Of all the Christmas markets in the world, German weihnachtsmärkten are simply the best. From late November to just before Christmas Day many German towns turn into picture-perfect fairy tale wonderlands. With food stalls selling glühwein, reibekuchen and Brätwursten à volonté, you know you’re in for a feast. And even if you’re not into the German cuisine, nothing quite beats the coziness of German towns around Christmas time. The weekend before Christmas we drove down to Germany with a group of …

And that right there is Germany as I know it best: half-timbered houses and colorful facades lining a river and endless vineyards on a hill topped off with a castle. A castle that is 900 years old, in the case of Cochem. I have been in Cochem before, a couple of years ago, but didn’t really write about it on the blog. This time, I also don’t have much to say. It was a cloudy and rainy day and we spent most of it …

I don’t always go to Germany, but when I do you betcha it’s around Christmas time. If there’s one thing the Germans know how to do it’s throwing a Christmas party and the Weihnachtsmarkt in Düsseldorf is my favorite. This year we went a little early, somewhere late October, and so I waited to share the photos until we were all in the Christmas spirit. I don’t have much to say about Düsseldorf, other than that you can …

Treis-Karden, walking along the river banks. The hills in the back are covered in vine yards!   An old fortress in Cochem Cochem Windbeutel: warm cherries, pudding, whipcream and vanilla ice cream. Yum! Koblenz, at the point where the Rein and the Moessel meet. Somewhere in March K, my parents and I took a few days off and went to Germany. Eventhough Germany is really close (hello neighbours!) I had never been there before, apart from two times we visited the Christmas markets in Dü…