Today marks the beginning of the Christmas season in Germany. This is the day that kicks off the Christmas market season. Ralf Grunke is currently the Bishop of the Hanau Ward (that we attended the last time we were in Frankfurt). He was a councilor when we were here before. He lives in the town of Windecken and serves as a city councilman. His mother-in-law is serving as a senior missionary and arranged to have Ralf provide a guided tour of this city. This picture shows Bishop Ralf (as he would be called) talking to the senior missionaries at the beginning of the tour.

Here is Ralf in front of the old hospital which now serves as a museum. 

We continue the tour near the Lutheran church. At one time it was a Catholic church before the whole town converted (by decree). As you can see the picture seems to show the over-dressed missionaries. The truth be known, the temperature was just above freezing so that it was quite cold.

The house across the street was occupied by the Lindt family. However, they moved out and one son went to Switzerland and started a chocolate company. Legend has it that he left a mixer turned on overnight and accidentally learned to conche chocolate. According to Wikipedia:

The "conche" was invented by Rodolphe Lindt (1855–1909) in Berne, Switzerland in 1879. It produced chocolate with superior aroma and melting characteristics compared to other processes used at that time. Legend has it that Lindt mistakenly left a mixer containing chocolate running overnight. Though he was initially distraught at the waste of energy and machine wear and tear, he quickly realized he had made a major breakthrough. Before conching was invented, solid chocolate was gritty and not very popular. Lindt's invention rapidly changed chocolate from being mainly a drink, to bars and other confections.
Lindt's original conche consisted of a granite roller and granite trough; such a configuration is now called a "long conche" and can take a day or more to process a tonne of chocolate. The ends of the trough were shaped to allow the chocolate to be thrown back over the roller at the end of each stroke, increasing the surface area exposed to air. A modern rotary conche can process 3 to 10 tonnes of chocolate in less than 12 hours. Modern conches have cooled jacketed vessels containing long mixer shafts with radial arms, that press the chocolate against vessel sides. A single machine can carry out all the steps of grinding, mixing and conching required for small batches of chocolate.
Windecken was the early home of the Lindt's.

Right across the street was the home of a Jewish family. Here is a picture of the "stolperstein" which are placed before the last known voluntary residence of people who became victims of the Nazis. Most of these people were jews but gypsies, homosexuals, and lots of other people were caught up in the Nazi prisons.

Here is Ralf's cute daughter holding up a picture of the Lindt son that did the chocolate thing. 

 Here is Ralf and the missionaries in front of the Rathaus.

 Here Ralf and his daughter leading the missionaries through town.

 Homes that caught my eye.

 Sunset near the castle at the top of the hill.