Our Town's Christmas Market

You can see the rain falling

This past weekend we got a lot of rain.  Friday evening I volunteered at an event called Holiday Magic, where my MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) group sold soup, bread, and gently used children's clothes. Santa Claus comes to this event, children from the schools sing Christmas songs, and different organizations set up booths to raise money.  It was raining and I had Blue Rock with me so I didn't take any pictures at Holiday Magic.

This weekend was also our town's Christmas market.  We went with our next door neighbors last year and we decided to go again with them this year.  We truly are super blessed to have such fantastic neighbors on both sides of us.  I brought my camera with me to this market and took pictures, even though it was still raining.

Our neighbors made pork sandwiches and European beans (kind of like baked beans but not really sweet) for dinner.  Then we walked downtown to the market with them.  Thankfully Saturday night it was just sprinkling.  Sunday, when Santa was suppose to be there, it was pouring rain.  So we didn't even attempt to go back to the market.  One difference between Germany and say Texas is, typically things you do in your town you walk to.  There is limited parking downtown and it's really only about a 5 minute walk.  Even though Santa was going to be inside the concert hall, we decided not to go.  Santa doesn't bring that much to our house but he is coming for St. Nikolaus Tag (St. Nicholas Day) tonight.  We'll put out a boot and see what he brings Blue Rock.  If you want to participate, leave your child's boot outside the door tonight and he will leave a treat, usually something sweet, in the boot if they have been good.  If they have not been good, he will leave twigs.

Here are a few pictures from our town's Christmas market.

Blue Rock enjoying the swing ride

My cute husband standing with our neighbors cheering Blue Rock on as he flies by on the swing

Me and our town's lovely Christmas tree

Jana and I enjoying a hot drink

Kerwe - My German Town's Fall Festival

Fall is probably my favorite time of year in Germany.  If you want to visit Germany, consider coming in the fall.  The heat of summer is over, the weather is cooler but not yet freezing, there's less rain than in the Spring, and there are lots of festivals.  The most famous festival is probably Oktober Fest, which originated in Munich. Thankfully, you don't have to go to Munich to enjoy festivals in October.  Most cities have their own.  This past weekend our small city had their Kerwe (festival).  Several of the main streets are closed down and venders come and set-up booths.

It seems like many Germans love festivals.  Usually because the weather is nice, there's reasonably priced food and drinks, and lots of live music.  Our town had several bands and lots of options for food.  There were also several rides for the children as well as carnival games to play.  We had a wonderful time.

Blue Rock and I sitting under the tent at dinner

My dinner - gyros, salad, and pommes (fries)

The two person band in our tent

Blue Rock enjoying one of the rides

Lots of people at the fair

Blue Rock having fun walking around

My sweet Husband won me a prize!

My crepe - Nutella and banana - yummy!

It was one of the best crepes I've ever had

Picture of what some of the tents look like

Swimming Pools in Germany

Swimming pools, also known as schwimmbads, are very popular in Germany.  Just about every city or town has a swimming pool.  The bigger the city, the bigger the pool.  Most swimming pools are open year-round.  Depending on where you go, there will usually be indoor and outdoor pools.  The outside pools are only open in the summer.  

If you go swimming in Germany you will notice a few differences.  Mainly if you visit the sauna (which children are not allowed), the changing rooms, and showers.  In most saunas, swimsuits are not allowed.  The only one I went to was at a hotel near Munich, not a public pool.  I walked in, wearing my swimsuit, and was shocked and uncomfortable to see I was the only one with a swimsuit on. I asked if I could keep my suit on.  One of the ladies said yes.  But I felt very uncomfortable.  I'm a pretty modest person.  I left shortly after.  I have heard you can take your towel in and cover up with that.  I honestly just avoid saunas.  

As far as the swimming pools go, most people wear swimsuits.  You'll see some little kids running around naked and many little girls just wearing swimsuit bottoms, but for the most part people are as covered as you'd see in the States.  Now if you go to the showers, the women's is typically set-up like a guy's locker room in the States.  Shower heads along the walls, all open.  Every time I have gone to rinse off I am the only one wearing a swimsuit.  But I have never felt the need to change what I do.  Usually it's a bunch of old ladies in there because a lot of older people swim in Germany.  I just keep to myself and sometimes will just wait until I get home.  

I have heard that some pools have naked days.  A friend of mine's husband took her boys swimming one day.  After a certain time someone blew a whistle and everyone took their swimsuits off.  Her boys did not.  One of the workers told them that they had to take their swimsuits off or leave. The boys were younger then and thought it was funny to see everyone naked.  I have yet to go swimming during those times nor do I plan on it.

Last week I met up with a friend and her son and we took our boys swimming.  The boys loved it.  Here are a few pictures of the one we went to.  

This is part of the kiddie pool. As you can see, it's a large place.

One of the bigger pools with a wide slide in the distance

Another view of kiddie pool and fun round slide I took my son down

slide in the kiddie pool

Amusement Park in Germany

Last weekend my family finally visited our first amusement park in Germany.  We went to Holiday Park.  We had a great time.  There were several rides that my almost 2 year old could ride and plenty of rides for older children and grown-ups.  It was like a mini Disney World for Germany.  They had German cartoon characters dressed up to meet the children and get pictures with them.  They had a log ride and a few bigger roller coasters for children 8 and up.  There was an indoor playroom with a slide and soft mats for younger kids to play if the weather was good.  It was for kids 0-5.  There were also some playgrounds within the park.  

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants and the food was pretty good.  Thankfully you can bring your own food in so we brought some snacks and water bottles with us.  There are a lot of amusement parks and theme parks in Germany and we hope to try another one soon.  

The only thing I did not like about Holiday Park was one ride which I thought was going to be a boat ride.  My husband and I were thinking of the ride at Disney World in Orlando where they play "It's a Small World."  Well, this was not a boat ride but a haunted seat ride.  It went through the dungeons of castles, providing us a visual history of various ways of torturing and killing people, think of a "live" torture museum.  There were also robotic people dressed up as prostitutes, drunks, etc.  We had no idea that it would be like this.  It was truly a very different cultural experience.  It was quite scary and I kept trying to cover my young son's eyes because the ride and sites were quite scary and even freaked me out.  Needless to say, we will not be going in the dungeon again if we go back.  My husband and I both felt horrible for taking our son on that ride.  Thankfully, he made it out and didn't seem to be too scared. If you visit a theme park in another country be aware that not every ride will be what you expect.  

Other than that it was a nice park to spend the day.  Very stroller friendly and plenty of families and young people were there enjoying the rides.

Rabbit Museum

Last weekend our city opened its doors to a Rabbit Museum.  The museum is on the bottom floor of our city's water tower.  Water towers in Germany are a lot different than water towers in the US.  They are generally beautiful and made of brick.  There are no signs on the water towers for high school football teams or with the city name.  At the museum we met our city mayor and got to climb the tower and see the beautiful views of our city.  Our son loved looking at all the rabbits.  Here are a few pictures.

 Our city's water tower

 Views from the water tower

 Other side of town

 Stairway inside the water tower

 Picture of the museum from upstairs

 Some of the rabbits in the museum

Fish Fest

Last night we walked downtown and ate at our town's fish fest.  We had wanted to go to one but had not had a chance yet.  It was held at our local fishing club.  It was a 6 minute walk from our house.  That is one thing I love about our town.  We can walk almost everywhere within 5-10 minutes.  Within 5 minutes we are downtown where there are dozens of restaurants, several bakeries, small grocery stores, a few pharmacies, and local retail.  In the States to get anywhere we had to drive at least 5 minutes.

There were a good number of people at the fish fest.  We misunderstood the price, you would think after living here almost two years we wouldn't get that wrong.  We thought it was 2.40 Euros per fish.  No, it was 2.40 Euros per 500 grams.  We ended up buying two large fish and spent close to 30 Euros.  So much for a "cheap" dinner.  Thankfully the fish was good, not quite as good as my dad makes it, but better than a lot of places.  The drinks were refreshing and the live music was pleasant.  I forgot to bring my camera so I didn't get to take any pictures of our dinner or the fishing club. Maybe next time I will have it with me.

An afternoon at the Spa

Being a full time mom is the hardest and most tiring job I have ever had.  I don't think people have the words to describe how much work and energy is involved.  For my birthday, my husband gave me an afternoon at a spa and this past Saturday I finally got to go.  It was kind of hard finding an American-like spa in our part of Germany.  There seems to be a lot of Thai massage places but not many places that also offer facials.  I finally decided to try the Unique Spa & Health Club at the Marriott in HD.  They had an English menu so I was easily able to decide what treatments I wanted.  I decided to get the Complete Harmony Treatment which included a full facial and full body massage.  The facial consisted of special products from France and the massage was just plain relaxing.  The lady who assisted me did a fantastic job.  She's still learning English but was able to communicate with me just fine.  One thing I really appreciated was she washed her hands often.  Before she even started she said, "first I'm going to wash my hands."  If you've ever been in Germany, washing your hands is a pretty big thing to do, considering most of the people working in the bakeries, for instance, do not wash their hands or wear gloves when giving out baked goods and exchanging money.  

My husband asked me if I wanted to do this once a month.  Are you joking?! Of course!  He and our son had a wonderful time hanging out as well.  I had a relaxing time at the spa.  I give the Unique Spa 5 stars.  It was a great experience and worth the time and money if you like this sort of thing.

Of course sometimes it's impossible to get out of the house and visit a spa.  When that's the case it's nice to have some items for a home spa.  There are several great books to help you have a spa experience at home.  Here are a few books worth checking out:  Thai Spa Book: The Natural Asian Way to Health and Beauty; Secrets of the Spas: Pamper and Vitalize Yourself at Home; The Herbal Home Spa: Naturally Refreshing Wraps, Rubs, Lotions, Masks, Oils, and Scrubs (Herbal Body); Organic Body Care Recipes: 175 Homemade Herbal Formulas for Glowing Skin & a Vibrant Self; and The Book of Massage: The Complete Stepbystep Guide to Eastern and Western Technique.

A park worth living in Germany for...

Saturday my family went to Luisenpark, a really cool park in Mannheim.  The previous week was my first time to go and I took my son.  When I came home I told my husband about the park, it made him want to go too.  What can I say except that this park is amazing?!  It is the biggest park I have ever been to and once you are inside you forget about the big city around you. 

When I first went it made me feel a lot better about living in Germany.  Is that strange for a park to make you feel that way?  I liked it so much that many of the problems I have had while living in this country seem to not matter as much. Just knowing that I have this beautiful place to visit so close to my home adds to the quality of my life here.

The park costs 5 Euros to get in or you can buy a season pass for 35 Euros.  We ended up buying season passes Saturday.  Children 6 and under are free.  You can bring your own food and drinks in the park or eat at their many snack bars and restaurants.  They accept cash only so make sure and bring your Euros.

At the park there are a lot of different birds including penguins.  There is a mini farm with different farm animals for kids to see and learn about life on the farm.  There are many "gondaoetta" boats that float around a river and a mini train that will shuttle you around the park if you just want to sit and enjoy the atmosphere.

The flowers in the gardens are beautiful and they change seasonally.  There are many gardens to see including a rose garden, Chinese garden, arboretum, and greenhouses. 

The first time I went I spent 5 hours and still didn't see everything.  Saturday we spent 3 hours.  Plan to spend a good bit of time there if you go and consider bringing a blanket or lawn chairs.  Or you can rent one of the many metal lawn chairs at the park for a Euro. 

There are a lot of things for kids to do there.  There are several playgrounds, tire swings, green grass to run and play on, bumper cars, and more.  They also have concerts, operas, and plays on an open-air stage that seats approximately 1,000 people.

I have not been to Mannheim that many times but every time I go I become more impressed with the diversity and amenities the city offers.  Where are some of your favorite cities and places to visit?