Freshly Minted: Christmas Trip, Day 4

"December 16:
We decided to travel through Liege from Brussels onto Maastricht, Holland, to visit a Christmas market ('Winterland') before settling in at our hotel in Liege. There is quite a bit more German influence in this corner of Belgium/Holland, which from our point of view was somewhat welcome. The bitter cold remained though. We got our first Christmas Market bratwursts in Maastricht...delicious. Nothing against bratwursts back in the states, but there is really something amazing about eating freshly grilled bratwursts in Europe (this feeling was amplified in Germany especially). Winterland was fun, as it was full of little shops, food stands, amusement rides, and even a skating rink. We haven't yet decided what to get people for presents at the markets. We're scared because we're going back into French-speaking Belgium again soon, so we hung onto Maastricht for quite a long time. It started snowing also while we were in Maastricht (our first snowfall of the year) and the snow continued with us to Liege. We had a fairly long hike from the train station in Liege (which is incredibly spectacular to behold...look at the pictures below. It looks like some type of Star Wars spacecraft base) to our hotel near the city center. Liege seems to be a more 'modern' city than Brussels and Amsterdam, with a little bit less 'authentic' character. We walked around the city a bit, saw an interesting cathedral with no discernible main entrance, perused a Christmas market, and poked around a few streets. They also speak MUCH less German or English here...consequently we have a much more difficult time communicating. We were able to practice French with our hotel owner, but people in stalls at the Christmas market would start talking to us if we looked at their goods for more than a few seconds and all we could do was smile and eventually walk away--we feel so bad! We decided that next time we visit France and/or Belgium we will be much better prepared (ie we will have studied French and hopefully be more confident in our abilities). We're looking forward to Germany tomorrow where at least we are confident in the language and semi-fluent. We were able to speak French a few times to people, but certainly not confidently! I (Luke) was feeling a bit sore in the throat, so we stayed in tonight and rested, getting to bed nice and early. Off to Germany tomorrow."