Skiing in Chamonix, France

In early March, Dan and I headed to Chamonix-Mont-Blanc (the site of the first winter Olympics) with our friends Alicesara and Brandon to do some end-of-winter skiing and snowboarding.  Chamonix is located in the French Alps near the point where the French, Swiss, and Italian borders come together, and Mont Blanc is the highest mountain in the European Alps.  The town of Chamonix is very cute, with lots of restaurants and shops lining the pedestrian area, and the mountains are pretty amazing (especially during a sunset!).

During our trip, I learned that blue runs are still too steep and scary for me but I got some great instruction on the bunny hill from the Lesters.  Dan did some off piste snowboarding, Alicesara showed off her impressive skiing skills, and Brandon got a lot more comfortable on the slopes.  We all ate lots of crepes, sampled some Swiss fondue and French wine, and had an awesome time together!

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Skiing in Austria

Dan and I headed down to St. Veit, Austria, with a bunch of friends recently to experience skiing in the Alps.  I took two days of ski lessons with Drew and Sandie and pretty much perfected the snow plow.  We learned basics like turning, how to effectively use hand warmers (you can't forget to shake them!), and how not to run into other skiers.  Dan, on the other hand, snowboarded his way down the steepest, toughest terrain he could find.  The mountains were breathtaking, and both days we were lucky enough to have plenty of fresh powder to play in. At the end of each day all eighty of us met up for dinner and partied the night away at the Rustica bar, playing traditional Austrian games like "milk the cow" and trying to ignore our sore, aching muscles.

We are awfully lucky to be so close to so many of the world’s top ski resorts, and we plan on taking advantage of as many as we can in the next few years!

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New Year’s Eve!

What could be better on New Year’s Eve than a fondue party?? Not much!  Kim and John had a bunch of friends over to ring in the New Year with a ton of great food and plenty of champagne.  We started off with Raclette, a make-it-yourself dish from Switzerland that involves dried meats, pickles, mushrooms, potatoes and Raclette cheese, and an electric table-top grill that heats everything up into one delicious gooey mess.  Next we moved on to salad, chicken, shrimp and veggies, then cheese fondue with all of the fixings and finally my favorite – chocolate fondue!!  I’m still drooling over Alicesara’s pound cake and those chocolate covered bananas.

After we stuffed ourselves silly we headed downtown to the Kurhaus to see the fireworks display.  As it turns out, Germans are crazy about their fireworks (as were our friends, who bought some of their own).  Brandon described the scene around the casino best when he said it felt like a war zone.  That it did!  Everywhere you turned people were setting off fireworks, with no thought to where they were shooting them or who they might hit.  It was crazy and a little scary.  But it was beautiful and you could definitely feel the celebration in the air.  At midnight Wiesbaden had a fireworks display of its own. It was also pretty magnificent.

Below are some pictures from the party and a video taken by our friend, Sandie. These are not the city’s fireworks – they were set off by lots of random people (all at the same time!).

Happy New Year everyone! Wishing you all a fabulous 2010!

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Christmas trip to the States

After almost seven months of living in Germany, I was having major cravings for Panera and desperately needed a trip to Target.  More importantly, Dan and I really missed family and friends!   Our week-long trip home for the holidays couldn’t have come at a more perfect time.  Our flight to Toronto was interesting (we were put on standby because of a “snow storm” in Germany the day before, barely made it through security in time to board, and then spent 2 1/2 hours sitting on the runway because of a medical emergency) but eventually we made it!
We had a great time visiting with family and friends in both Buffalo and Erie and made sure to soak up all of the things we love about home while we were there.  Christmas is such a special time of year, and we’re so glad we got to spend it with the people we love the most.

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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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