Festivals and Family

This weekend was all about getting into the festive spirit. Christmas markets, festive season food and drink, a couple extra days off work and hanging out with family! 

Brenainn and Kirsten's tour of Europe continued with a stop-over in Rotterdam (Paris was now done and dusted). After dropping off their bags at the house and a roast beef lunch (thanks to Jamie Oliver) we headed out to explore Rotterdam. With sunset now only a few hours after sunrise (Seriously! It honestly feels that way!) it was a quick tour of the highlights before heading to the Chinese Light Festival. 

A funky container down at the docks

The Chinese Light Festival is being advertised as the largest festival of its kind in Europe. Our local park has been converted into a field of Dragons, Ducks, Toadstools, Pandas and a number of other displays with Chinese themes. 

After their initial introduction to Rotterdam (and experiencing some sub-zero temperatures) it was time to call it a day. 

The next day (Friday) was spent exploring Amsterdam. We saw the main sights and there was a healthy dose of shopping therapy. 

 

Lunch

And then it was Saturday! We picked up a rental car and headed off to Aachen. Aachen is in Germany (just - it is 5km from the border) and is well known for its Christmas Market. In Aachen we met up with our family from Wuppertal and started soaking up the Christmas atmosphere (mostly with Gluhwein and great traditional German food).

But before any 'soaking' we started with a tour of the town hall (which used to be a palace) and cathedral. 

Kirst, Bren, Werner, Lukas and Jasper enjoying some German sausage. 

Gluhwein time! 

If you are ever in Aachen for the Christmas Market, we recommend the Hexenhof!

And then time for some more great German food! 

Hard at work making bonbons

The evening ended with Werner taking us all out for dinner at one of the local restaurants. What an awesome day! Thanks to Werner, Lukas and Jasper for coming out and spending the day with us. 

Sunday arrived wet and gloomy so we had a bit of a slow start. Eventually we left the house and made our way to the bike rental shop. Today we were heading for Kinderdijk. 

The trip to Kinderdijk involves cycling from the bike rental shop to the port, catching a water bus 2 stops, changing to a local water taxi and then cycling the last kilometer to the windmills. The only problem was that the water taxi didn't seem to be running today. Time to make some last minute changes to the plans. Dordrecht! We carried on with the water bus and jumped off at Dordrecht, along with a number of other passengers that had come to this normally quiet town for the annual Christmas Market. This Christmas Market felt a lot like any normal Saturday market and definitely wasn't on the same level as the German market, but we had fun anyway! We tried some Poffertjes (small crumpets) served hot with butter and icing sugar (YUM) and some Oliebollen (also in the YUM category). 

We concluded the weekend with a Christmas dinner, a bit of a beer tasting, and Printen for pudding (a traditional German pudding from Aachen). And then it was time to say cheers to Bren and Kirst as they continued on their European adventure. Next stop for them is Nuremburg. 

On a sadder note Granny Hilde passed away on Saturday evening. She was an amazing person and will be sorely missed!