Christmas Markets with Casey

It has been a fun filled week.  My brother Casey arrived on Tuesday for a whirlwind visit to the Christmas Markets of Germany (and us, too, of course).  The plan for the three days he was here in Spesbach was to decide which markets to go to.  On Tuesday we just went local and went to the Kaisersalutern one.  All four of us went and parked in the church parking lot and walked over to the market for dinner.  Then Mike and Travis went back to the church for mutual. Casey and I ate some more...dampf nudeln!  They are like a ball of dough, not too sweet and they place them in a pan of oil that only comes up about 1/3 of the dough ball.  They put a lid on the pan and then steam the top 2/3rds.  Then they serve it with a variety of sauces.  We chose vannillen sosse.  It was really yummy!
After walking around for an hour, we headed back to the church, met up with the boys and went home. 
On Wednesday, I had to run into the base for the ROSC (Ramstein Officers Spouses Club) Christmas Brunch.  It would have been lots of fun, except there was NO parking and I got a bit frustrated looking for a spot.   All of sudden, I see flashing light in my rear view and sure enough I got pulled over by an MP (military police)!!  Get this...I got pulled over for not coming to a COMPLETE stop coming out of one of the parking lots.  Not only that, but I got pulled over because they were training a new MP and he took 20 minutes to figure out how to write me a ticket.  Then the trainee took 5 minutes to explain the ticket and that my husband had 24 hours to report it to his commander.  EEEK!   Now I was worried sick.  I couldn't even enjoy my brunch.   When I told Mike, he just laughed and when he told Zip, his boss, he laughed.  Oh well, I will be sure to stop completely from now on.


Anyway back to the Christmas Markets...

Wednesday afternoon Casey and I drove to Heidelberg.  We had so much fun.  We got there in time to walk around the quaint streets.  

The cafes were so cute and even though it's December, they had outdoor seating and each chair had a folded blanket on it.  It was so charming.

Then we walked down to the old bridge and took some pictures along with a hundred japanese tourist because that's just the thing you do.

When it got dark we wandered around the Christmas Market.  They actually had markets in four different squares in "old town".  It was such a beautiful location with the castle lit up on the hill above us.

 The booths at the markets are full of crafts, sausages, nuts, candy, cookies, and much more.  Of course they are famous for their booths which sell the traditional "Glühwein". It is a very potent mulled red wine.  Each market sells it (and hot chocolate) in a mug that is designed just for their city.  Once you have a mug you can get refills for half price.  The booths are all very colorful and have lots of lights.  The markets also have kiddie rides like at the carnival.




Here are some of the booths...

The next day I asked Casey to teach me to ride the trains.  We took a 12:00 train from K-town to Trier with a connection in Saarbrucken.  I learned so much and Casey is a great teacher!

We got to Trier in time to sightsee a bit before the markets got in to full swing.  We visited the Porta Nigra which was an old Roman gate built in 3 A.D. and a beautiful Church.  




On Friday, Casey took the train back to Frankfurt to see the city and the museum and on Saturday we drove up to Mainz and he took a train over to Mainz and we met at the Christmas market there.  We have been to 5 Christmas Markets and have enjoyed each one.  They are all they same, yet they each seem to have something special that makes it unique.  We said good-bye to Casey at the Mainz Hauptbahnhoff.  It was a wonderful visit and I am so glad he came to see us, even if it was a short and sweet visit!






One final note.  We got our Christmas tree.  It is tall and green and smells good!  It doesn't look a thing like the trees you get in Idaho.  It's not bushy and to be honest we haven't had a real tree in quite a long time, so this is a fun treat for us.  But...have you ever wondered how to get an 8 foot tree home in a BMW sedan???    Here's how...








Hope you are enjoying this time of year as much as we are!
We even had snow this morning :)


love and miss you all,
-corri