Week 135: Last Week before Christmas Break

We continued our visit with the O’Rourkes when they arrived in Stuttgart by train on Monday night.

But first, a moment for our advent calendars as I forgot to include them previously! Only because German Advent Calendars are the really the best, they go all out! This year, I found a Nivea calendar for Brooklyn and a Lego calendar for Ryan. Each kid also got a candy calendar, Reese’s for Brooklyn and Haribo for Ryan. The kids have been super excited to open them everyday (and I’ve been excited to see if I can steal anything 😉).

Back to our visit with the O’Rourkes. We started the visit with dinner at Abacco’s in downtown Stuttgart. After dinner, we came home and caught up over some drinks and rounds of Rummikub.

On Tuesday, Matt took the O’Rourkes down to Triberg in the Black Forest. The goal was to see the Triberger water fall and buy a cuckoo clock. Unfortunately, when they arrived, they found the waterfall was absolutely gushing due to all the recent snow and rain. The trail was actually closed to the public due to safety.

Next, Matt tried to take them to the oldest, largest cuckoo clock. However, their plans were foiled again by the rain as it was closed, but they did get a peak at it from outside.

That night after they returned from the Black Forest, we visited the Esslingen Christmas Markets. The rain continued to pour down but the market was still semi-crowded.

We were able to enjoy some drinks, snacks, and shopping, but we were sad that a lot of the performers and musicians were not performing that night on account of the rain.

We did find one stall selling the firey rum punch, Feuerzangenbowle and Megan and Pat were able to get the full show and try it for the first time.

On Wednesday, I was able to take half a day off work. First, we visited Marktkauf so we could do some German candy shopping and turn in all of our recycling. Pat and Matt ran some errands around town on the e-bikes.

Then, we headed to Ludwigsburg. We started with lunch at the Christmas Market. The guys tried gluhbier, a newish hot drink; hot bier with spices added. Meghan and I had hot chocolate with Bailey’s. For food we had sausages and fried potatoes and mushrooms.

While we were at the market, dark skies moved in and it was soon pouring rain. We continued on to Ludwigsburg Palace, where we joined a live tour (the only way to see the inside) of the interiors. The guide was extremely knowledgeable, kept things interesting, and was obviously very passionate about the palace and its history. We learned the Palace and grounds are the actually the biggest in all of Germany. It was not however the most opulent or beautiful we have seen, I would save those titles for the Würzburg Residenz or Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin. Despite the size, we were only able to see a fraction of the rooms and the tour took just over an hour.

When we left the palace, it was still pouring down rain. We got to the car and intended to go home first but when we saw the traffic, we decided to go straight to the Stuttgart Christmas Market from Ludwigsburg.

It was still raining when we arrived but we made the most of it. Stuttgart’s market is huge! We parked at one end and then only stopping for quick drinks and snacks, it took us about two hours to make it to the WinterTraum (Winter Dream) fair at the other end. At the WinterTraum, we checked out the Ferris wheel, light show, giant Christmas Pyramid, and roller skating rink. Then, we turned around and headed back, stopping for more food and shopping on the way. The best food at the market was the käsespatzle, Germany’s version of macaroni and cheese, which we found right at the end and got for the car ride home.

Thursday morning, I took the O’Rourkes back to the train station so they could head back to Paris.

Thursday night, we went back to the Ludwigsburg Market to meet up with the Johnson’s, who were in Stuttgart for a work event for Ray.

We were excited to go back as we hadn’t gotten to see the Ludwigsburg market at night yet when it lights up it’s angel displays, and there was a pause in the rain.

Friday night, we went to a performance of The Sound of Music at the Stuttgart Theater Center. The STC is a theater club on base and the participants are members of the American community. I had some coworkers in the cast and orchestra while Brooklyn had some friends in the cast. We were expecting a low budget, amateur production but instead found a professional level performance. Several of the actors were professionally trained and had several professional credits to their name. It was a great night out at the theater! And, after we thought about it, it was just about the first night in two weeks we had been indoors and out of the rain, a double win!

Saturday, I went with some friends to the Stettenfels Castle Medieval Christmas Market. Stettenfels Castle is medieval castle dating back to sometime in the early 1000s. It’s famous now for the annual medieval festival it hosts each spring. For one weekend each Advent, it also hosts a medieval Christmas Market.

In order to attend, we needed to take a shuttle and in the parking lot, we were surprised to find that almost everyone was dressed up in medieval clothes. We were definitely in the minority in our modern clothes!

We all had mulled honeymead (not that great) and hot chocolate, fried shrimp and potatoes, and chimney cakes for lunch. The market portion was spread over the castle grounds and within the castle itself. There were also several medieval performers and games.

It took about two hours to get through the whole market. It was a really cool event, especially with so many people dressed up and in character. We even saw several people barefoot, even though it was a pretty cold day, in order to maintain authenticity. We also just really enjoyed being outside in the sun; something we’ve barely seen for a month. After we were done, we took the shuttle back to the car. At this point things were getting really crowded and we were especially glad to have gotten there early when we saw the line to ride the shuttle back to the castle was a couple hours long!

Saturday night, Matt and I went to Waldenbuch for their annual, one-night Christmas market. Our friends live in this small village and we love this Christmas market for its small town feel. This year, Waldenbuch even had its own mug, something it hasn’t had in the past. We all had a couple of Glühweins and grazed on all the food on offer.

After the market is over around 9am, there is a “secret-not-so-secret” party at the Waldenbuch Fire Department. The village is so small that the firehouse closes on the weekends (don’t worry, the calls are handled by the next village over on those days). Outside was a bonfire and inside there was a DJ and dancing. It was a late night!

Sunday was another beautiful day, but we were just so tired, we (I) ignored the urge to leave the house and we stayed home all day. We did what we do every weekend we are home which is defrost our freezers. They desperately needed it as we haven’t been home on weekends in forever. We also took some good naps and laid around watching TV. It was great!

Ryan was gone all weekend! He left directly after school on Friday with Boy Scouts and went to Luxembourg and Belgium for the 79th anniversary of the Battle of Bulge commemorations. They did about 20km of hiking through the foxholes over the course of the weekend and then participated in a march and ceremony on Sunday to commemorate the 79th anniversary of the battle. Ryan was given a certificate from the mayor of Bastogne for his participation, which he then folded up and shoved into his pocket (boys 🙄). This was Ryan’s second visit to Bastogne since we all went over Memorial Day weekend. He said he still learned a ton and he is still loving being back in Scouts and all the activities they are doing.