We went back to Hainerberg on Sunday to pick up a few American items at the commissary.  Before we went to the commissary, we decided to have lunch in downtown Wiesbaden.  The Christmas market was in full swing and we walked through it on our way to the Ratskeller, which is a German restaurant underneath the Rathaus in Wiesbaden.  Below are a few pictures of Wiesbaden’s market, followed by my thoughts on Ratskeller.

The Christmas market in Wiesbaden has a different vibe…  

I heard a lovely choir singing carols as I took this picture.

As we were leaving the area later, there was a children’s choir singing “Let It Snow”.  We got rain instead.

They had a puppet theater set up.

And a ferris wheel!  I kind of wish Bill and I had gotten on this, but Bill isn’t a fan of heights or rides.

They had names of all the local areas, like Mainz.

And Winter BBQ… which appeared to be burgers and hot dogs.

Ratskeller enjoys a very advantageous location in Wiesbaden’s Rathaus.  I was surprised by how large the restaurant is.  It’s heavy on beer and heavy German style food.  Oddly enough, that was exactly what Bill and I were in the mood for on Sunday.  Sometimes, we are uncannily in sync with our thoughts and desires.

Bill peruses the choices.  They had a number of Bavarian specialties.

The inside of the restaurant reminded me a little of the Hofbrauhaus in Munich.  There was no band, though.

I had a Doppelbock and Bill had a Dunkelweizen.  I really enjoyed the Doppelbock, which was flavorful, but not too cloying.  It clocked in at 7% ABV, while Bill’s dunkel was a bit lighter and less alcoholic.

I had a small portion of duck.  This was one quarter of the bird.  I could have had half a duck, but I wasn’t hungry enough for that.  I didn’t finish this, although I did enjoy the Rotkohl– red cabbage with apple.  It went very well with the duck and the potato dumplings.  I can never eat more than one dumpling, which may surprise those who get a load of my dumpy backside.

Bill had a pork Schnitzel breaded with pretzel and served with brown gravy.  It came with really good steak fries.  Seriously, those potatoes were excellent.  They had a fabulous flavor.  A lot of fries are kind of tasteless and filling, but these had a great rustic character to them.  The Schnitzel was also well prepared and just the right size.

 

Our waiter spoke perfect English and was reasonably friendly.  I liked the atmosphere in the Ratskeller, although I imagine it probably gets busy and noisy in there.  It’s not often I want German food, but this was just what we were in the mood for on Sunday.  I had a dark wheat beer for dessert, while Bill had coffee.

Dessert prompted us to need the bathroom…

If you aren’t a guest and you need to pee, you’re supposed to pay one euro.  No Nette Toilette here!

A couple more shots of what appears to be a rather historic building.

Wiesbaden is sure pretty…  

On the way back home, we stopped by the commissary and picked up some American items.  I didn’t take the time to really explore the commissary, but it did appear to be somewhat nicer than the one at Patch Barracks.  Of course, Stuttgart is supposed to be getting a brand new commissary soon.  I don’t know that we’ll visit the one in Wiesbaden more than once or twice a month, now that we’ve become so accustomed to German stores.  However, I did notice there’s a nice view from the commissary…

My camera didn’t really do this justice… there were sunbeams coming out of the clouds as if they were sent straight from Heaven.