On Christmas Eve we went to Speyer which has a lovely Christmas market. I bought a feurzangenbowle where a rum soaked sugar cube is lit on fire over a glüwein.
We walked around the market and bought food to share. I had to have spatzle one more time.
The cathedral is the largest Romanesque Cathedral in Europe and built in 1093. Several German emperors are buried there.
On Christmas day we went to a lake, Vogelwoog, in Kaiserslautern. It was a good walk outside on a freezing cold day.
After Christmas we went to Trier, which is on the Luxembourg border. Everything was closed but walking around the historic district was beautiful and cold!
The black gate, Porta Nigra, was a beautiful entrance to the area and was built in 170 AD. Trier is known as the Roman capital north of the Alps and many emperors lived here.
The Nanstein castle built in Landstühl in 1150 protected the trade routes through the Palatine forest. The medieval knights declined in power in 1523 after the knight, Franz von Sickingen, who lived in the castle tried and failed to overthrow princes and the church. He had fortified the castle with a round tower and gunpowder was used for defense. He died in the fighting.
On the walk up we saw several forest witches (Hexe in German) made from forest and everyday materials. These are made by locals to add a little of mystery to the walk to the castle. In Germany there ar many stories inspired by the Grimm, but these ar just for fun.
This was pretty ingenuous. There is a hole on each side of the wall but they cannot see each other. On the inside of the castle entrance it is a hole that gives a wide view of people on the other side.
Today there is a large regional medical center in Landstühl that cares for the American military stationed in nearby Kaiserslautern and elsewhere in the world.
I ate at IKEA, recommended by Nicole because of the red cabbage and duck served there. It was pretty good. I never tried the Kartoffelknödel which is really potato and a flour mixed together then formed into a ball. It was a doughy, sticky potato that I had seen in some of the Christmas markets.
