December Life in Germany with Flat Stanley

During the month of December, Flat Stanley learned about some traditions in Germany. A garden shop sold plants, wreaths, and trees, but first, Stanley had to put a coin in a special box on the shopping cart! When you put things in your car, you return the carriage to the store so you can get your coin back! 

Some of the wreaths had candles attached to them.

Flat Stanley went to church and watched the children’s pageant. 

Many towns in Germany and other European countries have special markets during the month of December. You can buy carved wood signs and toys, hand-made soap, hats, and plenty of food! 

Stanley had a potato pancake and later on he had a waffle. A nice lady was walking through the market in a town called Trier, and she said hi to Flat Stanley! She said her grandson likes Flat Stanley!

Off the beaten path in Germany: Triberg, Black Forest

We headed to the alleged cuckoo clock capital, just under three hours from the Kaiserslautern area. Triberg boasts the Guiness Book of World Records’ largest cuckoo clock, which is worth the 2 Euro tour. On the entry level, you see the bottom of the swinging pendulum, which starts up on the 3^rd level. On the 2^nd level, you have an amazing view of carved wood cogs, which keep time accurately.

There are literally thousands of cuckoo clocks to check out in local stores, one of which will shortly reside in Jeff’s office. The other attraction in Triberg is Germany’s longest waterfall. The path up the hill is well maintained, though in colder weather the upper part of the trail is not passable for safety reasons.

The scenery is beautiful, and not as snowy as higher elevations, where we drove through on the way out. We can’t recommend a café, because the one where we enjoyed (drum roll, please…..) cocoa and cake, has such slow service that other customers left after waiting 10 minutes for their order to be taken by the only waitress on duty- no fault of hers, but poor management!

Jeff had a vegetable pita sandwich at the döner stand near the waterfall, which was outstanding- I hadn’t realized how many veggies they had on hand for their pizzas, and they added feta cheese and sauce.