here at the moment (-10°C but sunny).

The City Center, the hardest-to-renovate shopping centre in Germany, with 351 owners (not a joke), was supposed to have closed on 13 January, and most of it did. A few shops turn out to have longer leases. What’s more, it seems the final agreement of the investor has not been obtained.