Koblenz and Kebabs

Our only Sunday in Germany was the day Natalie woke up with a stomach bug. It was great that it was Sunday so we'd already planned to take a day for nothing but church meetings. Jared took the rest of the girls to church and Natalie and I stayed home. It was the perfect opportunity for me to work on getting our bags organized and try to figure out how we were going to get all the things we'd bought into our suitcases for the flight home. By the time the rest of the family came home from church Natalie was feeling much better and, even better, no one else caught her mystery illness. 

The original plan was to start trying to fly back to Maryland on Sunday or Monday but the first available flight wasn't until Tuesday. That meant Monday was wide open for one last Christmas market! We settled on Koblenz, the beautiful city where the Rhein and Mosel Rivers meet. We made our way to the center of town, found parking, and stared wandering in search of the market. The market in Koblenz is spread over six squares and several connecting alleyways in the center of town. We found part of the market and just followed the hanging red stars to make our way from square to square. 

This cool mini play area was a fun place to stumble across. The girls ran around having fun for a little while when we first saw it and were happy to play again as we were walking back to the car.

This little nativity scene was tucked away in a courtyard surrounded by old buildings. I can only imagine how amazing it would have looked at night with all the Christmas lights glowing. The girls wanted to get behind the little barrier rope and take a picture. We waited until there wasn't anyone else around and had the girls quickly jump over the rope to take the shot.We kept thinking we were in the clear and then someone else would walk into the courtyard and we'd have the girls back away and casually stroll around until the finally we were alone!

We also spent some time in the same courtyard taking pictures of Madison and Emily for their yearbook's senior siblings page. It took a while to get one that they were both happy with, but we were eventually successful!

We almost convinced him to buy this sweet striped scarf. Because Jared is so confident, he can pretty much pull anything off. As we were wandering around one of the market squares we were approached by a television reporter and cameraman. The reporter said hello and then quickly asked me a really long question about Christmas and gifts and something else that I didn't quite catch. Oh man, I was almost able to formulate a decent response but in the end they thanked us (in English) and walked on to find someone more able to speak German!

The only reason we took this picture and the only reason Emily is willing to let me publicly share it is because of the strange bust in the second floor wall of the yellow building in the background. In case it is difficult to see clearly it's a guy with a beard and a ruffled collar and underneath the whole thing is the word Augenroller, or eye roller. I don't know the story behind this at all, but Emily found it really funny so we took a photo and Emily did her very best eye roll. She's had lots of practice!

The last part of the market we visited was kind of an arts and craft section. There were different vendors selling handmade items and even offering demonstrations. We were all particularly interested in this wood carver. He reminded the girls of the title character of one of their favorite Christmas books, "The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey".  It was probably the wood shavings in his beard that did it! We watched him for a little while as he worked on a lathe making spinning tops. He talked with us about what he was doing and asked if the little girls would like to help him finish the top. They were both so excited to take their turn and we were excited to have the chance to buy the top they helped to make. It spins like nothing else and is beautiful!

After we got back to Ramstein we headed over to the Frost's house for a game night. Finding people who also like to play games and play the same sorts of games we like to play is a rare and beautiful gift. Their willingness to play games is only part of why we love the Frost family though - our kids get along, we all actually get along, and they're just amazing friends to us! Before we got down to the game playing we went to Shaun's favorite place for Doner Kebabs which just happens to be Jared's favorite place for Doners as well. So it was back to Doner King and the final count for our trip was four meals of kebabs in eight days. I'm not sure if it's a record, but I think it was a record for us. Spending the day in Kobelnz and the evening with the Frosts was the perfect way to end our grand adventure!