Novosedly, Czech Republic - Ottensoos, Germany

Crackertastic!

Every day is cracker day when you're loaded up with heaps of them.  So before we set off to our last stop on our trip out came the crackers for more laughs and explosions.  

We've refined our firecracker lighting technique now and rather than strike match after match wasting time we brought out those firestarter cubes which provided a non-stop flame for even more explosive themed fun.

After only a piddling 150 explosions or so we finally ran out and Captain Sensible rounded the troops up so it was time to go.

Snow dramas on the highway

Just before we left though, Joseph, the brother of our host came down to wish us goodbye and gave us the good news that last night there was countrywide snow.  Ripper!  Just what we wanted to hear for the summer-tyred Grand Kangoo but he said we should be right if we stuck to the main roads.

Lucky for us he was right but as we crossed the border and went up in altitude there was heaps more snow about and it was starting to get a bit hairy.  In the end we finally joined onto the main highway and we were right.

Taste test of a local sweet

Our last stop was to be Nuremberg but as luck would have it that very night was the beginning of Christkindlesmarkt which is the largest in Germany.  

As a result accommodation was fairly scarce and in the end a few days before we bagged an apartment about 25kms away in a small village called Ottensoos.  Not a bad result really as, for us, it's nicer staying out in the countryside away from the hub-bub of the big cities.

Market stalls

Had a relaxing arvo and then we drove to the markets which were, as promised, huge.  


Loads of people with hundreds of stalls around selling a multitude of goodies.  The stall were minitature works of art themselves and decorated quite intricately.  

Stall decoration on the roof of the stall

Besides knick-knacks of every description there was a lot of local cuisine so we got into that and had some pickled fish sandwiches, bratwurst sausages on buns, some crepes, some other traditional sweets and downed a few gluhweins to round out dinner.

We walked around the markets for an hour or so but as we were starting to lose feeling in our toes and fingers we decided to head home.

Christkindlesmarkt Nurnberg

Highway scenery