Christmas markets #2, 3, 4, and 5

Went to more markets Sunday. Market #2, the first picture, was small and not that interesting, although the mulled wine was cheaper there than anywhere else I've seen so far. I got there a little early for mulled wine, but early enough to conclusively debunk that German punctuality myth. I never really understood it when historians (or laypeople) said Hitler did make the trains run on time, but more and more I'm realizing that that must have been a very unique and historic experience.

Of course, you could get into hypotheticals about whether the vendors were really German, whether it being Sunday made a difference, the gloominess in Berlin this time of year, capitalism and humanity, etc. But it would probably be better at this point to commiserate with me that Christmas markets are not punctual places.
There aren't pictures of the second and third markets I visited, because they weren't that cool either. Take the first picture and put it in a windy backstreet instead of a church square, raise the prices, and make the children more expensively dressed. The second picture is so far my favorite Christmas market, in the square beside the State Opera. It's called the Nostalgic Christmas Market. Nostalgic, in this context, means stinky, and is caused mostly by the nostalgic horse-drawn carriages there, but also by the collision of all the food smells. 30 kinds of sausage, 11 kinds of sauerkraut, 5 other kinds of cabbage, plus all the nuts and hot drinks and dessert stuff...it put the Minnesota State Fair to shame. It also made me a teensy bit naseous.
Because of this, I didn't dare actually enter my fifth Christmas market of the season, the mother of all Christmas markets (you can tell by the rides that it's a big, loud, kid-oriented one, not one where I can find you all lovely, handcrafted gifts), but I did take this nice picture from a safe distance to prove that it does exist. In the background you can see the TV tower and the former culture center (Palast der Republik). The market is at least twice as big as this, but my camera doesn't have a panoramic option. Maybe next weekend I'll have the energy to tackle that one....