Catching up.....

This week flew by. Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy days at work.

Wednesday was St. Nikolaus Day here in Germany. On this day, the children are all supposed to put their shoe in front of their door and St. Nikolaus (Santa Claus) comes and fills their shoe with goodies, usually chocolates and perhaps a small gift. Well, I didn't get a shoe full on Wednesday, but I did get a stocking full on Tuesday night. My friend made me this stocking and filled it with chocolates and a tiny little book. I love traditions and holidays, but I wasn't expecting to participate in this one, so this was definitely a fun surprise!


Wednesday, we left for a business trip. But, because of the meetings I had, I couldn't leave until 4:30 p.m. And because we were driving, the trip took 8 hours. So we arrived around midnight. Then we couldn't find our hotel. And it took forever to find someone who could speak either German or English. So we checked into the hotel really late and went straight to bed. The next day was filled with meetings. Then in the evening, we went into the city, which was very pretty. And my colleague, using my camera, took a bunch of pictures. Here's one:
But what is it? Well, I asked the same question, because they almost all turned out like this. I had my camera set on night scene, which means that you have to hold it still longer, because the shutter is open longer. Apparently, he didn't. And apparently, he also didn't check to see if the picture had turned out after taking it. And then my battery went dead during dinner. So I don't really have any good pictures. Which I'm very sad about. But we did get a picture of how my soup was served at dinner...
It's a little blurry, but you can probably tell that that it is a small pot hanging on a stand over a tealight. It was a delicious goulash soup.

We drove back on Friday. I think that I drove for six of the eight hours. Somehow, though, when you can go 110-120 mph, it just isn't so bad to drive for that long. (Wherever did I get this need for speed???)

Yesterday, we went to the Christmas Market in Ludwigsburg. It's a Baroque-style market and was very pretty. But the camera drama continued. I had switched my batteries, but apparently, the batteries I put in weren't new. So after two pictures, they died. Here are the two pictures.

The Christmas pyramid is very popular in Germany. It's a pyramid of figures with candles and at the top there's a "fan," which is rotated by the heat rising from the candles. This one was oversized (about as tall as an adult man) and was lit with electric candles.
















This one's a little dark, I realize, but it's an angel. The body is sculpted out of metal and the wings and the circle are made out of christmas lights. These were standing high in the air, above the market stalls and were absolutely gorgeous.


At the Christmas market, I was reminded of how small Germany is, when I ran into some people from work. My friends were very surprised when someone loudly called my name and then I was hugging a bunch of people that they had never seen before....there were three of them and two of their spouses. I had seen the one guy at the Volksfest this summer, but the other two I haven't seen since I left Michigan. That was a really nice coincidental meeting!

Then it started to rain, unfortunately, so we left the market. Snow would have been nice, but rain so wasn't.

Today after church, I went back to the Stuttgart Christmas market by myself. I saw lots, bought a few things and ate some Bratwurst. Sorry, no pictures, because nothing's open on Sunday, so I didn't buy batteries. Well, I probably could have found them somewhere in the train station, but they would have cost a small fortune. Another funny coincidence today - the chairman of my company was signing oranges at a charitable booth at the Christmas market (don't ask me why oranges....). They were selling for 1 Euro and the money was of course completely for charity. I thought that was pretty neat.

Tomorrow and Tuesday should also fly by, as the days at work are packed with meetings. Tomorrow night, I will have dinner with my friends from Michigan who are also here on assignment. And then on Tuesday, I have to take the cats to the cat house by 6:30 at the latest, so I can't even work late. Especially because I will have to make three complete trips up and down the stairs to get each of them to the car. I am sure the lady will take good care of them, but at the same time, I hate having to give them to a stranger for 2.5 weeks.....Speaking of my cats, Miss Jemma was watching TV a couple of weeks ago....
If you look closely, you'll see that there's a cat on the TV - I guess she was trying to make friends......

Tuesday night, I think we're going to try to fit in one more Christmas market (they're fun and addictive!) and then it will be Wednesday and I'll be getting up way too early to get to the train station at an unlovely hour to be at the airport in Frankfurt at a reasonable time.

I'm sure I'll have no trouble getting out of Germany and hopefully they'll let me back into the States (I always seem to have the pleasure of having my luggage searched....). And then we'll head to Red Robin for some Diet Coke, a Turkey burger and endless fries..........