Christmas Markets

As soon as people who had lived in Germany heard we were moving here, they told us "Christmas Markets!"  That is the best part about living in Germany at Christmas time.  It is truly magical, wandering around medieval settings, hearing music in the back ground, sipping hot cider and eating warm bread or scones or fried apples.  I love it!!!  We didn't get to go to as many as I would have liked, and I have still have a list of about 10 I want to hit next year. But we made a good dent.  Our first Christmas market was Nurnberg, which is the biggest in the area.

The next weekend we traveled about 40 minutes south to Nonnberg and went to a market that was held in Guteneck Schloss.

 Warming up.  The kids wouldn't get too close, they were afraid of catching fire.

 This Christmas Market had stable animals you could ride.  Anya and Cora both wanted to ride the camel.  Anya called it a "once in a lifetime experience".

 Gluwein is all the rage at Christmas Markets.  Mostly that is what you see the locals doing, standing around fires or heaters, sipping their mugs of Gluwein.  Since we are L.D.S., and we don't consume alcohol, we contented ourselves with the warm kinderpunsch...which is just like warm apple cider or wassle.  Very tasty.

 Next we hit Rothenburg Or De Tauber

This one was my favorite our of all the ones we went too.  The old town is still surrounded by a wall that is beautifully maintained.  When you step through the city gate it is like stepping back in time.

 Some of the booths and wares

 your done already?  we have more to see and more to do!

 Matt had to try this, it was called the "half-meter sausage"

 I have to admit, not being much of a meat eater myself, that it was pretty tasty.

 We were all the way in Rothenburg, we had to go up on the city wall.

 Cora, with the town's skyline in the background

 Tried to take one of me and Cora...it kind of worked.

ahhh, Rothenburg, we can't wait to come back when it is warmer and see all you have to offer.  We also want to go on the Night watchman's tour, so stay tuned in warmer months

We went to a couple of other Christmas Markets that I didn't get any pictures of, because it was after dark when we went.  My camera doesn't do well after dark falls.  We went to Weiden's Christmas Market, which was quaint yet fun.  We also went to Bayreuth's Christmas market, which was really fun.  The girls liked that one, because they remembered to bring their money and were able to by presents for their sister's at the market.

I can't wait for next year's Christmas Markets!!!

Tree Trimming

Oh Tannebaum, oh Tannebaum

We love Christmas trees, but the kids have never had a real one before.  Mainly because we have always traveled to Utah for Christmas, and have never in our 14 years of marriage (except the few short years when we lived in Provo/Orem, Utah) had Christmas in our own home.  We just didn't see the sense in buying a real tree, decorate it, only to take it down before we left because it is a fire hazard.  So, we have a really nice, beautiful pre-lit, artificial Christmas tree that we use.  

Only this year we are in Germany, and we are staying in our house for Christmas.  So it seemed wrong to use a fake tree...and we wanted the kids to experience having a real tree.  So we went of to the tree lot everyone recommended, and we were able to cut down our "first" real Christmas tree.  It was an experience to remember, mainly because it was wet and rainy and we lost light because we took so long deciding on a tree.  So by the time we chose one, we had to use the flashlight app on Matt's iphone so we could see to cut the tree down...oh the memories.

But, we have a beautiful, fresh cut, Christmas tree in the end.

 We have to string the lights on the tree?  

It doesn't come pre-lit?

Poor dad...

Decorating begins.  All the kids have their favorite ornaments they like to put on the tree year after year.  So the first thing they do when I get the ornaments out, is dive in, find their favorites and make their piles.  Silly kids!

 Cora does love to pose

 The boys liked playing with some flashlights they found more then decorating the tree.

That's ok, they thoroughly inspected the tree for any critters that might be hiding in it

Inspector Hunter

 Inspector Jack

 Dad always puts the star on the top.

Our beautiful tree.

all the breakable ornaments are on the top, so the boys can't get them...maybe next year the tree will be decorated more evenly?

Thanksgiving in the house!

We had a FULL house for Thanksgiving, but we really wouldn't have it any other way.  We are used to big family gatherings for the Holidays, so it made it feel just like being at "home".  Some of our good friends that are currently living in Belgium came down for a visit.  We have known each other for years, and have been fortunate to be stationed close to each other for three duty stations.  We also have mutual friends that live behind our house in Germany, so they came over to celebrate with us too.  All totaled we had 16 kids, and 7 adults. It was a blast!

The guys on potato duty....

 Some of the kiddos

 two of the "16 kids" were new babies.  Hannah and E. made great babysitters!  Those are some cute babies, I loved having a baby in the house again.  Even if it was just for a few short days.  Babies bring such a sweet spirit into the home!

Hohenstein

What's touring Europe without stopping at some kind of castle or fortress.

We had a hard time finding one that was open in the winter, and luck wasn't with us because this one was closed too.  Normally you can explore all inside this castle ruin, but we had to content ourselves with the outside.

I had to post this one of Anya.  The sunset caught in her hair and it was a brilliant, fire red.  It looked like a flame blowing in the wind.

 Two of my boys

 We went into Nurnberg for a Christmas Market , and stopped in the St. Lorenz church.  All the kids wanted to light a candle and "make a wish".  I thought it looked neat how all the kids are kneeling before the nativity scene.  It seemed like Christmas to me.

This picture reminds me of " The Christmas Story", how the highlight of the season was looking in the store front window displays.  All the kids faces mashed against the glass in fascination.  Here, they are all looking at a massive electric train display.

Here is little "I" peeking up over the table.  Notice the tall, very unstable, glass, glasses.  We stopped in the cafe to warm up and get some Hasse Schokolade.  It came in these tall glass, glasses.  They were too "hot" to touch, and very wobbly.  I think we had two, maybe three spills during the course of our warm-up.  Funny now, but at the time it was crazy.  What happened to good old-fashioned mugs for hot chocolate?

We had a great time, despite the cold.  And we were sad to see our friends go, but look forward to when we will see them again.  We are so grateful for good friends, wonderful family and the gospel in our lives!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Christmas jammies

Austria 2

Vienna or Wien, Austria

The second part of our Columbus Day weekend was spent in lovely Wien.  We loved visiting this city, but we learned a few things from this trip.  1st, we do not like driving in big cities, with lots of traffic, and narrow streets.  2nd we need better maps when we travel!! 3rd we need to learn to take advantage of local public transportation better ( I think we walked the kids legs off in Vienna).   Funny story now that I am on the walking and public transportation subject.  On our first day of Vienna, we didn't have any of the above 3 points and we were walking everywhere because driving was so scary in our big American car.  Everything in Vienna is tall and white.  All the building block out the view so you have no point of reference while walking.  We thought we were walking back to where we had parked our car, and knew it was a ways off...but nothing looked familiar yet everything looked the same.  So, we finally get to a metro stations and start referencing ourselves with the map.  We found out we were walking the opposite direction for quite a ways.  Never have I seen three more disheartened girls.  "What, we have been walking forever for no reason!" says Hannah.  Cora had said " you just like to torture us by walking and walking and not feeding us".  Very disheartened!  Well, we discovered how easy using the local metro system was.  We hopped a subway and we were within a couple blocks of our car in a matter of minutes.  That lightened everyone's mood extremely!

Hofburg Shloss

which is now just a series of museums and exhibits.  Each wing of this magnificent palace is a separate museum.  Of course you have to pay for each admission to each museum separately too :)

Schonbrunn Palace

And here is Hannah.  I think I have mentioned before how Hannah is against pictures right now.  So most of the pictures we have, Hannah is being zany!

The Judicial buildings of Vienna, Austria

A typical Vienna street.  

All those tall white buildings blocking out any point of reference for directional purposes.

St. Stephen's Dom

A beautiful church!

All the architecture in Vienna and Salzburg is amazing.  I loved looking at all the buildings.

In Hollywood, CA, modern day musicians have stars.

In Vienna, Austria, musicians of time gone by have stars.

One of our favorite parts of traveling, is trying all the local food.

Look at those pretzels!  Yum!

 More pictures of us eating.

People were stopping and taking pictures of us.

A crazy lady with 5 kids, three of which she was pushing in a stroller...

I loved this picture.  This was our first introduction to European winter.  It was very cold in Austria when we went.  Even the horses are wearing little hats to keep their ears warm.

We visited a couple of museums while there.  This one is the Schatzkammer in the Hofburg Schloss.  It boasts the most important treasury in the world.  Which includes this crown ( I liked that Hannah looks like she is wearing it in the picture) This crown is the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire (crafted around 962).

Another museum we visited was the Natural History museum of Austria.  Mainly it was a big exhibit of taxidermy.  However, look at those ceilings!  You just don't see frescoes like this in America.

The highlight of the day for the girls.  A hut made of mammoth bones.

It was a fun trip, but for future reference research exactly what you want to do.  I had in mind several things I wanted to see...namely the Vienna boys choir, the Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish riding school and the national art museum.  All these things we either doing "shows" on days we were not there, or they were completely closed.  Most things are closed on Monday's in Vienna...it is their day of rest I guess.  Still a fun trip, but I do want to go back before we leave Europe!

Austria part 1

Salzburg, Austria

Over Columbus day weekend, Matt and the girls had another wonderful four day weekend. We decided to on our first, official, trip out of the "country". Austria is fairly close to us, only about a couple hours away, so on to Austria we went. We did a little loop and went down to Salzburg, then to Vienna, and then home. It was a wonderful trip, and helped us feel more at ease traveling abroad with 5 kiddos.

Here is the Salzburg skyline. This is a great shot of Hellbrunn Schloss, plus you get the spires of St. Peter's cathedral in there too. We didn't do the whole Sound of Music tour, but we did hit a few stops that were in the movie. The most famous being the fountain, and the graveyard (which isn't at the Abbey, but behind St. Peters!) where they are hiding from the "authorities". More on all that later!

It was rainy and cold, cold, cold, while we were in Austria. This was the first time this season where we broke out our winter coats, hats and gloves! Here we are, walking across the bridge into the "old town" to see some sights.

I thought this old church was pretty neat. We couldn't go inside, but it is right behind St. Peters. I think it may have been the original "St. Peters" before the "new" one was built, but I am not sure. Anyway, I just like the date. It was built or finished I should say, in 1491. A year before Columbus sailed to discover the Americas. I thought it was very fitting for our Columbus day weekend trip.

Inside St. Peter's

Behind St. Peter's there are catacombs built into the side of the mountain. The girls and climbed up through the tunnels to see it. There wasn't much to see, but it was a cool climb inside the mountain, and we got some lovely views of Salzburg.

Chestnuts roasting on an open fire....

The girls and Matt trying the Chestnuts

The consensus is...they are ok, but very different from what we are used to. They are soft and sweet. It was fun to try them though. You see chestnut venders all over in Austria, and at the Christmas Markets here in Germany.

Of course we had to stop and see Mozart's birthplace while in Salzburg!

This was a pretty neat museum, it was set up with interactive displays so the kids liked it. I thought it was cool to see some of the original instruments and sheet music owned by Mozart. Alas, we couldn't take pictures inside, so here is the outside.

We decided to drive along the Grossglockner Alpine Highway for a bit. It takes you along a route through the Alps that dates back 2000 years before Christ. It is said to have been the route used by the celts and Romans, and was the third most popular route until the 17th century. We drove on it for the views :)

We stopped in a sleepy little town called Bad Gastein

Right through the center of the town there is a huge, multi tiered waterfall. You can view it well from a rock bridge in about the middle of the waterfall (towards the top between the buildings), that offers a great view of the 1st tier and 2nd tier of the waterfall.

However, we didn't go to the bridge, we decided to walk to the bottom of the waterfall. It was a pretty cool, and unexpected sight to see! According to legend, the mists from the waterfall is supposed to have healing property's.

It was a fun little trip to Salzburg, now off to Wien!