Our German Pre-Christmas Adventure

As you will recall, Dear Readers, Agnes and I spent two weeks in Germany earlier this month, visiting her father and cousins and our son and his family. You probably saw my two earlier posts that I published from Germany here and here, so I won’t bore you by recapping anything I already mentioned in those posts … I’ll just provide some pictures and a few additional vignettes to round out the story. Sadly, I didn't get that many good outdoor pictures because the weather was so awful the entire time we were there, but these are the best I have to share with you ...

Our first stop was in Singen am Hohentwiel, where Agnes's father lives. As it happens, Singen was holding its first-ever Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market) this year, right on the Rathausplatz in front of our hotel. One of the things not associated with the Weihnachtsmarkt, but still interesting, was this statue in front of the Rathaus (City Hall) - the Concrete Porsche*. It's ugly, has a very hard ride, and doesn't go anyplace fast, but gets great gas mileage ...

There were the official greeters at the entrance to the Weihnachtsmarkt ...

My iPhone didn't take great nighttime pictures, but this one of the main entrance to the Weihnachtsmarkt was not too bad ...

While in Singen, we also joined up with Agnes's cousin Bernadette for a trip to a somewhat larger and fancier Weihnachtsmarkt in the border city of Konstanz. In this picture, a few enterprising Santas demonstrate how they cope with too-small chimneys ...

We stopped at a stand Agnes remembered from her previous visit, where they prove that Germans can make wonderful schnapps from just about anything that grows ... and which makes for a colorful picture ...

There were also many gaily-decorated kiosks and stalls that helped make the otherwise gray, dull day a little warmer and more festive ...

Konstanz is located on the border between Germany and Switzerland (the border runs right through town), and on the shores of the Bodensee (otherwise known as Lake Constance). Part of the Weihnachtsmarkt was actually located on board a cruise ship docked at the harbor ...

That was probably my least-favorite part of the Weihnachtsmarkt, because there was so much crammed into the very tight confines of the ship.

From Singen, we went on to the little town of Schwedelbach, where we spent a few days with our son and his family, which includes four of our six grandchildren. We managed a nice group picture with the Munchkins, which is a feat similar to herding cats, but harder ...

Marcy, at 14, is our oldest grandchild, and a beautiful young lady. She's also a great Big Sister ... here she is in her ballet costume (for the recital we sadly weren't able to stay long enough to see) dancing with our youngest grandchild, Ava (age 2) ...

 Ava also loves to get her nails done, and Marcy was happy to oblige ...

Ava and I got along quite well. I got used to hearing her tell me to "read," "come," and "play," and she has wonderful manners for a two year-old ... she always says "peez," "tanku," and "wekkum."

The boys got their own picture - here, our son Jason and grandsons Joe and Noah demonstrate how much respect one gets around here ...

After reluctantly leaving Schwedelbach we took the train to the city of Reutlingen to visit Agnes's cousin Anna and her husband Volker. Reutlingen has its own Weihnachtsmarkt, which we visited (of course ... someone has to help drink all that Gluehwein and eat all those Wursts and Schupfnudeln and such). Again, the nasty weather kept me from getting many decent photos, but I did like this one. Those of you who are Facebook friends with me will recognize this as my new cover photo ...

I have lots more pictures, and may go ahead and post a few more in the coming days, but these will have to do for now. In spite of the crummy weather, we had a wonderful time with family and friends, and would go back again in a New York minute.

That's all for now ... time to get ready for work. Come back tomorrow for more thoughts and an update on the voting for Ass Clown of the Year.

Have a good day. Stay dry.

Bilbo

* You may recall some of my older posts, in which I shared photos of some of the hideously awful statues dotted around Singen. I can't believe someone paid money for some of them.