I found St Nicolas

---

It’s six AM, I rollover and hear Bea busily getting ready for work.

So, at this time I would like to give a special THANK YOU BEA!!!! If it wasn’t for you Bea we wouldn’t have had such a great Christmas Market vacation.

Kirsten and I see Bea and Omi along with the rest of the Delta crew off. All of a sudden Kirsten and I are alone. WOO HOO, we grab our bags and off we go.

We are to catch a flight out of Dusseldorf tomorrow morning at 11:35 AM. It’s now Friday around 8:30 am. What to do!!!!!!

Kirsten looks at me and says find me a quaint Christmas market. Ok, I do my famous sticking my finger on the map and after multiple rejects Kirsten approves Rudesheim. We’ve been here a few times, the last time was on our Viking Cruise. It’s one of Germany’s wine regions. It also received a good review on Kirsten’s Christmas market app.

We’re off and running, Kirsten enters Rudesheim into Helga our Navi and Kirsten’s burning up the highway. We’re making GREAT TIME! We’re killing it, except for on small detail, we’re going the wrong way. Yea, I’m looking at the map Kirsten is following Helga’s instruction and finally we pull off the road and have one of our famous crisis meeting and Kirsten then believes me we’re going in the wrong direction.

Helga just got demoted into the back seat, wooo. Of course, me I’m all smiles up front.

Ain’t no Navi going to replace this Navigator. And don’t you forget that!

We pull into Rudesheim close to lunch time. It’s amazing, Kirsten again finds a parking space right up front. We stroll into the market looking for Gluewine and we find it in the center of the market. It’s lunch time and all the locals come out and are having lunch in the market. It a big party with tourist and locals all mingling together.

As we’re walking around looking for something to eat Kirsten notices this one booth that has a large crowd around it. I don’t know what it is but I think I would like some of it.

Well it turns out this is the dish that Bea has been raving about every time she goes to Christmas Market. It’s a bowl of sautéed mushrooms covered and I mean covered in a garlic cream sauce. Forget calories, Kirsten and I are chowing over this bowl like it’s our last supper.

At a dramatic moment, there is only one mushroom left, Kirsten looks at me and I look at her, so this is it one mushroom will determine our marriage. Well we’re still married, I bought another bowl.

As I said earlier in the blogs, I was in search for St Nicolas. He has been hard to find, in fact I was beginning to think old St Nick was avoiding me. I can’t image why…Well I found him. He’d been hiding in Rudesheim all along.

Back in the car, Kirsten and I continue cruising along the Rhine river. I have always wanted to ride my bicycle along the Rhine. Today I’m happy that Kirsten and I are cruising it together in Rudolf.

We are heading to Dusseldorf but, there is another slight problem. We’re on the wrong side of the river. The autobahn is on the other side. Great, I start studying the map and see there is this scenic road from St Goar to the autobahn. Now we need to get over the river. Kirsten says I bet there is a ferry Goarshn, its directly across the river from St Goar. She’s right, whenever there is a town directly across from one another they usually have a bridge. No bridge… then they have the ferry.

Wer’e on the boat and sailing across the Rhine. Kirsten hops out and is walking around taking pictures until she sees the sign “Stay in Your Car”. LOL, Sorry….

Off the boat and on the correct side of the Rhine we’re heading toward the autobahn. It’s a scenic road according to my map, and guess what we’re going over a small mountain. And yes, it’s covered in snow. Kirsten is now thinking this is one of her best trips ever with all the snow she’s seen.

Once on the Autobahn Kirsten winds up Rudolf and runs it though all its gears. That is one fast reindeer. We have a reservation at one of our reliable hotel close to the airport. Years ago, we found this Ibis hotel which is located 5 minutes from the Dusseldorf airport. You might remember me writing about it. it’s the hotel where I bought a beer form the vending machine. It’s still there and the vending machine still has beer for 2 euros. What a deal.

We arrive, check in and drop our suit cases in the room. Kirsten and I are off to Düsseldorf’s Christmas Market. This is our last market before coming home.

We hop on the train and take into town; how do we know it’s the right train? Everyone is on it and they are going into town. We arrive in downtown Dusseldorf in less than 15 minutes, we couldn’t have driven and parked in that time and it was free.

We ascended from the subway into a tsunami of people. I thought Stuttgart was crowed. Dusseldorf was way larger and lots more people. Could be it was Friday night and everyone was out to have a good time. I know Kirsten and I were having a good time.

For the next 2 plus hours Kirsten and I swam with the crowd of people enjoying our last Christmas Market. As we made our way back to our hotel we snuggled on the train not saying a word but enjoying the ride.

Tomorrow morning, we begin the buddy pass shuffle.

Good Night



6 AM is here before I even closed my eyes. We have to be checked in 3 hours before the flight leaves. Yea!

We pull out of the hotel 7 AM ish, we have to gas up the car, return the car and then stand find the Delta check in area.

All is going very well, car gassed up and turned in. We’re making our way through the airport and find Delta’s check in area. We’re early and that’s ok because they just opened and are checking in everyone.

We breeze through checking in and security, well Kirsten did, me I always get felt up. Why, I have no idea. We’re now off to passport control, easy peasy.

Kirsten parks me at a café and she is off shopping. Me I’m relaxing and sipping on my coffee. I checked the flight again and it’s wide open.

Kirsten returns and we stroll down tour gate waiting for our names to be called. This trip was so smooth we had seats before they started loading.

We’re on the plane sitting next to each other as the plane lifts off.

What a wonder Christmas Market Vacation.

It’s time to enjoy a nice glass of Rioja ….





Ok, one last note, look through all the pictures and at the end you’ll find pictures of the Gluewein cups we kept from each Christmas Markets. Each cup represents a different market, Yea, we went to all of these and there is even more we could have gone to if we stayed longer.

---