Love your souvenirs, especially the tin ornaments!!
They are one of those old fashioned toys which made Nuremberg so famous for its toy production (therefore the toy museum) - Nuremberg still hosts the world's largest trade fair specialising in toys in February every year!
Actually it was your mom's collection that gave me the idea in the first place.
I adored her set on that shelf by the table and I remember asking about them. THey have a HUGE collection of them in the Toy Museum, and I admired them there too.
Did anyone ever suggest to you that you should work in your tourism industry?? Just sayin'...
And tin figurines are very important in my family as well. My mother's father was a church conservator (he would restore old paintings and such) and his great hobby was to hand paint these tin figurines. I think you might have seen quite a few on display at my parents' house? He had a deal with one of the producers in Nuremberg where he would get two sets, both unpainted, one of which he could keep and the other one he would give back painted. He had a large collection and everyone in the family got some of his collection!
My parents have some ornaments very much like yours which he painted himself.
I saw several church conservators working in BOTH churches while there. They were working on paining things up on scaffolding and I was quite intrigued. I was too shy to ask about their work, not being sure if they could talk to the public or not. But I was curious.
That's so cool that he could keep a set to build up his collection! What a cool job!
As someone already said, the word means foot!
And you are right, it is not a B, the letter is this sign: ß and it is a type of S. The letter is used to show that this is an unvoiced S - in case anyone would be crazy enough to want to find out more about this special letter,
Wikipedia will be your friend.
But I rather thought it was very funny, what some people on this thread made out of it!
That's a sound I think I'd have to practice- a lot! Unvoiced "S" doesn't seem easy to do, at least for me.
This thread definitely has some nutty folks on here- I love the funny stuff they come up with quite regularly! I mean where else can you find everything from unshaven (albeit imaginary) hairy feet to confused Potato Heads?
And I want to put in a guess:
OK, got it.
As well as yours.
All the talk of the tin toys reminds me on the old Christmas show "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". The Claus' were the first toy makers to the king and the show had a German town feel to it.
Of course at this time of the year everything reminds me of some Christmas show.
I think when I think of Christmas, at least for the majority of traditions we play out, Germany comes to mind. Carved wood, gingerbread, yule logs, all that.... especially the mulled wine.
Wow! What a cool story. Her pictures are really good. Is this a friend of yours?
Well, we had family birthdays and dentist appointments this week, too. Luckily no heart ailments though. Although that does remind me of when my dad had his heart attack. He drove. Won't let my mom behind the wheel. He also nearly cut his finger off in a boating accident, and insisted on driving the 45 minutes from the lake to the hospital that time, too. Of course, it was on his left hand, so no big deal
I (again) do not have a guess for the letter game. I'm so lame at this. Are the rest of you just really smart, or do you hunting for this stuff?
Anybody else see Harry Potter this weekend?
More an acquaintance than friend. She lives in Almaty, we lived WAYYYYYYYYY west of the capital. But her photography is AMAZING!!! Her family did a 6 week hike through the Alps this summer and she did a daily photo blog that was simply stunning!! You should check it out!!
He cut off his finger, then drove??
NOWAY!!! Maybe he should have had his head examined at the same time.
When my son cut his thumb off, I had to get a friend to drive us- I was a total basket case!!
rotfl
I actually research these letters... Some are easier than others and sometimes I get Liesa's clue, sometimes I don't. Q is actually not so difficult, there aren't many things at WDW which have a Q in its name... Google pictures search is your friend in this game (well, it wasn't for the Mad Tea Party...).
)had gotten up there under the hood and made a little stash in there. I was laughing my hiney off (wouldn't that be really, really cool if one could actually DO that?!) when I read you post, and totally thought of it when Mike showed me the bird seed!! 
