We added three new Christmas markets to our growing list during Kaylee’s visit! Kaylee arrived Wednesday afternoon, ready for a week of adventures.
While waiting for Jeff to finish work, Kaylee and I wandered through the Düsseldorf Christmas markets, munching on hot candied almonds, and introducing Kaylee to the magic of the markets. Jeff joined our adventures by the giant Ferris wheel, and then we set off for a delicious dinner at our favorite sushi restaurant.
On Thursday, Kaylee and I made our way to Cologne. We took a few minutes to soak in the initial shock of the Cologne cathedral as we stepped out of the train station and into the square. We explored the cathedral and followed that with a trip to the locks bridge. Next up, we set off for the Christmas markets. We wandered through the Cathedral market and stopped for Kaylee’s first currywurst. We made our way through the city gate and over to the Angels market, where we sampled the reibekuchen specialty. As darkness approached, we made our way back to Altstadt and the adorable gnome market. We collected another Christmas market gnome mug and enjoyed a cup of gluhwein and kinderpunsch as well as a delicious smoked salmon sandwich.
We spent a chilly Friday wandering through the adorable town of Münster and the recommended markets by one of Jeff’s coworkers. We snacked on true mixed candied nuts (consisting of a variety of nuts ranging in cherry, coffee, cinnamon, and mystery flavor... it was like eating Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans!). We tried the Schokokuss (marshmallow-like filling covered with chocolate) and enjoyed a delicious burger for lunch. We caught our train back to Düsseldorf, and met Jeff at the house then took off to watch our first German hockey game. Go DEG!
We weren’t sure what to expect at the hockey arena, but we definitely didn’t anticipate the fact that during the team’s introduction, all the fans in the stadium would pull out a sparkler, light it, and wave it in the air... that’s one way to celebrate your team! #firehazard?
We listened to the cheers of the crowd and did our best to translate the announcements (they were all in German). We stood when the fans around us stood and waved our hats in the air when Düsseldorf scored. We watched as the arena emptied out when the periods ended (#smokebreak) and were surprised that there was no entertainment or silly games. We had a blast cheering on the local team, and we're even more pleased that they ended the game with a win!
We caught an early train to Amsterdam on Saturday morning, took the shuttle to our hotel to drop off our bags, and then set off to tour the city. We stopped for lunch at Pancakes Amsterdam and sampled some incredible Dutch (and American) pancakes (we highly recommended this restaurant!). We wandered through the unique and beautiful streets of Amsterdam, soaking in the whole experience. We stopped for a snack at Restaurant Prins van Oranje, recommended by a local as an excellent place to authentic Dutch cuisine, and giving our feet a much-needed rest.
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| A massive hanging Christmas tree! Whaaat?? |
We continued our city tour, checking out the small Christmas market and Rembrandt Monument in the Rembrandtplein and warmed up with hot tea and coffee while waiting for our canal tour.
At seven o’clock sharp, we boarded our boat and took off to enjoy the Amsterdam Light Festival. We glided through the canals, admiring the illuminated art in the water. Some of the art was created to pass along a message about the environment, such as cars and street signs sinking in a flood and another display with lines in the water acting as an allusion of ice cracking on the surface, a reference to Amsterdam’s past when the canals would freeze over during the winter. As we passed by the zoo, we saw silhouettes displayed on the attic wall of one building and learned that this was in memory of the Jews who hid in the animal exhibits to escape the Nazi's. Other displays were more for enjoyment including colorful butterflies that changed patterns given the flow of water and illuminated laundry hanging on a clothes line.
We followed the boat tour with dinner at a chipotle-like restaurant (a little taste of home!) where Jeff likely burned off some of his taste buds eating an insanely spicy burrito (i.e., 100,000 on the Scoville scale). We’re not in Germany anymore Toto! Spicy actually means spicy in the Netherlands! We continued our adventure back to the train station and admired the "living museum" that is Amsterdam. You never know what you might see!
We spent Sunday eating our way through Amsterdam while wandering through the streets and enjoying the change in weather (we were prepared for rain both days and ended up with clear skies and some wind, so much better than we expected!). We dropped our bags off at the library lockers and made our way to a tasty little gluten-free bakery where we dined on coffee and cake for breakfast. We followed that up with more walking around the city and a stop for sweet potato fries for the ladies and a slice of pizza for Jeff. Mmm!
We strolled through the city, up and down the canals, keeping an eye out for the unique houses (there are so many of them!) and gevelstenen (stone tablets, carved and colorfully painted) that were used during the Middle Ages to tell others who lived at that house since many people could not read at that time. We stopped to wave at the passing boats, giggling to ourselves while making those on the tour smile as well.
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| Ultimate photo-bomb! |
We took a break for lunch and enjoyed some scrumptious bagel sandwiches and then set off for the library to pick up our bags. Amsterdam has a lot of cool things, but the library is one of our favorites! Not only do they have small lockers where we stored our bags for free, but they also have a super cool lookout that you can access for free, a cafe with a view, so many books, and the atmosphere is just amazing! Since we had some time to kill before our train, we found an open table, pulled out our deck of cards, and played one of the best games of “ultimate war”! I’m pretty sure we got some good looks as we were clearly having fun oohing and aahing over the game.
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| A parking garage for bikes! |
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| #lovers |
As we made our way to the train station, we took an unplanned detour… While we were walking, Jeff saw a lady walk by who was carrying a Tony’s chocolate bag... Tony’s is a Netherlands specialty and our favorite chocolate over here! So, naturally, we had to take a detour to check out the store. Thankfully it was close by! White chocolate, carmel sea salt, and pretzel toffee, yes please!
On Monday, Kaylee and I took the train to Strasbourg, France, to visit one of the oldest Christmas markets in the world (the first markets were held in 1570) and a city that feels as if it was straight from a Hallmark Christmas movie! It was a bit of an adventure getting there, requiring four different trains, but thankfully we didn’t have any delays or problems!
We arrived in Strasbourg with plenty of time to wander the city and check out the markets. We started our adventure by admiring the giant Christmas tree in the town square, followed by a visit to the beautiful Cathedral Notre Dame de Strasbourg. We continued to roam through the town, stopping for a picture of the teddybear garland, decorated doorways, and our first French glühwein. We strolled through the markets well into the evening and stopped for a bowl of soup on our way back to the hotel.
We finally found a little time to relax on Tuesday morning. We ate a crepe brunch at an underground restaurant with a cave-like atmosphere and then took off to enjoy the blue skies and beautiful city. We wandered through Petite France and the old medieval neighborhood, admired the city towers, and found a few more Christmas markets to admire. We discovered the "Alternative Christmas," which included recycled and fair-trade goods, an igloo, and restored shipping containers made into market stalls.
As darkness approached, we picked up our bags from the hotel and set off for the train station. We managed to catch 4 out of our 5 trains and only had to wait on a bench in the chilly winter air working on a crossword puzzle once! We finally arrived back home at 2am after a rainy walk through the park... it wasn’t the most desirable ending to our trip, but it was totally worth it to visit the Capital of Christmas!
We enjoyed a much-deserved day of relaxing on Wednesday and Kaylee’s last day in Düsseldorf. We strolled through the city one last time, embracing the rain while admiring the black swans and green parakeets in the park. We found some tasty treats at the gluten-free bakery, watched the dancing Christmas tee at the mall, and continued on for one last look at the Christmas markets and a quick stop at Primark.
We spent the afternoon cozied up indoors watching Christmas movies and several episodes of Friends. We tested our culinary skills making fancy sandwiches for lunch and homemade pizza for dinner while reminiscing about our incredible adventures throughout Europe! #tripofalifetime
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