Hochwasser and The Lady Gets Another One

During the middle of January, we where experiencing flooding along the Rhine and Moselle. Neuendorf and Wallersheim (where we live) was particularly hard hit as they are the villages just below the confluence of these two rivers. The waters reached the 7.5 meter mark, well below the record flood levels of around 9.5 meters. but still enough to cover the first story of most of the homes along the Rhine. Our building is high enough that were relatively unaffected. However, Franny did have to experience a change in her routine walks.

For many affected, this was nothing new. The fire department came in before the flood waters reached the town and build walkways allowing people to access the second floor of their homes. People along the river have learned to live mostly on the second floor anyway. Rooms on the first floor only contain furniture that can easily be moved to the second in case of floods. Cars were moved to parking areas on higher ground. And many people stayed in their homes.

Probably the most disruptive event occurred on the Rhine, a few miles upriver, at the base of the Lorelei cliffs. This is a place where the Rhine river narrows and turns as passes around the cliffs. As long as the Rhine has been used by boats, the swift water and turn on this particular section has been a problem for boat captains. The accidents gave rise to the legend of Lorelei, the naked siren with cooper hair that would sign such a beautiful song that she would boat captains into a accident in the swift waters.

 

On January 18, Lorelei got another. This time it was a tanker, the TMS Waldhof,  carrying 2000 tons of sulfuric acid. The big problem here is that the combination of sulfuric acid and water can be explosive, and a couple of the tanks developed leaks that was allowing water into them. It took awhile to get the necessary equipment into place to stabilize the situation. During this time, boat traffic was not permitted along the river at this point, and detours were set up for auto route along the river.. Many boats have had to dock and wait until it was safe. That occurred on Friday morning around 9:30 am. The Waldhof is still in the water, but the tanks have been drained and it is now safe to continue the rescue.

New Year's Eve Tradition: Dinner for One

Dinner for One is a New Year's Eve tradition in Germany. It is actually from British TV, but it is played on several German TV stations at different times during the evening. This video has a 2 minute introduction in German, before the actual show begins.

Signs of Weihnachten: Weihnachtsbaum

According to the custom of Magda's family, we decorated our Christmas tree the morning of Christmas Eve. Once again we went with the straw ornaments, some of which Magda and her sister made as kids. Plus a few Santa Claus ornaments made of oyster shells by friends from Hilton Head. The lights are real beeswax candles. Of course this was on a real tree. Artificial trees are not unknown here, but there use seems restricted to businesses and not in the homes.

While a few people put up their Christmas trees earlier in the month, a most seem to wait like we do. In fact many of the stands that sell Christmas trees didn't even open until the beginning or middle of last week. Often these stands are run by a family that grows the trees on their farm in the Eiffel. They cut their crop of 50 or 100 trees, bring it into town and sell it out in a couple of days.

The tree stays up at least until after Jan. 6th, the "Tag der Heiligen Drei Könige"(day of the three kings). Some will keep them until Lichtmess on Feb. 3rd. Traditionally in addition the Christmas tree, "Krippen" (nativity scenes) are also taken down on this day.

Signs of Weihnachten: Weihnachtsmarkt

We lit candle number four on the advents wreath on Sunday. That means there won't be any more Sundays before Christmas.

We did take a little time out on Saturday to visit a Weihnachtsmarkt. Last year, we had heard from a neighbor that Ahrweiler had a pretty and pleasant market that was worth a visit. Ahrweiler is a small town on the Ahr river about 30-45 minutes from us. The Ahr river is Germany's northern most wine  region. It is know for it's red wines that rarely get exported, being mostly bought up by folks from Bonn or Cologne that visit on week-ends. We use to hike here quite a bit, but it had been several years since we were here. And I don't recall spending much time exploring Ahrweiler.

So it was with some surprise that we discovered this well-persevered town. There is still a defensive wall around the town, a legacy of medieval times that has been restored and/or rebuilt. Inside the wall are pedestrian only streets with half-timbered houses on either side.

The main part of the market was in the marktplatz with Ahrweiler's the Gothic church St. Laurentius providing a backdrop.

The Ahrweiler Weihnachtsmarkt is a week-end only market, so it does attract the kinds of crowds that markets in the larger cities attract. This was locals and people on a week-end getaway enjoying the day shopping the stores in the town, checking out the booths in the market, and having a glass of glüwein while standing by a fire and chatting with friends. It was a pleasant atmosphere.

The other nice thing about this market is that a number of the booths were selling local or handcrafted products. So often, Weihnachtsmarkts are filled with people selling the same products that you can buy in the store, and often without much of a discount. There just are not enough handcrafters to handle all of the Weihnachtsmarkts that have sprung up in the last few years. Ahrweiler had enough to be interesting.