h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It was the company do today, to celebrate various anniversaries (my 15th was last year, but wasn't celebrated. However, I was invited, although I don't work there any more).
We went to the Mathildenhöhe in Darmstadt first where we visited the Art Deco museum, then took a stroll thorugh the area, the 'Künstlerviertel' where lots of artists built art deco villas at the beginning of the 20th Century. Afterwards, we went to the Christmas market in Michelstadt, and we had a nice dinner there this evening.

I'll probably write in more detail and upload a few photos tomorrow.

sits patiently

I guess I'd best go to bed now, then I can write it up once I've got some sleep.

sweet dreams love

Sleep well, Bel, and tell more when you've got the time.

It's lovely that they invited you. They clearly still consider you one of the group.

Well, I've not been away for too long yet, but we all know how it is: life goes on, and I don't belong there any more.
It was the boss who invited me, since it was him who paid for it all.
If it hadn't been for the fact that my 15th anniversary had gone unnoticed last year, I'm not sure he'd have invite me. I don't think he would.

Well, I promised to give a bit more detail, so here goes:

The Mathildenhöhe where we went first, houses some museums, and then there are all the art Deco villas, some of which you can probably enter if you have any business with the societies which are housed there.
They have the 'open Garden' scheme. I never knew we had this in Hesse (and Rheinland Pfalz, I think), too; I only knew they have it in England. One villa had a sign saying the garden was open to the public, but in winter it hasn't really much appeal.
Apparently, the town plans to build a new museum, an ugly black block, and there were signs fixed to nearly each garden gate, asking people to sign the online petition to prevent it.

The Christmas Market in Michelstadt seems to be very popular. On arriving there, we saw very many buses parked. Apparently, busloads of people are being carried there.
Now I avoid the Christmas market in Frankfurt because there are always so many people that you risk being crushed, and all the buses and cars we passed didn't bode well. The parking area where we went was well organised (the fee being €2, which is OK). There were so many cars I was afraid it would be even worse than in Frankfurt. I'd probably just turned round and gone home if I had had the chance.

However, on the market itself you didn't notice the amount of people.
The whole town centre is a huge Christmas market. Every shop, every stall were lovingly decorated. The variety of the stalls was amazing; not just food and drink stalls, like in Frankfurt.
It was actually really nice, especially since we were lucky with the weather: we had sunshine all afternoon, and once it was dark, all the lights shone. It was very pretty. It wasn't a problem to spend two hours.

We then went to have dinner at a restaurant the boss had booked.

The food was good, but a bit focussed on game, trout, and beef - none of which I am keen on eating. I had a beefsteak, which was OK. (I've had better ones elsewhere). The dessert was great, though.
Mousse au chocolat with fruits.
We spent a good three hours at the restaurant, chatting, eating...
Those of us who had an anniversary were given a book and a card - even I.

Fortunately, we hadn't had any more snow, so the roads were free and we made it back home safely.

All in all, a wonderful day.

I'm going to read this tomorrow (had a couple of Prof size's tonight)


B'El

Well, it took me a day to write it, so it's only fair if it takes you a day to read it.

it will be

That sounds really nice, Bel. Someday I must visit a German Christmas Market.

I went to a fake Belfast one with Beatrice and Dai the Death the other day. Not bad at all, although the Gluehwein quality varied a lot from stall to stall!

We spent a good three hours at the restaurant, chatting, eating.what xmas market - pass the menu

Xmas market in Michelstadt, Prof, hotel-restaurant 'Drei Hasen' ()

Photos here:

http://bel-goes-blog.blogspot.com/2010/11/anniversary-do.html

>>the Gluehwein quality varied a lot from stall to stall!<<

Okay, now we know why there is a Christmas market in Belfast. I don't think you're supposed to try them *all*, KB.

I'm with you, Bel. Christmas markets are fun, but crowding can be serious. Once, when we went to the opening in Munich, I vowed never to do anything so dangerous again - I thought we might be crushed.

Hey, I only tried two!

...for the record, they gave stingy little servings compared to Wuppertal, Koeln and Hannover. Especially Hannover. The stuff I got there could have powered the city lights if they put wires in it.

Did you buy the ones with 'turbo' in Hannover? They're quite popular here now.

What's turbo? A liqueur?

I think you could get it with a lot of different additions - rum, Jaegermeister, Kirsch etc.