Cologne Christmas Market

Today was another sunny, but cold day for our trip to the Cologne Christmas market. This Christmas market is supposed to be the biggest one in Europe. There were over 100 stalls of vendors and lots, and lots of food. The market was in the shadow of the beautiful Cologne Cathedral. Other than Notre Dame, it's probably my favorite church we've seen in this trip.

The entrance to the Christmas market

Mom enjoys a grilled cheese sandwich

Cecelia tried the Kartofel pouffen (potato pancakes)

And Morgan enjoyed another carousel (or caro-swell as Morgan says)

We all decided that although this market was huge, it was SUPER crowded and we didn't find much that we liked. So far, the Luxembourg Christmas market has been the best so far.

Moving Day!

It's moving day here in Western Europe. Because we can't fit 7 people and all of the luggage in the van at one time, it's been a lot of sitting and waiting. Mom and Morgan managed to find some fun time in between the wait, exploring the playground on the first non-rainy day since we started this trip.

So off we head to Vaals, Netherlands for the second leg of our trip. Should be a fun experience.

Paris

 Today we got up at the crack of dawn (literally) to go to one of my favorite places in Europe, PARIS!!  Morgan was ready and rearing to go with the rest of the chickens, as you can see.  She even had a special shirt on for the day.

We took the "bullet train" from Luxembourg to Paris.  2 hours, with a top speed of 203 miles an hour!

Zorro Bunny came along for the ride.

As soon as we got off the train we headed straight to the Louvre. 

Patrick, Morgan, and the Mona Lisa

The Teagarden Family's favorite paintings in the Louvre, the Four Seasons (or as we call them, the Pickle People).

Venus de Milo

We saw lots of artists who were recreating original paintings.  These folks were very talented.

Winged Victory

The two engineers with the Code of Hammurabi, the original Building Code

St. Germain de Pres, one of the many churches in Paris.

The Catherdral of Notre Dame.  My favorite part of Paris.  There were armed guards with M-16s standing on the square, a constant reminder of the terror that grips the world.

Lips, with the lips!

The Sacre Couer, a beautiful basicilla in the Montmarte section of Paris.  You have to walk up about a million stairs to get there!  But it's worth it.

Next to the Sacre Couer is an area of Paris called Painter's Square.  In 1997 Mom had Jeff and my picture drawn by a very talented artist.  The only thing she wanted us to bring her home was a picture of Morgan.  Here it is in action!

The Arc de Triumph.  It stands at one end of the Champs Elysses, and the Louvre is at the other.  There was a really nice Christmas market all down both sides of the road almost the entire way!

Along the Champs Elysses we found a store just perfect for our gal! 

This is the original meter measurement stick, as modeled by Vanna White, I mean, Cecelia Teagarden.

We ended our Paris day at probably the most famous landmark in the world, La Tour Eiffel.  Because it was dark, the tower was lit up and absolutely beautiful!

It was another wonderful, but very long day.  We are all exhausted, but have such wonderful memories of the capitol of France :)

Cochem and the Bitburger Brewery

Today we didn't have anything scheduled, so we decided to take an impromtu trip to a couple of the cities near Leiwen that were recommended by the staff at the condo. The first town we visited was Cochem, a small town on the Mosel River that has an absolutely gorgeous castle at the very top of the town. And I do mean the TOP.

Once we hiked up to the castle (and I caught my breath...I thought I was going to die on the walk up. The streets were more than a 45 degree angle up in some spots!) we were able to take a guided tour through the castle and the grounds. This is the only furnished castle that we have visited so far on this trip. It was a beautiful castle with some amazing things inside.

This is the view down to the city from the castle. Folks, we started on the street. THAT's how far we hiked up!

The castle was filled with beautiful Dutch plates and tiles.

This was one of the first pieces of moveable furniture to be introduced to the region. Prior to these pieces, all bureaus etc were built into the walls.

This hanging was supposed to be a good luck mermaid. The inhabitants of the castle believed that this mermaid would drive out all the evil and bad luck, and if you walked directly beneath her you would be showered with additional luck.

I tried to figure out a way to get this out of the castle, but figured someone would see me :)

This is the most valuable piece of furniture in the castle. It was made with 8 different types of wood.

After our time in Cochem we drove to Bitburg so that we could take a tour of the Bitburger Brewery. This is a very popular German beer, and it's slogan is Bitte ein Bit (please, one Bit(burger)).

After the tour we all got to sample the beer. I thought it was absolutely gross, very bitter, which I guess is the aim since we are in Bitburg and are drinking Bitburger beer.

Don't worry folks, she's drinking apple juice!

The many different flavors of Bitburger beer.

Even Zorro Bunny got a pretzel and some beer.

For an unplanned day, we really had a wonderful time exploring the cities and touring the brewery. Tomorrow we head to Paris!