Valkenburg Christmas Market

This past weekend I went on an ITT tour to the Valkenburg Christmas Market in Holland.  It was about a two hour bus ride, so not too bad.  Once we arrived though we had quite a bit of a walk to get to the little town of Valkenburg and the Velvet Caves where the Christmas Market was.  I nearly slipped and fell several times in my leather-bottomed shoes (which is why one of the purchases I made there were real snow boots).

The theme of the market was Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol.  Throughout the caves there are decorations that have to do with the Christmas Carol story.  It was very cool and not too crowded until around the time I was done, which was good.  I got a lot of good things for very cheap prices.  I also stopped at cafe inside the caves and had some hot chocolate and a waffle.  They don't provide syrup for waffles like we use in America, but it was still really good.  It was nice to just sit and watch the people go by.  It was also a little bit disconcerting because I happened to be sitting in front of a display and people were stopping to take pictures.  Oh well, they can watch me eat if they want to. :)

Well there was still a lot of time before the bus left so I walked around the town a little bit and looked into some shops but soon got tired because the stuff I bought at the market were getting heavy.  I decided to stop at a cafe near where the walkway back to the bus was and discovered our tour escort in there.  I sat with her and had some hot chocolate and some apple strudel while we talked.  We had a great time.

We decided to go walk around the town some more and we stopped at a store where I bought my real snow boots.  Finally it was dinner time so we decided on one of the many restaurants and had a light dinner of pea soup with a ham and cheese sandwich.  It was very good.

Finally it was time to go back to the bus and head home.  The walk back was harder with all the stuff I was carrying (lots of steps to climb), but it was worth it.  Here's a picture of how I have to bundle up to stay warm around here.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day Three

Today it was warmer and sunnier and we got up a little earlier.  We went down to Sintra and did some more shopping.  Sintra is full of beautiful, narrow, windy streets.

Sorry it's sideways :)

Then we drove through the back streets toward Cascais and saw some huge homes and beautiful roads.  Drivers are crazy around here though, they think they're the only ones on the road and who cares about anyone else.

Once in Cascais, we went to an English pub (of all places) and had steak on a stone.  It was delicious.  Then we walked a little through the town.  Next we headed to Boca do Inferno on the coast.  It's a place where during high tide or rough seas the waves slam into a ceiling-less cave and spouts the water (kind of like Hawaii's blowhole).  Unfortunately the waves were calm, but it was beautiful.

Well this is the end of my adventure in Portugal.  Tomorrow morning, early, I fly back to Germany via Madrid.  When I got back, it was to discover we had our first snow and there was about four to five inches of snow all over my car that I had to remove before driving.  That wasn't fun.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day Two

Today, Ray and Penny let me sleep in (a little too long).  Once we got going we headed first to Belem to see the Discoverer's Monument (very cool).  It was cold and windy so it was hard to stay outside and enjoy it, so I just took some quick pictures and then headed inside to the gift store to get a little book that explained who each of the explorers on monument were and what they did.

Next we headed to the Jeronimo's Monastery and looked in the church where a famous Portugese poet was buried as well as Vasco da Gama, a famous discoverer is buried. 

Then we went to the main area where they serve pasteis de Belem, some famous pasteries that the monks created so many years ago.  Ray says you haven't been to Portugal until you've had one of these.  They were very good and the place was very crowded, but service was quick.

Then Ray and Penny drove me through downtown Lisbon to have a look and showed me the university where they teach English classes at.  We ended up at the very huge Colombo Mall.  We looked through some stores and then they were gracious enough to let me watch the new Harry Potter movie while they stayed at the mall and shopped and relaxed.  Portugese movie experience:  assigned seats and halfway through the movie it stops for an intermission.  Weird.

Thanksgiving in Portugal Day One

For Thanksgiving this year I went to Lisbon, Portugal to spend the holiday with my second cousins, Ray and Penny, who have lived there the past three years.  At first I was going to fly into Porto and then take a train down to Lisbon but a week before I was due to leave I got an email that my flight was cancelled because of strikes in Portugal.  So no flights or anything on the day I was planning to get there.  So I changed my plans.  I had to fly one airline into Madrid on Wednesday and stayed the night.  I didn't see anything of Madrid, I got there late afternoon and was not brave enough to try and take the Metro to the center of town by myself.  So I just walked a few blocks to find something to eat and then returned to the Ibis Hotel I was staying at right near the airport. I realized then that I had forgotten my camera.  Of all the things to forget!

The next morning I took the shuttle to the airport and got on a different airline to fly to Lisbon where Ray and Penny picked me up.  We drove immediately to Obidos, a medeival town that has lots of little shops and an ancient wall you can walk on.  Penny is a great shopper, but Ray pooped out about half way through.  I bought a few things, a wall hanging and some Christmas linen.  We had a light lunch of soup and bread at a place they've never tried before.  Boy, that soup was really good.  Here are some pictures of the town.  I had to borrow Penny's camera and then they downloaded the pictures onto a CD for me.

Very popular all over Portugal are the myriad of pottery styles.  Penny and Ray collect certain patterns.  At this point I don't have anywhere to put such things so I didn't purchase any.

After we were done at Obidos we headed to friends of Ray and Penny's for Thanksgiving dinner.  There were nine adults and two children there so it was quite a crowd and wonderful food.  Penny's sweet potato dish is to die for.  It was nice to meet their friends, have a nice meal, and spend the first holiday away from home with family.  We got home around 10:30, early by Portugese standards, but I was tired.  Ray and Penny allowed me to use their phone to call home and say Happy Thanksgiving to family, that was great.

Trier

One of the places I've been to several times now is Trier.  Trier is the oldest city in Germany and it's about a half hour away from where I live.  It still has several Roman pieces of architecture still standing.  The best introduction I got to the city was a train trip to Trier offered by the base.  We had a real tour guide who gave us a quick overview on how to use the trains in Germany, then we took a bus to the Bitburg train station and then got on the train to Trier.  Along the way, our tour guide, Easter, gave us quite a bit of history about Trier. (Of course, I don't remember much.)  One of the interesting things was that Trier was once completely walled in and at one time the number of residents that Trier currently has was the same in Roman times except that they were all inside the walls, a much smaller area.  The only part of the wall left standing is the Porta Nigra (Black Gate).  I will have to add the pictures later.

The area around the Porta Nigra is a great shopping area, the Hauptmarkt.  There are some great shops, including the U.S.'s own Claire's and restaurants.  Also nearby is the Trier Cathedral, the Roman baths, a pretty good museum and a Roman ampitheatre. (pics to come)  One of my favorite places to eat is right in the center where you can get a great Turkish Kebap/Doner.  They're very good.

In getting off the train at Trier we had to walk about five blocks to the Hauptmarkt and along the way Easter pointed out a building that during World War II was one of the headquarters for the Nazis.

Trier is definitely one of the places I will take any visitors who come visit me because it's a pretty cool place.

Cologne

Hi Again,

A couple of weeks ago I took an ITT tour to Cologne.  ITT is the office on base that provides tours to local areas and nearby countries.  Cologe, or Koln (picture two dots over the o), is about two and a half hours north of the base.  I was still living in temporary quarters and had no car, so the morning of the trip I had to walk to the other side of the base where the bus would pick us up for the trip.  The bus then went to the base in Bitburg to pick up another group of people.  I learned quickly that I mistakenly forgot to bring a pillow, oh I wish I had.

The scenery on the ride there was very beautiful but we were moving too fast to get any good pictures.  When we arrived there we found out there was some sort of motorcycle brigade thing going and all the main roads the bus driver was used to was closed.  So, we drove around for about an hour while the bus driver tried to find a place to stop and let us off near the chocolate factory.  By the time he drove back to the main road, the motorcycle thing was over and he was able to drop us off where he originally planned.  What a waste of an hour.  Oh well.

We proceeded into the chocolate factory and took a self-guided tour, kind of difficult since none of us could speak German to read anything.  It was interesting though to see the machines used to make all the different kinds of chocolate shapes and the molds for the hollowed out Santas and such.  When we were done we went to the store and bought some chocolate (of course).  I found some chocolate in the shape of a computer keyboard and another in the shape of a cell phone.  Perfect!  I also found a tin sign that I have sent to my son, something like: "Teenagers, tired of your annoying parents?  Move out, get a job, and pay your own bills while you still know everything!"  I thought it was great.

Throughout the tour of the chocolate factory I hung out with two other single ladies there on the tour.  One was a nanny for a doctor on the base and another was a counselor working for the family readiness center and was going to be here for just a month (they rotate in and out).  After the tour and the chocolate buying we walked along the Rhine river and enjoyed seeing the boats and such, it was a really nice day.  We found a restaurant to have lunch and then walked around the town a little bit until we reached the cathedral.

The cathedral is huge and beautiful.  It amazes me how people were able to build something like this so many years ago.  Here are just a few pictures:

One interesting thing happened while we were in the square outside of the cathedral.  We were looking at the chalk paintings some artists had drawn on the ground (and had a hat or box for donations) when we noticed about four college-aged kids in yellow hazmat suits gather in the middle with a big metal can.  All of the sudden they banged the can and over a hundred people just suddenly dropped to the ground like they were dead and the guys in the yellow suits started drawing white chalk lines around them.  Since we couldn't understand what they were saying we just assumed they were protesting either nuclear weapons or some other hazardous material.  Very interesting.

After that we just sat outside by a cafe and people watched until it was time to go.  It was a good day and a good trip.  Next time I think I will take the train up here if any visitors I have want to come see the city.  Taking the train would be much easier then trying to find a place to park around here.

Tschuss

Catchin Up

Hi Everyone,

Sorry it's been so long.  I never would have guessed that getting phone and Internet service at my house would be such an ordeal.  I've been trying to get service for awhile, but the companies say there are no ports.  Apparently there are only so many ports per village and if two people move out and three move in, that third person is out of luck, which is apparently me.  My landlord was kind enough to make his Internet connection wireless and now I can piggy back on his service.  It's extremely, extremely slow though because it has a hard time getting through the thick walls.  Their router is in a window and so is mine but it's still tough.

So anyway, let me try to catch up.  I've moved into my new place as of the the end of October.  Here are some pics.  The first one is the river that runs right along the property.  The landlord channel part of the river to an electricity generator and provides the electricity for the village and surrounding villages.  Kind of cool.  My lanlord, it turns out, is on the village's council.  The second pic is my place, no that's not my car.  The car is in front of the main door, my garage is to the right of it.  You go up the stairs and the apartment is all upstairs, three bedrooms.  It butts up against a hill, so out the back door of the apartment is a small fenced in yard.  Perfect for Blitz.  The last pic is the view of my place from the top of the driveway.  I have other pics that I took from the hill above the village, I'll post those later, it took forever just to upload these three pics.

Just before I moved in, I took a tour arranged by the base tour office (ITT) to Cologne.  I'll post about that next with some pics.

Talk to you soon.
Tschuss (Goodbye - pronounced choos)