An interruption: happy new year!

I'm still in the depths of writing about the epic travel adventure in December but now that it's January 1, 2014, I must say this: happy new year! Frohes neues Jahr!

My friend in Heidelberg invited me to a party at her friend's place. I've been there once before for another party so it was one of those nice situations where I knew most of the people there already. Even though I'm an introvert, I have learned to enjoy the challenge of attending a party where I only know one person and by the end of the night hopefully I've met/chatted with everyone else there too. Initially, as an introvert, it feels weird to do that, but it has the nice result of many friendly new acquaintances.

It was a fun party because it was such a mix of everyone. I love hanging out with international groups. It was funny, too, because the spoken languages kept changing all night. I heard lots of German, some Russian, Dutch, and of course, English. My German has progressed enough that I could listen to some conversations in German and understand them enough that I could ask related questions in English.

Just before midnight we headed outside and stood on the cold, windy bridge which had a nice view of the castle and the downtown. This was my first new year's eve spent in Germany. I know that people go crazy for fireworks, as I believe it is the one night of the year that every Tom, Dick, and Harry is allowed to buy mass quantities and set them off. However, it was very striking at just how many were going off! It sounded like a battle outside. I took a short video (horrible quality, unfortunately) and it doesn't even give the whole effect. Despite the slight feeling of danger because it was the amateur hour with some people incorrectly setting off the fireworks sideways, it was still an amazing experience. In the video, the castle is in about the middle of the screen. It's somewhat lit up.

Noticing that some people were accidentally setting off fireworks sideways, we decided it would be a good time to go back inside for the party. One of the guys was asking in German for what I thought I heard as a "stück," which means "a piece." I was asking what on earth he wanted a piece of. Apparently he wanted a stick (I misheard him) and we soon found out why: he was organizing a limbo dance! It was really fun to watch the tall German and Dutch guys try to dance under it.

Soon it was 4 a.m. and it was a good time to say good night and walk back to my friend's house. The aftermath that night's festivities was staggering; there was trash all over the place from the fireworks and empty liquor bottles.

Just a small sampling of the trash left behind, seen the next day.

I woke up today with a bit of a headache from enjoying some drinks, but nothing too bad. My friend made us queso and chips for breakfast and it helped to fortify our faintly aching heads. After "brunch" I bid her goodbye and met up with another friend who was in town.

That friend and I agreed that it would be nice to take a stroll through Heidelberg.

View of the castle on the hill.

We stopped at the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge).

This is a cheeky monkey near the bridge. It was sculpted by Gernot Rumpf, who also made the fountain in Kaiserslautern as well as other towns in the Pfalz. Tons of tourists were sticking their faces into the bottom part of the monkey's face for goofy pictures.

To the left of the monkey are some mice, which are a common theme in Rumpf's works.

We continued our plans for a hike on the Philosophenweg, which is a steep path up the Heilingenberg that gives a lovely view of the town. To get to the path, we crossed the Alte Brücke (Old Bridge) to the north side of the river, turned left immediately off the bridge, crossed the road, and started the trail on Schlangenweg.

The (steep!) trail is in the middle of the picture, just to the right of the white building.

What a workout it was! The path up the hill is walled and very steep with uneven cobblestones. It's not remotely accessible for those with disabilities and I had to watch my ankles on the uneven ground because I'm prone to spraining them. My friend C and I huffed and puffed up the hill and enjoyed the views at the top.

We then gingerly walked down the super steep path to the west and passed some beautiful homes as well as some Heidelberg University buildings. My friend recommended that we visit the park under the Theodor-Heuss bridge. Apparently it's a really popular place for picnics during warmer weather. We laughed at the honking geese and hissing swans (who weren't impressed by the dog that came up to sniff at them).

It is said that what one does on New Year's Day sets the tone for the whole year. I am happy with how I spent the first day of the new year: being with friends, enjoying some residual happiness from a party, seeing historical sights while getting a great workout, and even eating some non-traditional breakfast foods. It was a very pleasant day, made even better by fair weather (51 degrees F and even a bit of sun!).

December's Adventure: Day 3, Strasbourg, France

On our third day of our trip, we hopped into the car for a two hour drive to Strasbourg, France, which is south of Kaiserslautern. I've visited Strasbourg once before this spring but never did get to writing about it (oops!). The nice thing about my prior visit was that it saved me some research for this visit since I basically already knew the layout of town. In other words, I knew exactly where to go since I had already bumbled through some wrong turns during the previous visit. Yay for learning!


From my last visit, I knew that the wise thing to do with my car was leave it in the Park and Ride lot on the edge of the downtown. I chose the Rotonde parking garage which is just west of downtown. It's super convenient because the tram is just outside the parking lot and it's a quick journey into town. Even better yet? It's super cheap! To park in the garage and ride the tram into downtown and back is only 4 euros for up to seven passengers. It's sooo much cheaper and less stressful than parking in the city (more P+R Strasbourg info available here).

We didn't have a set plan other than visiting the cathedral and the Christmas market. After we took the tram into town, we came across the first Christmas Market at Place Kléber, a square. There were just a few booths and they were all non-profit organizations. We decided this would be an excellent place to drink some vin chaud ("hot wine"), the French version of glühwein. After all, once must drink hot, spiced wine at Christmas markets and supporting non-profits by purchasing it from them is even better!

Lovely vin chaud. Now, how to get the deposit back?

My cousins both speak a bit of French from learning it in high school so they ordered successfully. I tried to order some wine using French and it was a mess. Some of it came out in German and instead of 3 glasses of wine we received 2 glasses instead. Eep. We finally got everything sorted out and my cousins had their glasses of red wine and I had white. It was tasty and similar to glühwein. Finishing our glasses, we were then left to figure out how to get our deposit back. We even had to figure out if we had paid a deposit for the cups. It's pretty standard practice if the cups aren't the cheap disposable ones. We spent a while watching other people to see what they were doing and finally just took the cups back to the stand and handed them back. We were rewarded with our deposit being returned. Success!

We learned that each year, there is a special guest country to the market. This year, the guest was Croatia, being honored for recently joining the EU (as of 1 July 2013). There were some stalls in the Place Gutenberg set up with Croatian food, crafts, and information.

Then we moved on to the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a major landmark of the city. Part of the building was started in 1015,  but the Gothic spire was not completed until 1439, according to Strasbourg's Tourism website. We marveled at the amazing church, noting the astronomical clock inside and the elaborately decorated facade.

I made special note of the super creepy stained glass window showing scenes from Hell. I was especially alarmed by the white devil (? I think that's what it is) that bears some resemblance to Bumble the Abominable Snow Monster from the children's film Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Freaky.

Creepy creepy! Bumble, is that you?

Beautiful church facade, evil gnome poisoning the vin chaud outside (maybe not).

That was enough of creepy stained glass windows. As we toured the rest of the town, we found something else that I've since seen repeated in other European towns: Santa Claus in various stages of breaking into people's homes. More pictures of this phenomenon will follow, of course.

There is more to the visit to Strasbourg but that will be another entry since this one is super long as it is. The next entry will be full of additional excitement (! maybe): how we ended up (sort of) on French television in Petite France; saw gnomes gone bad (and it was bloody!); went mountain climbing in the French burrito restaurant; and went into giggling hysterics over weird mannequins. I'm sure you can't wait.

December's Adventure: Day 2, Heidelberg

Sunday found us having a leisurely morning as I cooked breakfast for my cousins. We talked about the next stop on our travel adventure: Heidelberg!

Heidelberg is about an hour from Kaiserslautern and is host to the oldest university in Germany (founded in 1386!). On the Neckar River, it is a picturesque city left intact even after the wars of the 20th century.

However, not all of Heidelberg has been left intact. In fact, the city's most famous sight, its castle, is actually partially in ruins! It has been struck by lighting and burned as well as subject to destruction during 17th century wars. Portions of the castle remain and are available for tours.

For our trip to Heidelberg, we decided that a visit to the castle was definitely in order. I've visited it thirteen years ago during my first trip to Germany, but haven't been since even though I visit a friend in Heidelberg somewhat regularly. We were in for a special treat this particular weekend at the castle: it was the one and only weekend of the castle's Christmas market, too.

My cousins and I took the train from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg and walked to the foot of the Königstuhl mountain where the castle is located. We decided to take the funicular railway (more information about it here) up to the castle as the stairs are killer (the gradient is 45 degrees at one point on the funicular railway!). We waited with crowds of people then smooshed into the railcars with them and took a quick ride to the castle grounds.


Since the day before, I had been marveling with my cousins at how incredibly friendly the locals had been at the Christmas market. I felt like it was unreal. When we reached the grounds of the castle, I had my faith restored that I was still in Germany and all was as it should be: when I asked at a gift store about a tour of the castle, the lady was super blunt with me and told me (basically) that she would not have any information about tours because she didn't work at the castle's office. Ahh...there it was: German bluntness. I felt so much better after that, because I was wondering if the chatty friendly people in the woods were even real. I've had plenty of people who have been so kind and helpful to me when I've asked for help, but I'm also used to more blunt answers and no small talk. The super friendly, chatty people in the woods the night before must have just been happy from that beautiful Christmas market and glühwein.

Heidelberg Castle gate

We found the correct spot to buy tickets and decided to take a tour of the Heidelberg Castle. I would recommend it because visitors are allowed to visit inside the castle as part of the tour. Without the tour, visitors are only allowed to see the outside of the castle. Our guide was knowledgeable and personable. Since I've been studying German history and art, I chatted with him during some of the free time on the tour. I even amazed him when I asked him if the altar and the surrounding area in the chapel was wood (I had bet my cousins that it was, even though it looked like marble at a distance). He knocked on it, showing that it was indeed wood and asked if I had taken the tour before. Nope, I had a class this summer where our instructor taught us that in many churches and chapels, what looks like marble might actually be wood. The next time you're in an older European church that has been around since the Renaissance, look closely at the marble walls and altars. It might not be marble at all!

Perkeo!

After the tour we visited the Heidelberg Tun, or the giant wine barrel, in the basement of the castle. It's huge, said to be one of the world's largest wine barrels. At one point, the castle employed a dwarf court jester, Giovanni Clementi, revered for his drinking ability, to watch over the wine barrel. Castle inhabitants called Clementi "Perkeo" because they'd ask him various questions, such as if he'd like another glass of wine and his answer was "perché no?" ("why not?" in his native Italian). It is said that he was able to drink vast quantities of wine but the day he drank a glass of water he died. A statue of him still oversees the barrel and Perkeo's legend lives on.

Even better yet? I have a picture of some guy in a costume from when I visited Heidelberg this fall during Herbst Fest. I now realize that this guy is meant to be Perkeo! Mystery solved.

We continued the tour of the castle grounds on our own and stopped by the Apothekenmuseum (Pharmacy Museum). There wasn't much time to see it but it's worth a short visit. Continuing outside, we tried to enjoy the Christmas market outside of the castle. It was so crammed full of people that we didn't stay long.

My friend who lives in Heidelberg met us after our castle visit and took us to her favorite German restaurant in Heidelberg: the Schnitzelhaus Alte Münz (Neckarmünzgasse 10, Heidelberg). It's a short walk outside of the tourist center and is a small, atmospheric restaurant (though not without some questionable art -- check out the poster hanging near the bathrooms!). The main attraction is the restaurant's offering 100+ different types of schnitzels. Beyond schnitzels, offerings are slim besides fries, salads, and käsespätzle, which is understandable given the descriptive name of the restaurant. I don't eat schnitzel, so my choice was the käsespätzle. It was typical käsespätzle and tasted good.

Everyone else ordered different types of schnitzels and were happy with their choices. The serving sides are HUGE so my cousin was happy with her decision to order the small portion (which also saved a few euros). We were all pleased with our meals, the good service, and the cute interior of the small restaurant. We were lucky enough to get seated even without reservations; however, since the restaurant gets busy, for a smoother visit reservations are recommended.

Full and happy, we continued down the Hauptstrasse (main street) in Heidelberg, window shopping and enjoying the festive environment with some additional Christmas markets along the way. We then said goodbye to my friend and walked back to the train station to travel home.

Six Tips for Enjoying the Romantische Waldweinacht at Haus der Nachhaltigkeit

www.hdn-pfalz.de
Haus der Nachhaltigkeit
Trippstadt

Are you interested in experiencing the lovely Christmas market in the Palatinate woods that I wrote about here? I highly recommend it, but before you go, here are some things to know:


1. Whatever you do, do not drive and do not park your car there. I am not kidding on this one. Take the bus! There is a special bus that leaves from Kaiserslautern, as well as from other places (which will be listed on the Haus's website), and it drops off passengers directly at the event.

There are very few parking spaces available anywhere near the market and the ones that are available are perilous as they're not actually spaces at all; cars were just parked on the side of the road, which is incredibly narrow. The buses that came through could barely squeeze past the cars. At one point, some passengers had to get out of the bus to help direct the driver through the tight squeeze!

There is no safe place to walk to the market from where the cars are parked and it's dangerous for everyone involved. Repeat after me: take! the! bus!

2. Look into buying a Tageskarte for an individual, which is a day's pass for the bus, or a Gruppentageskarte for a group. Usually this will be cheaper for the outward and return journey than buying individual bus tickets. They can be bought from the bus driver.

3. Check the schedule for events and get there early! We only had about an hour and a half at the market and it wasn't long enough. We also missed out on seeing the fire spinners. I wish I had planned better.

4. Try the bio (organic) or ökologisch glühwein. It is delicious and in my opinion, tastes much better than regular glühwein.

5. Try some of the food offerings; some of them are not readily available at other Christmas markets (such as the Wildschwein sausages).

6. Be sure to check out the craft fair inside the building, too.

December's Adventure: Day 1, Part 2; Haus der Nachhaltigkeit Christmas Market

After spending time together in Frankfurt, I drove my cousins back to Kaiserslautern. We took a much-needed short nap at my house before our evening trip to the Haus der Nachhaltigkeit's Christmas market in the woods.

The Haus der Nachhaltigkeit, or House of Sustainability (which I'll refer to for the rest of this as the "Haus"), is a nature center, of sorts, located in Trippstadt, which is twenty minutes south of Kaiserslautern. For the last ten years the Haus has celebrated its "Romantische Waldweihnacht," or "romantic forest Christmas" on its grounds. It is truly a special Christmas market, quite different from most other German markets.

Offerings at this market are most often organic, handmade, and high quality. There are many local specialties, including some that are hyper local and put the focus on the forest: it's possible to eat venison and wild boar products made from animals from the very woods!

I used this market as an opportunity to introduce my cousins to the staple of German Christmas markets: glühwein, which is a hot, spiced wine (which also made many future appearances in our trip). Internally, I was a bit blasé about drinking more glühwein. I had some when I first moved to Germany, and it was overly sweet and tasted like it had cheap fillers in it. I didn't finish that first glass of it.

The glühwein at the Haus's Christmas market restored my faith in mulled wine. It was amazing! I think that the major difference is that this glühwein was a higher quality and was homemade by the winery selling it. Another bonus is that the supplying winery uses ökologisch growing techniques, which means that they are environmentally sound ways of growing the grapes (something along the lines of bio, or organic). It seemed like just wine with spices and no added "junk." My cousins loved it, too.

Warmed up by the glühwein and trying to stay focused (which the drink didn't help), I led us around the grounds where we checked out handcrafted Christmas decorations, handmade soaps, and other quality items. My cousin was hungry so I suggested that he try flammkuchen, which is a common and beloved dish in this region.

It was then that I witnessed some behavior that is somewhat out of character for what I have previously observed in the locals: one woman in line made small talk with us (usually people don't really talk to strangers in line) and another guy let my cousin know he wasn't in line properly but kindly showed him how to find his place. The fact that the line was being respected blew me away. Folks here don't usually queue here in an orderly fashion, if at all!

Really, it was like the whole event was somehow magically blessed with happy, smiling, and friendly people. After we had sat down to eat the flammkuchen, I told my cousins that I thought we might have been transported to another dimension instead of just into the forest. I'm not saying that the locals are mean or anything; it's just that people normally mind their own business and don't make small talk with strangers.

As we finished the flammkuchen, we realized that the market was closing up for the night. We reluctantly made our way back to the bus, which offered us a packed ride home with many enthusiastic older people who were a little silly, probably from drinking too much glühwein.

The Haus's Christmas market is, without a doubt, my favorite Christmas market that I have attended. I can't wait to go again next year. I will definitely go much earlier to give enough time to fully enjoy the market and to see some of the free shows that it hosts (such as fire spinners, brass bands, etc.).

December's Adventure: Day 1, Frankfurt am Main

Saturday, December 14

On day one of our epic journey, I met my cousins M and D at the Frankfurt am Main airport to begin the trip. They were lucky enough to have direct flight in from Detroit (thank you, Delta!). As we were leaving the airport through the parking garage, they were immediately struck by the Fraunenparkplatz. Of course, it's not hard to miss at the airport because it's painted this crazy Pepto Bismol pink, maybe to drive home the fact that it's parking reserved for women.

The first order of business (in my mind, at least) was to ditch my car and get on the public transportation, which was available at the Stadion Park and Ride lot just a short drive from the airport. We grabbed a Gruppentageskarte, which allowed us to take the train into town and ride the public transportation in Frankfurt for one rate.

Our first stop was Römerberg and we visited the cozy (reproduction of the original) square. Since I have been to Frankfurt once before in the fall, I cheated and took my cousins through the same tour that I wrote about here, except I skipped Sachenhausen. I also started to tell them about the "very special" local drink, Apfelwein, talking about how the locals are so fond of it. M and D were keen to hear more about it. However, I don't want them to make the same mistake that I did and try to drink the bitter stuff so I came clean and told them that it doesn't taste good at all. Even my German colleague, who lives in the area, has agreed how unpleasant we find it. With a name like "apfelwein," it brings to mind a sweet, fruity wine. It's definitely not! It's a bitter cider. Be warned!

After we cleared up the mystery surrounding apfelwein, we enjoyed the Christmas market in the Römerberg square and then moved on to Paulskirche. I also mentioned that in the linked entry, Paulskirche is where the first constitution of Germany was written. Luckily for us, it was actually open that day so we took a look around inside. There are displays on the walls (in German and English) that tell the history of the building and the German struggle for democracy.

We continued with a visit to the Kleinmarkthalle and then on to the horror of all horrors: Primark on a Saturday. It's a clothing store chain that sells excellent warm leggings. I prepared my cousins and told them that my plan was to get in, grab some leggings and pay, and get the heck out. As I had expected, it was pure chaos but we managed to complete the errand (though I screwed up and bought tights instead of leggings, but they're still warm so it was okay).

After that, we were all quite worn out from our wanderings and my cousins were tired from jetlag. I attempted to get us back to the Park and Ride. Though I've visited Frankfurt before, I won't lie: I found the Hauptbahnhof incredibly confusing (am I just dumb, or do others find it that way, too?). It seems like I always stumble along, trying to find the U-Bahn within the confluence of the S-Bahn, buses, and long distance trains. Getting back to the Stadion stop is confusing, too, because of the number of lines that stop there and getting the right one that actually makes the stop. After fumbling around, I finally got us back and we drove to Kaiserslautern and took a much-needed nap so we could attend the House of Sustainability's Christmas Market in the forest. There is more about that to come...

December's Adventure: a Christmas market trip

Two weeks ago, my cousins from the US visited me in Germany. I was excited to see them; after all, they're always fun travel companions and they're my first visitors of family/friends from the US!

I arrange a whirlwind 8-day tour for us. Below is our itinerary. Most of our focus was on visiting Christmas markets in each town. As I get time, I'll blog about what we did in each city and add pictures.

Saturday: Since they arrived in Frankfurt am Main, that was our first stop. Without giving them pause to catch their breath, I drove us back to Kaiserslautern and went to the House of Sustainability's fantastic Christmas market in the woods.

Sunday: we took a trip to Heidelberg. Though I've been quite a few times in the last year, this time I played tourist, too. My friend lives there so normally I play the role of semi-local.

Monday: we took a trip to Strasbourg, France. It's less than two hours away from where I live and is quite pretty, too!

Tuesday: we made our way to Cologne and stayed there until Thursday morning. Our main focus was the cathedral, or Dom.

Thursday: we stopped in what I call the "chicken strip" part of the Netherlands (seriously, it's just a small strip of land!) to see the Valkenburg caves and the Christmas market inside. We then continued to Brussels and stayed there until Friday night.

Friday: we continued to Liège and stayed at a ridiculously bad hotel. On Saturday, we wandered around town and then concluded the trip with dropping my cousins off at the airport so they could fly home.

After all of this, I came home and slept for 10 hours on the evening of my return. I was tired!