Friday, November 25, 2005
Kalt means cold and oh my goodness is it cold! Socks and slippers are my new best friends!
Yesterday my friend Renee took the little ones and I to Sittard (in the Netherlands) while Kirk and Tiara were at school. Sittard is a nice city and according to friends, the Dutch speak English better than the Germans. Sittard has an open air market every Thursday all year, so we went there first. They had a ton of fabrics - beautiful fabrics in all types. The curtains were amazing, so I'll get curtains for our new house there, I think. 
Prices seemed very reasonable. I will take visitors there. They have waffle stands at all markets it seems serving various flavors of hot belgian waffles with powdered sugar. The girls and I got some chocolate-covered waffles. The market also had beautiful flowers and arrangements and advent wreathes. I 
could have gotten 30 beautiful fresh roses for 4 Euros which is about 5 dollars. There is no reason here to not have fresh flowers at home. The plants all looked amazing too. There was an egg booth with stacks of cartons of brown eggs sitting out on the counter... I'm sure in summer they must do something with them, but in this cold, there's absolutely no need for anything. Entire booths of fresh meats and cured fishes were tempting and the produce was amazing and cheap! Big bags of Clementines were only 2 Euro! We didn't say very long because of the cold, but it was nice to see it all and know what was available there.
After the market we drove to a nearby chocolate factory. Apparently the family invented some machine to shave chocolate into curls and sold it and made a fortune, so the son now owns and runs this small chocolate factory and is just enjoying an "easy" life. They give tours many days, but yesterday he was busy. We got to peak in the back and see all the machinery and the big pool of liquid chocolate. The ladies there gave the girls all free samples. I got a couple little pieces to share with Kirk and they were quite good. That's another nice little place to take visitors.
When Kirk got home we all got really bundled up and took the train to Aachen. Aachen is an easy 30 minute drive, but the train was cheap and fun for the kids and less stress for Kirk. He was told that the Christmas market in Aachen was in walking distance from the Bahnhof (train station) so we got out there, but were told from locals there that it was a good 15 minute walk (longer with kids, of course), so we took a taxi to the market. It rained on and off lightly and was quite cold, but we all had a great time. 
The girls rode on a carousel, then we had hot drinks in a covered area to warm up. We did a lot of looking and thinking about what goodies we may want to get later. It was like many open air market/fairs... Christmas ornaments, food, Shmuck (jewlery), toys, decorations, glassware, and other crafts. My favorites were these amazingly detailed stoneware houses that you could light. They are so incredible. I think we might get one each year that we are here, so that we can have a little Christmas village to display each year. We got these hot candied nuts that Kirk had remembered and loved from his time here and then we had hot dogs and fries (the currywurst line was way too long). I kept seeing people with 4-6 of these patties and I didn't know what they were, but sooooo many people had them that I told Kirk to get one too. They were like an extra thick potatoe pancake, and sooo good. Ours came with melted cheese and ham over the top.
This market was nestled at the bottom of an amazing old Rathaus (government building) and curved around to the backside of the old Aachener Dom (dating back to Charlemagne). It was so beautiful to look up at this building and it was lighted too at some of the statues. The towns call the cathedrals "Dom" and each big town usually has one large (OLD) Dom. Aachen looked like a very nice city... old cobblestone streets and old cathedrals all sprinkled among new modern shopping centers and buildings... and Starbucks! People all seemed very friendly too.
Anyway... we took the train back and were all so tired that bedtime went very smoothly. We did get one thing at the market - Aachener-Printen - a traditional cookie of Aachen that is very cakey and covered in white, milk, or dark chocolate. It has a very subtle anise flavor. They are good and remind me of cookies I used to have during the holidays at Grandma's house.
Last night it snowed, so we are staying in today. Kirk is at work. Tiara is at school. Arianna and Luci are playing monster and Elise is walking around with backpacks slung over her shoulder. I'm going to do some cleaning today. Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving, so I have to get the house ready for a day of cooking. We're also seeing our house again tomorrow to sign all the contracts. It will give me a chance to sketch rooms and do some planning.
Love you all and hope you're not too "kalt" there where you are.
Yesterday my friend Renee took the little ones and I to Sittard (in the Netherlands) while Kirk and Tiara were at school. Sittard is a nice city and according to friends, the Dutch speak English better than the Germans. Sittard has an open air market every Thursday all year, so we went there first. They had a ton of fabrics - beautiful fabrics in all types. The curtains were amazing, so I'll get curtains for our new house there, I think. 
Prices seemed very reasonable. I will take visitors there. They have waffle stands at all markets it seems serving various flavors of hot belgian waffles with powdered sugar. The girls and I got some chocolate-covered waffles. The market also had beautiful flowers and arrangements and advent wreathes. I 
could have gotten 30 beautiful fresh roses for 4 Euros which is about 5 dollars. There is no reason here to not have fresh flowers at home. The plants all looked amazing too. There was an egg booth with stacks of cartons of brown eggs sitting out on the counter... I'm sure in summer they must do something with them, but in this cold, there's absolutely no need for anything. Entire booths of fresh meats and cured fishes were tempting and the produce was amazing and cheap! Big bags of Clementines were only 2 Euro! We didn't say very long because of the cold, but it was nice to see it all and know what was available there.After the market we drove to a nearby chocolate factory. Apparently the family invented some machine to shave chocolate into curls and sold it and made a fortune, so the son now owns and runs this small chocolate factory and is just enjoying an "easy" life. They give tours many days, but yesterday he was busy. We got to peak in the back and see all the machinery and the big pool of liquid chocolate. The ladies there gave the girls all free samples. I got a couple little pieces to share with Kirk and they were quite good. That's another nice little place to take visitors.
When Kirk got home we all got really bundled up and took the train to Aachen. Aachen is an easy 30 minute drive, but the train was cheap and fun for the kids and less stress for Kirk. He was told that the Christmas market in Aachen was in walking distance from the Bahnhof (train station) so we got out there, but were told from locals there that it was a good 15 minute walk (longer with kids, of course), so we took a taxi to the market. It rained on and off lightly and was quite cold, but we all had a great time. 
The girls rode on a carousel, then we had hot drinks in a covered area to warm up. We did a lot of looking and thinking about what goodies we may want to get later. It was like many open air market/fairs... Christmas ornaments, food, Shmuck (jewlery), toys, decorations, glassware, and other crafts. My favorites were these amazingly detailed stoneware houses that you could light. They are so incredible. I think we might get one each year that we are here, so that we can have a little Christmas village to display each year. We got these hot candied nuts that Kirk had remembered and loved from his time here and then we had hot dogs and fries (the currywurst line was way too long). I kept seeing people with 4-6 of these patties and I didn't know what they were, but sooooo many people had them that I told Kirk to get one too. They were like an extra thick potatoe pancake, and sooo good. Ours came with melted cheese and ham over the top.
This market was nestled at the bottom of an amazing old Rathaus (government building) and curved around to the backside of the old Aachener Dom (dating back to Charlemagne). It was so beautiful to look up at this building and it was lighted too at some of the statues. The towns call the cathedrals "Dom" and each big town usually has one large (OLD) Dom. Aachen looked like a very nice city... old cobblestone streets and old cathedrals all sprinkled among new modern shopping centers and buildings... and Starbucks! People all seemed very friendly too.Anyway... we took the train back and were all so tired that bedtime went very smoothly. We did get one thing at the market - Aachener-Printen - a traditional cookie of Aachen that is very cakey and covered in white, milk, or dark chocolate. It has a very subtle anise flavor. They are good and remind me of cookies I used to have during the holidays at Grandma's house.
Last night it snowed, so we are staying in today. Kirk is at work. Tiara is at school. Arianna and Luci are playing monster and Elise is walking around with backpacks slung over her shoulder. I'm going to do some cleaning today. Tomorrow is our Thanksgiving, so I have to get the house ready for a day of cooking. We're also seeing our house again tomorrow to sign all the contracts. It will give me a chance to sketch rooms and do some planning.
Love you all and hope you're not too "kalt" there where you are.
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Life In Germany
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3 comments:
This is great, keep it up. I am going to try this blogging thing too.
This is great, keep it up. I am going to try this blogging thing too.
love the pictures! It's great to "see" wht you've been writing about. How beautiful.
Love, Aunt Rita