Maybe Santa Wasn't Watching

Considering the Christmas season now starts about the time Halloween rolls around, you would think that I have had time to get ready for it, wouldn't you? This point was hit home yesterday when I was talking to a person on the treadmill next to me at the gym.  She innocently asked if I was finished getting ready for Christmas.  Then she said she was finished in October.   In the moment I sort of hated her.  

It's not that I haven't been in a flurry of activity for most of November and December but I still have a few things to accomplish.  This is the part where I could give you lame excuses about my continued absences of posting to TAOBC.   I will spare you the long version and just say that the halls have been decked and the stockings have been hung at this point.  It pretty much resembles an explosion of Christmas around here in anticipation of the big day. All but a few gifts are ready and waiting.  There will be a mad dash for gift cards for the couple of people that I just can't think of ANYTHING to get them.  NOTHING IS COMING TO MIND! For all of you that are judging me harshly, I can live with your scorn. 

Aside from my struggles with buying the "perfect" gift, there have been a couple other setbacks.  Is anyone else on the verge of a diabetic coma without the component of actually being diabetic?  I have been baking up a storm of goodies and have pretty much eaten my weight in English toffee.  This is not a good thing.  Luckily for everyone involved, family members are due to start arriving tomorrow so I will have to start sharing.

 Despite some of the problems, I have made strides this year as far as shopping goes.  I have been out and about in the shopping centers and have actually (for the most part) enjoyed it.  You might recall that in years past my inner Crabby Pants didn't find the crowds to be one of the great joys of my life.

You long time readers might remember a poem from a couple of years ago that sums up my joy of mall shopping during the holidays. (Isn't nostalgia heartwarming?)

If you are unable to read the print, you should be able to enlarge it by clicking on it.

AND another nice thing that I have noticed. Could it be that  this year more people are shopping on line?   At least in our area,  the traffic is just  "medium" crazy not "over the top" crazy. While there is certainly more traffic than usual the closest I have come to a problem is that I about killed Santa Claus.  Yes, Santa ran a four way stop in front of me yesterday.   He looked to be the real one so I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he has a lot on his mind.  The fact that he is driving a little smart car made me kind of feel sorry for him.  He looked fairly jolly given the fact he looked "stuffed" into the vehicle. Still...I would hate to have to been the responsible party for running over Santa 4 days before Christmas.  I suspect that would really put me on the naughty list.

Besides...I really have to try to be nice to Santa. Leaving him in a smooshed smart car probably isn't the most expedient way to get the things I have asked for this year.  (Coordination, increased optimism and the ability to eat non-stop without ever gaining weight are a few of my requests.)   I am working very hard to be a more positive person in 2017.

Hope you all are getting close to being ready for whatever festivities you are planning for. OR were you ready in October? 

That Time of Year

Has it really been 3 weeks since I last posted?  Shame on me.   All I can say for myself is that it is "that time of year".

You know the time of which I speak.  In theory it seems that everything should be slowing down a bit as the weather gets colder and the days get shorter.  Of course, that is not reality.  The reality is that while the days may, indeed, be getting shorter as in "less daylight" but the demands on our time seem to remain ever vigilant.   PLUS...holiday preparation rears it's demanding little head, nagging us to be strategically planning for Thanksgiving/Christmas/Hanuka/Kwanzaa and/or whatever holidays you have going for you.

Currently I am sporting a bit of a cynical attitude.  ( I know...shocking isn't it?) I am feeling a bit saddened that Thanksgiving got over shadowed by Christmas decorations and the anticipation of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.  While this has been going on for several years, it appeared to me that Black Friday is now usurping the whole meaning of Thanksgiving and hogging the month with weeks and weeks of  PRE-Black Friday deals and steals.

With all that being said, I am clearly in the minority here with my negativity on the subject.  A early analysis of the numbers tells us that 154 million people were out shopping over the weekend.  The fact that since all the pre-black Friday advertising began (supposedly) people have spent around 36 Billion (yea...billion with a B) dollars.   

I have to think that perhaps I am not alone in my inner conflicts.  It seems to me that the whole country talks about the season of love and thankfulness in the same breath as they are spending hours scrutinizing the Internet and paper ads looking for the big bargains that they are hoping to get on more STUFF.

Not to be a total party-pooper, I typically find my holiday spirit in holiday baking, Christmas music, and all the pretty holiday decorations. OH and I do love a lot of the Hallmark Christmas movies.  Sure you can say they are sappy, but I think they are sweet.  I am prepared to immerse myself into holiday movies to remind me that everything about the holidays is about love and joy and has the added bonus of a happy ending.  Not reality you say???

Reality is a thing of the past according to the rise of virtual reality head gear.  I was reading an article about the newest techy devices on the market to stream VR programming.  Let me be the first to say that I would totally embrace a virtual world where children are awestruck by the lights and sounds of the holidays.  I suspect though that just as with many other things, young children are so inundated with the commercialism of Christmas that they no longer even notice how special the decorations are let alone the meaning of it all. The added component of decorations coming out in August (or is it now July?) doesn't help foster awe.

I know this picture is grainy as it is 60 plus years old but this is a picture taken in Kankakee, Illinois.  It was, in fact, taken nearly a year prior to my birth but Schuyler Avenue remained pretty much the same through my childhood.   I LOVED going Christmas shopping and seeing all the Christmas lights.  Sadly, the wreaths that were put on every light pole are not terribly pretty in a black and white photo but to my little child eyes they were magical. It was looking not so differently 17 years later when I got my engagement ring at Edward's Jewelry...also at Christmas time. 

Anyway as I was saying...where is the magic?  If we  now require head gear to live in alternate, virtual reality shouldn't THAT be magical and wonderful???

In the same paper that was talking about the choices we now have for virtual reality head gear there was a separate article about  a virtual reality program that allows you to actually feel what it is like to die in a traffic accident.  Yeah, how much fun is that?  I can hardly wait to ask Santa for some of that escapism....well that is if I can't find it online in a POST Black Friday give away. 

The placement of Black Friday being the day after Thanksgiving seems questionable.

Hope you all had a lovely Thanksgiving and have plenty to be grateful for. 

But It Was a Bargain

I was recently watching the Today Show when they their "financial expert" Jean Chatzky told the viewers "If you wouldn't buy something at full price, you shouldn't buy it just because it's on sale." What???? Has this woman lost her mind???

While I have to say...even before she started talking that particular bit of nonsense, I didn't have a great deal of confidence in her ability to secure my financial future in any meaningful way.  Actually, I remain confused as to what her "money" philosophy is exactly. In one breath she is telling millennials to charge more on their credit cards because they need to establish credit but than she turns around to tell them to get their student loans paid off. Is it just me or do those two things seem to be working against each other?  Purposefully adding to your credit card debt while trying to pay off  your student loan bills seem to be counter productive if one wants to do things like eat and live in an actual building as opposed setting up housekeeping under an overpass.  

Anyway...back to the "not buying things solely on the fact it is on sale." While I think I understand what she is trying to convey, I don't think she necessarily is stating it correctly.  If she is meaning that you shouldn't buy something you neither need nor want just because it's an unbelievable bargain, I guess that makes a certain amount of  sense. If we all just bought tons of crap we didn't need, want or intend to use...we just become hoarders.  However,  if there are things you want but would never ever spend the amount of money required to obtain them because they just are too much to substantiate the cost AND then by some miracle,  someone puts it at a price you can actually afford...the right answer is...shove your way to the front of the line, walk over whoever you have to walk over to get it.  OK, maybe that is an over reach.

Maybe I wouldn't  actually trample anyone for an unbelievable bargain but I probably would purchase something that I didn't necessary need if the price was tempting enough.  For example if there was a deal on a pair of 2 carat diamond earrings between 4 AM and 5 AM (such as retailers tend to do on such festive days as Black Friday) for $5.00 but only 5 total  pairs are available. Even given the fact, I am not particularly a jewelry kind of girl,  I would probably haul my tired butt out of bed super early and hope for the best. (again..not actually walking over the backs of people unless they make some nasty crack about my pink baby doll pjs that I will be wearing due to the fact time was of the essence.)  My point being, I don't need diamond earrings, not currently looking to buy diamond earrings but if someone is selling $1500 earrings for $5.00, I am on it.  SO, as to Jean's misbegotten point, I would in fact,  never ever pay full price for those earrings that I don't need but  I am  most definitely going to buy them if the price is right.  NEED be damned because WANT reigns supreme in this example.

All of my regular readers know that I am not overly fond of shopping in general.  I consider shopping a chore. There are rare instances that I get in the "mood" to shop but those instances are exceedingly  infrequent. The one thing that might counter my negative shopping attitude is getting a super-duper bargain. I have occasionally  scored some real "wins" on assorted things that I didn't think I needed prior to the realization that is was a screaming deal.

Most recently, I was in our local "big box" warehouse club shopping for boring things like lettuce and bananas when I was approached by a young man that had the most flawless porcelain skin, I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating here.  His skin all but glowed.

Now typically, any of these pesky types that work in mall kiosks or big box
stores that ascend on me like  vultures on fresh road kill, I try to shoo off with a "I don't have time today...sorry!" but this guy had my attention due to his aforementioned flawless skin.

Right out of the shoot, he asked me to share with him my current skin care regime. OH-OH, is this a trick question?  Is he assuming I don't have a skin care regime?  Do I look like a person that might need a skin care regime?   BUT in fact, I do have a regime so I tell him my current line of miracle-working-wonder products that clearly aren't working all that well if he picked me out of the crowd.

Who can argue with "the more you spend the more you save?

(NOTE: I have a history of looking for the the fabled "fountain of youth".  I have bins and buckets of elixirs that have promised me that my skin would cease to age. I have found some "nice" products but clearly none of these products have duped people into thinking I am in my 30s or even 40s.  When I find that product, I am prepared to bath in it.)

Upon hearing my current product line, he deemed them to be just OK. I did notice his "OK" was said in the same tone as a person saying OK when finding out the doctor is advising aspirin instead of oxycodone...let's just say with less verve than one would hope for.  According to him my products aren't nearly as GREAT as what he is selling.  This if followed by him taking my hand and slathering it with some kind of goo. While the goo is supposedly working miracles on my hand, he is explaining that his products are  far superior because they have the  benefit of being made with water that has had it's atoms crushed into micro-atoms.  According to man-child, that allows it to be absorbed into my aging hide more effectively.  He, then,  tissues off the goo and we are supposedly marveling at the beautiful skin now appearing on my hand.  Sadly, I don't see any difference but it smells nice enough. I am hopeful at this point that my inability to see the miraculous transformation that he is seeing isn't due to my ageing eyesight. Although, I hadn't noticed any loss of vision prior to my hand transformation. 

The man-child now tells me that the 4 piece bag containing an assortment of these crushed-water "miracle" products were on sale for that day ONLY....  at MORE THAN  95 percent off.  That is a big 9 and a big 5 off, folks.  AND WAIT FOR IT...if I buy it today I would get a leather case with 4 lip glosses.

It didn't really work out for Hannibal Lecter, did it?

Again...I am suspicious so I tell him I am going to think about it while I go get my lettuce.  Of course, you know and I know that I am going to Google the hell out of micro-water miracle anti-aging potion because I want to see the real price and read some reviews.  Turns out this is some expensive sh** with some seriously awesome reviews.

Circling back to Jean Chatzky warning me to not buy anything just because of the price.  Jean can bite me, because I am about to get a bag of crushed water for $50.00 whereas the same great smelling goo sells on the Internet for $650.00. That's not even the best part.  In the reviews the word "amazing" is used in the same frequency as Ben Affleck uses the word f*** when talking about Tom Brady's "Deflate-gate" struggles. 

I know that some of you out there are tsking me again and saying something to the effect "There is a sucker born every minute."  Maybe so... but this sucker is saving MORE than 95 percent and getting some lip gloss in the deal.

To be fair, I am not always so gullible or easily swayed to buy things. I understand the concept of marketing.  Sales people are in the business of enticing  other people to buy what they are selling.   Salesmen selling SPAM make it sound like prime rib instead of the nasty hunk of pork parts shoved into a can.  Pet rocks and Chia Pets didn't sell themselves.  Smooth talking marketers do what they do.  They market things. I get that.  I have been in so many sales jobs it would take another blog post to list them.  My current gig being a Realtor has often put me in the first row to watch bad decisions being made.

(NOTE:  When a family of four tells me they are in the market for a "tiny" house and want no more than 300 square foot, that is not me marketing to them...that is them being stupid. When I agree with them that the little box on a trailer is cute and charming that is me being pleasant and agreeable...but unfortunately that is still them being stupid.)

The salesperson, porcelain skinned man-child, probably made an effort to stop all the women over the age of 50 that he could hunt down in the confines of the big box store and pepper them with assurances that his skin looks like it does because of the product he is hawking. Who are we to doubt that crushed water doesn't have the power to stop time from marching over our face?

So for now, I am having some fun imagining how much younger I appear today over  yesterday thanks to these miracle products.  I am going to enjoy it while I can because there is no way I would ever pay full price for smashed water.

   

Wow, even my youthful curls are back.

 

Buyer Beware

Drunk dialing has evolved.  Most of you of a certain age, might remember way back when...before the Internet became our BFFs... when it wasn't uncommon to hear about some moron in a flash of brilliance (drunk)  making an ill-advised phone call.  Sometimes this involved calling an ex and reinforcing with great clarity why your are now their ex. Other calls would be just be "prank calls"where the  caller would randomly call someone out of the white pages (remember those?)  with some "hilarious" joke. Of course, most of these calls were stupid and only the caller was amused. For the unfortunate people that had any type of odd name, I am sure they weren't laughing along with the

caller.   In our hometown there was some poor lady with the unfortunate name Ester Burnie. Now I realize that name should be a leap as far as being inundated with rogue  phone calls but, of course, we are talking about phone calls from inebriated people so we can't really get caught up on the idea of "rationality", can we? Maybe in a drunk, foggy mind, Burnie and bunny are easily confused.

Anyway... recently..I happened upon a couple of articles and a "news" clip about the "sip and click" phenomenon.  What?  You haven't heard of this?   According to a number of surveys, studies and other statistics that probably are the exact opposite of "accurate",  sales climb over 48 percent after 2 AM on Friday nights on Internet shopping sites. (that particular number comes from Lyst, a fashion e-commerce site.)

Seriously?  There are people shopping at 2AM on the Internet and we are being told it is a sizable  number of people at that!  It's very hard for me to relate to "shopping" being fun even if one was hammered.

I have mentioned on many occasions that I HATE to shop.  I routinely shop for food because people have to eat to live.  Every other type of shopping takes effort on my part. I would say that maybe being drunk would help as far as making shopping more tolerable but then, as I have also, mentioned in the past, I have alcohol intolerance.  I can't drink. 

Given the fact I don't drink and hate to shop, I guess it could be said that I am breaking the rules about "writing what I know", but I do "sort-of", "kind-of" follow marketing trends.  I find it rather interesting there is a whole segment of marketing that depends on people getting drunk. I am sure there are a number of ways that marketing firms could take advantage of the idea of "selling by inebriation".

This trend is popular enough that it has acquired it's own acronyms. Just among the articles I read,  it has at least three acronyms and a catch phrase. Sip and Click is also called SUI (shopping under the influence) or BUI (Buying under the influence). There was, also, another coming from a study that  British marketing firm, Conchango conducted.  They did a study on drunk purchasing and coined the acronym BLOTO (Buying Loads of Tat online). Sadly, BLOTO doesn't translate all that well in America as we don't use the word "tat".  Here we might want to call it BSWDN (buying sh** we don't need) but I recognize that as acronyms go that one doesn't have much appeal.  Accurate..sure but catchy..no.


In a book To Buy Or Not to Buy: Why We Overshop And How to Stop written by April Lane Benson, counselor to the shopping-addicted said,  “From the comfort of your own home, you can jump online and spend a small fortune on alcohol-induced purchases, many of which you neither need nor can afford."

Besides asking the obvious question of why April made the title of her book so ridiculously long, I would be curious as to what qualifies one as a "counselor for the shopping addicted". Is there a need for an entire professional category of therapists to treat the shopping addicted?  I guess we can assume there is as "hoarding" is now a recognized as a mental disorder and is a protected disability under the ADA. (Americans With Disabilities Act)  I do find a certain irony if someone tried to collect disability payments for that, they could use it to fund their disability. 

The idea of companies needing, wanting and hoping for people to drink and shop struck me as interesting from a marketing perspective.  If you have a product to sell, perhaps you need to sell the idea of enticing people to have a few  cocktails first.

For those of you that want to participate in SUI,  but don't want to actually wake up with a hangover tomorrow there is an Internet site just for you.  There is a site called Drunk Mall.  Now to be fair, Drunk Mall isn't really an e-commerce site as much as a site that will get you connected to the types of things that you would buy when you are drunk.  A drunken middleman of sorts. In the event you are looking for a Trump Voodoo doll, for example, you might want to click on the Drunk Mall site before they are sold out.  If you are rooting for Trump, pretend the doll isn't selling well.

While reading the articles (and there are a LOT of articles on this subject), it was rather fun reading about the array of things that people have bought under the influence.  The studies, for the most part, say women are buying high-end clothing, jewelry and shoes and men are buying sport related items, collectibles, and CDs.


BUT..there are a number of lists of "things I bought while drunk" that reinforce the idea that "when you are drunk you are one quick leap away from a bad idea."

You want one, right????

From Here to There

Amsterdam...Part Twee (Dutch for the word two)

I am committed to wrap up my travelogue today....yes, I am sure you are eager for me to get back to my normal nonsense (with the word normal being used in the most broad spectrum sort of way).  The problem for today is whittling down this last post as I still had a number of things I originally planned to talk about. Things like cell phone usage in Europe, acquiring health care coverage for when you are overseas and buying media minutes for your tablet and/or computer.These things have changed considerably since our last trip abroad. BUT...I sense that it is time to wrap this up.  

 For the sake of expediency, I have opted to talk about lodging and transportation to and around Amsterdam.

Thought Number One:  Getting TO Amsterdam

We went to the  Andernach train station early for our 9:00 AM train anticipating arriving in Amsterdam around 1:00 PM.  What is the old Robert Burns poem about the "best laid plans of mice and men often go awry"? 

Although...just a quick sidebar:  Are we sure that is what he was saying?  That Scottish brogue being more than a tad indecipherable doesn't exactly say that. 

But Mousie, thou art no thy lane, 

In proving foresight may be vain;

The best laid schemes o' mice an' men

Gang aft agley

And lea'e usnought but grief and pain

For promised joy!

But, as I was saying, our plan was to leave Adernach and arrive in Amsterdam in time for a late lunch.  But...in a far less poetic rendition..Our plans went to shit.

We arrived at the Andernach Bahn station with time to spare, only to find out that the Regional Express train was running 20 minutes late.  No problem (yet) except for the fact that train stations in Germany aren't heated and that left an extra 20 minutes of freezing out bums off.  

Tick, tock, tick, tock....20 minutes comes and goes.  

After 40 minutes, it became exceedingly clear, that we would  miss out Dusseldorf connection for an ICE train into Amsterdam.  

Last one on is a rotten egg

Sorry...but I have to have another sidebar:  There are several types of trains in Germany. The smaller towns like Andernach have either  Regionalbahn or Regional Express trains to service their commuters.   (there are other types, as well,  but for the sake of this discussion...we were waiting for a Regional Express train.  The Regional Express train was to take us to Dusseldorf to catch an ICE train.  ICE trains are the super-fast trains that have fewer, if any,  stops between the larger cities. They reach speeds up to 320 MPH.  

Dusseldorf station..looking for a heated place to hang out

OK...back to the train.  The Regional Express train finally showed up in Andernach about an hour and 20 minutes late thus getting us into Dusseldorf around 12:30.  Needless to say the ICE train was long gone. We make our way to the Bahn counter to find out that the next ICE train out to Amsterdam is at 5:00 PM which would put us into Amsterdam at around 8:00. 

Despite the set back, we found a cafe  in the station and bought some Wifi for our Ipads and settled in for 4.5 hours. (I had bought European plans for our Iphones but not our IPads.) The 5:00 train was right on time, letting Bahn earn back a portion of my lost respect for them. 

Once we finally made it into Amsterdam it was raining, but thankfully, Hubby had picked a hotel that was less than 5 minutes from the train station.

The Sint Nicolaas...If you ever have occasion to travel to Amsterdam there are a lot of lovely hotels, but you would be hard pressed to find one as charming and as friendly as the Sint Nicolaas.

Looking toward the train station
from our window.

The building was once a harbor office that sat on a point where two canals met.  The canals were filled in at some point in the 19th century, leaving it in the heart of the city center and within walking distance of most of the major tourist destinations.  We booked the top floor room where the original hoisting beams remain.I am sure it is probably one of the smallest rooms in the hotel but it is the only room (out of the 27 rooms) that has a little Juliette balcony. This would be where the freight door would open as cargo was lifted into the harbor office back in the day.

After we got checked in we went out for a late supper at an Argentinian Steakhouse and walked around the city center for awhile

I was surprised to see how nice the Amsterdam Christmas Market was.  I expected that the German Markets would be superior as they are more widely advertised. but while the Amsterdam market is considerably smaller, the booths had things that I hadn't seen elsewhere.  With just 2 weeks before Christmas there were a lot of holiday shoppers out in both the Christmas Market and the Amsterdam shops.

Thought Number Two:  Getting Around Amsterdam

The following morning, we were excited  to wake up and  see sunshine...at least for the time being. It not only rained from time to time but at several points, it snowed.

As for getting around Amsterdam...you can walk just about anywhere but if you need or want other options there are trams, water taxis, (car) taxis and bicycles.

Yes, the bicycles are the normal mode of transportation in Amsterdam.  Depending on the website, the numbers vary but I've read articles claiming everything from 80,000 to 881,000 bikes are in the city. (click here for Amsterdam a City of Bikes )

a portion of the bike parking in front of the train station

 You probably would never need or want  a car (thankfully) as parking is a hassle. Our hotel offered a valet service if a person opted to drive into town,  but I never quite figured out where a person would park, even for that. 

On our first morning, we decided to walk to the Anne Frank House.  It was a lovely walk and was less than 15 minutes to the museum. The lines are usually lined up around the block so it is a good idea to buy your tickets online. 

Yet another sidebar:  As with all things dealing with the atrocities committed and  endured in WWII, visiting the Anne Frank House isn't meant to be cheerful.  It was interesting and informative and heartbreaking.  It had been years since I read her diary, but it was gut wrenching to see the actual diary and walk through the hidden annex. I re-read the book when I got home and found it more meaningful with an advantage of seeing the actual location. 

Upon leaving the museum there was a canal boat station within just a few yards from the museums exit. We had purchased 24 hour passes prior to our arrival so, it was just a matter of boarding one of the boats.

The boat tours are a wonderful way to get around Amsterdam.  You can buy boat passes for various lengths of time.  Within whatever time frame you purchased, you  can get on and off the boats as often as you like to visit museums, or any of the cities districts. The boats will pretty much get you to any part of Amsterdam. BTW...all the different companies follow pretty much the same route.

Because of time and space limitations as far as this blog post goes,  I won't give you a play by play of every museum, church, monument, shop etc. that we toured.  (I hear you collectively sigh the sigh of relief). We managed to see most of the districts with enough time to go back to Dam Square and hit a couple more shops for souvenirs before it was time to retrieve our luggage from the hotel. (We checked our bags at the hotel after checking out earlier in the day.)

On the day of our departure, we were scheduled to catch a 5:00 ICE  train into Cologne.  Once we were back in Cologne we would catch a Regional Express back into Andernach.  Again...Gang Aft Agley.  That Robert Burns really knew what he was talking about.


This is the second part of the video that is a compilation of photos from  my husband's 2 prior visits and my visit into Amsterdam.  The first video that includes the hotel and Anne Frank House pictures was on my last post  Two Sided Guilder.  

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Going South

 On the last travelogue post, we were in Andernach, Germany...So Many Castles, So Little Time.

After spending the day in Andernach exploring we met up  with a group of "new" friends for a lovely dinner.  The group consisted of  a Brit, a German, a Canadian, and 3 Americans.  It was great fun comparing viewpoints on so may things. The one dinner companion that spoke German told us the server wanted us to be "aware" that a large party was coming in, so we might want to settle our bills....hint, hint.  No parties ever came in and we staked out our real estate until near closing time.

The following morning, however, we were back on the road to head south to the city of Koblenz.

While Koblenz is only 12 miles SOUTH of Andernach, we were confused why the GPS sent us north.  Huh?? That can't be right.  THEN it sent us to the other side of the Rhine.  As both Andernach and Koblenz are on the west bank, we considered the possibility that perhaps the GPS was trying to sabotage our day. We considered briefly, just turning around and figuring it out without GPS help but figured we'd find it eventually.  The thing about Germany is that it is only about the size of New Mexico.  At some point you are bound to come to a river or road that is familiar.

After a number of  twists and turns,  we drove back over the Rhine and we did, in fact, get to Koblenz.
If you ever take a trip along the Rhine, this city is one to make sure to see, It is a unique blend of historical and modern.

My husband had been there several times and wanted to go up to the Ehrenbreitstein Fortress. He had been there in September and thought the tour was interesting and the tram ride was great for getting a bird's eye view of the region.

As luck would have it, and by that I mean bad luck...we maneuvered  our way up the winding, twisting roads to the top of the bluff where the fortress sits, only to find out it was closed. There were still plenty of things to be seen in the area but no tours and no tram for me.  In lieu of that,  we made our way over to the St. Kastor Basilica and the Deutches Eck (The German Corner) where the Rhine River and the Moselle River converge.  On the point of the rivers meeting is a monument to Wilhelm I (AKA William I)

Crabby Pants standing next to Le Pouce by Cesar next to the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art

On the day I was there is was cold and dreary but still very fun to walk around the Basilica, the monument and the promenade. Despite the fact that the fortress was closed, there were still a number of people milling around the church and  the Ludwig Museum of Contemporary Art.

After spending a considerable amount of time just looking around, we made our way into Koblenz city center.  There were 5 (at least that is what we could find) Christmas markets to keep us occupied for quite a while.

Are you someone famous?

As I mentioned, Koblenz's city center is an interesting mix of quaint and charming (as most historic European cities are) and very modern as well. After stopping at a cafe on one of the side streets for lunch, we continued on to a modern mall to warm up and have some tea/coffee. The cafe had a lunch crowd waiting for tables or we might of just parked there.

Normally, I try to avoid malls but on the occasion of both of us being half-frozen we decided that would be a great place to hang out for a bit.

I didn't take a pic of the mall so this is off the Internet

One of the things we discovered while sitting at the Starbucks, is that owners can bring dogs into business establishments.  Not just service dogs, mind you.   While we sat looking out the window at the children ice skating on an adjoining rink,several people came in to have coffee with their pets.

kids skating on the mall's ice rink

Sooo...my friends, that's where I will leave you today.  If you are interested in seeing some of the other photos, I have put together another slide show.

BTW...You will notice some of the pictures are clearer as those were taken in September by my husband when he had the good fortune to be there on a sunny day.  

Just When You Thought It Was Over

Just when you thought you had safely put away any thoughts concerning the chaos associated with the holidays, I am here to give you one last nudge of Christmas.  Yes, I realize the cruelty of showing you Christmas pictures. Enough already, you say.

Yeah...well...I will keep the Christmas part of this to a minimum...as best as I am able.

As you know I have been doing some posts about my recent trip to Germany and a big part of going to Europe in the winter is going to the Christmas Markets. (AKA Weihnachtsmarkt in Germany). The Weihnachtmarkt   is a street market associated with the celebration of Christmas during the four weeks of Advent.  The history of Christmas markets goes back to the Late Middle Ages in the German-speaking  part of Europe.

My regular readers might remember that I am not a shopper.  Actually, that is an understatement.  I abhor shopping.  So no one was more surprised at how much fun I had shopping in Germany.  Not the  actual act of buying stuff per se but the atmosphere surrounding the Winter Markets.  

When I last left off  on the post  Next Stop Cologne we had spent the early afternoon touring the Cathedral of Cologne which happens to be the backdrop for one of the largest of the seven Christmas Markets that were in progress in the city of Cologne. Each of the seven had a different theme and unique quality about it.

It was still early in the afternoon on a workday, (Tuesday) so the crowds were relatively light.

This would not remain the case as the day turned into evening.  BUT..even early in the day there is a festive mood that permeated the city as the people milled around looking through the hundreds of booths  containing local crafts and food.

As a person that lives firmly in suburbia surrounded by big-box stores and can only associate Christmas shopping with the aggravation of  increased traffic and long checkout lines, I have to say this was close to shopping nirvana.  Cheerfulness abounding with happy friendly people walking around with smiles on their faces.  Seriously...this might be what it would feel like to be caught up in the Twilight Zone.

There is no way in the space of a blog post to give you an inkling of how pleasant of environment this is but here is a slide show of some of the sights that transpired during the day into the evening.






It's not just the Christmas Markets, however, that make Cologne a fun winter destination.  One could argue that the most perfect time to visit Germany would be in October for the obvious reason: Oktoberfest.  I would of argued that point anyway as prior to this trip I would of said Spring is the absolute best time to visit Germany because of Frühlingsfest.  Frühlingsfest is Oktoberfest's little sister that happens in the Spring....think smaller crowds, prettier weather and non-stop beer. 

I have to tell you though, even the beauty of Europe in the Spring, can't trump the wonderful festive atmosphere that comes with these winter street markets.   And while the beer may not be as free-flowing during the winter festivals, at least not in the same proportion as Oktoberfest there is always Gluhwein. 
Gluhwein is a hot mulled wine that that is sold at numerous booths at every Christmas Market.

"Glühwein," which literally means "glowing wine,"  most often comes in a limited-edition, seasonally inspired and creatively adorned ceramic mugs. For a small additional fee, you can either keep this cute little mug as a memento of a visit to a particular Christmas market - often the year and name of the
town or city where you purchased your cup of Glühwein is inscribed on the mug - or you can return it to get your deposit back.  As the proud owner of a number of these little mugs that will collect dust in the back of my cupboard,  I would be a typical American that thought they were to cute to part with.

Due to the fact I can't drink alcohol, our mugs would of been doling out Kinderpunsch.  Yes...I am in the minority of adults that have the shame of ordering Kinderpunsch instead of Gluhwein.

Outside of the Christmas Market shopping, I find European cities so much more interesting as far as shopping goes.  Most German cities still have a thriving city center...what we would call a "downtown" in the U.S.  I realize there are cities such as NYC or downtown Chicago  still have urban shopping districts but so many of the city shopping  areas around the states have migrated out to suburbia.  The commercial sprawl that has become a mass of chain merchandisers and big box stores, no longer allow for strolling streets and peering into pretty window displays.  It was a huge treat to walk around and stare  into the pretty windows decorated for the holidays.  Even those that didn't have seasonal decorations were fun to see.

Seems like this would be an honest merchant

A cute bookstore with a familiar face..if you are from Kansas

The city centers are very pedestrian friendly

Even during the winter people use sidewalk seating

The merchants provide lap blankets to go with your coffee and pastry

Aside from shopping, eating and drinking,.... there are a number of interesting things to see and do.

If you plan a trip to Cologne,  be sure to bring a lock.  Yes...a lock. Not because you need to protect your belongings but to add the the fence outside the train (Bahn) station. There is a custom there where people put locks on the chain link fence to denote their love...something akin to carving your initials into a tree but decidedly less destructive to trees.

locks of love

Many have little notes attached, nearly all have initials or names.

So...that's it for today.  On a future post, I will be visiting castles and forts but for today we will stop and put Crabby Pants on a Merry Go Round...because in alter-ego land we can and not look foolish...or if we look foolish, we don't care.