Christmas Market weekend

In mid-December we spent a weekend visiting German Christmas markets with Brandon and Alicesara. Being that it was our last winter in Germany we had to make sure to get our fill!   Our first stop was Nürnberg, home of Germany's most famous and most popular Christkindlesmarkt (2 million visitors a year!).  We drank plenty of Feuerzangenbowle and Glühwein to stay warm; ate pretzels, Lebkuchen (gingerbread), and Nürnbergers; and bought fun German souvenirs.

 

 

Next up was Rothenburg, a very cute city popular for its medieval old town.  We walked along the top of the wall surrounding the city, ate more of our favorite Christmas market treats, and enjoyed the festive atmosphere.

 

 

 

We had a great weekend and are very thankful we got to experience three years of Christmas markets. Such a fun way to celebrate the Christmas season!

Shane & Staci’s visit!

Shane and Staci came to visit us in late November for eight days of Christmas markets, travel, and fun!  They arrived on Thanksgiving Day and helped Dan and I make our first-ever turkey dinner.  It took two tiny German ovens but it turned out great!  Afterwards we took them to the Wiesbaden Christmas market for some shopping and warm drinks before heading to Paris early the next morning.

 

Staci had been dreaming of Paris for a very long time, so we were really excited to show her around.  We took a free walking tour; visited Notre Dame, the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Arc de Triomphe, and Versailles; and of course experienced the magic of the Eiffel Tower at night. 

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We made sure to get our fill of crepes, stroll the Champs-Élysées, and experience the Latin Quarter’s nightlife.  We learned that none of us really like Parisian food, vin chaud (France’s version of Glühwein) is excellent, and Paris is one busy, action-packed city.

We also took a day trip to Belgium where we visited the Neuhaus outlet store just outside of Brussels.  Neuhaus is the best Belgian chocolate there is, and the outlet store is amazing!  The unlimited samples left us stuffing our faces with decadent pralines and other chocolate goodies, excited to try varieties we hadn’t seen before.  Staci and I both felt a little sick after eating too much chocolate but it was well worth it!    We also visited a beer warehouse so Dan could stock up and then we headed into the city center to see the Christmas market, eat some Belgian waffles, and enjoy the beautiful day. 

 

On our way home we stopped in Cologne for another Christmas market.  Cologne has several markets; we visited the one at the foot of the Cologne Cathedral.  It was very festive and super crowded!

We are so happy that Shane and Staci came to visit! We had tons of fun spending time with them!

The Black Forest

In mid-November Dan and I decided it was time to check out Germany’s Schwarzwald, also known as the Black Forest.  The Black Forest is a 4600 square mile mountain range in southwestern Germany named for the dense growth of conifer trees that cover it and block a majority of light from entering the forest.  The area is famous for its gourmet cuisine and natural beauty.  It is also know for its cuckoo clocks, which have been made in the region since the early eighteenth century.

We started our trip in Freiburg, a small town situated in the middle of a major wine-growing region.  We spent Saturday strolling through Freiburg’s farmers’ market, checking out Muenster Cathedral (it’s covered in gargoyles!), and visiting Feierling, the local brewery.

 

 

We also hiked up the Schlossberg, a small mountain with nice views of the Black Forest and France’s Vosges mountain range.  Freiburg has an awesome dining spot called the Markthalle which contains various food counters from around the world, all offering cheap and delicious dishes.  We had such a hard time deciding what to eat!

We spent day two cuckoo clock shopping in Triberg (we’re pretty sure we found the one we want!) and searching for Black Forest cake in Gengenheim.  We are excited to return to the Black Forest in the spring to pick out a clock and do some hiking!

Croatia

Rita and Don came to visit us in October, and we had a full trip planned for them. Don has always wanted to experience a true German beer fest so we donned our Lederhosen and Dirndl one last time and drove to the Cannstatter Volksfest in Stuttgart. The tent was packed, and the beer was flowing.

The day after the beer fest we boarded a plane to Croatia to see the Dalmatian Coast. We rented a car and drove from Zadar to Dubrovnik. It was quite the drive through windy mountainous roads, but luckily there were hardly any other cars on the road. The next morning we took a tour while walking along the wall around the old city. It was a beautiful day, and we saw some of the bluest water ever. After the tour we took a cable car up to the top of the mountain to get a different view of Dubrovnik and to relax with a drink.

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After we were fully relaxed we headed back down to the old town for a Croatian wine tasting and to find some food. It was amazing how clean the city was even with all the tourists. The streets were made of marble and super sooth and shiny.

We left Dubrovnik early the next morning with a quick stop off in Split on our way back to Zadar. The next day we were planning on having an awesome day hiking through Plitvice Falls National Park, and judging by the weather in Zadar (80 and sunny) we thought it was shorts and t-shirt weather. However, we were seriously mistaken. The park was about an hour and a half drive from Zadar, and it was up in the mountains. By the time we got to Plitvice the temperature had dropped to 50 degrees, and it was raining. So we all bought souvenirs (sweatshirts and ponchos) and braved the unexpectedly dreary weather.


We still had a great time hiking through the park and enjoying the wonderful views. The next morning we headed back to Germany. Thanks for visiting Don and Rita! We had a great time exploring Croatia with you.

Amalfi Coast, Italy

For my birthday in September Marissa and I went to the Amalfi Coast, which is also known as the Italian Riviera. After landing in Naples, we took a 2 hour bus ride along narrow, winding coastal roads to Amalfi Town.

This region of Italy is world renowned for their coffee so we made sure to get our fill. Their specially drink is called cafe nocciollo which is espresso with a hazelnut syrup, and it was delicious. While in Amalfi town we took a day trip to Ravello which is a town up on a cliff with beautiful views of the water down below. After spending two days exploring Amalfi Town we headed to Sorrento with a quick stop in Positano for some lunch.
Sorrento is known for their lemons (they are huge!) and gelato so we had to try the lemon gelato while we were there. It was good, but we decided to stick with chocolate and hazelnut. Sorrento is a very cute town with a nice pedestrian shopping zone, incredible pizza, and awesome views of Mount Vesuvius. From Sorrento we took a day trip to Capri to see the Blue Grotto with our own eyes and to get some great views from the top of the mountain. The Blue Grotto was amazing even though we were only in there for three minutes.

After five nights in Italy we had our fill of coffee and gelato and headed back to Naples for Germany.

Hamburg, Germany

In late August we traveled to Hamburg, Germany, with a group of friends to explore the city and experience its famous nightlife.  We took a boat tour, visited the Beatles’ Museum (my favorite band got their start in Hamburg!), and went on a five bar pub crawl (we were out until 4am!).

Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany, the third largest port in Europe, and home to the St. Pauli quarter, a world famous red light district that’s the largest in Europe.  There was a huge contrast between the area surrounding Hamburg’s elegant Rathaus, which is full of fancy shops and cute cafes, and the Reeperbahn, home to countless strip clubs, brothels, and bars.  We also stumbled upon a giant fair and a wine festival, and our (crazy) friends stayed out at the clubs until 6 am so they could be at Hamburg’s renowned fischmarkt when it opened Sunday morning.  Hamburg is definitely an interesting city! 

 

Chris & Lily's visit (& the Wiesbaden Wein Woche 2011)

August is wine fest season in Germany, and because Wiesbaden’s wine fest is the best there is (in our unbiased opinion), Chris and Lily decided it was worth making a transatlantic flight for. Chris lived in Mainz in 2006 (and still refers to it as “heaven”) so he was also itching to show Lily all of his favorite places in his former city. He had to pack so much into one day in Mainz that we ended up going to two different places for lunch and then to his favorite brewery for dinner.

While Marissa and I were working during the day, Chris and Lily did some exploring on their own and then met us at the Wiesbaden wine fest at night. Apparently three nights of wine fest wasn’t enough because Chris also wanted to do a wine tasting while he was here. We all went to Allendorf to sample some wine and were lucky enough to have a private wine tasting with the owner. On Chris and Lily’s last day we took a break from the vino and did some hiking at Felsenmeer, a nature park of huge granite boulders stretching up the side of a mountain.

And of course we had to take them to Paulaner before they left for one last authentic German meal. We had so much fun hanging out with Chris and Lily and are so happy they came to visit!