Christmas Markets!

Well, possibly my favourite time of year in Germany is here: Christmas market season! While I do not like the crowds that accompany many of the markets, I do like going to see all the stalls and enjoying the food and Glühwein. This year I have already been to three, and am going to Munich next weekend for more.

Many of the markets opened the last week of November, and so Haydn came to visit me that weekend to see the markets. We met up on Saturday evening, since I had been in Mainz all day for my baseball scoring exam. I met him at his hotel and to keep me occupied while he got ready, Haydn had a German phrase book for me to look at ... from 1936!

I learned some useful things: Haben Sie Fernsprechanschluss?

We had dinner at Wagner's, the most popular place to take my family when they visit. We enjoyed the German atmosphere, and even got speaking with the couple sitting next to us. Turns out she had once been an au pair in England and he was very interested in Benjamin Britten. This lead to such a long chat that the serving lady finally had to ask us to leave! (They are very crowded and always need to quickly free up tables). 

On Sunday we went out to Oberursel. They have a medieval market, and we lucked out as it only on for one weekend a year. We took the UBahn up to Oberursel, and almsot by chance discovered a part of the old town that I had never seen. Around the church, St. Ursula, are some very pretty old cobbled streets and timber framed houses. 

View from the church yard of the old timber framed houses.

Haydn enjoying the small steam engine.

Unfortunately it was raining, and we both ended up getting rather wet. We came back to my house for a cup of tea, before having dinner at a little Thai place near my house in Sachsenhausen. Then we said goodbye, before he left Monday back to the UK.

This weekend I started off Friday by going to the Frankfurt Christmas market with Regina. We had a lovely time, and it was only really busy in some areas. We had raclette for dinner and a couple of mugs of Glühwein. We also stopped and listened to a men's choir for a while. They were really good, and sang an interesting selection of carols. My favourite was an Udo Jürgen's carol in "Denglish". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFtE_iZn-k4.

Choir, Rathaus and the Christmas tree.

The most exciting Christmas market I went to was yesterday. Tamzin, Bryan and I drove out to Ronneburg to the medieval market in the castle there. It was so different from all the other markets I have been to. It was inside and outside the castle, and had all kinds of different stalls selling crafts, souvenirs, food and drink. They had a stage outside as well, with various medieval style performers. We had a good laugh watching a group of jugglers. Plus lots of people (visitors and people working there) were dressed up in medieval costumes. They ranged through all types of people: soldiers, commoners, nobility. We kept seeing this one group of people, who I called Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey.

Notice Cardinal Wolsey with his cell phone?

The merry-go-round, powered by the man grabbing one of the ropes and running around in circles.

View of the outside part of the market from the castle tower.

Following the Romans

A few weeks ago we had our two week October holiday. I will miss having these autumn holidays when I move back home. The first week I stayed in Frankfurt, and loved being lazy. I saw a few friends, but mostly just got up and did as I pleased. The weather was lovely, so I went for a few walks, did some shopping and enjoyed the sunshine streaming into my room. When I sit in my new chair I am facing the window and can enjoy the sunshine from there. The second week I went away for 5 nights. I first went to Trier, then to Xanten and finally met up with Regina and stayed with her parents for a night. The first two stops were to see the Roman towns of Augusta Treverorum (Trier) and Colonia Ulpia Traiana (Xanten). Both reached their height of power and status in the later centuries of the Roman Empire. So far most of what I have learned has been about earlier times, so it was nice to connect what happened later with what I already knew. Trier was the capital of the Western Roman Empire when the empire was split, and was where Constantine the Great ruled from when he was Caesar of the Western part of the empire. Xanten was elevated to a Colonia by Emperor Trajan, hence the name Traiana.

Trier

My first view of the Porta Nigra. My hotel was only a few minutes from here.

Some beautiful timber-framed houses on the main market square.

The electoral palace, built right up to Constantine's Basilica

I arrived in Trier late on Saturday. That evening I had dinner on the Kornmarkt (sitting outside!) and took a short walk around the old centre. The next morning I had a quick visit to the Dom and then headed to the Landesmuseum. I was waiting on the steps when it opened at 10. They had an excellent history of the area, with lots of information and artifacts from the Roman era.

My favourite room was full of mosaics (my favourite above). They had many intact mosaics.

After a rushed two and a half hour visit to the museum, I had a quick stop at a bakery for some food, and then went straight to the information centre to join an English walking tour. The tour itself was not very good. The lady running it produced some facts, but wasn't a great story teller and did not show enough interest for my liking. The only other group on the tour was an american family living near Stuttgart. They were very interesting, and I enjoyed chatting with them.

Next I headed to two more Roman sites: The imperial baths and the amphitheatre. Both were mostly ruins, but had audioguides that explained what it would have been like. The baths even had a guide with videos, which was great for imagining what it would have looked like.

The imperial baths

The amphitheatre, which sits on a hill higher than the centre of Trier. After I walked the rest of the way up for a view of the whole city.

Monday I had the morning in Trier before an early afternoon train to Xanten. I first stopped at Paulinskirche, which was around the corner from my hotel. The outside was almost completely hidden by scaffolding, and so I was not expecting the beautiful inside that I found. It had a small cemetery attached to the church, and I took a short stroll around there in the sunshine.

The inside of Paulinskirche

I decided to walk back along the river, but it was so beautiful that I ended up walking along the river all the way to the far end of the old centre, and then back in for a final stop at the Dom and Frauenkirche. The weather was perfect fall weather. The sun was shining so the leaves were glowing yellow as they fell to the ground. Unfortunately this was hard to catch on camera.

This part of the path really made me wish I had my bike and was biking the Mosel river.

The roman bridge, still using foundations built when Trier was Treverorum.

The Dom cathedral with attached Frauenkirche.

Last walk through the Porta Nigra before heading to the train station.

For this whole trip I decided only to take regional trains. This way I avoided the blurred countryside you see when riding an ICE. This made a great trip to Xanten, except for the first train which seemed to put me to sleep! I took a regional train to Koblenz, then another to Duisburg and finally a small state train to Xanten. I really liked any time we were directly following a river, either the Mosel or the Rhein. And the trees were all such pretty colours :)

Xanten

I stayed at a very cute hotel in Xanten. Even the ceiling was painted with clouds!

My kind of store! Bikes and sewing machines.

This was the restaurant where I ate both nights in Xanten, sitting outside under their heaters.

Tuesday morning, walking out to the Roman museum past an old windmill.

Tuesday morning after breakfast I headed straight out to the Roman museum. Luckily the medieval town of Xanten was built outside of the old Roman city. Because of this they have been able to make the whole area of the Roman city a museum and archaeological park. They have recreated some of the walls and gates, as well as some of the buildings. The foundations of the baths have been covered, and are now part of the large museum. The museum and park have an audiovisual guide, with 83 different stops. All in all I was there for almost seven and a half hours!

A model of the town. The orange buildings they know for sure how they looked, because of archaeological digs.

A view from the museum looking down at the baths.

A recreation of the small baths at the reconstructed Herberge (inn house). 

Looking back over the Roman city, after I climbed up the large west gate. 

They have left most of the park as grass, marking out where the streets were with paths and hedges.

After my visit I managed to drag myself back to my restaurant for dinner, and then straight back to the hotel to rest. The next morning I had a train at 11, so had some time for another walk around.

The street leading to the train station, where I want to live in Xanten. It looked especially warm and cozy the night I arrived. Unusual for city/town centres, they had detached houses and a large grassy area between the sidewalk and the road.

 Next stop: Wuppertal (to ride the Schwebebahn!)

View from the front as we rode the train.

I met up with Regina. Neither of us were big fans of the train as it rocked side to side as it drove!

One last view of the Schwebebahn.

Hattingen

Regina and I then gave up on Wuppertal and drove to Hattingen. It has a gorgeous old town centre, with many timber-framed houses in the style common to that area of Nordrhein-Westfalen.

The streets looking down to the church, as it got dark. 

The very square style of timber-framed houses.

Castrop

Our last stop for the day was Regina's home town of Castrop, just outside of Dortmund. I stayed over night with her at her parent's house.

One of the old coal mine towers, from the Erin mines. They were founded by an Irishman who came to the area. The mines are now closed, and this tower has been refurbished as a landmark. They have an Irish tree grove below, with the 12 different trees for the months, like a zodiac sign. I think I was the elm tree. 

The next morning I got on an Sbahn to Dortmund, and then an IC train back to Frankfurt. I enjoyed seeing some of my favourite places from our bike ride down the Rhein this summer. Mostly I just enjoyed the river and the trees and relaxing before being back home in Frankfurt.

A view of the Rhein through the autumn trees.

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

October 3rd is Tag der Deutschen Einheit - German Unity Day. This year it was the 25th anniversary of German reunification. Each year the main celebrations are in a different city, and this year they were in Frankfurt! Unfortunately so was most of the country ... or at least it felt like it. They had a Sportmeile on the Zeil with lots of different sports activities and groups. My softball team was running a batting cage for the visitors to try. I spent Friday evening and Sunday afternoon there. On Saturday I checked out what else was going on.

I first tried to walk along the river and see the various state exhibits. I am sure that they were great, but there were way too many people.

View of all the people and the pavilions along the river.

I then went up towards the Zeil, and went into the Bundestag (parliament) pavilion. They had lots of different booths set up with information, but I really only went to the free picture booth:

I was there!

It was super crowded here! Oh wait ... most of those people are police officers.

I walked around until I ended up at the Paulskirche. I stopped at a few history information displays. Outside Paulskirche they had an information poster on each year since 1990. It was interesting to see various big events from each year.

And of course there was food! Each state apparently had food from their area, however instead I ate Langos (Hungarian). Then I headed home, too many people for me.

New Apartment

At the end of June I moved into a new apartment. I am living now in a "WG" - a shared apartment. To find a new apartment, it took contacting about 50 places before one worked out. But I completely lucked out and love my new place. It is a four person place, and the other three are all Germans. We speak only German, and they are so nice. They are all really helpful and patient with my bad German, and of course it is getting better.

With being so busy at the end of last year and beginning of this year, I only just had time to finish putting together the wardrobe I got a few weeks ago and sorting out all my stuff. Here is pretty much how the room looks now (plus a bit more organization):

My bed and living room area. I really love my new chair :)

The rest of my room. As you can see it is pretty tiny. It does have a self-built loft over this part. The last girl slept up there, but I just use it for a bit of storage. 

We each have our own room, plus we have a shared kitchen, one and a half bathrooms and a hallway that doubles as the living room. Though we mostly use the kitchen as a place to hang out. 

The hallway, which is also the living room, entry way and laundry drying room.

I love the colourful kitchen!

The other end of the kitchen.

Summer Travels

School ended last year on July 24th, with the usual panic of having to take apart our classrooms and pack everything into boxes. All this with the knowledge that come beginning of September, they won't actually have cleaned everything they said they would, and we will have to unpack and redecorate everything we so recently put away. Not exactly my favourite tasks.

England

After school that Friday, Regina and I drove directly out to Hahn for a Ryanair flight to Stanstead. The next morning we took the bus to Chelmsford for Claire and Felix's English wedding. It was such a lovely wedding, and we really lucked out with the weather. 

Just like at their Viennese wedding, they provided transportation to and from venues. This time in a red double decker bus!!

After the ceremony, which was held in the church where Claire's parents got married

All of the guests - many came over from Austria and Germany to celebrate again

After the ceremony there was a lovely reception at a local community hall. It was all very simple and low key, but because of that I found it so much more enjoyable. Not many weddings do you get to sit down and eat a buffet dinner with the bride and groom :)

The next day I took the train up to Kessingland for a visit with Auntie Pat and Uncle Ian. I was lucky, because I also got a short visit with Anna. We overlapped for lunch, before she had to go back to Cardiff to finish purchasing her new house. 

Cousins :)

I had two nights in Kessingland. Auntie Pat and I took a short trip down to Sutton Hoo the first day. We saw the burial mounds there, which looked like small hills in one field. They also had a great exhibit with lots of information on the Anglo-Saxon burials, with recreations of the artifacts found and what the ship burial would have looked like.

The next day Auntie Pat and I drove up to Barnby Moor (near Worksop) for Haydn's 70th birthday. Unfortunately I could only stay for half of it, as I had to catch a train back to Stansted for my flight back to Frankfurt. Haydn had arranged a lovely lunch at the pub there with many of his friends coming from various parts of England. It was a nice place: they even packed up my dessert for me to take on the train! 

Munich

So after a whirlwind trip to England, I finally made it back to Frankfurt and home by about 1:30 am. No sleeping in though, as the next morning Anna and I had to help Teresa move to Munich. And that meant driving the truck!! As Teresa can't drive standard, I had volunteered. It was an interesting experience, though maybe not getting stuck in traffic due to an accident on the Autobahn! We finally made it to Munich, a few hours after we had planned, and got all her stuff moved up into her new tiny apartment. She is living in the old olympic village there, basically in a hotel converted into one room apartments. It is pretty nice. We had the next day to explore the city a bit, before Anna and I had to take the bus back to Frankfurt. 

Me with Anna and Teresa, in the English Gardens

Watching the wake boarders in the English Gardens

Home

To continue being busy, I had a softball game the day after and then the day after that I finally flew home!! It was so nice to be home, after almost two months of constantly being busy. I enjoyed just getting up each morning and deciding what we would do. I got to see Robert quite a bit, since he has moved back to the Vancouver area, including going over to stay with him for a night.

Mum with the twins

Practicing for Germany (but with more hills!) - biking out to New West

End destination on the bikes - meeting Christie after work for dinner, Mum also came on the skytrain

Being lead on a hike in Lynn Valley, near Robert's new house

Pitch and Putt with Melissa - definitely a pro!

I did lots of other things while I was home. Christie and I went to see Hairspray at Theatre Under the Stars, I met up with Sandra, we went on lots of walks ... Mostly just relaxed and enjoyed doing whatever took my fancy :)

Our yearly family photo

And then it was time to go, but this time Dad was coming too!

After lots of research on the internet, we finally decided to just wrap his bike in plastic and tape. Luckily it made it there safely, with only an hour or so waiting at YVR for someone to come and pick it up.

Germany

Dad and I arrived on a Thursday, so had a few days to recover from jetlag and do some sightseeing in Frankfurt. 

An evening walk down the Main

Selfie from the top of the Main Tower

Watching the sunset from the Main Tower

Dad came and watched my softball game, so I had a personal photographer. 

Dinner across the street from my new apartment. Though this really could be a picture of any meal out we had in Germany

Biking Day 1:

The day after my softball game we got up early, finished packing our bags and headed off to the Hauptbahnhof. We took the SBahn to Mainz, and then got on an IC train to Köln. 

Kilometer 0 - joining the Rheinradweg in Köln

We started off in Köln at about 11 am and biked to Wesseling for a late lunch of Schnitzel and beer (for dad). We then continued on for a short stop in Bonn, mostly just to see where Beethoven had lived and the old centre. Then continued on to our hotel in Bad Godesberg.

Day 1 biking complete. Still trying to figure out the GPS, so we actually rode about 45 km. 

Took the ferry across to Königswinter and up the Drachenfelsbahn

View from the ruins of Burg Drachenfels, looking down on Schloss Drachenfels

Day 2:

Starting out for day 2 from the Rhein Hotel Dreesen, in Bad Godesberg

Lunch in a field

Deutsches Eck in Koblenz, after an afternoon icecream stop

Day 2 biking - made it to Braubach in time for a hurried taxi ride up to Marksburg to join the last tour of the day

Overlooking the Rhein from Marksburg, on an excellent tour of the castle

View of the castle from our hotel window

Day 3:

Day 3 stop in Sankt Goar. We had lunch and then climbed up to Burg Rheinfels, with a view of Burg Katz behind my head

A shorter day, down the UNESCO world heritage section of the Rhein - so lots of castles!

Where we stayed in Bacharach. It was like stepping back in time!

Day 4:

Apparently not as interesting, as I did not choose any pictures from day 4

Day 5:

Last day, and the rain came. We made the unfortunate discovery that both our rain jackets are not rain proof... made for a wet ride and a cold lunch sitting outside at a restaurant on the river. We didn't want to go inside soaking wet.

But the sun almost came out to welcome us back to Frankfurt

Made it!

We made it back to Frankfurt just in time for the Museumsuferfest, the biggest festival of the year in Frankfurt. We even had a bit of energy left to go that evening to the architecture museum. The next day we visited the sculpture museum, history museum and the Dom museum. Plus ate lots of yummy treats at the tents along the river!

One of my favourite treats - chocolate popcorn

Just a few people along the river!

On Sunday I had to play softball again, but Auntie Pat, Uncle Ian and Robert came over from Nürnberg/Bayreuth for the day. I made it back in time to meet them for a dinner at Wagners.

Lots of food and Apfelwein!

The next day it was back to school ... 

Dad stayed until the next weekend, with a trip during the week to Bayreuth. We managed to get the bike packed up again and with some good German efficiency we didn't have to wait at all at the airport. Then because of a delay in his flight, we got to take a bus tour of the airport before saying goodbye.