Christmas Market - On a Boat!

Again this Christmas season, we were able to visit our own Christmas market, located up and down the canals in Groningen.  As part of the Christmas market, you could go on the boats lined up in the canal, and some offered hot chocolate, spiced hot wine, music, even free books! 

Of course, any good boat needs a bike.

The boat, with the bridge lined with Christmas lights.

Traditional food abounded.  Here, some smoked eel like fish was being sold. 

He skewered each of the eel like fishes, hung them from a rack, and then he inserted the rack into the smoker. 

Oysters being de-shelled.

This woman sold all sorts of roots and mushrooms, along with fresh mistletoe. 

Over a giant fire, this man, straight from the middle ages, roasts all sorts of meats.

Little known fact - hoodies were common in the middle ages.

Time for some entertainment!  A boat slowly maneuvers down the canal.  This was interesting, because, with boats parked on either side of the canal, there was barely enough room for the boat hands to direct this boat in the narrow opening. 

So how did they do it?  This video shows how - drive very slowly, and then as the boat approaches the parked boats, both the moving boat and the parked boats have people that come by with large plastic "cushions" that they line up where the two boats could potentially crash into one another.  These cushions take the majority of the force, and keep the boats from getting scratched up.

Finally, the sun goes down and the lights go on!

Happy 2014 to you all, from the (non-) sunny Netherlands!