Sundays in Germany are generally quiet affairs. The shops are all closed and, from what we can gather, Germans spend the day either out walking or inside quietly reading Goethe, as we seldom hear anything from our neighbors. Occasionally, though, towns will have Sunday markets. A few weeks ago, our little town of Speicher and the much larger nearby town of Wittlich, each had Sunday markets.
Most of them are pretty similar--you have a number of food stalls and a number of people selling various wares set up in the town square. The difference between such a market Sunday and a festival Sunday, is that the stores will also be open. We went over to Wittlich to their market first. It was a nice walk around and we poked our heads into a few of the stores, including a small mall.
We saw a few great items, first these organ grinders, who played some fun music.
And then, something that I have never seen, remote control semis. I wonder if you can use these to practice for your NETTTS courses.
The following weekend there was yet another festival. This was a more traditional festival and included a lot of farm equipment. I got to see a milking machine! I haven't seen one of those since the last Hopkinton Fair I attended. This festival was in Bitburg, home of Bitburger beer, so there was certainly beer to be had. (For you X-Men fans, it was the beer Magnito ordered in Argentina in X-Men: First Class.) It was a chilly afternoon, so we only had the one, before working our way home.
Once home, Jason realized it was time for the St. Patrick's Day parade in Southie. And, after a quick search, he found out he could watch it streaming on the web. With commercials! I have to say, after being away from the northeast for the past year and hearing mostly Southern (on-base) and German (coworkers) accents, it was a bit jarring to hear those broad As and missing Rs. My, you folks talk funny. :)
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| Jason, enjoying the Parade as St. Patrick intended: with a beer |
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