More Christmas Programs

McBe and his preschool age group-mates sang songs during the later church service on Sunday morning.

ringin' the bells

Miss W's program was in the afternoon. Thank you G'ma H for the photo of the whole group, grades K-8.

Nothing like kids' programs to put one in the Christmas spirit. This is why we come back to SD in December!

Merry Christmas from Our Little Wiseman

McBe had his preschool Christmas Program before Christmas. Here are some photos from our Little Wiseman.

Part 2 of the program shared secular songs and holiday wishes.

This was the first of three weekend G'Kids programs

and weekend of our family Christmas...

but Mother Nature had something to say about the celebration.

After all the Europe posting I was just too burned out

to post another thing. Sorry. I am back for now.

We have a couple more days in SD before flying back to AZ

for what we think is a more reasonable winter.

Merry Christmas

Even the Christmas card & letter is a New Years Card this year.

Cologne, Germany

The 3 of us hopped a train from Brussels to Cologne for a day trip. The plan was to visit the Christmas Markets (there were 3 of them) and to get a least 1 geocache in Germany (we got 3).

But we got a bonus surprise. We stepped outside the train station to the magnificent view of the Cologne Cathedral.

This massive Gothic structure began in 1248. The bones of the Three Magi were moved from Milan to Cologne in 1164 to the former cathedral. Cologne became the focus of pilgrimages during the Middle Ages. A new structure suitable for such an important cathedral and pilgrimage church became the largest in Europe at the time. 

not the main entrance

beautiful stained glass windows

part of the pipe organ

another of the stained glass window

Shrine of the Three Magi

church pew

view from the south side

where one Christmas Market was located

west end, the main entrance

the main door

some of the detail

street sign in Cologne

a gargoyle on the cathedral

gargoyles serve the purpose of rain spouts

location of 1 of the 3 geocaches

a Roman gate

My photos do not do justice to the cathedral. It was heavily damaged during WWII; we saw a model of the damage in the train station. Amazing what has been done in 70 years to repair the damage. 

We enjoyed visiting 2 of the 3 Christmas Markets, tasting the local fare and admiring the handcrafted items. Photos are in a previous post. We also had dinner in Germany, but that is the next post.

Balls & Glory

As OFD and I were walking along the cobbled streets in Brussels, we were checking on possible dinner options. It had been another long, busy day and we wanted to eat in a sit-down place rather than grabbing things from the street vendors. Then we saw this...

OFD said she had heard of the place and it had good reviews. Their specialty? Stuffed meatballs. Hubby was game and so was I. Balls & Glory for dinner in Brussels.

We could choose from 4  stuffed meatballs on the menu that evening. They offered meatballs made of pork, chicken and vegetables stuffed with different fillings. We could choose either stoemp or salad as the side.

pork meatball stuffed with onion & cheese

on a bed of stoemp with sauce

their choices

I chose a pear and red cabbage stuffing

I think it was chicken meatball

stoep is mashed potatoes with carrots and cabbage

a sauce is drizzled around the form-shaped stoemp

Bowls of apples and oranges were setting on the tables as were carafes of water with glasses. OFD ordered their specialty lemonade and Hubby a beer. The food was delicious. The meatballs were coated in breadcrumbs, spices & herbs and then deep fried. The stoemp was good, just more than any of us could eat. There are numerous locations in Belgium. They serve products direct from the farm to the restaurant. Unique. Interesting. Delicious. Our meal was ready in 10 minutes.

After dinner we parked Hubby on a bench and finished our chocolate shopping. The Grand Place had been converted to a Christmas light show.

there were also green lights and blue lights

AND many more people

Now I understood why there were no Christmas

Market stalls in the plaza

Speaking of more people...I never felt concerned for my or our safety at any of the markets, where it was more crowded with people moving about. I did notice more visible homeless people at the train station nearest our hotel in Brussels. We were approached by beggars IN the train station asking for coins, often older ladies (older than me) wearing long wool coats and head scarves. When we said no, they left us alone. I also noted many homeless people sleeping at the station, but outside on cardboard sheets. They were rousted in the morning and their sleeping floor was power washed. No one bothered us, but I wished at the time we did not have to use that door area as our exit/entrance to the station. The station had a visible police presence. We had no incidents, so all went well for those 2 mornings and 2 evenings.

Brussels was a first for all 3 of us. Without a tour of some sort, I know very little about the city. We found two geocaches, had some good, unique food and enjoyed the shopping and tasting. We were able to communicate and get around the city. It is in a good location for getting around Europe on day trips, but I'm not certain I need to go back to Brussels. I think there are other places I would rather visit.

The Brussels Adventure

You know how sometimes you think you remember when something specific or special happened but when you go to check it out, you were oh, so wrong? That was the situation with the Chunnel, the train tunnel under the English Channel connecting England and France. I was so certain it was completed in the mid-80's while I was still teaching in a classroom, learning about it through Weekly Reader. NOT SO. It wasn't started until 1988, although the original idea was presented in 1802! It was completed in 1994 at a cost of $21 billion. It's 23.5 miles of track provides passenger train service on one track/tunnel line and the Eurotunnel Shuttle for international freight trains and road vehicles on the second set of tracks in its own tunnel. OFD booked tickets on the Chunnel to get from London to Brussels. I was so excited to ride the Eurostar.

nice comfy seats around a table for the 3 of us

made only one stop in France before arriving in Brussels

Eurostar travels 186 mph (only 100 mph in the Chunnel)

a ride of 2 hours

We arrived at the big central train station and had to switch to a local train/metro service line to get to our hotel. Again OFD used the metro system to get us from one part of the city to the other. She makes the process appear easy and painless. That would not be the case if we were doing it.

Arriving around noon on Monday gave us the afternoon for checking out the Christmas Market in Brussels. We grabbed some lunch at the train/metro system station, eating quiche and some dessert.

a raspberry tart

Then it was off to the center of the city for some geocaching and shopping. I know you all know what came first!

there is a more famous statue of a little boy peeing

this one was in the area we were in that afternoon

the statues are behind locked gates

to discourage theft & vandalism

Christmas Market stalls

Grand Place

huge city square completely surrounded by historic guild houses

dating back to the 14th century

Brussels City Museum and Town Hall

Museum was once the Breadhouse

Town Hall or Brussels City Museum

Town Hall or King's House was once the cloth merchants guild

location of another geocache

today it is a restaurant

beer museum in the Brewers Guild House

an ornate guild house built in 1698

ornate carvings

and statues on the buildings

window display in a lace shop

some Belgian lace

lots and lots of chocolate shops

dark, milk and white chocolate options for St. Nicholas

only one shop gave us a sample

we bought 3 boxes of her chocolates

these cookies (in a smaller size) were yummy

the stalls meandered along the winding streets

it was easy to get disoriented

bright yellow paint made this business stand out

Noel cakes

beer shop

250 Belgian beers

how do you choose?

chocolate museum

this is why our feet were sore and tired

Marriott Hotel

Hubby mentioned on our 4 hour drive home after the 9 hours on the plane...that he was amazed at how the old buildings are kept in the European cities we visited. The buildings are old. They are made of materials from nature, not man-made products like so many buildings in the U.S. that are torn down when we feel their life expectancy is over. I posted this picture because it is the modern Marriott hotel in Brussels. It is in an OLD building, but I bet all the rooms are modern, like our hotels in Paris & London. They were in old buildings, but everything inside was modern and clean.

We also had Wednesday morning in Brussels before taking the train to Paris. OFD and I decided we really needed to see Manneken-Pis, the most famous statue in Brussels.

very few people around when we found him

"Manneken-Pis invites you to stroll through his Dressing Room at the Brussels City Museum in the Grand-Palace. The capital's most stylish ketje has over 800 outfits, including those of a cosmonaut, Nelson Mandela and Elvis Presley! Plus you can find out about his unusual history closely linked to that of Brussels itself depicted in the museum." 

We did not visit his dressing room. The boy is 24 inches tall and on a side street away from main foot and auto traffic. Street signs helped us locate him. He was created in 1618 or 1619 and has an interesting history.

This was the crowd when we left! That is when two armed policeman arrived and stood on the corner watching the people. We were hoping to find a geocache near here, but finally gave up. OFD bought a famous Belgian waffle for 1Euro, but it was not as good as the one we had the day before in Cologne.   

The evening meal we had while shopping in the Christmas Market is worthy of its own post. That's next.