Wednesday - Schloss Buckeburg & Bielefeld

Today we are off to Castle Buckeburg in the town of Buckeburg.  After breakfast with fresh breakfast rolls still hot from the bakery, and after the host husband made sure all was well with his business we were in two cars going to Buckeburg - with car seats for two children we needed to take the second vehicle.  It was great everyone could go today.

Entrance to Schloss



 

With Santa and Helper

American Christmas

The castle itself was lovely, but the main attraction right now is the Christmas market with “An American Christmas” as the theme.   After you walked through the gate of the castle wall you encountered Christmas market stalls/tents/shops located along the driveways and in the gardens.  The “An American Christmas” included trees decorated in ‘stars and flag’ ribbons, lights on shrubs and trees (this is not European), reindeer shapes, English Christmas carols, Santa Claus instead of St Nicholas or Father Christmas.  The evening before on our way home from Soest we drove down one street known as the “American Christmas light street”.  It is a street where most of the homes have lights on their houses or a tree – it is quite modest, but at the same time very nice.  I guess we did not realize that Europeans do not decorate with lights. 

The Great Room in the Schloss

The Great Room

The Red Room



Shopping for Christmas

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At one point a soloist appeared on the castle balcony and sang Christmas songs in English.  Later we realized what we thought was a tour of the castle was indeed more shopping inside the castle! As we went from room to room in the castle, each room was full of tables and booths selling items.  As your exited the castle you embarked on another shopping experience in a large tent in the back gardens!  I must say that everything was very upscale and tastefully arranged. The place was crowded!  Busloads of shoppers were there!  It appeared to be the place for women’s groups to come for the day!  Cal & I tried to look at the castle rooms over and above the tables.  It would be a beautiful castle to tour at another time of year.  After walking around the grounds for a while and having a snack, we drove to the city of Bielefeld to visit their Christmas market.

This whole Christmas market tradition is interesting.  We do not have anything like it in Iowa or any other State that we are aware of.  Each market is decorated differently, and has its own personality.  We have been to enough now to see the differences and feel the differences. They are usually located in a plaza area and you walk from one plaza to the next for each individual market.  It is a place for people to come together, eat, stroll, do some shopping, have a hot drink of some sort and socialize.  We understand the crowds are larger when it is cold as that is when the hot drinks taste the best.  People are all bundled up these cold evenings.  The hot drinks do not need to have any alcohol, as there is hot chocolate, and hot mulled cider.  There are all sorts of food – all sorts of brats, pizzas, flamkuchen (looks like thin crust pizza, but better), all sorts of meat on a stick, chocolate covered fruit on a stick, spiral cut potatoes on a stick – someone needs to go to the Iowa State Fair to get the ‘on the stick’ ideas!! I am just naming a few.  The gluhwein stands are very busy after work and later in the evening! The markets usually close somewhere between 9-11:00 pm.  Some of the markets have entertainment stages with puppets for children, bands, or singing groups. We see some of the same items at each market, but there are new and different items at each market.

Soest Christmas Market

Which Brat would you like

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With Friends

Making Pizza



Cutting Pizza

By the time we arrived home the children were ready to run around freely – no more car seats, no more strollers, no more sitting in back packs!  By now they are really interacting with us.  Bedtime was hard as they were wound up! It has been so much fun learning to know the personality of each child.

Acheberg to Sloss-Holte, and Soest

This morning was one of the clearest days since we have been in Germany.  There was some blue sky and sunshine, but by evening it was raining again

Over the years Cal and I have learned to know a lot of exchange students (only 3 lived with us), some we felt closer to than other, but it is always great to reconnect with any of them. The gal we are leaving and the next gal we will see are now parents with sweet little ones.   

It was a little over an hour drive to the home of our German daughter (she actually lived with us) and her family today.  Her two little girls are so cute.  Of course as with our last hosts the children do not understand any English, so communicating with any of the children is difficult.  They actually wonder what is happening to their parents – they cannot understand their parents talking to these strangers with strange words are coming out of their mouths!

German Farm House and Barn

 After a light lunch we made preparations to drive to the town of Soest, approximately an hour drive, to visit their Christmas market.  We did not take the youngest child as she was not feeling well and had fever – she stayed with her Oma.  It began raining before we left the house, so we went prepared for the wind and rain.  The temperature is in the 30’s so after a while the damp cold goes through you! A cup of gluhwein does taste great.  Tonight we had hot chocolate with rum in it!  

Soest is a town along the east-west autobahn that in the days of the ‘iron curtain’, connected to the corridor through East Germany which you drove into West Berlin.  In April 1973, Cal & I stopped in Soest on our way to West Berlin.  We have not been back since.  It is a lovely town with lots of interesting half-timbered building.  It just may be that on Thursday we may stop in Soest during the day and take a self-guided walking tour of the old town, as we will be returning on the same autobahn on our way to Koln. 

Soest Decorated for Christmas



Soeat Christmas Market

Creche in Soest Christmas Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More Gluhwein

Which Brat Would You Like?

Brat Menu.

Flammkuchen - Small Pizzas From Alsace

Tomorrow we are off to a castle that is advertising this year’s feature - “An American Christmas”.  We will see what they feature as an ‘American’ Christmas! 

By this evening the older of our hosts two girls was warming up to us, but communication is not easy! She enjoyed the Christmas market, as this is the first one she will remember.       

Ascheberg and Munster

This morning the parents of our hosts arrived as they plan to stay with the children today while their daughter and we go into downtown Munster.  They live in Northern Germany and had invited us to visit them in their hometown, but that will be for another time. 

It was around noon when we left for Munster, Germany.  Munster had the best Christmas Markets yet! Actually, what was so nice is that Munster was not as commercialized as some of the other towns we have already visited? There were plenty of traditional foods, sweets and drinks – we are still sampling and searching for the best gluhwein!  They were selling lots of other very nice items which we had not seen before – some very traditional German.  Each of the 4 markets is nicely decorated.  We found several items which need to go the US with us!! 

Munster Christmas Market

Munster Christmas Market

Munster Christmas Market

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The downtown section of Munster was decorated beautifully.  The buildings were lit and under each arcade were hanging lit advent wreaths.  After dark (it is dusk by 4:00 and dark by 4:45) the whole downtown looked so festive. The high-end shops located downtown also have beautifully decorated windows. 

Christmas traditions in Germany are very strong.  The 4 weeks of Advent are evident in advent wreaths everywhere, advent calendars, opening of a small gift each day of advent, etc.  This past Sunday was the first Sunday of Advent, so the first Advent candle was burning all day.  Everywhere Advent wreaths are for sale.  We have visited several Dom’s (cathedrals) and the steady flow of people is amazing.  Every Christmas market has at least one scene of the creche’, and some have more.  Some of the Dom’s have creche’ displays from around the world - you can walk by to look at them.       

Downtown Munster Decorated for Christmas

More Gluhwein

Germany is keeping its traditional ways of shopping.  They do not have large chain super stores – Wal-Mart has left Germany – they tried, but did not succeed.  The laws are very strong concerning the hours a shop can be open – no 24 hr shops.  They must close by 9:00 pm.  The Germans want to keep their traditional bakery shop, meat shop, green grocery shop, etc. so by their shopping patterns they are speaking their wishes.

Chocolate Tools - Good to Eat!!

Market Store

Mini Brats!! and??

Tomorrow we say goodbye to these German friends and drive for an hour and a half drive to the home of the exchange student who lived with us during the 93/94 school year.  It has been great to reconnect again.  They hope to come to the US again before their son begins 1^st grade.  

 

 

 

Ascheberg and Dortmund: December 2, 2012, Sunday

As I said last night, it was beginning to snow before I went to bed.  Well by this morning there was 2 inches on the ground.  It was a wet snow sticking to all the trees, so the landscape was beautiful. 

After another great German breakfast with delicious bread, cheese and meat we were on the road by 10:00.  We decided to take the rural roads instead of the autobahn north toward Munster.  It was a beautiful drive, at times it continued to snow heavy and other times it stopped only to start again.  Due to the snow on the roadway the cars were driving at a slower speed than normal, plus since it was Sunday morning there was not a lot of activity outside, so it was a peaceful kind of morning. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We made it to the home of another former exchange student just south of Munster around 1:30pm.  After a lovely coffee meal we wrapped up and headed to the train station and rode the train for a half hour south into Dortmund. Dortmund is known to have nice and large Christmas market, even though our hosts have never been there.  It was a fun afternoon and evening with children ages 5 & 2.  The older child expressed his excitement and awe with the train ride, Santa Claus, and the other displays with fairy tale stories.  The younger child was wide-eyed, but not as expressive.  After trying some of the foods and more gluhwein, we went to back to the train, for the return trip home.  The lovely afternoon and evening continued back at the house –catching up.  

 

Dortmund Christmas Market

Dortmund Christmas Market

Dortmund Christmas Market

Ghluwein with Friends

 

Bamberg to Biedenkopf and a Day at Wezlar and Marburg

Bamberg to Biedenkopf, Friday, November 30, 2012

Last night we stayed in a Best Western Hotel – very nice but it was almost too western!  We really do like the older more quaint German hotels, even though they are not as modern.   However when we came into the center (centrum) of downtown Bamberg it was raining and we did not want to search for a hotel.  We want to stay in the downtown so we can walk to the Christmas Markets instead of finding a place to park, especially when the weather is nasty.   

Snow in Gremany

By this morning the rain had stopped so after a great breakfast we walked back to the Christmas Market, through the Old Town and to the Dom.  I did buy the scarf I saw last night – as if I needed another one!  It was about 10:30 when we left Bamberg to drive northwest to Biedenkopf.    We used the Autobahn highways extensively today since we had a longer distance to travel.  Hopefully we don’t have to do this very often as we enjoy the back roads and small villages.   At one location there was road construction so we exited the autobahn and really did enjoy the slower drive.   At times we drove through areas that had enough snow to track a rabbit, whereas other places just had a dusting. 

We arrived at our friends in Biedenkopf around 4:00.  It was so good to see them again.  We have been chatting all night!  Tomorrow we will be out exploring Germany with them.

Wetzlar and Marburg: Saturday, December 1, 2012

This morning our friends awoke us at 8:45!  We were still sleeping hard!  Blame it on Jet lag, plus we visited too late last night!

After a great German breakfast we were off to the town of Wetzlar, which was approximately an hour drive from Biedenkopf.  It was a cold morning – everything was frosty, the trees were beautiful with the frost.  Unbeknownst to us, a guide was scheduled to meet us to give us a two hour tour in English of the old town of Wetzlar.  She was very good, which helped us forget the cold, however she was mindful of the weather and we would go inside whenever possible.   Wetzlar has a very interesting history and her stories brought the history to life.

Photos from Wexlar

Santa Claus in Wexlar

After the tour we visited a museum that held a collection of old furniture from Europe.  The collector was a Doctor who bought beautiful antique furniture – some were massive pieces – she would rather spend money on furniture than on food.  By the time we left the museum it was dark enough that the Christmas lights were nice in the Christmas market.  Wetzlar’s market was small, so we decided to stop in Marburg on the way home and go to their Christmas Market. Marburg is a University town, so lots of students were out in the streets and at the market tonight.  We tried more gluhwine!  It is cold tonight, but in Marburg they had outdoor heaters which you could be near while you drank your gluhwine.  

Marburg Christmas Market, Brats!!

Wexlar Street at Night

Potato Pancake in Marburg

Gluhwein!!

Gluhwein with Friends

We asked why some German towns end in ‘burg’ and others in ‘berg’.  When the name ends in ‘burg’ it means there is a castle in the town, whereas ‘berg’ means the town is on a mountain.  Also ‘furt’ as in Frankfurt means there is a crossing over the river, as a bridge.

After we returned to the house it began snowing.  By the time I am writing this the deck is covered!  We’ll see how much accumulates by morning.