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Published: December 10th 2007
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Excited
Christine in the back of the car :) Okay... so shit loads of pictures here... awesome, awesome day!
I would just like to begin with an apology for my appalling spelling and grammar throughout the last couple of blogs... I noticed that I had used they're instead of their at one point. I blame the German course I am doing (yes, german, not english as I wrote in my first blog... idiot - thanks Anne :P) see I'm learning so much new stuff that it is pushing all the old stuff out - remember when I took that home beer making course and I forgot how to drive?
Annnywho... When Saturday finally started (for me, waking up hungover at Rosie's and eating potatoes - and then waiting for Warren's call... for Warren, waking up feeling better from his cold, but without much of a voice... and for Christine, getting to bed at like 6am after working through the night, and then having to drive around with annoying Australians in the afternoon) at around lunchtime, we jumped into Warren's car and headed off to the source of the Blau river...
The source of the Blau (or Blue) river is call the
Blaubeuren
Wandering into the Christmas markets... Blautopf. Topf in German means pot... like saucepan, not like Patty and Meff's stash :P. So we were driving to see the Blue saucepan.. everyone kept saying - you'll understand when you see it... ah well.
The Blautopf is located in behind a small town called Blaubeuren, which is about 30 minutes from Ulm. We got out of the car and walked into Blaubeuren (yet another walled town) and yay!! they were having a Weinachtsmarkt!! Oder Christmas Market - just like the big awesome one in Ulm, only awesomer because it was small town and old school! There was a dude with heaps of wood and a chainsaw, who carved animals out of the wood, there was a hawk, and a bear, and even an idgie! I've never seen stuff like that for real reals... (only for play plays...)
He had this really cool ... well, I guess it was like a firing tin, only it wasn't at all like a firing tin. He had gotten a large log and cut three times through the centre, then started a fire in the middle... when the fire gets going, it burns hot at the centre,
Wood carving
With a chainsaw - it was too Groundhog day... well, kinda Groundhog day... okay, not really Groundhog day, but you see the connection right? making this cool star shape through the log and warming it and everyone around it - it was too cool.
There was a community stage, and when we got there a choir leader was leading this little choir of cute little German kiddies in Christmas songs... The scouts were there with their own firing tin cooking dough on sticks. We got Christine to ask if we could do it, and the guy pointed to a sign that said it was only for kids under 14 years old... but he let us be big kids and do it anyway (it's the Aussie charm :P) The fire was sooooooo hot on my head, but the nutella filled snack was well worth the heat stroke.
There was a canyoning group selling hot Blau water (hot water coloured blue) and we bought some candy almonds and gingerbread - soooo weird! the gingerbread over here is actually nice! Like really nice. I don't know what Australian bakers are making, but it aint gingerbread...
But I digress... we wandered up to the blue saucepan, and it was very blue... not overly saucepan-like... well, sorta saucepan like. Basically,
The Blaubeuren Singers
Little town kiddies singing Christmas-y and occasionally racist songs it's this super, super deep, super blue pool of water at the bottom of this range. Water just constantly pours out of it and over and into man-made canals. Within 20 metres of it's source, the Blau is already starts zooming off to the Danube. It's .. so .. gorgeous.
Blaubeuren also has a walled monastery, and we wandered through it on the way back to the town, Christine wanted to look at this altar, but they were charging money for the privilege, and she then decided that they could go bugger off :P hehe.
We got back to the town and !!! Nikolaus!!! was on the stage with the singing kiddies! THE Nikolaus! See, in Germany, Nikolaus comes on the 6th of December, not on Christmas (the 'Christ child' leaves presents on Christmas) when kids leave shoes, or stockings outside and Nikolaus fills them with lollies, treats and chocolates etc...
On a slightly darker note... he brings along his little friend Klaus Rupprecht, this vagrant-y looking old dude and he 'takes care of' the naughty kids. Either he leaves coal in there shoes, tho sometimes he beats them and etc
Blautopf
and this is the Blautopf - it's awesome!
Anyway, they were both there, on stage, and after we grabbed some food we went and introduced ourselves... or rather Christine introduced her 'children'. And I was just so excited to meet a dude named Rupprecht - it was the coolest thing ever. Mother? Not mother? - awesome!
And we got presents! from the mean one even! Warren got chocolate, I got Gummis, and Christine got nuts :D He was saying that there is another lady called Mrs Holly who controls the weather and brings the snow... but evidently she is taking a holiday this year and he reckons that they have brought in a subcontractor from England as it has been really foggy lately - too cute!
One other thing... there was a creepy pair who were dressed in olde worlde colthes - and the dude played music from this old old old school music box thingy, while the woman had this puppet 'cat' that she held, and when kids went to pat it she would move it and freak them out - hehe. They were way freaky, coz it could have been a storyline out of
So Blue
Blau, in English, is... wait for it... Blue! Buffy or Doctor Who - these people who have existed for like EVER, and fit into the modern world dressing up as festival folk and like stealing their souls by like sucking them out of their heads...
Or something like that... maybe...
In other news, whilst I'm writing this, I'm watching Superbad with Warren. It is even funnier the 4th time. 'I don't know dude... that's pretty messed up... supergay...'
Till Next Time - Gruss Gott!
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brucelee
Eddie and Valerie Shaw
You certainly scored with your Blautopf visit. The market sounded awesome! On our visit the place was full of very sweaty lycrabutts and their bikes, and they were all ordering radlers and cheese! Great place eh! Hey how about visiting the indoor heated pool near Warren's? Then you will HAVE to remove your beanie for a while! Thanks for very entertaining blog posts.... and don't worry, your TRUE friends would NEVER criticise your spelling .. all adds to the flavour!