Heidelberg - Christmas Market

So I had to take my parents to at least one Christmas market to show them what they are all about.  But before that, they needed to have some good German food.  Since I don't really cook good German food right now, I decided to take them out for lunch and a great place close to the house!!!  So on Thursday, December 5th, out for lunch we went.

 

As you can see we pretty much had the restaurant to ourselves.

 

 

Mom and Dad -showing off the centerpiece.  One thing that is great about this restaurant is the family atmosphere.  The waitress was AWESOME and brought out some of their yummy gravy for them to try even though it didn't come with their meal.  They had some good German food here!!! 

 

Dad and me - it was so neat, a couple weeks later I took some friends there and they remembered me and Mom and Dad!

 

Many cities in Europe have different animals, Berlin has bears, Luxembourg has elephants and Kaiserslautern has fish!

 

So that evening was St Nicholas day in Germany.  It is when children put out their boots or shoes and St Nicholas will leave goodies and presents.  Looks like the boys were good and he came that night!

 

The boys with their goods!!!

 

After we dropped the boys off at school Friday December 6, my parents and I headed to the beautiful town of Heidelberg.  We were going to go to the castle, but Mom and Dad were pretty touristed out so we stopped for some hot chocolate and tea and waited for the Christmas market to open.

 

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining!!!  The only problem was the cold, cold wind.  But that didn't stop us!

 

Dad and I on the bridge.

 

Mom and Dad on the bridge with the castle behind them on the hill.

 

And check out the blue sky, and the beautiful town behind them!  I do really love German towns, they are so beautiful and quaint!!

 

They have done a lot of the work and the scaffolding is off and it looks so much better without all that in front of it!!!  I have already told lots of history on this place, so I won't bore you this time.  :-)

 

Mom with the lucky monkey!

 

In almost all Christmas markets they have a center piece like this.

 

Mom and Dad at their first Christmas market!!!  It was a smaller one, but a good one!!  Next year I told them we will have to go to one of the bigger ones!!

 

Mom and Dad checking out the wares - they have booths like these all over the town.  It is really a fun atmosphere.  Mom has her first Gluwhein mug!!  I told her she had to start her collection and of course I needed to add one to mine!!!  We made it back in time to get the boys from school and take Dad for is first trip to Dolomitis for ice cream.   It was very yummy!!  You know how much we like our ice cream!!