Thirty-Fifth Post From Türkiye: Germany, France, Luxemborg & Yuletide Activities

Hey! Remember when it was Christmas? Heck, remember when it was Thanksgiving? We spent Thanksgiving 2015 in Germany with our good friends, the Drydens and had the best time. We went to as many Christmas Markets as we could, to get ourselves into a holiday mood for Christmas. It was so fun to finally get to go to the markets. I have just missed them several times, so this year I took the reins of the Rowe Family Trip planning into my own hands and booked the trip. But with all that Holiday fun, the best part was hanging out with our friends!

Traditional rental car photo. Sorry it's so blurry. Be prepared for plenty o' blurry night shots in this post.

We flew into Stuttgart, picked up a rental car and headed into the city center to hit our first Christmas Market. It wasn't even really open, but we didn't care! We had some sausages and candied cashews, toured a church, used a pay toilet and had a grand time!

Advent calendar in the windows of this building.

Miniature village and trains.

A giant animatronic nut cracker. Sort of creepy.

Thanksgiving morning the Drydens took us to see Burg Nanstein. A great, red stone castle that is near their home. We had fun exploring and it filled the time before the feast.

Looking over the town.

In the dungeon.

Goofy kids. Not sure if they were statues or zombies.

After the feast (that was so delicious!) we headed over to Trier for a visit to their Christmas Market and to see Porta Nigra. A large Roman Gate near the city center.

Blurry photo of the Porta Nigra.

Fresh Mistletoe. Erica bought some, but I refused to kiss Jack under it. No PDA for me.

We were all fascinated by these chocolates shaped like tools. Unfortunately, for the kids, we didn't buy any.

Blurry group shot.

Jack and some kind of delicious fruity dumpling.

The next day we headed out for a day of sightseeing. Our first stop was Verdun and the Battlefield area.

Seriously France! Way to go with the charm! First thing I see is a man fishing off a bridge, by a tower on a misty morning. Love it!

Verdun and the Meuse river

Victory Monument. 

Memorial to those harmed in the Paris Attacks.

Some gorgeous, charming French courtyard we passed on our walk.

Notre-Dame de Verdun Cathedral

Sites around the battlefield.

Gorgeous forest where a lot of fighting took place.

The ground was so muddy and it made me think about soldiers trying to walk, fight and live in it. Definitely a thoughtful morning for me.

 Fort Douaumont

Memorial inside of the fort for German soldiers buried behind this wall.

155mm gun turret

You can still see how torn up the ground is around this area.

Trench.

Fort Vaux

The Cemetery and Douaumont ossuary.

From Verdun we headed into Luxemburg, for another Christmas market experience.

Ice skating rink.

Excuse the snow flake spots on our lens. It was a tad bit too chilly for us to ride the Ferris wheel.

Jack enjoys a waffle and some kinder punch.

Trum chose the bungee jump for his one allowed ride. I think he enjoyed it but not the wedgie that came with it. 

The next day we took a little road trip through Germany with Erica and Sarah. Our first stop was in Mainz to see the cathedral and of course, the market!

Sarah being normal; Truman being weird. 

Getting a little tired of posing for photos.

Since he was tired of posing we gave him the camera and this is what we got. Pictures of little pants-less, wooden musicians.

We continued our road trip with a stop in Bacharach. It is a fabulous little medieval town. But apparently we were there on the day that the whole town closes down. There was no one around and all the shops were closed. Erica and I were like, "Come on people! Open up! We want to spend our money here!" But they didn't care and so we just wandered around and enjoyed the charm of the town.

Reading about the town hall, or post office or something...

A good portion of our drive was along the Rhein River. Gorgeously dotted with castles.

We made a stop at Rheinfels Castle, and were waiting around for a tour but we got cold and bored so took off instead. This is what happens when you live near castles. You just can't get too excited about seeing a new one. Lame, I know.

Overlooking the Rhein.

Next we headed into Koblenz, first to see the Rhein at its confluence with the Moselle, where the Deutsches Eck (German Corner) and its monument (Emperor William I on horseback) are situated.

This monument was MASSIVE! The picture doesn't do it justice. But I love that if you look close you can see Truman and Sarah waving from inside the monument.

At this point, Erica was starting to understand what it meant to be in Jack's Army. We were finally allowed a food and bathroom break at the Christmas Market.

Trum was not too sure about this Cherub.

Mmmm, sausages, mushrooms and fries. So healthy!

Our last stop was in Cochem. I hope I get to see this great town in the day time and visit the castle sometime in the future. But it was a nice way to end our day.

There are no pictures to show it, but after leaving Cochem our GPS took us on a crazy route through the mountains and back roads of Germany. Would have been fun in the not pitch dark. All part of the road trip fun!

The next day we had to head home so we headed back to Stuttgart, stopping at the market one more time to get a few things before heading to the airport.

Best way to finish up an adventure: weird hurdy-gurdy man outside the Louis Vuitton Store.