Christmas 2010 will go down in history as a year of firsts:
1. First Christmas abroad
2. First Christmas sans Andells (a sad first)
3. First snowy Christmas (Mom and Dad, can you verify this?)
4. First time celebrating Christmas morning as a couple
5. First Christmas Eve at a German church (and probably the last)
6. First Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market), and thus the first Glühwein
7. First attempt at homemade pesto (too much oil)
8. First homemade crepes made for a boyfriend (delicious and a good way to use oily pesto!)
9. First slumber party in a haunted, Nazi-tainted castle
And while certainly not firsts, long walks, good conversation, delicious coffee and pretzels were enjoyed by all.
The Weihnachtsmarkt: where friends, Glühwein and shopping mix!
To Europeans, the Münster is another cool cathedral.
For Americans, it's a marvel.
Glühwein: spiced, heated wine.
New Year's resolution: be organized like the Germans!
Instead of simply putting lights on trees (especially not colorful lights like the Andells), Germans often light candles on their trees. This would scare the shit out of me.
Evan loved Flammkuchen, a thin, German pizza with creme fraiche instead of tomato sauce.
In Freiburg, these stars (found also in red)
hung outside of most houses and businesses in the Altstadt
View from Freiburg's Schlossberg
Christmas morning: french toast and coffee.
A view of the Rhine in Bacharach, where we stayed in a castle.
"To the red bear": a gladiator facing certain death.
Bacharach
A front view of the castle, which was built in the 11th century and served as a youth indoctrination camp during the Nazi regime.
We stopped in this weird bar to have a drink. The town was inhabited by about 20 old people. When we came in, everyone stopped, stared and started talking about us. It was the perfect setting for a horror film--we stayed up all night scaring each other.
Those two weeks were about being young, poor and in love. I wish everyone on Earth could experience that.
Well Katy,
ReplyDeleteI can definitely say Dad an I experienced poor and in love when we were first married. It's great to be able to do it in another country. Makes it seem not so dire. Glad you had Evan there with you over Christmas, I'm sure it took the sting out of being away from home at Christmas.
Love and Miss Ya,
Mom