After many hours of much needed recovery sleep, our second day in country started slowly and without any real sense of urgency. I’ve found that when traveling with smaller children, there are only two speeds: stopped & going. Bob & Rachel are remarkably efficient in getting the four kids on task and out the door. They are faster than many of the solo traveling adults I know, and one of the kids can’t even dress themself yet, and probably needs a diaper change before we go…You know who you are 😆.
We hopped the hour train from Wiesbaden to Frankfurt and began our day exploring what their markets had to offer. First things first, more gluehwein and the hunt for food. One of the cool things about the Frankfurt market was that it started directly outside the train stop, the streets were crowded but there was no extra walking involved.
We found our way to a bratwurst hut next to the Iron Bridge, a.k.a the “Love Lock Bridge”. We’re told that these bridges are somewhat common in Germany, where couples place a lock on the bridge to symbolize the permanence of their love, and then cap it off by throwing the key into the water. There are thousands of locks on the bridge and still room for thousands of more. Brianna and I were going to put a lock on the bridge, but that’s a pretty big commitment that neither of us was quite ready for yet.
Besides the bridge, Bob grabbed the kids an order of Pommes, or French fries, that were delicious. Apparently, Germans love to cover things in Paprika, and these were delicious. A lot of these foods bring back special childhood memories and help explain little things, like why aunt Mickie wouldn’t eat our deviled eggs without paprika, or why my family thought bread covered in custard (damphnudeln) passed as an acceptable dessert. I finally get it, they are all delicious!
Ordering things in a country where you speak a little bit of the language and understand none of it is always fun. Brianna and I ask for a thing, be it wine or Bratwurst, and then hope for the best. Our only reply to people is generally, “Ja”. A pretty dicy response, as we are basically agreeing to whatever they say. Some people might think it better to say nothing at all, or respond in English to let them know you don’t speak German. Where is the fun in that?
At some point during our wine drinking wanderings, Brianna noticed a different style of Gluehwein cup, and we all really wanted one. It took the better part of an hour but we did eventually find these different cups at a kinder punch stall, where they have alcoholic and non-alcoholic warmed fruit punch options.
We even made it home in time to watch the Bengals get their first win of the season. Solid day.
Tomorrow, we leave the German Christmas markets and head towards Strasbourg, France. It will be Brianna’s first time visiting France and we are both super excited to see how the different markets compare!