Eric Frenzel, three-time Olympic champion and five-time World Cup winner, is one of Germany’s great hopes in Nordic combined again this season. In his column for sport.de, the 34-year-old reports on a family trip to the Christmas market.
“There, number 1, there number 2 and number 3, oh men, you’re sleepyheads” – our five-year-old Emma is completely in her element and has just played the annual “Schwibbogen recognition game for children” against her older brothers when entering Stollberg in the Ore Mountains opened with the first three hits. Before they, engrossed in their cell phones, realize that for Emma it is simply about everything, the next announcements fly around your ears: “Four, five, six and seven – I’m in charge”.
We are on the way from Flossenbürg to Geyer, just before I leave for the preparatory course and subsequent World Cup on the Austrian Dachstein, to relax again in the family setting and take in impressions of the Erzgebirge Advent season, which of course is dominated by the glow of the candle arches, which are basically in almost every standing window.
While Emma has just broken the 50 mark and doesn’t give the boys the slightest chance, we drive through Zwönitz to make our first visit to a Christmas market in Ehrenfriedersdorf – here too it is Emma who spots Santa Claus from afar to see him approach with hasty steps.
The staccato of the recognition game continues in the conversation with Santa Claus, in which the young lady’s wish list is discussed quickly and fearlessly, after she repeatedly explained to questions that a Christmas season in the Ore Mountains was the best in the world.
Following the breaking of the 100 mark and the de facto giving up of the accompanying brothers, Emma’s goal for the day is reached: Geyer, my hometown with its Christmas market, where there is the traditional roster, an Erzgebirge bratwurst, as well as mulled wine and smokers.
During the tower blowing, the playing of tunes with trumpets and trombones from the tower on the market, Emma enjoys the second roster, which she naturally sees as a reward for winning the candle arch game. She expertly accompanies Laura when she buys the incense smoker, while the boys, intimidated by their defeat in the car, hang around with children’s punch.
At my parents’ home, we can expect home cooking from the Erzgebirge the next day: roast beef with dumplings and sauerkraut mashed by my father himself, which only the eldest of the children, Philipp, likes, while Emma laconically comments, “that winners don’t need to eat sauerkraut “.
The next evening then the return trip to the Upper Palatinate Forest. While the boys pretend to be asleep for good reason, the drum roll starts again: “Number 1, number 2, number 3!”
After two days of regeneration, I pack my travel bags when we arrive. In the morning we leave for Ramsau.
Best regards
Eric Frenzel