Pig Fest 2016

Today we went to a local event called Säubrennerkirmes also known as pig fest. When we first got there we watched the parade which is suppose to show the history of why there is a pig fest in Wittlich. The story is that a guard used a carrot to keep a gate closed one night and a pig came and ate it and attackers entered so they gathered up all the pigs and roasted them.

Bringing the pigs to be roasted

the little pigs with their carrots

After the parade we met up with a friend of ours and we got something to eat. The pigs weren't done being roasted yet so we settled of a cheese stuffed bratwurst wrapped in bacon. After we ate we went to the area of the festival with the rides.

This festival had the most rides i've seen at a festival here. They had bumper cars, ferris wheel, and a few kids rides among others. We spent a bit of time at the rides because our friend has an almost 2 year old. After the rides we walked around for a little bit and looked at the stands. They were selling mostly the same stuff as usual, food, candy, wooden toys among other things. 

On our way back to the car we saw them roasting the pigs. It was a fun event that was only about 20 minutes from where we live. Im glad we went this year but I wish we had made it to it last year since this is our last summer in Germany so we won't be able to go back next year. 

Sankt Wendeler Ostermarkt 2016

Today we went back to our favorite Easter Market in Sankt Wendel. Last year we went on a Sunday and it wasn't as crowded but today it was packed. Our usual parking area was full so we had to find another parking garage which wasn't to difficult but there was a bit of traffic leading up to it.

After parking we made our way to where the market was and looked around at a few stands. We then decided to get some lunch since it was after 12. Bill and I each got a käsegriller which is a sausage that has cheese inside of it. It is one of our favorites. 

After lunch we walked around to see what each stand had to offer. They had stands selling cheese, baked goods, and food. Stands that were selling Easter and spring decor and then some stands were still selling knit hats and gloves since its still pretty cold here in Germany and we got some snow last week. The one thing I needed to buy was another painted egg because unfortunately the one I bought at the market last year broke. Thankfully I found the stand I bought my egg from last year and was able to buy a new one.

Im sure everyone remembers the infamous Easter Dragon. He was out and about with his friend the Easter Lion. Bill and I both love the markets that are put on in Sankt Wendel thats why we have been to the Easter market twice and we will be returning to the Christmas market in December. Our favorite part and the main reason we keep going back is for the chimney cakes. Chimney cakes are similar to fried dough but they are cooked over coals on a metal rod. They are absolutely delicious. We looked in the area that the chimney cakes had been in last year and they weren't there. We made it our mission to find where they moved them. We had just about gave up after walking the entire market and were about to start heading to the car when I spotted the chimney cake stand. So Bill and I each got a cinnamon and sugar chimney cake. After we ate the cakes we made our way to the car. We spent about an hour and a half at the market and we had a great time. Sankt Wendel will definitely be a place we will miss when we leave Germany.

Ice Star Wars Liege, Belgium 2016

Bill and I went to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens earlier this week so we rounded out our weekend with going to Liege, Belgium to see the Star Wars ice sculptures. Every year in Liege they do Disney ice sculptures and this year was Star Wars. Bill is a big Star Wars fan so I knew this was something we had to see. Liege is about an hour and a half from where we live. We got to Liege about 1:45pm. From the website it seemed like parking was an easy thing to find. Well the first address I had for parking led us to a parking garage that you had to have a pass to get into and then the second just led us to the end of a round about.

We ended up finding parking on the side of the road and so we just went with it. Of course at this point I had no idea where to go because according to the website the parking garages were right next to the ice sculptures and I didn't have the gps address to look it up on our gps. So we decided to walk towards where the first garage was suppose to be. Now this wouldn't have been an issue except for the fact that it was pouring rain out and we didn't have an umbrella. I knew the building was right next to the train station so we ended up finding that. We went into the train station first to use the restroom since its hard to find a public restroom in Europe. After that we walked across to the ice sculpture building. We're soaking wet and about to enter a building that is 20ºf. We stood under the pavilion for a bit to dry out as much as we could before going in.

Almost as soon as we got into the exhibit our hair froze solid. The detail in the sculptures was amazing and actually looked like the characters from the films.

Inside the exhibit they had a ice slide that you could go down and also a bar where they were serving alcohol. Only in Europe when your inside a freezer do you drink to keep warm.

We were inside for about 30 minutes and we had seen it all and we were both really cold so we decided to head out.

Once you leave the ice sculpture room they have a heated sitting area where you can buy snacks and drinks. Bill and I each got a waffle because you can't go to Belgium and not get a waffle. After we ate and warmed up a bit we made our way back to the car. The rain had slowed down a bit so it wasn't as bad of a walk as it had been coming down. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to get out of the house again after the break we took after all the Christmas markets we did in November and December.

Marché de Noël in Metz, France 2015

Today we went to Metz, France for the Christmas market there. When we went to Paris we took the train from Metz so we had been there before but we hadn't checked out the city. Metz is about and hour and a half from where we live so it made for a quick day trip to see a Christmas market in another country besides Germany. We got there around 11:30am and we had a bit of a walk from our car to the first section of the market but it wasn't bad. The market was spread out over 8 different sections and we made it to 6 of them because we couldn't find the others and being in another country we didn't have cell data to look it up.

Neither Bill or I speak French but I know enough to get me through a conversation. Bill doesn't feel as comfortable with his pronunciation so I do most of the talking when we are in a French speaking country. It seemed like a lot of the people in Metz don't speak english or they don't know it very well because we ended up having to do hand signals with most people we tried to communicate with. The first section of the market that we found had an ice skating rink and a building filled with disney ice sculptures. The ice sculpture exhibit wasn't free and we are going to one in Belgium next week so we decided to skip it. Around the city had maps of the market and showed where you were on the map but it didn't show any directional markers so we ended up going in the wrong direction a few times.

We finally made it to the next section of the market where they had food and wine stands and people selling the usual Christmas market items. Since being in Europe Bill has found a love for macarons. We have had them in Paris and in Brussels so when Bill saw a stand selling macarons he jumped on the opportunity to get some. 

The next section of the market was in front of the Metz Cathedral a historic Roman Catholic cathedral that was built in 1220. This section had a huge ferris wheel that Bill tried to convince me to go on but I'm afraid of heights. after looking around this section we were starting to get hungry so we went to the next area which was all food stands to see what they had. We couldn't read the signs so we mostly looked at what others were eating and none of it looked like it was up our alley. So we decided to go to the McDonalds we saw while walking to part of the market. With how expensive the street food was and not knowing if we were going to like it this was our best bet.

After lunch we made our way to the rest of the market. We were walking down this road and it didn't seem like we were going to find the market but according to the map we were going the right way so we kept on walking and eventually in the distance we saw the carousel. This was the largest section of the market that we saw and it had many food and wine stands and vendors selling items. Up to this point we hadn't seen anyone with a glühwein mug and it seemed like none of the stands were selling them. On our second walk around the area I saw a stand that had the mugs. The guy didn't speak any english but we managed to get the mug we wanted and Bill got some glühwein. This glühwein had chunks of fruit in it and Bill said it was really good.

While Bill drank his glühwein we made our way back up the markets to the first one we saw. We did one last lap around to make sure we saw all that we could and then we headed for the car. surprisingly we had no trouble finding our way back to the car. We ended up being there about 3 hours. It takes us longer at the markets that are spread out around a city because your doing a lot of walking between them. It was a nice quick trip to see how another country celebrates the holiday season.

Cochem and Koblenz Weihnachtsmarkt 2015

We started off our day by going to the Cochem Christmas market. We've been to Cochem before to see the castle there. So since we have already been there we knew exactly where to park. After parking we walked over to where the market was. We were not impressed by it at all. It was so small and definitely not worth the hour we drove to see it. We got there around 11:30 so we grabbed a käsewurst which is a bratwurst with cheese inside for lunch. After we ate I grabbed a kinderpunsch so I could get my Cochem Christmas market collectable mug. We walked around hoping that the market was bigger and we were just missing the rest of it but after an hour we hadn't found anything so we decided to head to another market that wasn't to far away from Cochem so our day wasn't a waste.

One of the only pictures I took in Cochem since the market was so small

Koblenz was about a 45 minute drive from Cochem. Koblenz is a bigger city but we had no trouble finding a parking garage with available parking. We had about a 10 minute walk from the car to the first part of the market. The market was spread out over about 6 different sections of the city.

I had to make sure I got my kinderpunsch at the Koblenz market as well so I could get my mug. It was definitely not the weather to need a hot beverage. It was a beautiful 55 degrees today in Germany.

We walked around each section of the market they had the usual items for sale. Food, wine, cheese, winter gear and Christmas decor.

They sell mostly the same items at each market but the atmosphere and extras are different. The market in Kobelnz had an ice skating rink and rides for little kids.

We saw each section of the market and each section was slightly different but some stands were selling the same items. Bill got some chocolate that is in the shape of power tools. We got similar chocolate when we were in Belgium. Right next to part of the market was a huge mall so before we left the market we went in and did a little window shopping. It was so packed considering its less then a week till Christmas. We ended up spending 2 and a half hours at the market which is a really long time for us. Some of that had to do with having to walk to each section of the market. I was glad we were able to salvage our day by going to a different market but it made for a long day trip.

Luxembourg Christmas market 2015

Today we went to our first Christmas market outside of Germany. Luxembourg City, Luxembourg is about an hour from where we live. We got to Lux with no problem and I had directions to a parking garage in our GPS. We turned down the road for the parking garage and Bill saw signs for other garages so he turned instead of going straight into the garage I had listed. We then found a parking lot next to what seemed like a circus so we pulled in the lot and drove around but couldn't find an open space so we left the lot and we decided to drive back to the original garage. By the time we drove back to the garage there was no more parking left so I directed us to another garage that I had an address for. This garage also was full. So 45 minutes later we finally found a garage with parking that was a 30 minute walk to the market, but after driving an hour to Lux and another 45 minute to find parking we weren't going to attempt to find anything closer. We followed signs that lead us to the city center which is where the market was.

The first thing we did when we got to the market was find a bathroom and then get something to eat. It was around 1:30 when we finally got to the market so we were starving. We each got a mettwurst for lunch which was so type of sausage. We have never had a bad sausage in Europe and this one was as delicious as all the others.

After we ate we walked around to check out the market. I had read that it spread across 4 sections. We found two areas that were the standard Christmas market with all the stands selling items and food then another smaller areas that had a few rides and a couple stands. The last area we saw was an ice skating rink. Im not sure if these were the four areas but it is all we saw.

One of the main areas had a huge ferris wheel all light up. Im sure it would have been beautiful in the dark. We usually get glühwein when at Christmas markets because I like to collect the mugs they come in. Each market has a different mug some markets have multiple mugs. Here they sold the mugs without having to buy glühwein so we just did that.

We got their version of a chimney cake. It wasn't hot like the one in Sankt Wendel but this one was covered in chocolate. We shared the cake instead of each getting one since we had just eaten lunch. We walked around the market for about an hour and a half. It was a drizzly day in Luxembourg and we still had a 30 minute walk back to the car so we decided to head out. After finally getting to the market we enjoyed it but it wasn't the best market we have been to so far.

Sankt Wendel Weihnachtsmarkt 2015

Today we went to the Sankt Wendel Christmas market. We had previously gone to the Easter market in Sankt Wendel and enjoyed it and had heard the Christmas market was even better so we had to check it out.

Our first stop when we arrived was to find a bathroom since the market was about an hour from our house. After the bathroom we got lunch since we arrived at the market just after 12. Bill and I each got a cheese stuffed bratwurst which was absolutely delicious. We then started walking around the market taking a look at all the stands had to offer.

We then came upon the best stand of all where they sell Chimney cakes which is a dough that is cooked on a metal rod or hot coals until the outside is crispy and the inside is soft. We got our in cinnamon and sugar. We had these when we went to the Easter market and it was Bill's favorite.

 While we ate our chimney cakes we walked around the market. At the end of one of the streets the market was on was a little gated area you could go into and it just happened to be a Gnome village. Inside they had scenes set up of little gnomes in their houses and at the grocery store and such. It was kind of odd but also interesting at the same time. Some other attractions they had was Santa's sleigh with live reindeer.

 At the Easter market they had the famous Easter dragon so of course at the Christmas market they had to have the Christmas sheep.

Bill and I each got Kinderglühwein which is a children's warm punch. It is similar to glühwein but it is non-alcoholic. I like to collect the glühwein mugs from each Christmas market we go to. It took us about an hour to walk around the main area of the Chritmas market where they had stands selling food, winter wear and Christmas decor. I had heard they had a Medieval section to the market as well but none of what we looked at seemed medieval. I managed to find the sign that lead to the medieval area.

The medieval area had a lot of interesting things. They had a sledding hill for children on one side. The medieval area everyone was dressed up and they had performers but we didn't know what they were saying since it was in German. They had stands selling handcrafted items like wooden bowls and pottery and stands selling items you would find back in the medieval times. They had the three wise men and camels as well. This area of the market was smaller and took us about half an hour to walk through.

This was our favorite market so far. We spent just about two hours there which is a long time for us to be at a Christmas market. It had a lot to offer and we enjoyed the food a lot. We are hoping to go back to the Easter market and Christmas market next year.