More Christmas!!

Well, the first and most important news is that this past weekend it snowed - oh probably a whole inch and a half!!  The girls were thrilled - Karissa woke us up in a panic because she just had to get outside.  Fortunately the Americans prior to us left us two snow discs.  There is a pretty steep hill in the apartment complex that kept them quite busy.  Also, they got to construct their first real snowman - his name is Greg - very German don't you think?  Of course, Dayna continues to be stubborn about wearing warm clothes - they make her "look fat' - ugh!!  Note, her miserable face!!  Think she'll ever get it?



As I mentioned in my last post - Germans LOVE Christmas but it is in a whole different way than Americans.  It is very much about traditions and seems to be a lot less about the presents.  Unfortunately, like America it is not really about the birth of Christ.



Let's start with the traditions:

Saint Nick visits the children on the eve of Dec. 6th and fills their clean boot left outside the door with fruit, candy and trinkets (see the picture of the girls enjoying this added batch of goodies!).  That's pretty much his sole role.  He doesn't get any credit for the gifts on Christmas, those are from family. The Germans think we Americans are nuts for making Santa look so good!!  We're not sure how we're going to work around the whole "what did Santa bring you for Christmas?" conversation that the girls might have with the German kids.  We're hoping that their German skills aren't that good and we can chalk it up to the language barrier if they get some weird looks from the other kids.

Christmas markets are held in every town.  Each market designs their
own mug and you can buy a hot spiced wine drink call gluhwein and get the souvenir mug.  The market is held outdoors in the old downtown of the city where
there are usually cobblestone streets, fountains and really old
buildings.  It really is pretty neat unless you go on the weekend and
then it's packed!  Each town has their own "flavor" for their market.  Some are more artisan oriented and others are more regular merchandise.  One that we visited was the Esslingen Weihnachtsmarkt (pronounced vy nocks market) which is really unusual because it has a Medieval theme.  The town is pretty with an old Medieval wall and towers.  All of the people selling things were dressed in Medieval garb and they had shows and parades.  We decided to forego buying Jay the authentic Medieval outfit however, we thought it might make him act a little barbaric!  Instead we opted for the Lederhosen like the "shepherd".



Advent and Advent calendars are huge here.  Every child has one. Legos even makes them and everyone else that wants to get in on the $$$$.  One big way that Christmas has been commercialized here!

The Christmas trees are all real and you don’t put them up until Christmas Eve morning!  The girls and I walked up to “the farm” this afternoon where they were selling them.  They are mostly from the Black Forest and are the saddest looking things I have ever seen!! I wouldn’t want to look at one of them for a month either!!  You'll see Karissa and Flat Stanley - the barn on the far right is over 500 years old according to the lady farmer!


The schools call Christmas – “Christmas or Weihnacht”- amazing!!  The kids even have a Christmas church service during school at the neighborhood church.  We sometimes forget that what the American Pilgrims sought to escape was a state run church.  It still exists here and every child goes to religion class (at 3rd grade they switch to a Protestant or Catholic curriculum – prior to that it is general Christianity).    With a huge influx of Muslim Turks over the last 30 years I’m not sure how they react to the school mandating these classes.  We are in the most wealthy elementary school so we don’t have any Turks to my knowledge.  Our neighbors from China are atheist but their daughter goes to the Protestant religion class at school with Karissa!  There isn’t a choice.  Boy, that wouldn’t fly in the U.S.!!

Other than in the downtown area at the Christmas markets, there are really very few Christmas lights on homes or businesses.  I guess it's an American tradition and could result from sky high electricity costs here.

To celebrate Christmas most people go to some kind of Christmas Eve church service late afternoon or early evening, eat a festive meal with their immediate family, then open gifts.  Christmas day might include meeting with extended family or just staying home.   They also observe “Boxing Day” – Dec. 26th – ALL the stores are closed (YIKES – no After Christmas Sales!!!) and they might visit with family or friends again.  We’ll have to stock up on food this year as the stores close at noon on Christmas Eve, are closed for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and then the next day is Sunday – stores closed again!!  Practically four whole days without a trip to the market!!!  That will be a first for me!  At any rate, no one really knows for sure what the origin of Boxing Day is!!  Quite funny!

Most businesses are closed for the whole two weeks.  They are renovating the apartments next door and the construction crews won’t even be working!  Definitely different than America!

Karissa's class made a bunch of paper lanterns that were really neat and sold them outside the bakery along with German waffles with powdered sugar, cookies, hot drinks and some other handcrafts.  The kids sang, played violins and flutes too.  They earned over 760 Euros (about $1200) to send to an orphanage in Africa!!  It is not unusual to see people out in the streets playing music this time of year and is really a neat tradition that I've enjoyed.  As far as I know the teachers are expected to play an instrument and they use it in the classroom a lot.  (Dayna sings German songs regularly in the shower!)

We’ll probably have more commentary once we’ve actually seen Christmas!

We are feeling our first wave of homesickness, especially the girls.  Christmas just isn’t the same and I think they are feeling it.  We have a surprise trip planned for them the 3rd week of their vacation (yes 3 weeks off!!).   We’re going to have to keep them busy which can be hard since everything is closing; even the public library is closed for 3 weeks!!  Hopefully we’ll get some snow and that can wear them out.  We plan to take them to the next town to ice skate and possibly an indoor water park that is nearby (most likely along with 10,000 other people anxious to get the kids out of the house!!)



More later!

Christmas Celebrations are Beginning

Germans love Christmas.  Here is it called Weihnacht and the celebrations have begun.

We've been busy.  Last weekend the girls had a gymnastics "recital" where their group dressed up as mice and did a cute little routine including the vault, beam and floor.  They had a ball and you'll see them lined up in front of about 300 people.  To our surprise they had to say their name and how old they were in front of everyone.  We weren't quite prepared but they managed to do just fine although in English!

We've also started getting ready for Christmas with various events.  We made 328 Icelandic Christmas cookies (yes, we counted, hmmmm....wonder if that was before they ate a few or after??) with our friends.  They were kind of a like a spice cookie and the kids had a ball.

This past Friday we went downtown for Tubingen's annual Chocolate Fest (Europeans LOVE their chocolate - it is everywhere and usually in the form of candy, not cakes etc.).  The kids participated in a chocolate making seminar.  We didn't realize that the process took so long to do it right.  You have to get it to the right temperature and consistency for molding.  They managed to make beautiful chocolate bars complete with Gummi Bears (another German invention, needless to say they are not usually mixed in with chocolate!).  Knowing the girls, I'm sure these works of art will never get eaten!  They finished the candy making by letting them use the leftover chocolate mixed with warm milk for a great ending!

Germans love these outdoor festivals and the town area was beautifully lit complete with images of chocolate beans projected onto the buildings.  Jay told me to go for the Chocolate massage but I prefer to eat it, not wear it.   However...... some do wear it.  The attached pictures shows a woman painting chocolate designs onto Marzipan dresses!  (Marzipan is very popular here and they use it for everything.  It is made from egg white, almond paste and sugar and molds really well.)  There were booths full of chocolate everywhere.  Our friend even bought some Chocolate Mustard!!

It was quite chilly and really started to feel like Christmas!! More Christmas festivals to come....  We will go to the Christmas Market downtown next weekend.  A huge German tradition.  The girls can't wait for it to snow and stick!  So far, our weather has mostly been in the 40's for a high and usually doesn't get below freezing at night.  We can't wait to hit those hills with our sleds!  Mom included!

November and Our First Visitor

It's hard to believe that November is here and gone so fast.  I can't believe how busy our "sabbatical" has gotten!!  Jay continues to plug away at two of his Projects.  #1, learning German  and # 2, his Greek Grammar textbook.  I seem to have gotten caught up in the "dailies" as I call it.  The shopping(we're NOT talking Mall here people), cooking, cleaning, retrieving kids, etc.  To think I thought I was going to be catching up on all of my photo books, reading etc.  Ha.  Anyway, here's what we have been up to....

 

At the beginning of the month one of our highlights was the first potluck for our apartment complex.  The girls helped decorate and we all had a great time.  There is only one other American couple (but she is actually Venezuelan) and the rest are from everywhere - check out the picture(just click on it for a better look)!  We enjoyed sampling various dishes from the countries and it was really fun.  We'll have a Christmas dinner in December and everyone will bring a Christmas goodie from their country.  We have posted a world map on the girls wall which shows the various flags in addition to the countries.  As we meet people from different countries the girls are highlighting the respective flags.  It has been fun and pretty amazing how many flags have been highlighted.  I need to do a count but would guess it is around 25.

As the weather has dampened a bit (actually alot, but we do get beautiful rainbows) we have only gone on two outings this month.  The first was to a town called Blaubauren which is about an hour away.  There is a beautiful blue spring that feeds out of the mountain.  Once again we joined our Icelandic friends who have been such a blessing to us.  You can see a picture of the gang above in front of the "blue lagoon".  There was also a pretty church there as well as you can see.

The other outing was to take our first official visitor somewhere fun!  The Porsche Museum in Stuttgart.  It just opened this year and we took Flat Stanley (our visitor from Grace Hartman Elementary in Rockwall courtesy Emily Henry) to check out the cars.  It was a gorgeous museum and we all enjoyed looking at the history of the Porsche.  The girls took about 500 pictures between them - ahhh the beauty of digital!  Jay and I ordered his and hers - mine is blue, his is red.  We'll have them shipped back to the U.S.

A few weeks ago I helped in Dayna's class as they made their annual plaster masks.  They have a program where a 3rd grader is  assigned to a 1st grader as their buddy for the year.  It's really a great thing and the 3rd graders got to do the mask of their 1st grader.  Fun to watch!  Dayna's teacher allowed Karissa to make a mask since she hadn't had the opportunity as a first grader.  Amazingly enough she allowed her pesty little sister to do it.  They had a ball.

Thanksgiving was a bit odd.  It is not a holiday here so the girls had school.  We did have a little turkey that night but really had our feast on Friday night.  We were hosted by a German American couple (she is German, he is of German descent but was born and raised in the U.S.) and had the traditional Thanksgiving meal with a German flair (can you say Knodel? A big doughy ball made from potatoes).  I managed to cook, scrape and puree a real pumpkin for my pumpkin pie (actually pumpkin bars - pie pans do not exist here!).  The only pumpkin you can find is in a jar and is pickled - not quite the flavor I'm looking for in a pie! Ah, the comforts and conveniences of home!

We are getting ready for the big Christmas Markets here in Germany.  A VERY big deal.  The market it a large outdoor "bazaar" for lack of a better word held in the old town square with all kinds of Christmas lights and food.  Each town has one and they are supposed to be really pretty.  I'll send some pictures of that soon.  Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving - we do have a lot to be thankful for!

Switzerland Final Thoughts

We have had fun enjoying the differences in the cultures.  One that has been completely embraced is the Europeans ability to create fun playgrounds for kids.  We always have to check out a "spielplatz" (German word for playground) when we see one on a map.  Switzerland did not disappoint.  Right in the heart of downtown is a huge park with a nice herd of Swiss cows with their cowbells on - kind of
an interesting phenomenon in the center of their city.  But, hey it's Switzerland!   And of course,  right next to the cows was an inventive spielplatz.  The girls had a ball on this "merry go round" type thing.   Actually I kind of had a little fun on it myself!  It seems that they really try to get kids to be active.  You'll see more photos of playgrounds in later blogs I'm sure.  Although Interlaken is considered "touristy" we spent a fair amount of time outside it and got to see where the "locals" live up in the mountains.  Interlaken itself is extremely expensive.  We thought Germany was expensive but nothing like Switzerland!!  The only thing less expensive than in Germany  was gas - it was only about $6.50 a gallon vs. $7.50 - woohoo we filled up before we left!!  We're not sure if it's because of taxes or what.  The European economy is hard to figure out!!  Nonetheless we managed to get this great apartment (see girls waving out the window and then another picture from our balcony) and ate most of our meals as a picnic or from the grocery since we had a full kitchen (much nicer than mine in Tübingen!).  The streets of Interlaken
are filled with expensive jewelry stores filled with watches and
souvenir shops filled with Swiss Army Knives, not to mention lots of
Japanese tourists! Our German friends kind of laughed when we said we
went to Interlaken - it has quite a reputation as a "tourist only" city where no real European would ever go!  It worked for us though!  We'd highly recommend it.  We had a great time but at the same time our hearts were still a little in Texas with our sweet little friend Matt Burpee who is battling brain cancer.  The girls made a sign for him from Switzerland and we plan to send him a special greeting from each country we visit as he faces this battle.  Pray for him if you will.

Switzerland #3 Giessbach Falls

Our final big excursion was to Giessbach Falls which was about a twenty minute drive along the shore of Brienzersee Lake from our apartment. It was another gorgeous day. The fall foliage was undoubtedly the most beautiful I have ever seen. After two big days of multiple train rides and schedules we decided we were ready for some unstructured wandering. Many of the "major" attractions were closed for the winter or for a break before the big ski season began (great excuse for us to return in the spring!). The large Trummelbach Waterfalls were closed so we decided to give the Giessbach Falls a try. We weren't disappointed and again we encountered fewer than 10 people in our 3 hour wanderings! It was fabulous. There is a grand, old Victorian hotel called Hotel Giessbach that was closed for the winter on the shore of the lake and the falls sit right behind it. It really felt like stepping back in time. Most tourists visit this spot by boat but since the hotel was closed we could park in their little lot and hike to the falls. The girls got to run ahead on the trail without us having to worry and really got to explore. We climbed up quite a trail nearly to the top of the falls and back down - Dayna assured us there was no way she was going to hike that far but once she got into it she couldn't wait to see what was around the next bend in the ascending trail. The view was breathtaking with the aqua blue glacial lake, the colorful trees, blue sky and snow capped mountains. Pictures don't ever capture it. We ended the hike with a picnic and rock hunting in the water at the bottom of the falls. I'm sure the girls and Jay all weighed twice their weight as we left due to the bounty in their pockets!! The water was freezing and amazingly we managed to stay relatively dry.

Switzerland - Jungfraujoch

Another of our highlights in Switzerland was on Thursday, Oct. 29. We found out that the train tickets we had purchased allowed the girls free passes to go up to the Jungfraujoch which is the highest train station in Europe and quite expensive to get to. That was enough to convince us to do it and we're so glad we did. It took nearly two and half hours to travel up to this mountain and inside it -much of it on a rack rail train - the only kind that won't slide back down! We saw some incredible views on the way up - one in the picture is of the Lauterbrunnen Valley with the incredible Staubbach Falls. As we ascended we began to see the glaciers up close - they kind of have a bluish cast to them and look like they are "oozing" down the mountains. The railway and the building at the top are quite amazing engineering feats. The main viewing platform is literally balancing on the tip of the mountain - it's pretty weird to look down through the grated floor and look down and down and down some more! Obviously the panorama was amazing. When we got up there our first opportunity to go outside was super windy, very icy and FREEZING. Europeans are not nearly as safety conscious as Americans. Here we are out on this icy mountain top, people are falling left and right and there is only a little rope around the edge. It's amazing that people don't slide right off the mountain. I was the only one in our family that stayed vertical - Jay even wiped out and slid down a ways!! Crazy! The main viewing area was much calmer and beautiful(safer too!) and overlooked a huge glacier called the Aletsch Glacier. It looks like a massive river flowing between the mountains. It is enormous and as we were out on the platform two fighter jets flew through the glacial valley at incredible speeds - it was amazing to see how small they were compared to these mountains. There is a huge structure inside the mountain that houses the train station, a research center, a bunch of restaurants, souvenir shops (of course) and the Ice Palace which was one of the girls' favorites. We had fun walking through the Ice Palace - an area carved into the glacier. It is like a cave that is completely ice and has a number of ice sculptures throughout it. We caught the last train of the day and so we had time to go through it twice. The second time we were all alone and it was quite weird to realize that we were 8500 feet above ground inside a glacier and no one else is around - talk about isolated!! It was a great day and we were glad that it was off season and didn't have to wait in any lines or elbow our way to the front to see the views. (If you want to see any of the pictures blown up you can just click on them.)

First trip to Switzerland - Schilthorn Mountain

I say first because we really hope to make it back. It truly is breathtaking! One of the big tourist areas called Interlaken is about 5 hours away so very doable for a return visit next year when more of the areas are open. The girls had a week long break at the end of October so we spent 5 days in the Interlaken area which is south of Bern near the Jungfrau and Eiger mountains if you've heard of them. We were blessed with fabulous weather which was a real gamble since it could have easily been rainy and foggy this time of the year. Each day was sunny and around 60 degrees for a high. Perfect! It is "off season" so we had the place almost to ourselves. We rented a great two bedroom apartment in downtown Interlaken, bought a two day rail pass and explored the area. We went up to the Schilthorn mountain via 3 trains and 3 cable cars (note in the cable car picture you can see at the far upper left the station where this car started!!) to a height of nearly 10,000 feet. The view was fabulous (don't ask Dayna though she was preoccupied with the snow on the viewing platform!). We could see as far away as France and Germany. The restaurant and viewing site was initially used for a James Bond movie called In her Majesty's Secret Service if you've ever seen it. Revolving restaurant and all - amazing that they can build something like that up in the middle of nowhere!! We had some transfers in small mountain villages so it was very quaint. Most of them are "carless" and there were cows everywhere. It is hard to imagine an existence like that still exists in 2009! Of course, they supplement their income with tourist ventures but it really is a foreign existence living at that altitude!! Here are some of our pictures - they are worth more than any words I could write.