Leif in Nurnberg, Germany - December 1977 - Age almost three

Two of our very favorite things in Germany are the Konditoreien (pastry shops that are also coffee shops) and the marzipan creations some of them feature, especially at this time of year. Marzipan is almond paste and it can be sculpted and formed into just about anything and then colored with food colorings, decorated or frosted. It's made into the most interesting and delicate things and also the most mundane.

The boys were fascinated with the marzipan in this Nurnberg Konditorei window as it featured a lot of little elves with wild red hair, pigs (a traditional New Years sign of good luck), and even potatoes. We all liked to eat marzipan, and our favorite Stollen (German Christmas bread) had marzipan inside it.

This was taken on one of our walking-shopping trips through the Altstadt (the old city inside the walls), where we could revel in the quaint shops, enjoy the toy stores, and have something yummy to eat in one of these Konditoreien.

Leif was two years old, a month shy of his third birthday in this photo. He was a pretty cute little elf himself.

Leif and the Sweets - Heidelberg, Germany - August 1978 - Age 3 and a half

Germany is full of wonderful pastry shops called Konditoreien, which I guess could better be translated as "confectionary" shops. They have beautiful creations in their windows, Torten (fancy cakes), Plaetzchen (cookies), candies, marzipan creations, candied fruits and more. They are different from bakeries, which have breads and cookies but not the fancy cakes.

It was always fun to look in the windows of all kinds of shops, but these were especially attractive and we loved to stop at one for a treat. In Germany it's traditional to have afternoon coffee, much as the English have tea, with some sweets. We didn't make a practice of this at home, but we always enjoyed it when visiting Peter W's relatives in Heidelberg or the Stuttgart area, and if we were out on a day trip in a city we might treat ourselves at a Konditorei, where the hardest part was choosing among all the goodies.

Here Leif is posing (with his "struteper" tongue sticking out again) in front of a Konditorei window on the Hauptstrasse (Main Street) in Heidelberg in August 1978. He was so cute in his little shorts suit.

Like most kids, he enjoyed sweets, but he never "understood" chocolate or had any interest in it unless it was a chocolate brownie. Chocolate candy wasn't a favorite of his. He loved ice cream, particularly butter pecan, and he enjoyed the German marzipan goodies.

In the village of Sachsen bei Ansbach where we lived for two years, we didn't have a Konditorei but we did have an excellent bakery. I still miss their wonderful "Schweizer Brot," which was a light rye. What my boys loved there, though, were the "Drei Augen Gebaeck" (Three Eye Cookies). These were a rich shortbread cut in two rounds about four inches in diameter. One round had three holes about the size of pennies cut out of it, the three eyes. The two were sandwiched together with red currant jelly in between. They were sumptuous! All the years of Leif's life later, and Peter A. still, they remembered those cookies.