Christmas Markets

Christmas markets start here on November 24. The markets have local craftsmen set up stands and sell their goods. You can find candy, food, wine all filling up the air with their intoxicating scents. The markets are in small towns, villages, and cities. I will keep adding the ones I visit to this post.

For history on the markets you can go to http://www.germany-christmas-market.org.uk/

On the 24 I took the kids to the opening night of Wiesbaden's market. They had performers in the sky, singers and fireworks.

November 26

We headed down to Rudesheim for their Christmas market. The town has set up the market through narrow streets which have been decorated with St. Nicholas and Christmas trees. We went here with my quality friends Jen, Bob and kids, and Trishia with her boys.

Bob of course was Bob....

Rudesheim is know to have the largest Nativity Set in Europe. You do have to pay .50 euro to take a picture. So make sure it is a good one!

A Little Hot Chocolate

A Little Bit of Santa Clause

December 4th

Ok this is the last Christmas Market. They all seem to start to look the same after awhile. The Mainz Christmas Market has a eleven metre (36') high Christmas pyramid from the Ore Mountains in eastern Germany. It stands directly at the center of Höfchen square. This was our last market of the season. I think I have had enough kinder wine, hot chocolate and brauts to last me until next year.

Naked Spa Day

Well I set off today for the great Naked Unknown. In my head I am thinking that everyone is going to be walking around naked, checking in naked, getting a drink naked, going into the sauna naked. So I had a 45 min drive to think about the naked unknown!!!

I get to the door and 8 other people are waiting outside for the doors to open at 10 AM. I check out my soon to be naked company and see that I am at least 20 years younger than these people. Good start. I stand in line at the end to see what they all do to check in. Most of them have big duffel bags....was I suppose to bring things? So when I see that some are renting towels and robes, I think...thank goodness!

I get up to check in and they say "oh you must be Kara Foulk", yes I am the one with all the appointments today. They tell me to go to the top floor to the change rooms and that my first apt is at 11:10. So I go up the stairs and I see 10 different changing rooms. No signs saying men to the right, women to the left, just dressing rooms. Now imagine what saloon doors look like, that is what the doors to the changing rooms look like. I can pass a room and see who is there changing since you can see from the shoulders up and knees down. First room is a couple, then another couple, then more men...so I keep passing the rooms until I find one to myself. Not ready for undressing in front of people yet.

I stick on my robe and head downstairs to the information desk. They tell me my first appointment is at 11:10 so I should enjoy the next hour exploring the rooms. So I head off to the sauna area. Already my German Naked counterparts are laying down basking in all their glory in almost every room. So I keep looking until I find a room where I can be by myself, work my way slowly into naked groups. I disrobe and go in naked. I can do this, no worries. Then the door opens, oh just some woman. She brings in her towel and lays down for the long haul. After 5 min I am done with that sauna, too hot. I head back out and go into the roman sauna which is a little bit cooler. I join the other 2 men and 2 ladies already laying down, feet up, and relaxing. As I go from room to room all the Germans have brought their own towels to sit on. In the brochure no one was sitting on towels, am I suppose to be sitting on a towel? Of course would I want to sit on this seat if some old naked hairy man was sitting here before me without a towel? So I go to get a towel to save the poor German's from sitting on my butt sweat.

Most of the people their were older couples in the morning, but as the day got later ladies would come with their girlfriends, and younger couples appeared. But for now its just me and myself for an hour, all alone, with all these naked people. Now I know we have all seen a naked man before, but to be surrounded by so many naked men...so many different shapes and sizes, all to be just hanging out, bobbing up and down in the whirl pool, swinging as they walk, it was a little to much. Especially when I had no one to talk about it with! So after an hour of my German bonding I went for my massage.

The massage was easy enough. Walk in, get naked, get on a table face down, have the lady roll up a little towel and put it on your crack. Yea that is totally covering me up. Then it is time to roll over. Again, roll over naked and then she puts a little towel on your privates. As soon as the oil comes on, the towel comes off the boobs. So as I am getting all lubed up someone knocks on the door to give my masseuse a message. Oh sure come on in, chat, take up a chair, I am just naked!

So off to lunch where I can wear a robe, thank you.

Now it is time for the facial. The lady greets me and tells me in German that she does not speak any English. I tell her in English, no problem and just point to my face hands and feet. We are good!

So I walk into the room and take off my robe. I sit in the chair, yes naked, she starts to put the chair down like a dentist and then puts a towel on me. Now normally when I get a facial, they are relaxing. I little probing, but for the most part relaxing.

This facial was from HELL! I wanted to get up and run out! But I remembered that I was naked so not a good idea...maybe that is why we are naked. hmmm

So she washes my face and then gets out the scary bright light with the huge magnifying glass. My eyes are closed since if I had opened them I am sure I would have been blinded for life. I can hear her pulling open wrappers and metal objects falling onto a table. First she starts to pluck the eyebrows (did not ask for that, must have needed it). Then she starts to go for the clogged pores. I swear to you I have not felt this much pain since I was in labour! She is pushing so hard I swear she is going to put a hole into my skin. Just as I thought the pain could not get any worse I would hear her grab a different instrument and start to what sounded like clip and pick...was she digging, cutting, what was she doing! She was cleaning pores that I swear I did not have. She started on the forehead and then when down one side of my face. I kept thinking "go to my happy place, go to my happy place.....find my happy place, where the hell is my happy place! I don't have a happy place"! So after she gets to my chin I have started Lamaze breathing...hehehe whooooo, hehehe whooooo. She starts to laugh and takes the light off my face for a second. I am sweating up a storm from the pain. So after my 10 second break she starts on the other side. Now I am laughing to myself because I am thinking "I am so writing about this in my blog, should I write in the 3rd person, write out the sound effects"?When she was finally done I swear my face was swollen and hot! I thought this must what it feels like to have botox. I swear I did not have one wrinkle when she was finished because my face was swollen! She put cold ice on my face to calm it down. Did that sound like fun? No, no, no. In case you were wondering.

So she leaves me laying down and starts to work on my hands and feet. I guess and mani/pedi at this place means we shape your nails, push down your cuticles, buff the nails and put lotion on you.

I miss my $35.00 mani/pedi at Sandy nails in CT!!

Now in 3rd person, I say to myself "self I am done with all this great relaxing and I am going to cool off in the nice salt pool". Now the place is packed. People are everywhere. This is definitely something you want to do with your spouse or a friend. Us Americans just do not know how to relax, or maybe its just me. People are just laying on lounge chairs reading books, newspapers, sleeping, or just chatting. I can lay out to relax if I know I am getting something in return...like a suntan. I can read a book....if I know I get to go to sleep after the next chapter. I do not know how they do it, just relax.

So I think I have had enough German relaxation for awhile. Now for some good American relaxing, put my feet up, open a can of diet coke and watch a TV show! What can be better than that!

www.baederhaus.de

bring a robe, towel, sandals and leave your modesty at the door. ; )

Stupid, freaking, dumb German driving test!

There are 11 states that do not have a reciprocity agreement between that state and Germany. CT is one of them. Do they not think such a small state has cars? That we do not leave our states for long drives? That we do not know what a stop sign looks like?

This test, the lovely German written test is impossible! I have a 62 page translated book to memorize and a CD ROM with flash cards and practice tests to try and learn all the signs and rules for Gemany! Do these signs look like something we would ever need to know in the states? Come on! How many signs can you have for "no parking" and "where to park" I guess about 10 for Germany.

I took the practice exam about 6 times and kept failing! There are 30 questions. Each question in worth 2, 3, 4 or 5 points. So if you get two questions wrong that are worth 5 points you fail the exam. There is a big section on the effects of hashish. Do German's smoke a lot of hashish? A section on "The risk of being human" talking about keeping your feelings in check if you get angry on the road. How not to get distracted.

Or my favorite is Empty mass of the car + 75 kg/ 2 = permissible towed load

WHAT???

So anyway, I go in today to take my test that I have studied for. Completely stressing out. I have been told it takes people 4 times to pass, but I have talked to people that pass on the first try. So me and 10 other teenagers go into a room of computers to take the test. We can all see our drivers licenses on the teachers desk for him to hand out when we pass the test.

So we all start. One by one the kids get up from their desk, grab their jackets and exit out the door. None of them are taking there license. None of them are passing. So when I am one of the last ones in the room I realize that no one has passed the test! So I press "Mark Test" and the computer tells me

FAILED!!

So the teacher comes up to me and says "sorry too many wrong", really? Is that what the failed in the big red letters mean? So now I have to take the stupied, freaking, dumb German driving test again in another 2 weeks! I have one year to pass it! Lets see if I can do it.

My best Boyfriend

Today was a good day. My good friend Bryan who I have known since my days in OH came to Germany for business. He got here this morning from Wales, and was in Scottland and in London before that where he picked me up 6 diet cokes!! He was in...I don't know, like 10 different countries (probably more) before that, he has been traveling since the end of Sept for Microsoft. Insane!

So I pick him up in Frankfurt at the Sheraton Airport hotel, but it takes me 3 times to go around the airport before I figure out how to get to the hotel. Just kept passing it from the outside. Germany will have 5 different signs to tell you where you can park, but not one sign that says "turn here for hotel"?

So I take him back to Wiesbaden and find a traditional German restaurant. The closest people in the place to our age were the 60 year olds behind us. So this means it had to be good, right? Well we could not figure out the menu, I had out my iPhone to translate "Slaughter plate", not going with that one. So the server was able to find some english menus and we were set. I saw German potato pancakes with apple sauce. I just had some of these in Poland so I knew they would be good...except when these came out, they were big size McDonalds hashbrowns! I first ordered 5 and the server said "oh no, 3 is good enough". So after I ate one, I was good! Bryan had some type of Schnitzel and shared that with me. So basically we were still hungry after that meal. We found a bakery and had some more good and healthy apple strudel. We were not feeling too good after that, but we were full.

So after picking up my kids we head off to my house to wait for my handyman to check out my fridge that has not worked since Sat night! All my food is sitting outside since it is colder outside, than in my fridge. Handyman came and said my fridge was kaput! So I get a new one, yea!!

Ben missed out on all the quality bonding time with Bryan, but Bryan left Ben candy corn (Ben's favorite) and Oreo's for my girls. Bryan is a keeper! Our friends from OH were all quality people!! Felt good to have home visit Germany.