Weinachts

Trip Start Aug 23, 1996
1
412
450
Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Germany  , Rhineland-Palatinate,
Sunday, December 14, 2008

December, the month of Christmas, and the only place to be is in Europe. I never get the way the Brits dress their houses up in lights like there is no tomorrow. Fuck the electricity bills, fuck it all, so to us, once a year, we head over to Germany for some sanity, and a generous helping of gluhwein of course
 
The Beginning
 
We flew Ryanair and as to be expected, Frankfurt-Hahn was in the middle of nowhere. Just your typical ex-airbase that had been converted. We went to Hertz, and grabbed our car. I had ordered a VW Fox, but the guy said he had only a Kia Karnival. Upon seeing it, we pissed ourselves. We had been upgraded again, and this time we had been given a people mover that could seat eight !!! So the two of us jumped into this bus and hit the snowy roads.
 
Ahrweiler
 
Imagine that, the only walled town with four gates left standing in Germany !!! We walked in, and in the centre was a church and some markets. It was quite quaint. Whilst walking, the Jewdar went off. Just down the road was a Synagogue. It was locked up, so we moved on. We checked out all four gates whilst following the walls, it was pretty nice. It didn't take long to see it all, so we moved on
 
Brühl
 
Whilst Lucy was reading the book, she discovered that there were two castles in Bruhl, which was on the way to Köln.  Once there, we drove around in circles until we found a carpark that would fit our minibus !!! We went looking for the first castle, but found another market. As I was driving, there was no gluhwein still for me, so we went looking. A couple minutes later, we found it. It looked like a smaller version of the one in Chiemsee, but when we went to the ticket office, we found out that both castles were closed during December and January !!!
 
Köln
 
We first came here in 2003 and we were both looking forward to this place. We walked around and fuck me it was crowded. We found the champignons man and they went down a treat. I was looking for the Kartofellen mit Knoblauch sauce man, but he didn't appear to be around, so I consoled myself with a couple of gluhweins !!! We went to the melted cheese on bread man before we hit the ice rink. Lucy didn't have her skates, so we both hired some and went on. No edges, it was hard. I skated like I had a fork up my ass !!! At the end, we had some more gluhweins before bed
 
The next morning, in our family truckster, we headed off to a town that we had ridden through in 96. We thought it was a shithole then, so we went back to be sure !!!
 
Worms
 
When we came through here before, it was full of Seppoes as they were stationed here. There was a Dom but not much more. The Dom looked good on the outside, a bit plain on the inside, but some nice stained glass windows. Not far away, was the Jewish quarter, so we had a look at the Synagogue. The Nazis had burnt down the one from 1034, and a new one had risen. There was also a bit of old wall and one town gate. On the otherside of town, was the oldest, or so the book says, Jewish cemetery in Europe. There were some very old headstones, I was surprised that this place had survived Nazism.  I walked around, taking it in. It was interesting, actually it was the best thing to see in what really was a dull place !!!
 
Heidelberg
 
Now the book states that when you go to Heidelberg, everyone else will. All I remember from ten years ago was the camper struggling through the streets and the castle. And this time, there was traffic everywhere !!! We parked and hit the pedestrianised streets. We followed everybody up to the markets which were going off. Similar to everywhere else, but twice as crowded. We found one guy selling champignons, so we bought some. They loaded with knoblau, which made them twice as good !!! We didn't have time to go back to the castle, so we just walked around the various markets taking it in.
 
We had another drive to get back to the airport, but as we had a spare half hour, we decided to visit one more place
 
Bernkastel
 
On the banks of the Mosel stands this village. We arrived a little to late for the Weinachts Markt but it was nice walking around having the laneways to ourselves. The majority of the buildings were half-timbered ones, it was pretty nice. As we walked around, we spoke about coming back in the daytime, but we could see it would be a place that would be teeming with tourists, so we enjoyed the shortness of the serenity that we had.
 
And then it was time to go
 
And Finally
 
I will be the first to admit that I've never be Christmasy, but Weinachts Markts in Germany could turn me if I lived there, but until then, I will remain bah humbug !!!

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001 The Family Truckster, Hahn 001 The Family Truckster, Hahn 002 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 002 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 003 Statue, Ahrweiler 003 Statue, Ahrweiler 004 Plaque, Ahrweiler 004 Plaque, Ahrweiler
005 Painted House, Ahrweiler 005 Painted House, Ahrweiler 006 Painted House, Ahrweiler 006 Painted House, Ahrweiler 007 Church, Ahrweiler 007 Church, Ahrweiler 008 Church Ahrweiler 008 Church Ahrweiler
009 Synagogue Plaque, Ahrweiler 009 Synagogue Plaque, Ahrweiler 010 Synagogue, Ahrweiler 010 Synagogue, Ahrweiler 011 Synagogue Flag, Ahrweiler 011 Synagogue Flag, Ahrweiler 012 Shop, Ahrweiler 012 Shop, Ahrweiler
013 Houses, Ahrweiler 013 Houses, Ahrweiler 014 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 014 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 015 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 015 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 016 Gate and Wall, Ahrweiler 016 Gate and Wall, Ahrweiler
017 House, Ahrweiler 017 House, Ahrweiler 018 Broken Tower, Ahrweiler 018 Broken Tower, Ahrweiler 019 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 019 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 020 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 020 Town Gate, Ahrweiler
021 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 021 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 022 Town Wall, Ahrweiler 022 Town Wall, Ahrweiler 023 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 023 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 024 Idol, Ahrweiler 024 Idol, Ahrweiler
025 Painted House, Ahrweiler 025 Painted House, Ahrweiler 026 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 026 Town Gate, Ahrweiler 027 Palace, Bruhl 027 Palace, Bruhl 028 Palace, Bruhl 028 Palace, Bruhl
029 Lucy in Koln 029 Lucy in Koln 030 Dom, Koln 030 Dom, Koln 031 Dom, Koln 031 Dom, Koln 032 Lucy on the Ice, Koln 032 Lucy on the Ice, Koln
033 Lucy Skating, Koln 033 Lucy Skating, Koln 034 David Skating, Koln 034 David Skating, Koln 035 David Eating Champignons, Koln 035 David Eating Champignons, Koln 036 Champignons, Koln 036 Champignons, Koln
037 Melted Cheese Bread, Koln 037 Melted Cheese Bread, Koln 038 Erbsensuppe, Koln 038 Erbsensuppe, Koln 039 David and Lucy Driving to Worms 039 David and Lucy Driving to Worms 040 Idol, Worms 040 Idol, Worms
041 Tower, Worms 041 Tower, Worms 042 Dom, Worms 042 Dom, Worms 043 Statue, Worms 043 Statue, Worms 044 Sarcophagus, Worms 044 Sarcophagus, Worms
045 Stained Glass Window, Worms 045 Stained Glass Window, Worms 046 Stained Glass Window, Worms 046 Stained Glass Window, Worms 047 Stained Glass Window, Worms 047 Stained Glass Window, Worms 048 Dom, Worms 048 Dom, Worms
049 Mural, Worms 049 Mural, Worms 050 Synagogue, Worms 050 Synagogue, Worms 051 Hebrew Script, Worms 051 Hebrew Script, Worms 052 Synagogue Sign, Worms 052 Synagogue Sign, Worms
053 Sculpture, Worms 053 Sculpture, Worms 054 Jewish Sign, Worms 054 Jewish Sign, Worms 055 Street Sign, Worms 055 Street Sign, Worms 056 Gate, Worms 056 Gate, Worms
057 Hebrew Script, Worms 057 Hebrew Script, Worms 058 Headstone, Worms 058 Headstone, Worms 059 Gravestone, Worms 059 Gravestone, Worms 060 Two Hands, Worms 060 Two Hands, Worms
061 Two Graves, Worms 061 Two Graves, Worms 062 Jewish Graveyard, Worms 062 Jewish Graveyard, Worms 063 Jewish Graveyard, Worms 063 Jewish Graveyard, Worms 064 Bridge, Heidelberg 064 Bridge, Heidelberg
065 Monkey Sculpture, Heidelberg 065 Monkey Sculpture, Heidelberg 066 Statue, Heidelberg 066 Statue, Heidelberg 067 Lucy and the Town Gate, Heidelberg 067 Lucy and the Town Gate, Heidelberg 068 Castle, Heidelberg 068 Castle, Heidelberg
069 Lucy and the Monkey Sculpture, Heidelberg 069 Lucy and the Monkey Sculpture, Heidelberg 070 Town Gate, Heidelberg 070 Town Gate, Heidelberg 071 Sculpture, Heidelberg 071 Sculpture, Heidelberg 072 Christmas Lights, Heidelberg 072 Christmas Lights, Heidelberg
073 Che, Heidelberg 073 Che, Heidelberg 074 Lentil and Sausage Soup, Heidelberg 074 Lentil and Sausage Soup, Heidelberg 075 Dessert, Heidelberg 075 Dessert, Heidelberg 076 Full Moon, Bernkastel 076 Full Moon, Bernkastel
077 Painted Sign, Bernkastel 077 Painted Sign, Bernkastel 078 Building, Bernkastel 078 Building, Bernkastel 079 Bernkastel 079 Bernkastel 080 House, Bernkastel 080 House, Bernkastel
081 Building, Bernkastel 081 Building, Bernkastel 082 Building, Bernkastel 082 Building, Bernkastel 083 Building, Bernkastel 083 Building, Bernkastel 084 Buildings, Bernkastel 084 Buildings, Bernkastel
085 Door, Bernkastel 085 Door, Bernkastel 086 Building, Bernkastel 086 Building, Bernkastel 087 Building, Bernkastel 087 Building, Bernkastel
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