Hi ther, long time i posted here. Well as you casn see Maddy was faster than me agin and had her homepage already updated. Let us begin at the start.

In autum Maddy mentioned it would be fine to visit a chrismas market in Germany.i suggested easiest would be to stay at my place and do a round trip to a few of them. As you might know, germans are very fond of christmas stuff and have this kind of markets in nearly every town. I did a little research in the daily paper and made some suggestions to Maddy.lol, ther even was a ranking which market is the best done by the visitors. After a lot of chat the day of the visit arrived and i head to Köln to pick her up. Everything fine so far. We choose a park and ride place to meet near the Zoo Hmm, as i got there, there was a small taxi pick-up zone but no park and ride Thx god for cell phones we agreed to the final bus parking space at the Köln fair grounds, i got there without problems but only empty coaches there. Text on my phone: I am at the mainstation near the Dom , wrote maddy. after a littlehassle with a civil cop near the station Maddy jumped in my car and we are of to the first market. Bergisch- Gladbach, my dad suggested this market cause a special vendor there has figurines from the same serial as the Krippe he has at home. It is a very nice market, not too big but it was shared with the daily market with food and other stuff, not in the same space but but on the same place. We walked a little around and Maddy suggested breakfast, so a small bakery with some tables and chairs in there was it. After a nice first snack we hit the market again and i saw anual mugs for gluehwein so we got one wine for maddy and a kakao for me, bad luck, we both got a mug form the same year, i walked to a stand and asked for a mug from a different year and the guy there changed it to the actual . On to next destination : Hilden, home of my favorit toy store... Well Maddy spend a few bucks there and took some pics and out to the local christmas market there. Very nice along the high street and of to the car again. Next place was Essen. It is one of the larger markets but not so well known from tourists, it takes place on 3 big places connected with streets full of market stands. This time we got again a different mug and Maddy thought to look out for bike maps for her next summer trip, bad luck there, they had not THE MAP Maddy was looking for. It was dark now and we saw a lot very nice light instalations ( look at the maddy homepage) the tree and the flat light signs. we got a little tired but i know a small market on the way home. Last stop was Mettmann, only 54 huts but well arranged round the old church. We had some Reibekuchen (potatoe cookies from raw potatoe) and relaxed a little . By the way Maddy changed shoes cause she had a cramp in one. Finaly we head home, my mom had prepared a nice salad and some other stuff and a tea for Maddy. My mom ? yes! I have only a very small flat and parents still have my old room with a bed in there. After we told a lot storys to parents we finaly hit the sac , i went over to my place and told there in chat what happened on the first day of Maddys visit, around midnight i went to bed too and looked forward to the next day...