Christmas Markets!

The more time Dan and I spend in Germany the more convinced we are that Germans know how to celebrate better than anyone.  The latest example is the German Christmas market.  Christmas markets begin in late November every year and run right up until Christmas.  Cities big and small usher in the holiday season with the opening of “Weihnachtsmarkt” – an outdoor celebration where stalls full of decorations, ornaments, and toys line the streets, and people brave the cold to enjoy bratwursts, candied nuts, and warm drinks.  This is one German “fest” where beer is not the drink of choice; Eierpunsch (a warm egg-based alcoholic drink) and Glühwein (hot mulled wine) are extremely popular.  Most markets have a giant Christmas tree, a life size Nativity Scene, and live music.

This year we visited markets in five different cities: Wiesbaden, Frankfurt, Rüdesheim, Mainz, and Cologne.  They were all so festive.  We had a great time trying different types of Glühwein (and collecting the mugs!), stuffing ourselves with German Christmas cookies, and shopping for gifts.

We definitely need to find a way to bring Christmas markets back to the States!

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Thanksgiving

Dan and I spent this year’s Thanksgiving feast in Wiesbaden with 30 of our closest new friends.  Kim and John were awesome hosts, and everyone brought something delicious to share.  We stuffed ourselves with turkey, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, pumpkin soup, and all of those other traditional Thanksgiving dishes.  My favorite was definitely Kim’s homemade cranberries.  Have I really been eating cranberry sauce from a can my entire life?  We ate until it hurt, enjoyed some great company and conversation, and of course Dan’s pumpkin pie was incredible!

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We were sad we couldn’t be home with family for the holiday (we missed everyone!) but we are so thankful that we have such great friends to celebrate with in Germany.  Thanks so much to the Marshalls and to everyone else for making the day so enjoyable!

Paris

We spent a long, romantic weekend in Paris in early November but we’ve been so busy with the holidays (more to come on Thanksgiving and the Christmas markets later) that we haven’t had a chance to update the blog!

Instead of driving to Paris we decided to kick back and relax on the ICE train.  We got up bright and early (4am) and left Wiesbaden at 5:22.  It was more than worth it though; we made it to our hotel in Paris at 10am and had the whole day to sightsee!

Our first stop that morning was a crêperie where we enjoyed the most delicious apple/caramel/almond and banana/chocolate/almond crepes.  Yum.  Next we headed to the Pantheon to see some crypts and then to Notre Dame to check out the gargoyles that protect the cathedral from up above. In between we stopped for the “most potent hot chocolate in Paris”. Let’s just say it was thick. And delicious.

 
The next morning we stopped by the Eiffel tower to get some amazing views of the city (that’s when it hit us that we were *really* in Paris!).  We stopped by a street market for some French bread and cheese and then got the most of our museum pass by checking out the Arc de Triomphe and the Musée du Louvre.  We made sure to get a few pictures of the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo to prove that we do get a bit of culture on these trips. After another crepe and a delicious Indian dinner we went back to the Eiffel tower to see it all lit up at night.  It was breathtaking. 

   
We packed as much as we could into Friday and Saturday and by Sunday we were exhausted.  We managed to visit Sacré-Coeur and get another crepe (naturally) but most of the shops were closed that day. We saw almost all of the sights in Paris that we wanted to, but we were always on the go.  Next time we are in Paris we can relax at a cafe and pretend to be sophisticated like the rest of the French. 

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A visit from the Robertsons!

My mom and dad traveled to Germany recently to visit Dan and I and to experience Europe for the very first time. They were a little nervous about Euros and the language barrier and what to pack but they survived the long flight and the jet lag, and we had a great time!

No trip to Germany would be complete without an introduction to German cuisine so we stuffed them full of schnitzel, bratwurst, and beer and did a wine tasting or two (or four…). We took day trips to Heidelberg, Frankfurt, and Burg Eltz, and even spent two days in the Alsace region of France. The towns we visited there were so quaint and peaceful – with medieval castles, half-timbered houses, and vineyards all around.

One day while Dan and I were at work, my mom and dad took a river cruise on the Rhine. They braved the bus and the train all by themselves and even stopped in St. Goar to visit a castle. I was so proud of them!

The highlight of the trip was probably the Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart. It’s the second largest beer festival in the world, second only to Munich’s Oktoberfest. My dad fit right in with the wild and crazy beer-loving Germans, finishing off (almost) 2 maße and making friends left and right. One twenty-something German guy repeatedly told my mom that my dad “is VERY cool”.

We are pretty sure Mom and Dad learned a lot about Europe while they were here. They discovered that sometimes you have to pay to use the bathroom, showers don’t always come equipped with shower curtains, and Germans really like to party! It also came as a surprise that quite a few people “speaka d’ English” over here ;o). We had so much fun giving Mom and Dad a little taste of Germany (and France!), and we hope they enjoyed themselves as much as we did!

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Eins, zwei, g’suffa!

Every year for sixteen days in late September, the city of Munich expands from 1 1/2 million people to over 6 million. Seven million liters of beer are consumed, and the Australians set up a temporary embassy because so many of them lose their passports in all of the fun.  Amusement park rides, food stands, and beer tents pop up all over Theresienwiese, and people from all over the world come together to celebrate Bavaria's greatest tradition.  Oktoberfest!

Dan and I were there this year, amongst all of the chaos and excitement, for the 199th anniversary of Oktoberfest.  It certainly lived up to the hype!

The first day, after desperately trying to get into the Hofbräu-Festzelt and failing, we found seats in the beer garden of the Augustiner tent.  We squeezed into a table of rowdy Bavarians, had our first giant pretzel of the weekend (yum!), and got our first taste of the world's largest fair.  Dan got to practice his German, we met a nice couple from Holland, and a maß of beer shattered all over the guy next to us.  He didn't seem to mind :).

 
The next day we managed to squeeze in a 2 1/2 hour walking tour of Munich, a visit to the English Garden to watch the surfers, and a quick climb up to the top of St. Peter's Church.  Then it was back to the fun.  We dressed up in our dirndl and lederhosen and met a bunch of friends from work at the Ammer tent, where we had tickets for the evening.  After a huge German meal of pretzels, brats, cheese, half chickens, and German potato salad (not to mention some chocolate lava cake) we started in on the beer drinking and danced and sang the night away.  I can't even count the number of times we sang "Ein prosit".  It was quite the party!

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Our first visitors!!!

After living in Germany for 101 days we finally had our first visitors!  My mom, Don, Uncle Jerry, and Cheryl came to visit us.

 

It was so nice to see them and show everyone around our new town.  We tried to show them as much German stuff as we could in the few days that they were here.  This included going to a couple of fests, seeing the view from the tallest building in Frankfurt, checking out the Saturday morning market in Wiesbaden, touring a castle, and of course eating some schnitzel.

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I think that we wore them out by making them walk so much.  I didn’t think that the hill up to our apartment was that big, but maybe we are just used to it.  So they took a break the next few days and explored Wiesbaden while Marissa and I went to work.  Don had a trade show in London so we met up with him there and spent the weekend.

London is such a big city and there is so much that we wanted to do.  So it ended up being a very busy weekend.                                                                                                                                                                                                  

We took a tour of the Tower of London given by a Yeoman.  The Yeoman are appointed by the queen to guard the crown jewels and give tours, so they actually live there.   Marissa was mainly interested in seeing where Anne Boleyn was beheaded so we made sure to check that out while we were there. 

 

 

They have the coolest urinals in London.  Nowhere to wash your hands though.

We also made sure to ride the London Eye and see the changing of the guards.

After all that we were exhausted so we stopped at an English pub for some warm beer and fish and chips.

It was so nice to see everyone.  We had a great time.  Can’t wait for our next visitors in 3 weeks!

Belgium!

We just got back from our weekend trip to Belgium, and we had such a good time. Our first stop was Brussels. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was definitely a cool city. Some parts have an old European vibe while others feel and look like New York City.

We really weren’t sure what there was to see in Brussels except the famous landmark statue, Manneken Pis, so we made sure to get a picture of us in front of that.

The Belgians even dress the statue up for special occasions. There is also a statue of a peeing girl and a peeing dog. After we saw that statue we were thirsty so we decided to head over to Le Roy’s pub in the Grand Place and get one of those fine Belgian beers.

The whole town of Brussels smells like fine chocolate and warm sugary waffles. We couldn’t walk 20 feet without finding another chocolate or waffle shop. I am pretty sure that we were in 5 chocolate shops in the first 30 minutes of getting there.

Once we had all the chocolate that we could handle, we took a short drive over to Brugge. There were probably even more chocolate shops in Brugge than there were in Brussels. We managed to find a place called ‘Bar Choc’ that offered 44 different kinds of hot chocolate. I had one with marshmallows, and Marissa had a dark chocolate one (obviously).

We also got a little shot of water, a small cup of pudding and some sugar cubes to go with our hot chocolate. I’m still not quite sure what all that stuff was for.

After we finished with the hot chocolate we went on a brewery tour of the only brewery that exists in Brugge.

Our tour guide Inge told us that these fermentation containers needed to be cleaned thoroughly, but the quality control experts that were supposed to clean them developed too much of a belly to fit inside. So they needed to hire 16 year old boys to climb in and clean them. Because of all the alcohol fumes they had to whistle while they were inside the vats cleaning (is that where whistle while you work came from?) so that once they passed out from the fumes someone could pull them out.

In between all of the beer drinking and chocolate eating, we managed to squeeze in a boat tour of the canals and a climb up to the top of the Bell Tower.

And no trip to Belgium would be complete without a little shopping.

Berchtesgaden!

In early August, our friends Kim and John invited us on a weekend getaway to Berchtesgaden, located in the German Bavarian Alps, near the Austrian border. John raved about how beautiful the area was so of course we had to see for ourselves! He wasn't kidding...


We started the first morning off with a hike up to Kehlsteinhaus, or Hitler's Eagle's Nest. Kehlsteinhaus was a retreat built for Hitler for his 50th birthday. He only visited about 10 times, and it is now a restaurant and big tourist attraction. The hike was really tough!! It was ALL uphill and took us an hour and a half but it was more than worth it.



We spent about two hours at the top, relaxing, taking pictures and enjoying the view. I am still trying to figure out why Hitler didn't come here more often!

After our hike we met up with Kim and John and took a boat ride on the Königssee, Germany's deepest and cleanest lake. The ride was slow and peaceful, and the captain provided colorful commentary in German. At a rock cliff half way through the trip, the first mate played a trumpet to demonstrate the echo. It was absolutely beautiful.



The boat took us to a church about a half hour up the lake where we got out to relax, dip our toes in the freezing cold water and enjoy some drinks in a biergarten. That night we all headed into Berchtesgaden for dinner and the Markt Fest (I swear there is *always* a festival going on nearby!).


The next morning we took the Jennerbahn (a chair lift) up the mountain for more spectacular views and some hiking before we headed back to Wiesbaden. I still can't believe we live in such an amazing place...

Cinque Terre, Italy

One of the major perks of living in Germany is the limitless opportunities for travel! We decided to take our first trip to Cinque Terre, Italy, to celebrate our 1 year anniversary (May was just too busy!) and my birthday. Cinque Terre or "The Five Lands" is made up of five beautiful villages along the coast of the Italian Riviera. The views are breathtaking, the hiking is endless, and the food is delizioso!
We started off each day with a hike to one of the five towns and then spent the rest of the day exploring, relaxing by the beach, and taking in the gorgeous scenery.
Pesto and focaccia bread originated in this region so we made sure to try both. We also tried a couple of their famous wines: vino delle Cinque Terre and Sciacchetrà. And of course, gelato - multiple times a day.
Here are some of our favorite pictures from the trip:

Riomaggiore

Taking a break during our hike

Boat ride back to Vernazza

Sampling some Sciacchetrà

We had an incredible trip!

Hallo from Deutschland!

We've been living in Germany for a little over two months now and thought a blog would be a great way to share our adventures with family and friends back home. Up to this point we have been extremely busy getting settled, becoming comfortable with our new jobs, and learning to navigate the Autobahn but we've still managed to experience quite a bit of German culture...

We have already been to a handful of German festivals, traveled to Cinque Terre, Italy, and Berchtesgaden in Southern Germany, and attended a wine tasting in the home of German winemakers.

We absolutely love living over here so far. Wiesbaden is a charming city full of amazing restaurants, beautiful architecture, and scenic parks. There is always something to do.
We found a great penthouse apartment overlooking the city and have made some great friends already. Trips to Belgium, London, and Oktoberfest are right around the corner, and we are really looking forward to the experiences and opportunities that await us in the next few years.

Tschuss! Auf Wiedersehen!