We ended up driving 20 minutes to the neighbouring town called Wiedenbrück [sounds like Vee-den-brook]. J was told the Christmas market there is heaps better than in the town we live in. Said to have more market stalls and surrounded by buildings dating back to the 1400s, it really does make you feel like you've walked back in time.
But as we were driving towards the town we realised there was so much snow everywhere. Everything was pretty much covered. Where we live the snow pretty much melted on impact except for in the afternoon where it stayed put for all of an hour before it all melted.
So anyway, there we are.
And there's our little boot shaped mugs filled with glühwein with an extra shot of Amaretto in one and Cointreau in the other. Together it cost 10 Euros. I have to say, it was probably one of the better ones i've tasted. It wasn't too strong and it didn't taste like it was prepackaged. And had we returned the mugs we would have gotten 5 Euros back. But being the souvenir keeper, we thought they would be a nice memory of this years' Christmas - even though we're still in November.
We had kept one of the mugs from last years Christmas market in Frankfurt. It has no really purpose except to sit quietly in our glass cabinet amongst our other "collectibles".
We arrived around 6 PM and not so many people were there. Some were huddled around the glühwein and eggnog huts cradling their hot drinks and others were checking out the stalls.
It was a much smaller scaled version of previous markets i've been to. I guess one can't compare it to those in a bigger city. But for what it was, it was nice and the variety was there.
One stall only sold wooden spoons of all shapes and sizes.
Then there was one stall that sold handcrafted wooden children's toys. Which is where J and i bought presents for Baby A, Little L and Mimi. I can't tell you what i bought for my niece in case my sister ends up reading this.
And then there was a stall that had huge wheels of cheese and the woman lured us in with samples. Can't say no to free stuff! So she explained that the milk came from the cows in Bayern. Apparently, these cows roamed the mountains and therefore, the cheese had a more distinct taste, as opposed to those kept on farms. I had to agree, the taste was much stronger but not the stinky kind.
So when we asked how much, as we only wanted a little bit, she said 1 kg cost 24.90 €.
She refused to sell us 100 grams and so we thanked her and walked away.
So after roaming around and J got slightly tipsy on eggnog, we walked into the nearby pizza parlour. There i had a yummy mushroom, paprika, artichoke pizza. Although i wished they had used fresh mushrooms instead of the canned variety. And washed it down with a Hohenfelder Pilsener beer that claimed to be produced with 50% orange juice. And to kill time, on the back of my napkin i could learn Italian phrases.
It wasn't even 9 PM and we were already getting tired and so that pretty much concluded our night out at Wiedenbrück's Christmas market.
J's getting off from work early today and we're driving to Cologne to see two apartments. I'm really hoping one of them will be ours. The truth is the anxiety of not having/finding a place is killing me. I know we'll eventually find one but without a single box packed and with a few deadlines looming, i'm starting to get nervous.
They say there will be more snow later hence the reason why we're leaving earlier. They've sent out warnings to those vehicles on the road to be careful as it's very icy.
It's 8:30 AM and it's -2˚Celsius. Looking out the window everything seems to be still covered in a fine dusting of frost.
Hope you have a great weekend and keep your fingers crossed that we find a new home.
But as we were driving towards the town we realised there was so much snow everywhere. Everything was pretty much covered. Where we live the snow pretty much melted on impact except for in the afternoon where it stayed put for all of an hour before it all melted.
So anyway, there we are.
And there's our little boot shaped mugs filled with glühwein with an extra shot of Amaretto in one and Cointreau in the other. Together it cost 10 Euros. I have to say, it was probably one of the better ones i've tasted. It wasn't too strong and it didn't taste like it was prepackaged. And had we returned the mugs we would have gotten 5 Euros back. But being the souvenir keeper, we thought they would be a nice memory of this years' Christmas - even though we're still in November.
We had kept one of the mugs from last years Christmas market in Frankfurt. It has no really purpose except to sit quietly in our glass cabinet amongst our other "collectibles".
We arrived around 6 PM and not so many people were there. Some were huddled around the glühwein and eggnog huts cradling their hot drinks and others were checking out the stalls.
It was a much smaller scaled version of previous markets i've been to. I guess one can't compare it to those in a bigger city. But for what it was, it was nice and the variety was there.
One stall only sold wooden spoons of all shapes and sizes.
Then there was one stall that sold handcrafted wooden children's toys. Which is where J and i bought presents for Baby A, Little L and Mimi. I can't tell you what i bought for my niece in case my sister ends up reading this.
And then there was a stall that had huge wheels of cheese and the woman lured us in with samples. Can't say no to free stuff! So she explained that the milk came from the cows in Bayern. Apparently, these cows roamed the mountains and therefore, the cheese had a more distinct taste, as opposed to those kept on farms. I had to agree, the taste was much stronger but not the stinky kind.
So when we asked how much, as we only wanted a little bit, she said 1 kg cost 24.90 €.
She refused to sell us 100 grams and so we thanked her and walked away.
So after roaming around and J got slightly tipsy on eggnog, we walked into the nearby pizza parlour. There i had a yummy mushroom, paprika, artichoke pizza. Although i wished they had used fresh mushrooms instead of the canned variety. And washed it down with a Hohenfelder Pilsener beer that claimed to be produced with 50% orange juice. And to kill time, on the back of my napkin i could learn Italian phrases.
It wasn't even 9 PM and we were already getting tired and so that pretty much concluded our night out at Wiedenbrück's Christmas market.
***
J's getting off from work early today and we're driving to Cologne to see two apartments. I'm really hoping one of them will be ours. The truth is the anxiety of not having/finding a place is killing me. I know we'll eventually find one but without a single box packed and with a few deadlines looming, i'm starting to get nervous.
They say there will be more snow later hence the reason why we're leaving earlier. They've sent out warnings to those vehicles on the road to be careful as it's very icy.
It's 8:30 AM and it's -2˚Celsius. Looking out the window everything seems to be still covered in a fine dusting of frost.
Hope you have a great weekend and keep your fingers crossed that we find a new home.
4 comments:
good luck & happy house hunting!!
Thaaaanks!! =)
hello Chris,stumbled upon ur blog and would just like u to know tt it is nice to see someone who is so open to share abt tt unhappy part from the past.like u,ive been thru smth similar,and im walking out and seeing a "new light" all over again.Anyway,Kuddos in Germany! Where were you from btw?(drop by my blog for a reply if possible,thanks)! =o)
Hi Sophia and thanks for the comment. Sorry to hear that you've been going through some rough patches but the fact that you're taking measures to change your life and improve it speaks a lot about yourself. You should be proud. Think positive.
Where am i from? Well my dad is Dutch and my mom is Singaporean. Which makes me half and half but technically, i'm dutch - if that's what you were asking.
If you meant, where did i just come from, well i've lived in various cities/countries but prior to here i was in Malaysia.
Thanks again for dropping by. And feel free to say hi anytime ;)
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