Just remembered-sound
I was in a church near Gutersloh on Christmas Eve with my future wife. The congregation sang Stille nacht, heilige Nacht.
Wonderful and never sung better.

Happy days

And that reminds me of...

Being in Soest and attending an event at the St. Petri Kirche -- the onion-domed Protestant church right across from the St. Patroclus RC Cathedral. We all stood down in the Marktplatz as the church choir, holding candles, wound their way down from the top of the spire singing Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. The snow gently drifting down, the whole city quiet except for the sound of the choir voices floating down from the spire and the flicker of the candles as the choristers made their way down the twisting stone steps inside the steeple. Something pretty special.

What about the sound of the little 'two stroke' cars which were much about in the sixties?

What about the roasted mandeln nuts which were at every Schutzenfest?

Re the bratties. How many people realise they were quite often eatinghorse meat without knowing?

Remembered the bratties, knew they were horsemeat and still found them delicious

I knew the frikedellas, those cold meat patties one could get at the bar of your neighbourhood gasthof, were horsemeat (and delicious!) but I had no idea bratwurst was...I knew it wasn't pork and assumed it was beef or...something....Never heard they were horse. They didn't taste like it but then apart from the frikedellas, I really didn't have anything to compare them to. I'm pretty sure, though, they were just sausage, which is made up of a variety of beef/pork parts left over from the processing of more standard types of steaks etc.

Please note.
Bratti's in the whole were not made from horse meat. Sorry if I gave the impression they were!

Alan

The frikedellan that you can get in some Brit supermarkets taste the same but alas the bratwurst don't, maybe it has something to do with the time of day that they are eaten, we used to have ours anytime between midnight and 3am or at shutzenfests done over charcoal. Can almost taste it now.

Yes, you are correct about the time of eating brattis. Must not forget the quantity of beer prior!

The Bratti Bar we frequented whilst in Hildesheim after midnight usually had to serve us with the 'well done', nearly burnt sausages. Don't ask me why? It is how we liked them.

Strange, but nowadays, one still can get the mandatory dry bread and of course, the tear-off strip off the paper plate. Must not forget the Senf though. Not sure squaddies liked it? Of course it is on my plate when I grill these days.

Whilst visiting Kiel recently, I had an official titled 'Horse meat bratti.' Rather a bit strong tasting.

Brattis from Lidl are about 90% as good as the oldddddddddddd ones!

The best frikadelle and bratties were from a place just off the autobahn I think it was near Venlo. We would fill up the car and jerrican with gas on the coupons, and belt off to the ferry in Belgium.
Remember sailing past the ferry lying on its side.
Ratios car park in Munster had passable bratties but those fish things they sold were disgusting.
Chips,mit mayo, were always good. Lekke
Dont like the Lidl bratties, maybe its the way we cook them

Seeing as the 'Chemist' mentions filling the jerrycans up near Venlo. This was a must in the days of cheap BP petrol coupons for Forces personnel dreading the driving 3-4 hours more on the Dutch/Belgium motorways at night where there were NO petrol stations open in those days.

I thought you may have actually forgotten the last BP petrol station near Venlo, just before the Dutch border. The village was called Wankum.
Even nowadays, every time I pass the Wankum sign post on the Autobahn, I look across at my wife and grin. She knows exactly why!

Chemist its the way we cook them. The wife has a cast iron griddle ( no not girdle ). She slashes the Brattie on the diagonal and cooks them without oil.
Almost as good as I remember them.

alan
WANKUM -That was the place,how could I forget it! Tip the gas into the car just outside the port and then-over the bank with the can. Bloody vandals. The cans were rejects from the Depot.
When and where were you in Muenster?
bob
Good tip with the bratties.Showing your age with the girdle crack.Yes I do remember pantie girdles. Thats another story

I finally discovered that the proper wurst for curry wurst is the Thurungia Wurst, my curry sauce I make my self, from no name ketchup and a curry rue. Just as good as I remember them. To get a curry wurst in Germany now is the pits. The sauce is watery and the wurst are crap. But then again, I don't drink any more so really have no excuse to have a curry wurst mit pom frits at 3AM. Ah well, t'iss still a good memory.

And reference carrying gasoline in jerry cans on the auto bahn. Man!!! I think of it now, we were lucky not to have a serious accident while trucking it around.

I really do think the time of day..or night...one had a bratwurst and senf contributed to the flavour. No doubt some of them had sat on the grill for quite some time, although I don't recall having many that were burnt or really dark. you know, that rather blistery, splotchy look sausages, wursts, smokies, whatever get when they've sat cooking too long and the rather bitter flavour they often have as a result...nope, in my memory the brats were always good!

Not sure what the senf/mustard was about...I've not found mustard like that here, really. The closest I've got has been Poupon, a French mustard that is quite strong and while I like it, it's not the same. The usual mustard we get over here to go with our hotdogs is some processed crap, put out by a company called "French's" and it's an unholy shade of yellow...a totally different animal from good, sinus-clearing German senf.

Glad to hear from Alan that he still can access traditionally-served bratties on cardboard, with the tear-off strip and dry bread slice....I mean, fine dining is all about the experience, isn't it? LOL

The best brats I had were from the schnell-imbiss across from the NAAFI in Hemer, and also a little hole-in-the-wall kiosk in Soest, not far from the Palette along Uricher (?) strasse. The ones served out of the various kiosks at the Moehnesee were pretty good too.

Hardrations

I agree about carrying jerricans of gas in cars -daft and dangerous and I should have known better.

But do you remember those 5 litre cans which I was told we had to carry? Most of those were plastic.I tried for years to get the Army to adopt a 25 litre plastic jerrican, nobody was interested.
At 4PD we scrapped no end of damaged steel cans.I reckon decent plastic cans would have lasted a lot longer.

Any ex users agree?