Valkenburg, Netherlands

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to us a trip to a Christmas Market. :)

I had heard the term "Christmas market" many times in the past few months, so I really wanted to check one out.  I hear that the idea started in Germany (maybe Cologne which I hear has the best), but each town that has one has it's own little spin, of course.  We decided to check out a market in the southernmost tip of the Netherlands in a cute little mountain town, Valkenburg.  It's a sleepy little town with a ton of charm.  Add lots of Christmas lights and decorate caves and plazas with Christmas booths and such, and you get yourself quite a cute Christmas Market.

There are unique items that can be bought for gifts and one of the caves houses a beautiful sand sculptured depiction of the nativity story-- and not just one scene... the whole story.  It was outstanding.  Quite a fun trip.  We even celebrated our 6 year anniversary while we were there!  

Story reading on the train to Valkenburg.

The Valkenburg train station.  So cute.

Saturday morning we took a walk all around the quiet town and found this awesome park.

The Nativity Story in Sand...

I loved this scene.  Mary is packing her things for the journey with her big belly.

Look at the detail!  This scene shows all the people in line to be counted for the census.

Mary and Joseph with the inn keeper.

People in the town of Bethlehem.

I don't know this guy, but the detail...

Angel and Shepherd

There's the Man!  Er, the baby...

We rode the chair lift up to the mountain cafe for lunch.

Every city we've been to so far has a carousel.  Boys can't get enough.

Since we went after Christmas Day, there were no more parades.  We were all dressed and ready for the parade when we found this out so we made our own parade down the street.

We found a fun, muddy park.  We may or may not have enjoyed it.

Up on the housetop...