This past weekend we headed to Frankfurt to visit two of Joe's former Peace Corps Tanzania volunteer-acquaintances. We experienced the "ICE" train for the first time ("Inter-City Express"; which is the German version of the Bullet train, although it's not allowed to go as fast). We've wondered with other Americans why it has an English and not a German name, but, alas, "Keine Ahnung" ("No idea..."). Fortunately, the couple owns two cars, and so we experienced our first ride in a private vehicle since arriving in Germany. I was a little squished between the couple's two kids!
Because we all needed to do Christmas shopping, we spent most of the weekend visiting Christmas Markets ("Weihnachtsmarkt"). Christmas markets are shopping events for Germans, of course, but more than that they are a great excuse to drink mulled wein (Glühwein; it's COLD out there, and Glühwein is HOT!), and eat different kinds of sausage. There is also a special kind of Glühwein that involves a flaming cone of rum-soaked sugar that we tried for the first tame. Pretty much tasted just like Gluhwein.
We went to one Christmas Market in a town called "Bad Homburg", which the 4 1/2 year old son of our hosts called "Bah Humbug". Actually, the atmosphere was quite the opposite, but that was pretty cleverly ironic of him, although I'm not sure he intended it as such. We also went for a soak in the family's local "Bad", which had a heated outdoor pool that overlooked some castle ruins. One final observation from our weekend was that German words can have three consonants in a row, as evidenced by this sign.
This past weekend we headed to Frankfurt to visit two of Joe's former Peace Corps Tanzania volunteer-acquaintances. We experienced the "ICE" train for the first time ("Inter-City Express"; which is the German version of the Bullet train, although it's not allowed to go as fast). We've wondered with other Americans why it has an English and not a German name, but, alas, "Keine Ahnung" ("No idea..."). Fortunately, the couple owns two cars, and so we experienced our first ride in a private vehicle since arriving in Germany. I was a little squished between the couple's two kids!
Because we all needed to do Christmas shopping, we spent most of the weekend visiting Christmas Markets ("Weihnachtsmarkt"). Christmas markets are shopping events for Germans, of course, but more than that they are a great excuse to drink mulled wein (Glühwein; it's COLD out there, and Glühwein is HOT!), and eat different kinds of sausage. There is also a special kind of Glühwein that involves a flaming cone of rum-soaked sugar that we tried for the first tame. Pretty much tasted just like Gluhwein.
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