Just before starting work again, here is what it looks like here in Fürth now:

I can’t help feeling that containers for Advent lights are being repurposed here.

This is what I saw on Saturday:

(Note the German indentation on the cushion in the shop window)

These are the Sternsinger – rather too many Three Kings. They did have real incense with them. I would have given them a donation after photographing them, but they were hastening off somewhere. According to Toytown Germany (link with picture), the “C + M + B” they chalk on the door means not “Caspar, Melchior und Balthasar”, but “Christus Mansionam Benedicat”. More in English in Wikipedia. I have never encountered the Three Kings Cake in Germany.

Meanwhile, a beaver has returned. It has been working on one tree only and I will have to see if it manages to fell it:

And finally, a photo showing what it looks like when rebuilding is about to take place and shops move out: