Before they left home, we'd arranged a meeting point in the airport so that we could find each other. It worked perfectly! And man, seeing them for the first time since last summer was such a great feeling! So once we were all together, we headed out from the airport to the Hauptbahnhof to stash their luggage in some of the 24-hour lockers most big stations have. After spending several minutes trying to figure out how to shove several suitcases and carry-ons into three lockers, we finally headed off to the market. First problem: nobody had written down where the market actually was. Everyone had read about them, but without writing down directions. So I took a guess as to where it would be, and after I mentioned the place and the trains we could take to get there, everyone agreed that it was probably right.
The market was good times. We got some food and, of course, some Glühwein. Let me just say that crepes with Nutella and bananas are the way to go. I've had other crepes, like with applesauce and other things, but nothing has reached the level of Nutella with bananas. We also started our collection of Glühwein cups with some quality Frankfurt mugs.
We did a bit of walking around outside of the market too, but it was raining off and on with scattered downpours, so it wasn't the best day for it. But we had a great day, and caught our train home with no problems, except a 20 minute delay that meant we missed our scheduled transfer. I managed to catch a Deutsche Bahn worker and got her to validate our passes in time to run to catch a train leaving the station two minutes after we arrived there. Basically, the train stuff all day was really complicated and I don't think they would've arrived in Cologne unless I met them. The train stations in Frankfurt are super complicated and the network of trains is confusing, plus with tons of luggage and being tired, I think it would've been overwhelming. I was stressed trying to figure things out and I actually slept the night before!
The next week and a half were awesome. We took day trips to Aachen and Düsseldorf to see a few things, check out the various Christmas markets, and add to our growing collection of Glühwein mugs. Each city, and sometimes each market if there are several in a city, has its own unique mug that has a special picture or design on it, and usually the year. Some places had mugs from years past, and it took us a long time to figure out how to get the current year's mug. We ended up buying several drinks, from hot chocolate to "kinderpunsch" to Glühwein, to try and get the 2011 mugs. Toward the end of the two weeks, we figured out that you can ask to trade mugs for a clean, current mug. That would've been so much easier to know sooner, but probably not as fun.
I still had school, so for several days I left the house before everyone got up. Since they were staying with me in my itty-bitty apartment, it made moving around a bit tricky. With two cots and an extra mattress on the floor, there was just enough room between beds to squeeze through.
When I got home, they'd have folded up the cots and cleared out all the floor space, and we'd make lunch together. Some days they'd take off before I got home and would spend the day in Cologne checking out different things, like the Dom or other various churches, and of course the Christmas markets. Sometimes I'd meet them downtown, and other days I'd just head home and they'd be back not too long after. I ended up buying them a cheap phone since I had an extra SIM card, so meeting up with them wasn't a problem.
I think my favorite part about having them here was just the fact that I had someone to sit around my apartment with. It was so nice to come home and have somebody to chat with, cook and eat with, play cards or even just watch tv with. Plus, I didn't have to pay for groceries! Total win. But it was a new experience for me to cook dinner for four. I'd gotten used to estimating what I could eat, but figuring out how much would be enough for four people with different appetites was a bit of an adventure. Of course, my dad wanted some German potato chips and other snacks, so we never went hungry, that's for sure!
After the last school day before break, we took off for Koblenz, a town about halfway between Cologne and Frankfurt. I'd booked our stay in a DJH hostel, which are practically everywhere and reliably clean and include breakfast, but I hadn't really looked at the distance between the train station and the hostel. It turned out to be a half-hour walk to the other side of the city, and up a mountain. The hostel was actually part of an old castle. But with all the luggage we brought (my folks' stuff, including all the things we bought as well as an obscene amount of mugs - I can't believe they fit everything in so easily! and my backpack for the next part of my Christmas journey) it was a trek and a half. We lucked out by discovering there was a nifty lift that you could take from the bottom of the mountain up to the castle.
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| The castle at the top is the DJH hostel in Koblenz. Coolest place ever. |
After checking in, we headed out for the evening to explore the city and see a few of the major sights. This time, we took a bus back to the downtown area. We walked along the river, through the old town, and found someplace for dinner. This was where I introduced my family to the wondrous Döner. None of us were very hungry, so we got two to share; one with veal, one with chicken. We passed the two round and round so everyone could sample both. The flavors are quite different, but both are absolutely delicious.
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| At the Deutsches Eck, the confluence of the Rhine and Moselle rivers. |
We walked around a little more after dinner but it was pretty cold, so we headed back around 9:00. We had some time in the morning before our train, so we got to see a few things in the daylight as well.
Then we were off to Frankfurt. We stayed at the same place Isabel and I had stayed at when we first got to Germany, since the location is great and prices reasonable. We celebrated Christmas here, and it was much different than most Christmases I've experienced in the past. It didn't feel like Christmas usually does. There wasn't a tree, I wasn't at home, and a lot of the familiar things I'm used to doing around the Christmas season just weren't there. Instead, we did things differently. We talked and read and played cards (which are all normal, I guess) and played cards and drank German beer (which is not that normal) and went on long walks all over the city. On Christmas eve, or "Heiligabend," we were out walking along the Main River when we noticed tons of people gathering on the footbridges that go over the river. We decided to stick around to see what was happening. We ended up standing on the riverbank next to a group of four people who seemed to know what was going on, so I went over to ask them what everybody was doing. They told me that on Heiligabend at 5:00, all the church bells in the city ring together. People like to stand on the bridges because they can hear the different bells equally without being overpowered by a specific church that's too close. It ended up that they had brought a flask of plum schnapps with them to keep warm, and they offered me some. I was kind of cold, it sounded good, and it was Christmas. I thought it would be bad form to turn it down, so I said yes. And you know what? It was delicious. I ended up chatting with them for a few minutes, and got to hear about a few of their kids who lived in the States or had been to the states. They also told me about different things or buildings in Frankfurt too. My favorite piece of information they gave me that I hadn't known before was that sometimes Frankfurt is referred to as "Mainhattan," a sort of word-play on Manhattan and the Main River since Frankfurt could be compared to New York as a major economic center of Germany.
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| The Christmas markets may be over and no Glühwein to be bought, but that doesn't mean you can't bring your own wine and tables to the marketplace and keep the party going! |
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| Mom gets too close to the animals in the Japanese Garden |
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| Dad makes the mystical beast angry |
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| Occupy Frankfurt. Good location right next to the European Central Bank |
Sadly, all good things must come to an end, and on the 26th, my folks headed home. Margaret and I dropped them off at the Frankfurt airport before beginning our own crazy adventure. Check it out in my next post.
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