I have been taking a lot of pictures lately, and I'm happy with how they've turned out (you can see those here, here, and here), but now I have zero desire to touch my camera. I don't know what my problem is. I had to force myself to get it out last night to take pictures of my Christmas decorations, and didn't even give a hoot about how the pictures looked... so much so that I used my on-camera flash (GASP!) because I didn't feel like changing my settings on my camera or even turning any of the lights on in my house! I was perfectly happy in the glow of my Christmas tree and didn't feel like moving too far off my butt. {Except the picture of my wittle cutesy 4.5 foot Christmas tree- I took that in manual mode, with my ISO cranked up, and every light in my house turned off (because I wasn't going to move anyway, so they just stayed off). It turned out so nicely that I'm going to try it again when there are presents under it.}
I have one more family lined up for Christmas pictures and that'll be it for pictures for a while. I'm sure I'll start itching to pick up my camera by the time we head out for our Christmas vacation, but right now.... I don't even want to look at it.
But that doesn't mean that I want to just sit at home and do nothing until I want to take pictures again! It just means that my brain will have to hold onto the memories rather than rely on my hard drive to conjure them up when I'm feeling nostalgic, because y'all are about to see a whole lot of Christmas on my blog, camera or no camera!
This is our very last Christmas in Germany and I need to soak up every enchanting second I can before it's all over with. Besides, with all of the sh*t on social media right now, I have to get a little enchantment back into my spirit in some way, and I feel like Christmas makes for a perfect spiritual cleanse!
Since Isabelle went to a sleepover this weekend, Eric and I decided to go to Koblenz's Christmas market to kick off the Christmas season. All Christmas markets serve glühwein (mulled wine, which is the best part of Christmas, if you ask me) in little cups that are unique to that Christmas market, and I'm hoping to collect as many as I can before we leave Germany.... 13 cups and counting! So, Eric and I jumped in the car for a morning spent in Koblenz, Germany! Until he suggested that we stop in Bernkastel-Kues on our way.... and welp.... you don't have to ask me twice!
Bernkastel-Kues Weihnachtsmarkt: This little village is on the Mosel River- one side is Bernkastel, the other is Kues- and it is one of the cutest villages in Germany!
There are castle ruins on my right on top of the hill, but you can't see it through the fog.
Got my glühwein cup!
A giant advent calendar!
We didn't stay as long as we would have liked because we didn't have enough change for a little parking voucher thing that you have to put in the window of your car that says you've paid to park there- we only had larger bills and those parking voucher machines only take change (everything under €5 is in coins, we know better than to carry only bills. Consider it a travel fail). So we parked illegally just long enough to make a couple of loops around the market and get a glühwein cup, and then we got the heck out of there before getting a hefty parking ticket!
I know, I know... tisk, tisk, right? But in the name of glühwein I'll do just about anything! One of my bestest friends once told me that I was a bad ass. He told me this a long time ago when I was innocent and sweet, before the world taught me about loss and heartbreak, and way back when I was young and only saw the good parts of the world. He knew that deep inside me I was tougher than I ever knew... he saw what I couldn't. He died young, and I miss him so much, it hurts. I'd like to think he was laughing and cheering me on as I told my husband to just forget the parking voucher thing and get a move-on to the glühwein stand!
Cochem Weihnactsmarkt: As we made our way out of Bernkastel-Kues Eric thought that maybe we could just keep driving along the Mosel and stop in Cochem! So what was supposed to be a morning spent at one Christmas Market, was now turning into a road trip!!
We had taken Eric's family to Cochem when they visited in 2013, so you can see a few (pretty crappy) pictures here. We had more time to spend in Cochem than we did in BernKastel-Kues because we had broken our larger bills when we bought glühwein, so parking wasn't an issue. But the weather was. It was getting really crappy, really quickly.
Koblenzer Weihnachtsmarkt: You know how you do your best dancing in the car? And you know how you have the best conversations when you're on a road trip? And you know how everything is so much more fun when you're on a road trip?! Yeah, we were having a blast! {Depending on who you asked... the gal who wasn't driving who had had two glasses of deliciously warm wine in a short period of time.... or the guy driving, married to the "bad ass" with two glasses of wine in her system who doesn't seem to worry about the importance of parking vouchers as much as the guy who was sober and having to drive on slushy slippery roads.}
This is a glühwein cup!
For opening day at the Koblenzer Weihnactsmarkt it was a ghost town! The weather was super crappy, and today is Germany's Totensonntag (Sunday of the dead- a German religious holiday that seems to be very similar to our Memorial Day), so that is my guess as to why it was so quiet in Koblenz yesterday.
But who cares, I got my 3rd glühwein cup of the season for a grand total of 16, with 11 more Christmas Markets on the books for our last Christmas in Germany!
I'll be able to leave Germany at peace knowing that I experienced the enchantment of Christmas to the fullest! And I'll even have a whole big collection of glühwein cups to show for it!
But the best part... the adventure. A spontaneous road trip along the Mosel River on a snowy rainy Saturday with a man who after 9 years together can roll his eyes at my car-dancing and still give me butterflies.
Yes, it really was that amazing. And I don't need a fancy camera to capture that.
Loved your post :)
ReplyDeletewhat Christmas markets are you planning on going?