Toys, Tanks, Food !

If you look carefully you'll see two dolls peeking out of Jack's backpack!  We had a great outing to a huge flea market in Mannheim on Saturday.  We went looking for more toys for Jack's childcare.

In addition to dolls, we found these two Duplo trucks, which two of our boys will really enjoy and be able to "share".

Those of you who know the mischievous fictional characters Max and Moritz, will love that this school is named after their author and decorated like this!

On a more somber note was the protest against selling weapons to Erdogan in Turkey.  "Shoulder to shoulder against fascism!"

The Kurds, whether in Turkey or in Syria, are being attacked.  If you check on a map you'll see that northern Syria borders Turkey.  And on both side live Kurds.  Apparently in Düsseldorf, not far from here, Germany is producing tanks to be sold to Turkey(to attack the Kurds.)  This was a large demonstration that walked through downtown Mannheim.

The first group were "Peace Group in Mannheim", then came many others including the green party, anarchists and communists.  On the left were groupings of five police always about 30 yards apart.  Jack noticed one police officer in each group always had a fire extinguisher.

The end of the demonstration was followed by at least 4 ambulances and then many different kinds of police vehicles.  Fortunately it was a peaceful and, I hope, well-received demonstration.  

A bit further on this bright sunny and cold day we came across the Mannheim Market, here at a meat stand.  Every sausage you can think of, plus meat filled bladders! and different kinds of pigs knuckles!

In the center there is a statue to some hero and all around you hear lots of different languages spoken.  Of course, there are fresh vegetables and fruit for sale as well as homemade breads, cakes, jams, cheeses, turkey products, horsemeat, all sorts of game meats, honey, eggs of every sort, and cheesecake advertised as "possibly the best in the world".

We hunted in vain for a German restaurant and ended up enjoying Thai food very close to home!