The weekend when things went wrong

It all started with an early wake up call. The plan was to drive to Germany together with my boyfriend, my brother-in-law and his wife to visit the Christmas markets of Cologne and Dusseldorf.  A warm shower is what we needed to start waking up but when the water was not going down the drain we knew something was wrong. Cleaning the clogged pipes at 7am was definitely not part of my plan for the day.

This was just the initial hiccup, the day went quite amazingly after that. We went around the markets in Cologne and had a great time. I had visited these markets in the past years, but the experience was still as if it was the first time. Drinking mulled wine from boot shaped cups, eating bratwursts and finally starting to feel that Christmas is just round the corner.

In the evening we headed to our hotel and that's where things continued to go wrong. The hotel had messed our booking and now we had 3 rooms available (a triple and 2 singles). They were expecting two of us to sleep in separate single rooms. Just great, my legs ached from all the walking and I just wanted to relax. After a long time arguing we managed to get our rooms at a discount and a lovely traditional German dinner got our good moods back on track.

The day after we  had one surprise left for us. On the drive towards the Dusseldorf markets we had a puncture. Nothing big you would say. That's what I thought as well until I noticed that the spare wheel was the small type of wheels that only allow a maximum speed of 80km/hr. This meant we had to drive back on the Germany highways where the limit was 130km/hr or no limit at all, really slowly. Big trucks kept over taking us as well as old granny cars!! Slowly we made it home. This weekend will surely be one that will be remembered for a long time, most probably with a smile on our faces.

[Image Credits: Cindy Broomall @ Pinterest]

A visit to German Christmas markets

Last year we started a tradition. Each Christmas season we visit a different Christmas market. After some thought this year we decided to head to Düsseldorf in Germany for a weekend.

The city had a number of small markets, much smaller in size than the ones in Köln, which we visited last year. We spent a day drinking glühwein from our coloured mugs, to keep us warm and walking around the little wooden huts each housing a different shop.The huts sell all sorts of things, not all Christmas related. Many showed local craftsmanship while others were selling all types of local food. Somehow we all managed to spend more money than planned!  We ate so much food, obviously starting with a bradwurst sandwich, followed by marshmallows covered in chocolate (luckily for me there was another chocolate lover in the group), followed by mushrooms in gravy, potato fritters and yummy bread with pork meat and onions. And that was just during one afternoon!

If you're planning to go to a Christmas market be ready to walk a day in the cold weather, so try to wear comfortable and warm clothes. The markets are very popular with foreigners, this one particularly popular with the Dutch, so be ready to miss some of the most crowded huts and push your way around in some sections. The markets are children friendly, but pushchairs are not very easy to move around. All this popularity means that for most of the evening most bars and restaurants are full. If you want a nice sit down meal be prepared to be rejected at many restaurants and be ready for a long waiting time!

 Düsseldorf can be easily reached from the Netherlands, with trains of just over 2 hours from Amsterdam. If you're visiting by car you have to make sure to get the Milueu stickers for Germany. These you obtain from ANWB pretty quickly. Also since December 1 2010 you will need winter tires fitted on your car while driving in Germany, otherwise you might get fined.

We had a great time on our short visit and will be looking forward to visiting a different market next year!

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