November started off with St. Martin's Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Martin's_Day). The children of the town parade with hand made lanterns ("laternas"), following St. Martin on his horse along with musicians. The local children have actual candles in their lanters, not battery operated ones like we had. After the parade, the children watch a small play of when St. Martin cut his cape in half and gave half to a beggar. That night God appeared to St. Martin in a dream, revealing Himself as the beggar. After the parade the children go to all the stores, shops and some homes in the town. They are required to sing one of several St. Martin's day songs. See the link here, http://youtu.be/ssm3P9-rpu4 If they satisfy the owner of the shop, they receive candy. Much like our Halloween, except they actually need to do something for the candy! FYI, it's not just candy, our favorite Ice Cream shop was giving out single scoop cones and the fast food place was giving out plates of French Fries. Last Saturday, we had a Bayer Expat family day. They put on an amazing day for us. We met at Bayer and while waiting for the bus, Mike was amazed at how I actually knew more people there than he did. Lots of families from school. We took a bus to a cheese making farm and had a delicious breakfast. Then we visited the cows, sheep and goats. After that, we had a tour of the cheese making facility (http://www.thomashof-burscheid.de/). Very interesting but honestly, very stinky.
From there we were back on the bus to head to Schloss Burg (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Castle_(Solingen), a local castle. We were scheduled to take a cable car from the bottom of the hill up to the castle. Super, it will be like the Incline, or the one in Koblenz. Try again. Their idea of a cable car and mine are two WAY different things. What they call a cable car, I call a ski lift. Two people, sitting on a small chair, going up the side of a mountain. (http://www.seilbahn-burg.de/index.php?id=bildergalerie) I know that link is in German, but you can see pictures. Erin wanted to go with a friend from school, which is fine, but Ryan also wanted to go with a boy from his basketball team, also like 8 years old. We weren't so sure about that one. But the guy running the show said the bar locks into place, so they will be fine. So we let them go. When we finally got on, you guessed it, the bar does not lock into place. But we all made it to the top and I guess are better for it.
Yes, Ok, I trusted this guy when he said the bar locks in place.
The cable car even has it's own goat.
Schloss Berg was very cool. They scheduled separate adult's and kid's tours, this should be encouraged at all times. Afterwards we had dinner at a local restaurant and they put on a magic show for the kids.
Sunday, since EVERYTHING is closed in Germany, we headed to The Netherlands for some outlet shopping. I cannot stress this point enough, EVERYTHING is closed. Rumor has it, if you are truly desperate for something, the stores in the airport are open.
This week marked the opening of Christmas Markets (Weinachtsmarkts) all over Germany. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas_market) We headed to 2 in the opening weekend. Friday night we headed to Düsseldorf for dinner. While on the train, we were over-run by business men in suits coming from the Convention Center. Two had pins with German and American flags (Erin and Ryan also have these pins from their German teacher in the US). Mike tried to convince Erin to ask them where they were from. Of course, she wouldn't but he did and obviously, they were from Pittsburgh. In town for the medical sales conference. What are the chances?
Enjoying Hot Chocolate and Kinderpunsch, basically hot Hi-C
We finally found a baseball team for the kids to join. The Ratingen Goosenecks (http://www.goose-necks.de/index.php). They are just beginning their winter season, so Erin and Ryan went to practice Saturday morning. They play indoors in gyms, all winter. Full games. If you can picture it, there basically isn't a left field. If you hit the ceiling it is an out, but you play everything off the left field wall. Home plate is in the corner of the gym, and it is soft-toss, not full pitches. Also, there is a box down the first base line for you to put your bat in on the way to 1st base. If you don't deposit your bat, you are also out. Ryan had a VERY hard time remembering this! So the kids should now be Goosenecks. I'm sure I will be posting more as we get into the winter season.
Saturday afternoon we took the train to Aachen for their Christmas Market. The market is very beautiful, situated between the Cathedral and the Rathaus (like the town hall). Dozens of stands of food and trinkets and drinks. After Mike and Ryan did their time, they headed to a bar to watch Soccer games while Erin and I shopped around. We actually didn't buy anything but food! Carmel Popcorn, Ice Cream, Flammkuchen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarte_flamb%C3%A9e), Reisencuchen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reibekuchen0, a chocolate covered apple, and dinner and drinks at the bar. Next time, I swear I start on my Christmas List!
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