Sunday, December 23, 2012

Christmas Market in Sankt Wendel

There are Christmas Markets EVERYWHERE and some are open every day up to Christmas Eve.  Sankt Wendel is a cute little town just up the road from us.  We loved this market!  Half the fun still is getting to walk through the beautiful streets.  No driving this time! : )



 We declared a Gluten Free Holiday! (which means the opposite of how it sounds, it just flows better than "Gluten Free Free Holiday" -ha!)
                                                               "Chimney Cakes"


We had one of these.  None of the fried Twinkie hype here!  I like my junk food made from scratch, it makes me feel like they really get me.  It's all natural. yeah.


                                                    Waffles are the thing...
                                                          okay. so we had some!


                   European Santa Clause?!  or...  the Pope, maybe?!


                                                                   A live Nativity

Listened to the story of Jesus's birth, in German.  (but not from the camel) 

notice the animal skins around their necks

A Cool Church




And last, I leave you with one of my favorite scenes out my window - 
the barn
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

Sunday, December 9, 2012

Cochem Castle on the Mosel River

In November we took a trip to enjoy some more of the fall colors.  We drove about an hour north of here up the Mosel River to a cute little town called Cochem.  They have a beautiful castle on the top of a hill overlooking the river and the town.  We had a wonderful day taking the castle tour and walking around the streets of Cochem!

Looking out at the Mosel River from the castle balcony...
 






 
 
 
 
 
The Dining Room

 
The Knight's Room

 
 What a lovely room of death


 
 
 
 
Now, we've had plenty of driving experiences here where you turn down some narrow street with the tall boxy houses closing in on either side and you think to yourself, with a smile, ...I'm driving in Europe! : )   BUT, appearantly we had not had the full experience yet!  We were trying to figure out how to get up to this castle, and this is the road John drove our minivan down, winding and climbing for several "blocks" right through the town!  I was so glad he was driving because I was freaking out just riding along...
There were no signs, (that we could read anyway), saying this way to the castle, or even if this was a one-way street??!!!  Who knows!?  Were we even suppossed to be DRIVING on this "road"?!  But like John said afterwards, to my awe that he went through it with such calmness, "Well, I just figured, I can't turn around, so I'll just keep going"
At one point I yelled out, "watch out for the dishes!!!" 
 
 
So, after we arrived at the castle in true American style, (apparently you are supposed to park down at the river and walk up through the town to the castle! oops!), we ...parked down by the river in the big parking lot and walked through the town.  It was fun!
 



There were restruants all through here like this one.  We stopped somewhere and had schnitzel and pommes frites!


Apple Strudel with Ice Cream! yum!
 



 
Oh yeah, and this is the area where our favorite sweet wine comes from!