Planning Dates for a visit to Europe/Germany

For those of you that are interested in meeting up with us while visiting Europe, or in visiting us in Dusseldorf, Heather and I have compiled some suggested 2015 dates that work for our schedule.  Other dates may work as well, but we thought we would start with these to begin a planning process  July is not good for us, we will be in Baltimore for the last 2 weeks of July.

Here are our suggested date ranges:

February 14-22   Monday the 16th is Carnival, which has parades and celebration, so good for kids and adults.

April 23 - May 3  April 25 and 26 is a major beer festival in Leuven, Belgium (just outside of Brussels, about a 2.5 hour drive from us)  If interested, we need to plan ahead (NOW!) to get accomodations.

May 14-31         

September         The whole month of September is wide open

December 5 - 20 This is a good time to visit with small children, because the Christmas markets are open.

I hope this makes planning a visit to Europe easier, we would love to have visitors and share this European experience with as much family and as many friends as possible.  I can help you plan the trip from my end as well, since I am Chief Vacation Planner for the family.

We are entering the Christmas season in Dusseldorf.  Christmas is a big deal here, with Christmas Markets, Parades and many celebrations.  It started on November 6, with St. Martins day.  St. Martin is the patron saint of children and the poor.  Marissa's Daycare celebrated with a procession to a nearby park, to sing songs around a fire.  The children made lanterns that are illuminated by a small light on the end of a stick.  Tradition says that when you see a small child, you should give them a treat.  Marissa gets treats all over the place, from loaves of bread to lollipops.  It is quite nice.

Then came November 11th, when everyone gathers in the center of Altstat at 11:11 am, dressed up, and ready to get drunk and carry on.  Reminded me of the Mummers in Philly.  This date starts the religious holidays, but the dressing up part is a tradition to mock the French (Napolean) and others who have occupied the region at various times throughout history.

The Christmas Markets open at the end of November.  Dusseldorf has the best Markets apparently, with tourists coming from all around the region (The Netherlands, Belgium, UK, etc.) to visit.  We are looking forward to this event very much.  I will post some pictures when the time comes.  There are some great videos on You Tube as well, if you want to get a glimpse of what it looks like.

The cold weather has also ushered in some nice winter beer.  I found some bock beer (shown below) that is excellent.  A perfect balance of dry hoppiness and medium malty body disguises the 6.9% alcohol.  This a wonderful treat to enjoy on the cold damp nights here (while I watch Marissa's Papa Pig cartoons over and over).

And one last thought, our furniture came about 5 weeks ago, so we are much more comfortable now.