Cologne, Germany

This past Wednesday we began our first trip since moving here. We decided to go to the Christmas Markets in Cologne (Koln), Germany. Our trip started a bit rocky when we missed our train by 5 minutes, but the 2 hour wait in the train station went surprisingly quickly. We ate lunch and watched the trains and the many people. The way there and the way back we were able to sit in the family section for our 2 1/2 hour train ride. Very helpful with an active 2 year old and squirmy now 7 month old!

We arrived at about 3:00 and made our way through the drizzle to our hotel. ( We are now reaping the benefits of all the travel Matt has done in the past and were able to use his Hilton points for our stay!)

There are 7 Christmas Markets all with a slightly different theme. On Wednesday we went to the market at the Cathedral ( the Cathedral is absolutely stunning and I will write more about that later.) This market was probably the busiest. It was voted the most beautiful in Europe and had 160 different pavilions.

One of the biggest draws at the markets is the Gluhwein. It is a very tasty hot wine and each market has a collector cup. When buying the wine you pay a deposit for the cup and you can either trade it back in when you are finished or keep the cup.

On Thursday we went to 3 markets. The first was the Medieval Christmas Market which was nice but we were expecting it to be more Medieval if that makes sense. It wasn't that busy so it was nice that Kaylin could walk around There was a donkey there which took some persuading to get Kaylin away from it. Nice, but not our favorite.

Next we went to the largest floating market on the "MS Wappen von Koln" it had about 4o stalls with more antiques than anything else.

Our final stop for the day was our favorite, "Old Town Home of the Heinzelmannchen". It was beautiful. Each pavilion reminded me of a log cabin and the smells of wood chips and food was so good. There was also an ice skating rink and a Ferris wheel. It just had a really nice feel to it.

On Friday we went to two markets and went back to the one at the Cathedral. The last market was only open from 4-9 and being Friday they were starting to get very busy as the day went on so we decided to skip it. By 6:00 that night walking through the market with a stroller was a nightmare...think of Summerfest on a Saturday night. BUSY and FRUSTRATING!

So, the first market of the day was the Market of Angels. This market came in at number 2 for us. Very nice had a carousal and 2 angels at the entrance where Kaylin and I had our picture taken and she went on the carousal and LOVED it!

The final market was the Farytale Christmas market based on the brothers' Grimm tales. There were 60 stalls and charactors from the farytales were mounted on top of some of the stalls. There was also a carousal there and we were really hoping Santa would be there or at any of the markets. We had been telling Kaylin for a while now that when we went to Germany we were going to find Santa and wish him a Merry Christmas and to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. We were certain that there HAD to be one there... wrong! Not a one. We did see a big statue of Santa that whe wished a Merry Christmas and she was pretty excited to see the Angels, but we still were disappointed she didn't see Santa. Every time we said we were going to Germany and each day there we were telling her we were going to find him and she was so cute when she would yell at the top of her lungs "Find Santa." Oh well, I think she still had a good time.

The kids were good, only a few minor melt downs and a lot of persuading with rides and treats! Trying to keep a two year old contained admist a large amount of people can be a challange! We hardly heard a peep out of Shane. He spent his time sleeping a looking around. Sleeping at night was a bit of a challange because everytime Shane woke up Kaylin woke up and vise versa.

Friday night we stopped to tour the Cathedral. Words really can not express how beautiful this Church is. The detail is absolutly amazing and the pictures we took don't do it justice at all. Construction of the Church began in 1248 and took, with interuptions over 600 years to complete. It is hard to even belive we were looking at relics that have been around for so long and to think of all the people that have walked on the same floor. If walls could talk.... It really took our breath away. We saw beautiful stained glass windows that were donated in the early 1500s, a sacrament alter from 1350, a chior stall from about 1308 with 104 seats- still the largest in Germany and many other pieces.

We really had a great time and definently now have the travel bug and are starting to figure out where our next trip will be. Matt has off the next two weeks so we plan on taking a few day trips.

Christmas Tree

Last night we put up our Christmas tree. Kaylin had a lot more fun than I even thought she would. She was so cute hanging the ornaments and SO careful and seriously contemplated where each ornament should be hung. She ended up hanging most of the ornaments on the tree and when she couldn't reach where she wanted the ornament hung she would stand on her tip toes and say "up high." Matt and I had so much fun watching and helping her.

Shane also enjoyed himself. He sat watching Kaylin, which makes him happy anyway, the lights and ornaments just an added bonus. He played with one of the soft ornaments Grandma Jane had made when Matt, Kate and Bill were small.

I didn't have my camera on the right setting, so the pics look a bit washed out, but

here Kaylin is hanging the ornament she received from Grandma Jane and Papa Bud for St. Nick.

Here Kaylin is helping Shane with the ornament he received from Grandma and Papa.

This is what happens...

...when you are too busy updating your blog and not paying attention to your 2 year old...

Decorating and Cookie Making

The other day we brought out the Christmas decorations and tried to be a bit creative decorating this year. At the time we didn't think we were going to get a tree ( that had changed and tonight Matt is going to pick one up.) We are not able to nail anything to the walls and have limited shelf space so we decided to hang a few of our ornaments. Kaylin loved picking them out and handing them to me to hang.

On Sunday we went to Jim and Megan's house for dinner. We thought it would be nice to bring them some Christmas cookies. So, Kaylin and I made some cut out cookies and spritz cookies, my favorite!

1st trip booked!

We have booked our first trip! We will be going to Cologne, Germany from Dec 17-the 20 to check out their Christmas markets. Yeah!!

Our house from the outside

My dad has requested pics from the outside of the house so here they are...

Ours is the door on the left. We have the two windows on the left and the 1st three windows on the second floor (the first is cut off). There is a British family that lives on the top 2 floors.

The above 2 pictures are looking left and right from across the street.

Again, the far left door and the two windows next to it and the three windows on the second floor.

Ajax Game

On Sunday Nov 30 Matt when to see Amsterdam's football team play against Utrect. He had a great time going with a few people from work who have season tickets. Two observations that are different here than at any sporting game back in the states; the first being no alcohol was served because they were playing against a rival and the second being there was no music played. The fans chanted through out the entire game. Hopefully we will get some pics soon. Matt took our camera, but I forgot to put the memory card back in and we don't know how to get the pictures off our our internal memory. We are looking forward to going to a game together.