Trapped in White Christmas
... Normally
The winter is normally not really harsh in Würselen. You can expect a cold and frosty period sometimes with snow in January or the first half of February. That’s all, normally.
The winter 2010/2011 however fell out of this rule. Not because it was extremely cold nor because the period last extraordinary long. There was snow in December: We had a White Christmas.
The dream of White Christmas
As in all over Germany, the people in Würselen are longing for snow at Christmas. It makes Christmas more peaceful and more romantic. As a yearly routine, two weeks before the very date, the weather forecast for snow at Christmas is part of each news on the TV.
May be, we prayed too much then. May be, our children were good and well-behaved throughout the summer. Or may be, we were just the next in the line. We got it. And we got all of it.
Fraus Holle
‘Frau Holle’ (the fairy who lets it snow in well-known German fairytales) – or whoever is to blame – prepared it in a perfect way. Starting with heavy snow fell at temperatures around 0° centigrade, Würselen was firstly covered with a wet layer of snow. The ideal subsoil for the things to come. The temperatures fell far beyond zero and the wet snow iced up. And then we got the real snow for our White Christmas, in the night to Christmas eve and the whole day long.
On Christmas Eve, the traffic died out. The snowploughs could not make it to clear all the roads. They focus on the highways and the federal streets. The farmers with their converted tractors did their best but at the end of the day you can see customers dragging home their goods - in particular their Christmas roast - on sledges. (If you don’t belief me, I have a picture in reserve which can’t be shown here due to data protection reasons.)
The challenge
It was a very challenging situation; no busses, no chance to drive your car out of the garage over the masses of snow on the residential streets. It was not very helpful to know that the highways and federal street were cleared. The typical Christmas visits to the relatives were a walk on the wild side, either by car or by foot. How to take the children to their grandma and grandpa? And, how to bring the gifts back home. Trapped in White Christmas.
The pictures
The pictures here were taken in Linden-Neusen on Christmas Eve. No comments are necessary; they speak for themselves and the White Christmas in Würselen in 2010. There are more pictures depicting the winter in Linden-Neusen here.