Sunday, December 18, 2005
December 18th, 2005 - That weekend was the last weekend that the Gillrath steam train ran. The train runs for occasions throughout the year like Christmas, Easter, and the Sparglfest (asparagus festival – I guess that this area is a big grower for white asparagus). For the last few weeks it had run and I’d heard it was a nice thing to do, but knew very little about it. I did knew that St. Nikolaus met the train, so I really wanted to go for the kids. We went on Sunday and it turned out to be a wonderful outing. It had snowed the day before, so there was still snow covering the ground making everything very storybook perfect, lightly dusted with powder. Each window was decorated with a sprig of evergreen and a few ornaments. In our car there was a stove with an iron gate around it for heat. At one stop the conductor came by and added kindling to the fire. It was very nice. The train took off promptly at 13:00 sending billowing swirls of steam streaming behind and into the fields as it passed. 
The steam was beautiful against the landscape with the open fields and tall windmills. I knew from the train schedule that the ride would last almost 2 hours, but had absolutely no idea how far the train went nor how that 2 hours would be filled. A few minutes after we’d left the station, Kirk noticed a horse drawn carriage. We peered out the window through the houses and saw this quaint old fashioned carriage driven by a man in a long black coat and a very proper tall black hat. The carriage came out from behind the houses onto a dirt road between the crop fields and there we saw clearly St. Nikolaus in the back with Black Peter. (Black Peter is the helper to St. Nikolaus. The good children get gifts while the bad children get lashes with the sticks that Black Peter carries with him). The train came to a stop. Everyone aboard was looking all around excitedly out all the windows trying to see, stirring with anticipation of what would happen next. Parents stood with cameras poised at the door. Kids wiggled in their seats and asked why we were stopped and when is St. Nikolaus coming. 
Then, the door opened and St. Nikolaus walked through with his long elegant robes and tall papal style hat. The Black Peter followed, dressed all in black with a black hood like a henchman, handing bags to St. Nikolaus as he got to each row of seats. The kids faces all lit up. Arianna exclaimed, there’s “Kirk Nikolaus!” When he came to our seats he kindly shook each girl’s hand and then gave them each a large plastic bag of goodies. It was such a wonderful treat! Each bag contained a Clementine, a large chocolate Santa, and a thick 8” tall tasty bread baked into the shape of a gingerbread boy. St. Nikolaus went through each car full of children, then had his own car to ride in for the rest of the trip. The carriage left and the train started up again. It steamed on for 30 minutes more and then stopped. People started getting off. We were confused. Why were people getting off? We didn’t know there would be a stop! Kirk asked around and got the impression that we had a 30 minute break for shopping. We got off the train slowly, wandering with the crowd, a little flustered that we were 
stuck who knows where and without many Euro for shopping. The crowd wandered over the track behind a row of trees and over to a large white tent building. We thought we were walking into a giant flea market. I was thinking how odd it was that we were brought to this place for what seemed like captive shopping. Curious and amused we kept 
walking. Piano carols and voices came from the place as we got closer. I was pleasantly surprised upon entering to find the tent filled with rows of tables set neatly with coffee cups and saucers and coffee pots. In the corner there was food for purchase, cherry covered waffles, rostbrats, and other treats. We got Gluwein and cocoa. In the front of the room was a 20+ foot Weinachtsbaum next to a stage where St. Nikolaus and Black Peter sat. The pianist played lightly on the piano. A Penzey (caught me as funny as I’d seen the same system in the states – very modern in such an old setting) sound system stood mid stage. The train conductor came to the microphone making an announcement. Immediately the German children formed a line at the stage. All was in German, so it took me a while to understand. 
St. Nikolaus asked each their name and age, then their talent. At this the child would bravely perform their talent into the microphone. Many of the young ones counted or did their ABC’s. The older ones sang songs and one girl brought a small recorder and played into the microphone. As soon as they were finished, St. Nikolaus would reward them with a Snickers bar (at the American Christmas party the kids got German kinder eggs, here, they got Snickers bars… funny). Arianna really wanted to go up too, but Kirk wasn’t quite ready to lead her though that… may be next year. Arianna is picking up German phrases very quickly. The other night she said, “Daddy, what does ___ mean?” The lines are where 4 German words went. I don’t know the phrase nor how to spell it, but she has heard it and pronounced it perfectly to Kirk who immediately recognized it and gave her the English translation. She’ll be speaking German before anyone. Anyway… the train ride was wonderful. We all piled back onto the train after about 30 minutes and had a very pleasant ride back. The train stopped again in the same place where St. Nikolaus came on and there sat the carriage waiting to take him away until the next train came.We got back at 1445 and went out to get our Weinachtsbaum (Christmas tree) that same afternoon. I’d been really worried that I wouldn’t be able to get a large tree. All the trees I’d seen had been so short and sparsely branched. A fruit and vegetable stand in our town just a few blocks from the train station sold Christmas trees, so we stopped there. As Kirk and I went in my eyes got big seeing some very tall beautiful trees. Kirk joked in German that his wife wanted a big tree, but that since I didn’t speak German, that he would have the upper hand. I told them that I wanted a “gross” tree (large) and motioned tall and wide with my arms. We looked around and a few minutes later a nice man emerged from the back holding a perfect tree. To Kirk’s dismay, I excitedly proclaimed, “I love it!” and the tree became ours. In its stand it is about 8.5 feet tall leaving room at it’s top for the star I couldn’t find this season for its top. We brought it home and began to decorate it. I bought the 220 watt lights so once I had those put on, the girls helped me decorate. I put out all the non-breakable ornaments for the little ones so they decorated (over and over again) the bottom 3 feet of the tree. Tiara and I decorated the rest and Kirk put on his airplane ornaments. Elise had fun pulling ornaments off and putting them back on. Arianna and Luci did their share of rearranging too throughout the next week. It’s beautiful – a perfect mix of ornaments both hand-made and bought, old from my childhood and new from my girls.
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Life In Germany
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