Smells like a 3D Printer

That reduced carbon footprint proudly presented in the last posting, well, it got a little bigger.

Temporarily, christmassy, so to speak.
As a reward for the big, long term reduction.
To keep the family happy.
Oh, cut it out -- for the fun of it.

So, we loaded up and drove for a good long time to the city of Cologne, Köln for the Germans, Kölle for the folks who live there.

The builders of the Cathedral, started in 1280 and finished in 1880, must have known what a great beacon for horse and carriage and horseless carriages that church would be.

You want to go to Cologne? Just get on a freeway that says Köln, and for the last five or ten miles, point the car at the cathedral - done.

We wanted to go to the Christmas Market at the Cathedral and promptly found ourselves in the middle of a second, different market as we came up the stairs from our parking garage.  The city website listed six concurrent markets in this city of a million people alone. Another website mentioned a "Gay and Lesbian Christmas Market", too.

A brief image of Santa Clauses and Clausettes in fake fur handing out freebies to frozen revellers and selling "mulled wine a la Folsom Street Fair" (good luck googling for that) was pushed aside for the wholesome family affair we had emerged in.

The amount of energy, creativity and sheer German work that are these markets is too much for our middle-aged minds. Go, look for some fotos on the web. You'll understand.

Hours of strolling from booth to booth, from trinkets to antiques, from traditional Christmas ornaments to modern glass art, made right there by a man who must have had the warmest workplace on a chilly day, were only interupted by a food break.

The one stand that captured us because it coalesced the chocolate fiend, the steampunk gal, the DIY mechanic, and the nerd into a single entity was a place that sold tools made out of chocolate.

Did you just think: what's the big deal?

Not the old, cheap and cheesy stuff you can see on this web site.

But the tools and items shown in this PDF file. Once you have opened the file, enlarge the image to 200% or more -- now you see.

Does that not look like the work of a gifted 3D printer to you?

On second thought, a well crafted mold would be just fine and very likely still cheaper.