A Weekend in Germany...in December
In December, Alli and I spent a weekend up in Germany with our neighbors Katie and Tom from Minneapolis. Since they were able to come visit us in Switzerland we thought we'd repay the favor and go to Germany. Tom is a dentist who is on a one-year contract with the Army to do dentist things for our troops (he is part of the movement to rid our nation's finest mouths of harmful terrorist tartar, plaque, and the dreaded gum disease gingivitis). They live in a town called Rattlesdorf (at least for the next few weeks until they move into their new digs in Bamberg) in an upstairs apartment of an elderly German couple. We spent the weekend with them visiting some nearby sites, visiting Christmas markets, and drinking glühwein (a spiced German red wine that is hot and delicious!).
Our first night in town we wandered around downtown Bamberg, a beautiful town which houses nine breweries, one of which makes the famous Rauchbier which I strongly encourage you not to drink (it is smoked beer, which for those wanting to know what that means, imagine drinking a beer that tastes like someone stuck a smoked sausage in it for about a month, and then took it out prior to you drinking it. Unless you are really into smoked flavoring, especially of beverages, your stomach will thank you for avoiding it. I did try it as they sent me home with a bottle of the Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier, but unfortunately it was so strongly flavored I barely made it half-way through the bottle before deciding I had enough). We ate a lovely restaurant in town which Tom & Katie call Feathers although it has a name that nobody in our group seems to remember (you can probably guess from the picture above right why they call it what they do..if you can't because the picture is too busy...there are feathers hanging from the ceiling).
The next day we drove to some nearby sites including Banz Abbey (Bad Staffelstein), Schloss Coburg (Coburg), and spent the evening at the Nürnberg (Nuremburg) Christmas Market. 
The Banz Abbey is of Baroque design, and we were able to go into the main chapel briefly for pictures (this was not normal we were told) before deciding to scurry away to go play in the forest. The entire area surrounding the abbey had recently been covered with snow so the four of us went for a walk, which provided some amazing scenery. After deciding we needed to head for warmth, we drove up to the Veste Coburg for some lunch and tour of the facilities. Martin Luther hid out in this massive fortress around 1530 while the Catholic church was trying to figure out how to get rid of him. This place was so big that I think even if they wanted to try and find him in the castle, it would have taken them months to corner him...I spent most of my time trying to take pictures incognito as I was under the impression photography wasn't allowed, although it was...so I felt kind of dumb when I realized it. 
The castle had room after room of old furniture, glass, weapons, sleds, carvings, art, etc., and it was truly worth us all pretending to be a family so we could get the family discount and save 20 Euro (yes, Alli and I pretended to be their kids...which meant no smooching or hand-holding while in the castle, although I was allowed to annoy her and call her names).
The Banz Abbey is of Baroque design, and we were able to go into the main chapel briefly for pictures (this was not normal we were told) before deciding to scurry away to go play in the forest. The entire area surrounding the abbey had recently been covered with snow so the four of us went for a walk, which provided some amazing scenery. After deciding we needed to head for warmth, we drove up to the Veste Coburg for some lunch and tour of the facilities. Martin Luther hid out in this massive fortress around 1530 while the Catholic church was trying to figure out how to get rid of him. This place was so big that I think even if they wanted to try and find him in the castle, it would have taken them months to corner him...I spent most of my time trying to take pictures incognito as I was under the impression photography wasn't allowed, although it was...so I felt kind of dumb when I realized it. 
The castle had room after room of old furniture, glass, weapons, sleds, carvings, art, etc., and it was truly worth us all pretending to be a family so we could get the family discount and save 20 Euro (yes, Alli and I pretended to be their kids...which meant no smooching or hand-holding while in the castle, although I was allowed to annoy her and call her names).
The Christmas Market in Nürnberg was a mob scene, easily a fire hazard waiting to happen. It was nearly impossible to walk up and down the rows of booths without getting frisked (unintentionally) by someone. 
The highlight was definitely just sharing a hot glühwein with Katie and Tom while enjoying the crisp December evening. On the way up we also stopped at the Stuttgart Christmas Market, which appeared to be quite fun. Although we only stayed for a short time, it was worth the stop just to see how Alli's sister's special friend (that's old people talk for boyfriend) spends his December nights (he likes near Stuttgart, so we thought we'd surprise him just to make sure he was behaving himself...except we didn't call him, and Stuttgart is big, so we didn't see him, and we don't speak German so we couldn't ask people if they had seen him. Maybe next time we will plan ahead...)
The highlight was definitely just sharing a hot glühwein with Katie and Tom while enjoying the crisp December evening. On the way up we also stopped at the Stuttgart Christmas Market, which appeared to be quite fun. Although we only stayed for a short time, it was worth the stop just to see how Alli's sister's special friend (that's old people talk for boyfriend) spends his December nights (he likes near Stuttgart, so we thought we'd surprise him just to make sure he was behaving himself...except we didn't call him, and Stuttgart is big, so we didn't see him, and we don't speak German so we couldn't ask people if they had seen him. Maybe next time we will plan ahead...)
So consider this blog entry to be a bit of after Christmas excitement. I am viewing it like I waited a little too long to take down the lights outside, and the tree in the living room will finally no longer present a fire hazard as it hasn't been watered in a month.Sometimes it just takes constant reminding from your spouse what you promised you'd do a long time ago, but only recently decided to get off the couch to follow through and complete (that was a rough sentence, for homework, those in grades 3-8 need to go in and clean it up). Besides, can't you leave up Christmas decorations until Easter?
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