Winter Weekend

Ugh! We had high hopes for this weekend! This was our last "real" weekend with Mike and Sue and we wanted to plan one last excursion ... we were debating between Venice and London but decided on staying in Germany and visit the largest and oldest Christmas market in Nuremberg. It was literally a weekend of misadventures ... I guess it makes for good stories to laugh about someday.

Shortly after getting on the road for our 2 hr and 50 minute drive, we couldn't figure out why the "pull-over" areas were packed with cars and people hand washing their windshields? Did all these people not check their washer fluid before hitting the road? haha ... HAHA ... I say HAHAHAHAHA! Within in a few miles we were "one of them"! Apparently the "anti-freeze" is not rated the same here and in the freezing weather our washer fluid was frozen. The roads were wet but it was no longer snowing so everyone just had dirty spray all over their windshields with no way of getting it off except stopping and handwashing the windshields! 5-hours later we arrived in Nuremburg!

Drive 10-15 minutes with a windshield like this ...

Stop ... open sun roof ... poor windshield fluid down windshield ... wipe ... drive ... stop and repeat.

After checking into our hotel and bundling up for the Christmas market ... we stepped outside ... it was below freezing ... way below freezing! We decided to brave it ... the market was within a 1o minute walk from the hotel and it was snowing and beautiful. We headed to the kinder side of the market and Kelty rode a train and nibbled on a warm pretzel. We found a cafe with an open seat and enjoyed a hot chocolate before braving the cold again. We literally ran through the market, weaving through the crowd and tried to stay warm ... it was useless. Al, Mike and Kelty headed back to the hotel and let Sue and I wonder the market for a bit on our own ... Sue and I were so cold we headed back about 15 minutes after they did. All in all we spent about an hour at the market and we were all painfully cold!

Just getting started ... look at Kelty bundled in his little cacoon!

We left Sunday morning before the market was open and tried to stop at Rothenburg for their Christmas market but Kelty would have none of it ... by that point, I couldn't either! Sue and Mike walked around for a few minutes while we watched a movie in the car. We braved the trip back much the same way we did on the way there.

We got home early enough on Sunday to play outside in the snow and enjoy an evening of Gluhwein with our neighbors. At least we ended the weekend on a positive note!