Week 34 Nov 30 - Dec 6

Around this time of year, several regions of Europe celebrate the season by setting up Christmas Markets.  Our own lovely home of Antwerp has a very nice one.  However, the tradition is believed to have German roots, and the city that supposedly does it best is Cologne, Germany.  If you know how Molly feels about Christmas, you know there was no option for us to go over and check it out. 

We left early Saturday with a pair of fellow expat friends.  Cologne is only a 2.5 hour drive from Antwerp.  Maybe even a bit faster...since you get to drive on the autobahn!  We kept the speed at a fairly safe level, but it was unbelievable to watch the BMW's and Mercedes fly past at 200+ kph (120+mph).  After checking in at the hotel in Cologne, we were ready to hit the market around noon. Now, we hadn't done too much prep for this trip, and our assumption was that there would be one BIG Christmas market in the center of the city.  Well as it turns out, there are EIGHT markets of varying sizes throughout the city.  And people turn out in droves for these things.  Each of the eight markets consists of bunch of vendor stalls setup for folks to sell Christmas knickknacks, food, drink, more trinkets, more food, and more drink.  Each market had it own theme and was decorated to match.  One key tradition of the markets is gluhwein.  They cook up a red wine with cinnamon, cloves, sugar, and orange zest. Each market served the gluhwein piping hot in a unique ceramic mug.  We just HAD to collect them all.  It basically turned into a Christmas themed pub crawl.  After about your second cup of gluhwein, you don't notice the cold weather anymore.  

Weihnachts Market

Gluhwein!

A happy guy with pulled pork!

It wouldn't be Germany without mounds of Brats

A view of the Old Town

Market #2: Winter Market

It had an awesome ice skating rink

Market #3: The Old Town Market

After wandering around the markets for about six hours, we were ready to take a break and sit down for dinner.  We were dead set on stuffing our faces with some traditional German grub.  We got a good recommendation from a local.  The place was packed, and there was no host/hostess seating system.  We wandered around trying to find any open tables, and eventually we ended up standing in the middle of the place looking lost.  A waiter finally took some pity on us, and directed Molly and Emily to sit with a lovely Dutch couple.  I guess the idea was they were going to leave at some point and all four of could sit down, but it didn't work out that way.  In the mean time, a family at the next table finished up their dinner and waved Tyler and Luke over to sit.  After the parents of the family settled the bill, they asked Tyler and Luke to watch the kids while they ran to the restroom.  The whole seating system was a cultural experience in and of itself.  It is rare you get to sit with people you don't know at dinner, much less BABYSIT before enjoying your meal.  Eventually, we were all seated at the same table and the German kolsch started flowing.  This was the only drink on the menu, and the system was that you told the waiter when you wanted to STOP drinking beer, not when you wanted to start.  He carried a multi-tiered tray of beer through the restaurant every so often, and if you had less than half a glass left, then you were getting another one.  He would mark it down on a coaster on your table.  Finally, we figured out that if you wanted to be done, you put your coaster on top of your glass to give the signal.  The waiter would came by and tally up the total by hand on the back of the beer-counter coaster, you paid (cash only), and got the heck out of the way for the next group to sit down.  After dinner, we hit another market on the way back to the hotel, and called it a night.

German dinner

Market #4: Rudolph Market

The next morning, our first stop was the Cologne Cathedral.  The city is well known for this church due to its massive size.  It took over 600 years to build and survived both world wars intact.  As per usual, we had to climb to the top to see what was going on up there.  533 stairs later, and we were on top of Cologne.  What a great view!  And it was fun to see the Christmas markets below starting to wake up.  After climbing back down, we headed over to the two remaining markets we hadn't seen the day before.  We also made a quick stop for a Berliner (traditional German jelly doughnut) or two.  By this point, were worn out and ready to head home.  

The Cathedral

A Chirstmas Market from above

We made it to the top!

It was a really fun weekend.  We had a great time with good people.  And it was nice to see Christmas celebrated in a way that focused on bringing people together to enjoy each other's company. The good food and good drink don't hurt either. Merry Christmas!