Well after a three week stint back Stateside, I am getting settled back into German life. I was really expecting to be pining for all of the American conveniences right now, but the truth is I am really happy to be back. Of course I will always miss being in close proximity to family and friends. And I will never stop missing takeout food. (I still haven't learned to enjoy cooking, clearly). We do have one place in our town that we can walk to that will do takeout pizza, but it has proved impossible to call ahead and order, thus defeating the purpose of takeout altogether. We ordered a variety of things the last time we tried to call them, to include one Hawaiian pizza, and I painstakingly completed my order with an undeniably terrible mixture of English/German/Italian. It went a little something like this: "Sprechen sie English? No? Ok, möchte ein Hawaiian pizza, und insalata, und lasagna. Danke shön. Ciao!" I thought I did well enough though. I mean, how do you mess up the words lasagna and pizza, right? Well, apparently you can really mess up the word "Hawaiian" because Thomas came back with an onion pizza. It was quite literally a cheese pizza that was absolutely smothered in nothing but white onions. So the takeout thing hasn't really been working for us, but we do enjoy our biweekly bakery deliveries from our friend who works at the local bakery. Every Wednesday and Friday she pulls her truck up to our house and we get to pick from the most delicious selection of pastries, brötchen, and fresh loaves of bread. We haven't been skimping on our carbs here, that's for sure.

So even though I spent Christmas and New Years back on the other side of the world, I still felt I was able to revel in the spirit of Christmas in Europe, which involved me visiting as many Christmas markets as possible. I didn't really know anything about these "Christmas markets" until we moved here, and everyone we met really talked them up during the months leading up to December, so I made it my mission to visit as many of these markets as I could manage before heading back Stateside. The first one I went to was actually located inside of a cave, in the town of Valkenburg, Netherlands. Normally these caves are a tourist attraction, offering some type of informational tour that I have never experienced, but during Christmas the rocky tunnels are brightened with Christmas lights and lined with vendors.

This definitely was not a traditional Christmas market experience, but it was worth experiencing once. Though due to the fact that there was an entrance fee and not a very large selection of vendors, I feel confident I can check this off my list and not return next year. However, I still do love visiting this town for its charming streets and shops. The hilltop castle with panoramic views is also a nice little plus. (The pictures below are ones I actually took back in June on a previous trip here).

The castle itself has an interesting story behind it. Basically, they burned their own castle down to prevent it from being taken over by the French in 1672, and this is what remains today.

Still beautiful though, right? I digress. Back to Christmas markets. The next one we hit up was in Aachen, which is the westernmost city in Germany. Though I had never heard of this city before we moved here, and it is much less frequented by tourists than other larger German cities, it still has quite a rich history to it. Aachen was first inhabited by the Celts, then the Romans converted it into a spa resort town, and it eventually became an integral part of the Holy Roman Empire. The cathedral in the picture below was commissioned by Charlemagne and built in 796 AD. Charlemagne spent so much time in this city during his reign as Holy Roman Emperor that when he died his remains were placed in that cathedral and can still be seen today. (Adding that sight to my to-do list next time I am here).

But this trip was strictly business. No time for cathedrals. There is a Christmas market going on!

Yes, it was finally Glühwein time. Almost everyone who had mentioned the Christmas markets to me also raved about this German wintery adult beverage. Glühwein is Germany's version of mulled wine, and it is really is everywhere at these markets. We couldn't walk more than 50 feet without stumbling upon yet another place selling this stuff, complete with hoards of people gathered around tables or huddling in small circles, all with mugs of hot wine in hand. So of course we had to finally give it a try. I opted for the German version of eggnog though, which was even more delicious in my opinion. I couldn't get over the fact that the glühwein just tasted like hot sangria to me, and I'd rather have my sangria on ice by the ocean, thank you very much. (And I'm counting down the days to summer now.)

Now that's a giant gingerbread man. The whole time we were in Aachen, I kept seeing signs for something called "printen" next to what looked like some type of candy. I later learned that printen is a German gingerbread pastry that actually originated in Aachen. (And it is really good, if you're into gingerbread).

Our third and final Christmas market stop was in Cologne. This was the biggest and the best market in my opinion. There were tons of cool antique vendors, and there was a massive variety of delicious food. I even tried roasted chestnuts for the first time here!

The crowds thickened substantially by nightfall, but it was worth fighting the crowds for this shot.

So that was Christmastime in Europe for us. Stay tuned to see what markets we check off of our list next year. We have one more winter adventure trip planned for this week. After that, bring on the spring. I'm ready for warm, sunny days and sidewalk cafes!