Week 33: The Mosel Runnith Over

Last weekend we made another trip out to some Weinachtsmaerkte. This time we first went to Bernkastel-Kues, which we had visited just before Thanksgiving as they were setting up for their Weinachtsmarkt. Since that time, we have had a lot of rain in our area. After returning in December, we were getting rain almost every day. Since we don't regularly pass by a body of water as part of our daily driving, we hadn't realized just how much water had fallen from the sky until we arrived at the Mosel, just outside of Bernkastel. We noticed that where we had ridden our bikes along the river earlier this summer was completely under water. And once we arrived in Bernkastel, we found the below sign at the entrance to the lot where we normally park: Hochwasser (high water). 

High water on the Mosel

We, of course, wanted to see the destruction a bit closer, so we walked through the parking lot at the water's edge, passing by the cruise ship docks that had both ends now underwater. Additionally, as you can see in the video below, the river is moving quite swiftly. And, man, does it look cold. We were very glad to be standing on the bank.

The main point of the trip to Bernkastel was to find Jason's X-mas gift, which I had seen at other Weinachtsmaekte, but was not to be found in Bernkastel, so we took a ride down to to Trier, where I found just what I was looking for: a Fruestueckbrett (breakfast board). It is essentially a small cutting board that Germans often eat breakfast from. Breakfast usually consists of bread, cold cuts, honey and fruit, so you don't have runny eggs or lots of bacon grease to contend with. Jason had been using our cutting board as a make-shift Fruestueckbrett. This way the cutting board can go back to its normal and intended usage.

The view from our bedroom after snow

On Sunday we awoke to a dusting of snow outside our window. As you can see above, it gives a nice look to our neighborhood. Since I had yet another work trip that needed to begin on Sunday night, we took a drive up to Frankfurt on the slick roads (we passed one car that had ended up in the ditch), but with Jason's New England driving skills, we made it without a hitch. In Frankfurt, we spent some time at the Modern Art Museum, where there were a number of very cool exhibits, including a collection of shadow boxes that displayed what appeared to be the contents of the artist's desk. 

Following our intake of culture, we walked through yet another Christmas Market in Frankfurt, before Jason dropped me at the airport for my plane to Hamburg. The Christmas Market was set up along one of the main shopping streets that winds through the city (the Zeil). Jason had been there last spring prior to meeting up with me when I first arrived, but this was my first visit. Since it was Sunday, all the shops were closed, but the Christmas Market provided more than enough distraction as we walked around. It was a pleasant way to end a weekend before another long week of work. 

Week 32: Weihnachtsmaerkte

It seems like two weeks behind is about how it working. So, a few weekends ago we visited our first Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) in Trier. We met up with a Meet Up group of ex-pats from Luxembourg City and spent the afternoon drinking Gluewein (mulled wine), eating an assortment of German fair-style food and checking out the stalls of crafts people. As you can see in the picture below, the market is very popular, with people coming in from the surrounding area to enjoy the festivities. 

Crowds at the Trier Weinachtsmarkt

One of the problems with having a wine that is heated, is that sometimes you have to wait for it to heat up. Gluewine is not a particularly "good" wine--one of my German colleagues calls it "horrible", but he also hates the very idea of Christmas markets, so take from that what you will. It really requires being heated to taste at all appetizing. The stall that we found selling the wine for cheaper than anywhere else (it was for a good cause! building schools in Africa, or some such thing) had a problem keeping up with the demand for heated wine and we had to wait on more than one occasion for the big warming pots to do their thing. Nothing like standing out in the cold in a big crowd waiting for cheap wine that brings you closer to your fellow man. Kumba-f'ing-ya.

Present at every Christmas market (at least any that I have seen so far) is a large Christmas pyramid. While I've had the below picture for about two weeks, I had no idea, until just searching on Google two minutes ago, what it was called. Yet again, the Internet saves the day. Anyway, they can be very intricate sculptures, with many various scenes and quite a bit going on. The one below, again from Trier, is a bit simpler than some of the others we have seen.

Weinachtspyramide in Trier

Following our visit to Trier on Saturday, I was off on a work trip that Sunday afternoon to Nuernburg, which is located about a 6 hour train-ride west of us in Bayern (Baveria). Nuernburg is famous for a number of things, including its particular type of sausage (which are spiced similar--at least in my mind--to an American breakfast sausage), Lebkuchen (a type of cookie that tastes similar to gingerbread), Nazi rallies during WWII, WWII related trials and, of course, the Christmas market.

I was told by multiple people, and the Internet, that the Nuernburg Christmas market was not-to-be-missed, so I took a slightly earlier train that I otherwise would have to spend some time walking through the market. It is is a very large market, with many different crafts people and a wide selection of food. Since I was there on a Sunday evening, the crowds were light and I had a nice time wandering through the market. Unfortunately, since it was so dark out, I was unable to get any good pictures of it with my phone, but when I ran across the children's area, I saw the carousel in the below video--it has two floors! Luckily, the video is a bit more forgiving that the still camera when it comes to light, so you get to enjoy it as well. 

Another Catch Up Post

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and didn't end up trampled under crowds on Black Friday. Jason and I were back in the States for the week of Thanksgiving. We had a great time visiting friends and family and especially enjoyed climbing at Rock Spot with Jason's siblings. One of the big events for this trip back was Jason's 15th high school reunion. The best part of that evening was the bar we went to after the reunion, where a friend's sandwich was taken by a drunk girl when he left it for a moment to go to the rest room. Her response, with a mouth full of sandwich, was: Yeah? So what? 

Jason headed back to Germany on Sunday evening, and I headed out to Concord, Mass to spend the week in the office and in the wonderful Best Western (Plus!) at Historic Concord. One of my colleagues says it smells like dirty socks. I think the smell has improved slightly with the addition of the "Plus" to the name over the last year. (One thing to note: if you are booked in a Best Western in Europe, do not despair! They are really classy joints here--the largest and nicest hotel room I have stayed in outside of Las Vegas was a Best Western in the Netherlands.)

My company has been growing recently, so there were a number of new faces in the office, including a new boss for me, who started that Monday. If nothing, I have good timing. There was also a cube realignment, which, for a space management system that is supposed to be flexible and easy to change, took a surprisingly long time to complete. I, luckily, was able to find my favorite chair and a desk to sit at, so I was content for the week.

The base from the bike trail

I returned to Germany that Friday, ready to face a busy week and jet-lag. Jason was kind enough to help keep me awake the Saturday I returned, mostly by watching TV shows with me. He was off, though, for the week Sunday, on a cultural education trip to Hamburg. I, in an effort to get my clock back to normally, went out for a  mountain bike ride in the cold and wet woods. I miraculously avoided the rain drops, and had a really nice view of the base under the cloudy sky, but was *covered* in mud on returning to the apartment, as the pictures below can testify.

Covered in mud

There is a pair of shoes under there...somewhere

While Jason was up in Hamburg, learning the details of the current German and European cultural landscape, I had a work trip that involved three cars, two trains and two planes. I supposed it really involved four planes, but 2 of them, headed to Hannover, were cancelled due to snow in Munich, and the fourth was found mostly by accident when asking in jest how to get to my next destination by the next morning. It turned out that the place I was headed, this small city two hours outside of Hannover, has an airport and the plane was leaving that evening, though delayed. Proof that it is always worth asking and that every cloud has a silver, though often slightly tarnished, lining.

Week 28: Jason Interacts with More Farm Animals

Last weekend we took a walk around the city of Bernkastel-Kues, which is really two cities on either side of the Mosel River and, like many cities in this region of Germany, has its own ruined castle looking down on the city below. We've been through here before on our bikes, when we rode between the towns (and Weinfests) of Zeltingen-Rachtig and Brauneburg. On that trip we just passed on through, so we took an afternoon to see the area at a slower speed.

Bernkastel is the less modern of the two and they were just starting to set up for their Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), which started a week after we were there. (We're very excited to visit a few of the Christmas Markets once we get back from our Thanksgiving trip to the States. We've already had the Gluewein, a heated mulled wine at home.) During our wandering we came across a very narrow house from the 15th century, known as the Spitzhaeuschen. 

Spitzhaeuschen

We also took a walk across the bridge to Kues, which, being the more modern portion of the city was a little less charming, but made for a nice walk. It also gives a good view back to Bernkastel. In the back of the picture below, you can see one of the cruise ships. There are a number of dinner and tourist cruises that take passengers up and down the Mosel on trips lasting from a few hours to many days.

Me with Bernkastel in the Background

On Sunday, we went off to an open-air museum about an hour or so from our place. Essentially, this museum has houses and buildings collected from one region of Germany on display for visitors to walk through. For those of you from New England, it is on the lines of Strawberry Bank or Plimoth Plantation.

Jason and I had been to a fantastic museum like this just outside of Copenhagen when visiting Denmark a few years ago and had really enjoyed ourselves. The museum here in Germany, while much smaller than the Denmark version, was still quite nice. There were many examples of Fachwerk buildings throughout the museum. They even had a nice exhibit (though, all in German) showing how the buildings are constructed. The basic idea is that you frame out the house with timbers, then fill in the spaces between the timbers with things to keep out the cold--mostly sticks covered with straw, mud and plaster.

Open-Air Museum

As many of the buildings were taken from farming communities, the museum included quite a selection of animals, including cows, chickens, sheep and goats. We took some time to visit with a number of them. They animals were once again fascinated by Jason.

Pig and Jason

Jason and Sheep

We are on our way back to the States for a bit for Thanksgiving. While it will be great to see friends and family, I am looking forward to getting back and having some more Gluewein!

Week 27: Short Days

As winter is creeping up on us, our days are growing remarkably shorter, with the sun rising around eight in the morning and setting around 4:30 in the afternoon. We've also been having quite a bit of fog, which tends to last until around noon-time then comes back again after the sun sets. This gives us all the more reason to get outside while the sun is up. 

As I mentioned in an earlier post, many of the towns in our area have hiking/walking trials that take you through the countryside around the town. In our area, there are a series of nordic walking trails (yes, you use poles--it is crazy...just look at the link). Our town, like many of the other sites, has three: a 3.6 km, a 8 km and a 15.9 km. We decided to do the longest, which passes near our apartment, works its way down a significant hill, then follows along the Kyll River before coming back through the village of Preist and through fields back into our town.

One road proceeds through a yellow wood...

The weather was perfect for being out hiking: nice, crisp fall weather, with no clouds and bright sun. As the afternoon wore on, we noticed the moon in the sky...

...which stayed put as the sun set.

The last part of the hike was through the woods. With the sun setting, it was getting dark very quickly. Luckily, I had asked Jason to throw his headlamp in the bag we were carrying. He was very excited to use it, and tried many of the settings as we were walking along. For your own reference, a blinking-white headlamp does not give the best view of the upcoming trail.

This portion of the trail was well known to me, as it is where I go mountain biking during the week. Right near the main path into the woods, there is a shrine, as you often seen throughout the countryside here in Europe. This one looks like a tiny church and is very well maintained. It includes a small pew and some kneelers, along with some long burning candles and a number of plaques thanking for the help of Mary and Jesus. I have passed by it many times, but had never stopped for a close look. It was a nice place to rest for a few moments with the quiet autumn darkness closing in around us.

Our total hiking time was about 4.5 hours. We started at about 2pm with the mid-afternoon sun, and by the time we were back home, it was completely dark out.

On Sunday, we went to Vianden Castle in Vianden Luxembourg. You may recall that about a month ago, we were in Vianden for a hike. This time, I was flying out for a work trip for Luxembourg in the evening, so we decided to stop by and visit the castle itself. The castle was completely rebuilt in the 1970s and 80s from a complete ruin. Now it is quite nice, with a number of spaces that look like they are used for events and possibly even royal occasions.

Vianden Castle

In the castle, there was an exhibit about Charlotte, the Grand Duchess of Luxembourg. Unfortunately, we could only understand snatches of it, as most of it was in Luxembourgish, with a smattering of French and German. Anyway, Charlotte was the leader of Luxembourg during WWII and, from what we could gather, she lived in exile during much of that time in England. From looking at the history, that makes sense, as the Germans invaded Luxembourg on their way to France. She later abdicated in favor of her son. The current ruler of Luxembourg is Henri, her grandson. The castle was a good visit and had some great views of the surrounding area.

Week 26th: Bonn

For those of you who are about my age or older, you may remember Bonn as being a rather important city: it was the capital of West Germany. In doing some reading before and after our trip we found some rather choice quotes regarding the city, mostly how it was an unassuming capital, and more of a sleepy one-horse-town rather than a bustling international city. This podcast has a good profile of the city, including the impression (or lack-thereof) it made on visiting diplomats.

From our perspective of living out in the boonies, it is certainly a city. We had our lunch, then walked through the downtown area, where we came across the Altes Rathaus (old town hall). As you can see in the picture, it is quite pretty, with the ornate stairways and gold trim.

Jason and the Altes Rathaus

From the downtown, we walked to the Museumsmeile (museum mile) and went to the Haus der Geschichte (literally: House of History). This museum covered the modern history of Germany, starting just after WWII, going through the rebuilding of the country, the separation into East and West and reunification. One interesting thing we learned was regarding the various zones Germany was split into after the war. As you may remember from high school history, Germany was split into four separate administrative zones, one for each of the allies (UK, France, US and USSR). 


We all know what happened with the USSR's section, but what I didn't know is that the Western allies were not equal in administration. For example, France refused to let there be any industrial base in its region. It removed all the factories and wanted to turn Germany into an agrarian country--one that could never attack it again. While this happened to some degree in the US and UK zones, there was a recognition, first in the US sector, then later in the UK, that to have a successful, modern economy and to reduce unemployment, you need industrial jobs, so the destruction of the factories stopped. Where we live is smack in the middle of the French zone, and there is still an amazing lack of industrial base.

The museum set up two parallel tracks for the two halves of Germany. It was very interesting to see what was happening in the West and compare it to what was happening in the East during the same time period. After we left the museum--unfortunately we only made it to about the mid-1950s as we arrived only 90 minutes before the museum's closing time--we reflected on the fact that in the US we learned very little about the history of East Germany. For example, we had no idea that there was a popular uprising in 1953 that necessitated the institution of martial law throughout the country. Of course, the West couldn't really do anything to help, as it would risk war with the USSR, but it would seem like such an occurrence would be good reinforcement that the commies are no-good-bastards and, therefore, a good thing to include in our high school history narrative with the clear anti-communist thread that, at least, my history teachers took.

So, it is a really good museum. We need to go back and see the rest, maybe some other rainy or cold day this winter. And, to anyone who visits, we'd be happy to bring you there. Plus, admission is free!

Bonn is looking back

Week 24 & 25: More Hiking in Luxembourg

The fall has been really nice here, with the trees slowly changing color--I think we are close to peak now--and some very warm days mixed in with some much cooler ones. As a result, we've been doing our best to spend a lot of time outside. This has resulted in me doing some mountain biking during the week as an option for my daily workout and us taking regular hikes in the area.

Two weeks ago, the intent was to go out on a hike for a couple hours in the afternoon, so we choose this one, which starts in Germany, crosses a river and heads into Luxembourg then loops back across the river into Germany. It was a beautiful fall day, with just a bit of crsipness in the air--just the type of weather I like for hiking. The valley we were hiking around was very pretty. There were a couple of small villages and a castle. Throughout our hike, we came across a few nice vistas, such as the one below.

Germany on the river's right, Luxembourg on its left

Now, one thing about the hikes from the site I linked to above, is that they (1) don't always follow well marked trails and (2) don't always include good trail descriptions. This particular hike had both of these problems. We found, though, what we thought to be the right trail marker to follow and did our best.

We generally thought we were on track. We found the bridge to cross back over the river. Seemed to be able to find the behavior of the trail we were on on the map and when we couldn't, we just figured the map wasn't very good, as we had run into that with other hikes. Then our 3.5 hour hike was becoming 4 hours...no need to panic, we lost some time on a false trail a bit earlier on...and then we passed another bridge. And about 10 minutes later it dawned on us. That second bridge, that is the one on the map. That was where we were suppose to cross. We had been lost and never realized it. And we agreed that often we'd rather be lucky than good.

 So, our 3.5 hour hike turned into about 5 hours. We breathed a sigh of relief once we saw the car. I was very glad I packed the extra water and food. Despite that, our feet were sore and our stomachs quite empty.  After a quick stop home, we cleaned up and headed out to a local Oktoberfest where we filled up our stomachs with meat and numbed our feet by drinking beer. It was great. I can't imagine what the scene looks like in Muenchen.

Based on our close call on the hike I described above, the next weekend, when we went out for a hike, we decided to follow one of the clearly marked hiking paths. In many towns in our part of Germany and in Luxembourg, there are well marked trails that start in the center of town and lead you out into the countryside before bringing you back into town. Generally each town has at least three: a short 2-3 km route, a medium 5-8 km route and a long 12-17 km route. We decided on the town of Lieler, Luxembourg, which is very close to the triple-point of Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium (more on that later).

The hike was very nice. We chose the medium distance. It took us along the edge of pastures and through the woods. Through our many encounters with cows, we found that Jason may have become an unlikely cow messiah: every time we came to the edge of a field and stopped to talk to the cows, then all gathered around him. Hopefully he will use his new-found power responsibly...

Jason tending to his flock

His notoriety has quickly spread to another field

On our drive back home, we came across the aforementioned triple point. There is a small brook that serves as the boarder between Luxembourg and Belgium and a small river that serves as the boarder between each of those and Germany. We found the marker and snapped a few shots.

Three countries at once!

Hopefully this good weather will hold out a bit longer and we can get out in the woods some more.