Cottbus Christmas Market

Simone arrived on Friday night.  Yay!!  We have been friends since

our first year at WWU - over 31 years ago.  We roomed together in the dorm for a couple of years and then in a house with a bunch of other good friends.  We've seen a lot of life's ups and downs together and I was so excited for a friend who

is like family to come and visit.
Our original plan was for me to meet her in Copenhagen for this weekend.  She flew in and out of Copenhagen so it would have been a fun weekend getaway before her time with us here in Berlin.

A month or so ago Marty was asked to come back to Seattle for work. We knew this would dramatically cut into Simone's time here but when your work allows you to move to Europe and barely bats an eye when they ask you to come back there really isn't much to

discuss.  Thankfully, Simone was willing to fly into Berlin earlier than planned so that she could have some time with Marty too before he left.

Saturday we decided to head to Cottbus by train.  Last year we stumbled upon this market after a fun-filled day with the Neves at Tropical Island. I have always loved the old market square in Cottbus and to see it all done up for Christmas really is a treat. 

We also stumbled upon a little hometown Christmas market run by a church on our way to show Simone the apartment building that we now own that Marty's dad grew up in.  At the church run Christmas market the kids spun some big wheel of fortune disc and

Benjamin won a nice, long handled umbrella. He ended up playing and dancing with it for the rest of the trip, Gene Kelly style.  Josie just won a small lollipop which she

quickly ate.  We had gluhwein and carried it (I'm sure illegally) onto the enormous ferris wheel. It was breathtaking from up high.  It was also very windy and brutally cold.  

We got home late and we all plopped into bed.