Merry Christmas 2010

Frohe Weihnacht from Germany!!  Today we woke up to a very very white Christmas Eve - over a foot of snow last night!  It is beautiful here - and very cold.  The teenage boys of Heinsberg also wished the town a "Merry Christmas" with this "snowwoman" above... we get to see her every time we head into town.  :)

View from our bedroom doors

View from our front door

Today we brought over some sugar cookies we made to our neighbors, who promptly showered us with gifts... Heinsberg "printen" pastry, some homemade gluhwein, and some champagne!!  Next year we're going to have to up the ante.  For now, we've got the mulled wine brewing and will have our Christmas fondue party, followed by a 10:00 pm Mass in the Heinsberg "Dom". 

What we gave...

What we received from our sweet neighbors!

Making Gluhwein

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! love, Cara and Colin

Winter Wonderland with Erin, JC and Jude

I am probably stating the obvious, but there really is nothing better than being with family around the holidays.  Colin and I had been looking forward to early December for just that reason - our first family visitors!  We were so thrilled to spend time with his sister Erin, brother-in-law JC and their baby Jude.   Having family here just made our home finally feel really like "home", which is such a good feeling after being in a bit of a transitional phase for the past couple months.

Jude is almost a year old now, and is crawling very fast and almost walking, making lots of funny noises and is just an adorable cherub-like child.   He is so happy, easily excited and in awe of all things.  He accompanies most of his observations with an "oooooooooooooh", which we really missed hearing once they left.   Jude was a great traveler, and the Germans could not get enough of him.  He took a real interest in Lola, who was very afraid of him at first.  Soon enough though, Lola learned how much food he dropped from the table at dinner time and learned about all of his interesting smells, and became rather obsessed with him.  SO - the week just flew by with no end of entertainment.

The group of us traveled south of Frankfurt to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  According to our travel guide Rick Steves, Rothenburg is Germany's best preserved medieval walled town.  The town is full of all things Christmas - a Christmas market selling all types of Christmas decor, Christmas stores, Christmas tree, etc.  We took in the town sites, and walked the city walls in the extremely cold weather and snow.  Jude was a trooper and we were all assisted by a few mugs of gluhwein, the German version of  mulled wine, which warms both the hands and the heart.  ; )

In Rothenburg, we toured the Medieval Crime and Punishment Museum, a morbid but interesting collection of the awful ways they used to keep citizens in line with the law (eg, wearing shame masks if you were a gossipy woman, wearing chastity belts (they are real!), wearing a barrel of wine through town if you drank too much, and the being holed up in the interesting cage below in the pics - JC and Erin spotted the funny caption below - watch out, medieval bakers!). We also "schneeballed" for a bit, our term for trying out the town's famous treat of "Schneeballs", chocolate covered or frosted pastries in the shape of a snow ball.  Schneeballs taste ok, but what is really more fun is just using the word "schneeball" in any way you can dream up.

Midieval Crime and Punishment Museum

hm.  Watch out Bakers!

Schneeballin'!

We took the Romantic Road home along the Tauber River, seeing a few of the other snow-covered medieval towns along the route back home.  During the rest of the week, we went to the Aachen Weinachtsmarkt (Christmas market) together, as well as a quick tour of Maastricht in the Netherlands.  It was an awesome week and we were very sad to see them go.   Now Colin and I are enjoying the rest of December by decorating our Christmas tree, celebrating our first Christmas together, learning how to make gluhwein and toffee, and trying to stay warm during this freezing German winter.  We're headed to London for New Years' Eve, and are really looking forward to it!

Romantic Road

Aachen Christmas Market and statue of Charlemagne

Jude's ride on the Carousel

Weekend with Steve and Ana

Happy Thanksgiving from Germany!  Cara put me in charge of blogging our past weekend.  Let me know what you think.  If I need to retire from blogging, just let me know.  My groomsmen Steve Hartrich and his girlfriend Ana visited us this weekend from Dublin.  We had an entertaining evening at our favorite local pub, the Kobi Stube.  The locals love having young people in their bar and we were treated to a round by a German man who described himself as the "Dirty Harry" of Germany.  He did look a bit like Clint Eastwood. 

On Saturday we drove to Cologne and toured the area.  One of our favorite attractions so far is the Cologne Cathedral.  It is enormous and the view is incredible after climbing to the top of the bell tower's 533 steps.  We know the picture of the couple holding each other is cheesy and it's okay to critique.  Don't worry, it's not us.  It's a random couple that Cara caught on camera by chance.  On Sunday we toured Thorn, Netherlands and stopped at a favorite pancake joint.  We later drove to Eindhoven for a pint before taking Steve and Ana to the airport.  As I'm writing this it is becoming apparent why Cara wanted me to blog for this entry; we have very few photos to write about and it's making it difficult for me.  So I'll just comment on how great married life is so far. 

We really enjoy our new home.  We are fully settled and finally feel at home.  One of my favorite parts of the home is the US sized fridge in the basement.  We have six packs of beer....er...soda and yogurt.  During the move I learned how great it is to have Cara's help.  This is an incredible experience and it is wonderful to share so many new experiences with Cara while being newlyweds.  Life is entertaining when we have to translate daily details like what garbage goes out on which day.  We are having an interesting time figuring out what our landlords are saying regarding the remodeling completion.  Cara enjoys speaking in perfect english to our German landlords who know very little or no english.  Sometimes we laugh with our landlords while we get the feeling that they are pretty much laughing at us.  The guest room is complete and ready for visitors!

Cara recently passed the CA bar and we are very excited.  We are celebrating by buying a purse and finding a pair of boots. 

 not us...

Looking up into the top of the Bell Tower

Things that Start with "B"...

Belgium, Brussels, Bruges, beer, beautiful scenery and the best chocolate and waffles ever!  :)

Colin and I enjoyed a long weekend in Belgium.  We toured Brussels primarily at night by walking to the charming "Grand Place" square, and checking out the Cathedral and other sites as we passed them.  It was neat to see the city all lit up, and then settle down for some Belgian beer tasting.  The next day we checked out the Flemish art at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts.  Then, since we knew we'd love Bruges, we hopped in Trusty and headed an hour west.

 Brussels Cathedral

Grand Place with Flemish Renaissance-baroque guild houses from the 17th century

 Doors of  the Notre-Dame-du-Sablon Church (15th Century Gothic)

 First Sampling of Beers at Mort Subite

And then, Bruges!

Sure enough, our trip to Bruges was awesome and it is now our fav nearby spot.  A small, walkable midieval town with romantic canals, swans, horse-drawn carriages and delicious food... it is almost too good to be true.  Colin was particularly interested in trying an ambitious array of Belgian beers, so we made a first stop at Beertje, where they served about 300 types of beers, many of of which had their own specific beer glass.  He tried Trappist beers (brewed by monks) and Abbey beers and I tried out sips of various "fruity" Lambic ales- peach, raspberry and cherry.    After a few days of tasting, Colin found a favorite, the Westmalle Tripel.  It is a Trappist beer that has a whopping 9.5% alcohol content.  Hm.  Good thing it was generally accompanied with some traditional meals - Flemish Stew and Mussels.  We were very content in Bruges. 

Our last night there, we found a cool little bar with live music, and had a great time listening to the Belgian version of the Counting Crows, U2 and Tom Petty.  We highly recommend Bruges to our future visitors- its only 2.5 hours away and has just enough sites that you stay busy while still relaxing, enjoying the scenery, and eating some chocolates.  A few highlights as far as "things to see" (yes, we did do some sight-seeing) were the "Madonna of Bruges", a marble sculpture by Michelangelo in the Church of Our Lady (and the only sculpture of Michelangelo's to leave Italy during his lifetime), a Basilica where there was a vial of blood that was supposedly from Christ (? we were not sure what to think on this one), the Bell Tower, Market Square and the Burg.

Belgian Lace

The Market Square

 

 

 

 

In front of the Burg

We enjoyed a tour of the canals in this boat with a tour guide that called himself James Bond

 Michelangelo's Madonna and Child

Bell Tower

mmmmm Chocolates!

And finally... the beer tasting series ...

Brewery De Halve Maan

washed down with these meals...

 SO FUN!!