News from the House Elves A Christmas Fairytale till 7 January

Starting from 27 November, “Heinzels Wintermärchen” is once again turning the Old Town of Cologne into a magical fairytale world. The Christmas paradise created by the “Heinzelmännchen” - the House El-ves - is the biggest of the Christmas markets being held in the Cathedral city and takes visitors on a trip into their home. Here, everyone can experience at first hand the world of the House Elves, with all their customs and habits and all the things they love.

Alter Markt is devoted almost entirely to the traditional craft trades. Heumarkt, on the other hand, is the place to go for winter sport, ac-companied by the sounds of swing. As the House Elves simply love ice skating, they have created what is arguably Germany’s most breathta-king open-air skating rink. This fantastic ice-scape fits in perfectly with the seasonal atmosphere of the historic Christmas market and is open through till 7 January.

As always, the Heinzelmännchen have had lots of new ideas for this year’s market. Here, you can find out about some of the fascinating new things to look forward to at the Elves’ Winter Fairytale:

More artisans

The House Elves are delighted to report an increase in numbers in Crafts Alley. Peter Hansen, a master potter in the fourth generation, is specialised in the creation of extremely unusual decorative items, using course Wachtberg clay to form illuminated balls and Christmas trees. Genuine manual skill is needed to produce the objects: Before the balls and Christmas trees are fired in the kiln, Peter Hansen uses a scalpel to cut out stars and circles by hand. The result are out-of-the-ordinary lamps made of ceramic. Just a few stalls away, his brother Thomas Hansen can be found, too. Also a master potter, who speci-alises in the production of stoneware vessels for the breweries to be found in the Old Town of Cologne, he already enriched the range of artisans working at the market last year. With its diversity of skilled craftspeople carrying on their trades on site, the Heinzels’ Christmas Market is unique. The public can also look forward to observing a wood turner, stonemason, pyrographer, glass blower, blacksmith, belt maker, book binder, soap maker and goldsmith at work, along with many others.

Olympic contenders to present a magical ice dance show

Generally speaking, the House Elves are very patient creatures, but this is one highlight they can hardly wait to see. After Christmas, the ice dancing couple of Katharina Müller and Tim Dieck will be presenting an ice dance show on the very top level that is guaranteed to thrill the audience. For the current German vice-champions, the visit to the El-ves’ Winter Fairytale will make a welcome change on their way towards a much bigger goal: participation in the Winter Olympics in February 2018. With its mixture of dance and acrobatic elements, ice dance is technically one of the most difficult disciplines in ice figure skating. When Katharina first entered the indoor skating rink in Bielefeld at the age of five, it was the start of a major passion for her. Since then, skating has been her life. Tim is the child of a dyed-in-the-wool skating family. He has been at home on the skating rinks of the world ever since he was three. The two of them already won the German Junior Champi-onships together three years ago, and since then have been inseparable. At the present time, their training has intensified still further. To help make their dream of participation in the Olympic Games come true, they spend 40 hours a week training at the Ice Sport Centre in Dort-mund. But despite this, they have taken the trouble to choreograph two spectacular short programmes for their appearances at Heinzels’ Winter Fairytale. So in the meantime, it’s a case of fingers crossed for the forth-coming competitions!

New: Learn with the professionals – Kids’ Day with skating instruction

For the first time, children can learn to skate in a proper skating course. How that works is demonstrated by a true professional: ice dancer Yas-mina. Having turned her passion into her profession, she has toured the world for 10 years with Holiday on Ice. In her ice skating course on Kids’ Day, she will teach the children the basics of skating and make them more confident for their future ventures onto the ice. (booking: http://eislaufschule-2017.cortex-tickets.de). As every year, all junior visitors will once again be able to take a skating test on Kids’ Day with our jolly Ice Policeman and demonstrate their skills in forward and backward skating and pirouetting on the ice. On passing the test, they can even look forward to a special certificate as proof. In the evening, the juni-ors of Cologne Ice Club will put on a show at the “Winter Fairytale”. Whether different kinds of pirouettes, small jumps or other figures, the youngsters in the special and advanced groups are looking forward to putting on a brief demonstration of their skills under the stars. Ice ska-ting entertainment of this standard is bound to be infectious!

Sweets Alley & Food Alley with delicious new things to eat

House Elves love their food, and they only need to think of all the new specialties that will be on offer at their Christmas market to make their mouths water. This year, Sweets Alley on Alter Markt will have an even more Christmassy savour than ever. This is because for the first time, a bakery specialising in cinnamon buns will be selling its wares. Here,

“Gretel’s Original” cinnamon buns will be baked fresh from hand-made dough and served with various sauces and toppings. At a new stall on Heumarkt, Thuringia-born Gunnar Görn will be smoking Thuringian sausages over beech wood shavings in a three-meter high wood smoking oven. The new gourmet “smelting shop” on Heumarkt is inspired by ty-pical local pesto varieties and sauces from the whole world – from Costa Rica to the Namib Desert. On his travels around the world, Andreas Essendorfer has looked in virtually every pot and pan he could find, and in the process discovered the art of how to preserve delicious flavour. He offers the visitors his 70 favourite sauces, including some that are also suitable for vegans.

Spectacular ice dance from Le Patin Libre

This programme highlight will be truly spectacular: On the last wee-kend of the winter holidays, the five ice dancers of “Le Patin Libre” from Montreal will show off what they can do on Heumarkt – and that’s a lot. “Contemporary Ice Skating” is how the five performance artists refer to their mix of modern dance styles. Presented by “Radio Cologne On Ice” on 5 and 6 January, Contemporary Ice Skating will be an event for everyone. After their performances, the five former sport professi-onals will show the visitors how to dance on skates, in a programme of workshops, games, animations and dance competitions. The “Le Patin Libre” formation was founded in 2005 by a number of top-ranking figu-re skaters. They began by practising on frozen ponds in front of just a few spectators. Today, however, Alexandre Hamel, Pascale Jodoin, Sa-mory Ba, Taylor Dilley and Jasmin Boivin are real show dancers, brin-ging pleasure and thrills to millions of people throughout the world. The Elves, at any rate, are looking forward with great excitement to the French-Canadian quintet, and together with Radio Cologne can promise a dance weekend in a class all of its own.

Other news at a glance:

New Heinzel postage stamp will support Herzenswunsch ambulance The popular Heinzelmännchen postage stamps have a new motif for people wanting to give their Christmas post a special loving touch. The much loved collectors’ items are sold exclusively at the Christmas Post Office on Alter Markt. The mark-up on the normal postage charge is being donated towards the special ambulance donated by the Herzens-wunsch charity and operated by the Malteser ambulance service to en-able seriously ill people to have their final wishes fulfilled.

New mug motifs: Cologne Ice Princess and Cathedral Master BuilderHermine, the Cologne Ice Princess, and Master Gerhard, the Elves’ man in charge of cathedral building work in Cologne, are the new motifs of the House Elves’ red, round-bodied mugs. These therefore join the popular collectors’ items of previous years: the Baker, Cooper, Butcher, Joiner, Tailor, Optician and Shoemaker, and the two Elf women, Ursula of Cologne and Griet the Maid. They are available, among other places, from the market’s own Heinzelhaus, where there are also various other limited and numbered Heinzel figures, such as a genuine Heinzel waiter and a traditional Heinzel master baker.

Music: Alphorns on iceAfter Christmas, the House Elves are looking forward to a regular new musical event: Every evening in the winter holidays, the sounds of the natural harmonic series can be heard coming from three alphorns on the ice rink. The music of the long wooden horns guarantees to be a most unusual sound experience.

Chimney sweeps paint lucky noses – A donation for every black noseThere is a long tradition on Heumarkt - and in Germany - of chim-neysweeps bringing luck. This year, the chimneysweeps of the Cologne Chimney Sweeps Guild will provide visitors with a lucky black nose on 30 and 31 December - for a good cause. For every lucky nose, the Hein-zelmännchen will donate €0.18 to the “Wir helfen” charity.

The themed alleys at “Heinzels’ Winter Fairytale”

Like the historical guild alleys that once adjoined on Alter Markt and Heumarkt and where, according to legend, the nocturnal workplaces of the industrious House Elves were to be found, the lanes of the Christ-mas Market are also arranged according to themes. This ensures that the visitors can easily find where they are and don’t miss anything on their tour of the market. The following is a list of all the alleys (in alphabetical order):

• Antikgasse - Antiques Alley• Futtergasse - Food Alley• Goldgasse - Gold Alley• Handwerkergasse - Crafts Alley• Krämergasse - Merchants Alley• Naschgasse - Sweets Alley• Spielzeuggasse- Toys Alley• Weihnachtsgasse - Christmas Alley• Wintergasse - Winter Alley

Opening times:

Before Christmas (Heumarkt and Alter Markt):27 November to 23 December 2017 / Open daily from 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.

After Christmas (Heumarkt):26 December 2017 to 7 January 2018 / Open daily from 11 a.m. – 9 p.m.(Closed: 24 and 25 December)

Detailed and current information / press photos:

www.heinzels-wintermaerchen.de

www.heinzels-wintermaerchen.de/ul/Pressefotos_2017.zip

Pressekontakt:Public Cologne GmbHRenate Schmidt & Susanne Dettmar • Gertrudenstraße 9 • 50667 Köln Tel: 0221-2720262 • e-Mail: info@publiccologne.de