German Easter Egg Market

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A few weeks ago my friend and I went to an Easter Egg market in Schwetzingen, which is a gorgeous little town about 15 minutes from Heidelberg. It is known as the spargel capitol. Spargel is white asparagus and so freaking delish. Just so you know, spargel is the same as regular asparagus, but they cover the plants with soil to prevent photosynthesis, hence the white. Who says I don’t teach you stuff? Look, they even have a bronze statue just across from the palace entrance celebrating the spargel market.

It was cold and dreary the day we went. I know, Germany? Cold and Dreary? You don’t say! Yes, it’s usually true. We are having an unusually warm and sunny week right now though and honestly it’s kind of freaking me out.

This is the entrance to the palace and grounds. The framed map is just on the left as you enter the arch. If you look to the very bottom of the map, you can see the palace. This helps give you an idea of the scale of the gardens. HUGE.

The market was held inside one of the curved wings of the palace.

See this guy? He hand beads all of these eggs. Hand. Beads.

He said the large eggs (ostrich, emu, rhea) can have up to 30,000 beads. By. Hand.

These blew me away. They are carved with a dremel like tool, then covered in wax in a pattern and dipped in acid. The acid eats away part of the shell. When the wax is removed, the pattern shows up. Amazing! Click the pics for a better look.

These eggs are hand painted/drawn and have lyrics to songs or poems about Heidelberg in them. The floral eggs had little messages of friendship or luck or Easter. The little linen strips were attached to a dowel and rolled up. Awesome. Look at the detail.

These are covered in hand fired porcelain flowers.

Are you drooling yet? I was. I swear I’ve never used the word “awesome” so much in my life. Not even in the 80’s.

This vendor was my absolute favorite. He was so funny. And patient. I swear I asked him a million questions in a weird mixture of German and English. He responded in the same mix.

He hand paints all these eggs. The girl with the umbrella was my favorite and I’m sad I didn’t buy her.

Can you stand it? Isn’t it all amazing?

He sketches his ideas in this little book. What I wouldn’t give to have an hour or two with this book!

This is the kind of egging I do (did you know that about me?), so I was totally in love with her booth. Plus, she was soooooo nice. Her husband doesn’t look it in the photos, but he really was, he just didn’t like having his photo taken.

I have more photos, but these were really the cream of the crop. I hope you enjoyed your little glimpse of a European tradition.

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