So much for Christmas Markets. Frankfurt closed their Christmas Market on the 22nd this year, and we didn't leave for Germany until the 23rd. I considered finding another market that was still open in another nearby town, but the ones that were still open were too far out of our way. Maybe next year.
On Friday, December 23, we rented a car from Avis (yes, the same company as the crashed car) and Dennis drove it to our apartment for loading. Driving in Paris is no simple task, even if you're only going a mile, as we were. It's not *complete* chaos, as there are a few rules, and most people follow them, but it's about as wild as, say, a stampede. Everyone's going in the same general direction, but the level of organization is pretty low. Here's the car we rented -- a little Renault, which was perfectly reasonable and was full of little storage compartments inside:
With two bags full of skiing stuff, my skis, poles, and boots, a suitcase each of normal clothes, plus bags full of wine and other goodies loaded into the car, we were off! First step, the periphique, which is the beltway surrounding Paris. We got to it and on it with no trouble (there's an exit very near our house) but then it was so packed that it took us half an hour to go the first 10k. Then we were on the Autoroute, and on the way.
It was a pretty drive to Bad Homburg, just north of Frankfurt -- full of farms and hawks on poles and excellent signs to tell us what part of France we were passing through. We crossed the Argonne Forsest and the Maginot Line, as well as passing through the Champagne region. As soon as we got into Germany, the autoroute became the autobahn, and we were able to put the pedal to the metal, as it were. This is as fast as our little tyke could go (on a downslope):
Sorry the picture is so blurry, but the car was vibrating quite a bit. :-) For those of you unfamiliar with the metric system conversion, that's about 122 miles an hour. For another frame of reference, the maximum speed limit in all of France is 130kph. After about 6.5 hours, we arrived at the home of Frank and Mithra. We had a nice dinner and spent the evening catching up on the last year since we've seen them. Their children are so cute, and have grown so much in a year, but since the kids still don't speak English, and I still don't speak German, I was quite an oddity. The next day was Christmas eve, which is when Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) comes to their house. Everyone went to church to see a Christmas play, and Dennis and I stayed at the house. Which of course means that we got to put the gifts out.
When everyone got back, there was the usual excitement and delight, with Ramin peeking into the window to see if Weihnachtsmann had come. But before Ramin and Maryam were allowed to open their presents, they had a little performance for us. Maryam played two songs on her recorder (quite well!) and both children performed choreographed dance to a few recorded songs. Here's Maryam:
After the presents were opened, the normal playing and chatting happened, followed by an awesome dinner of duck and goose (I discovered that I love roast goose!) and dumplings made from soft pretzels, and warm red cabbage slaw with cinnamon and cloves. This is probably pretty similar to scenes all around the world:
The next day, Christmas day, we headed to Stuttgart with D's aunt and uncle, Gerda and Manfred (seen in the picture above). We drove separately from them, since we planned to return to Paris directly from there. On the way to Stuttgart, we drove through Heidelberg, which is known for it's Christmas Markets, and it's gorgeous old town. Here are a few photos I took on the way through:
I hope we get to go there for a weekend sometime soon -- everything was closed on Christmas Day, of course, but I'd really love to explore that city more. Anyway, we spent one night in Manfred and Gerda's apartment in Stuttgart, then we drove in Manfred's BMW to their cabin in Allgau, in the southernmost part of Germany. It was snowing most of the way, and Dennis and I enjoyed looking for deer and birds and foxes while we drove. Bavaria is incredibly beautiful and traditional, and I was really looking forward to spending more time there. Here's Dennis in front of a typical house:
It was cold there, usually between -6 and -3 C. We went skiing at a small local resort. There weren't many runs, but there had been snow the night before (pretty much it snowed the whole time we were there, except when we were skiing) and it was fun to get back on skis after a year's hiatus.
The next day we went to Oberstdorf and walked around the cute town. I bought a traditional Bavarian hat! It has an excellent feather holder and a set of feathers. It's meant for men, but I think they're so cute.
They were having a ski-jumping competition the day we were there, and while we didn't buy tickets to see it from the stands, it wasn't hard to see it from the street:
In the center of the picture, just under that red thing, you can see a speck of dust that is the ski jumper. We decided to go home and watch it on TV, where we could get the "between the legs" cam and hear the commentary. That night, we went to a local restaurant, and after an excellent dinner of Hirschbraten (Venison and gravy, served with brussels sprouts cooked in bacon and tiny fried mashed potato puffs) and Pig Schnitzel with salad and fries, we saw an oompah band dressed in traditional lederhosen and edelweiss suspenders. Those big brushy things on their hats are apparently made from the hair of a goat's beard.
There was also some dancing by younger men in lederhosen and women in dirndles where the women spun around a lot, and the men did some kind of fancy shoe and thigh slapping and foot stomping activity. It was definitely interesting!
We really enjoyed the foods we ate in Germany, ranging from perfect soft pretzels dusted with salt, or with pumpkin or sunflower seeds, to the strangely delicious leberkase, which is like a thick slice of a hot dog that's the diameter of a bologna roll, and puffed up with some air. It's name means "liver cheese" but it contains neither. It's very strange, but, mm! We brought breads and pretzels home with us, and froze most of them, but last night when we got back we couldn't resist a dinner composed of the two cheese coated pretzels warmed up in our toaster oven. I made some spicy tomato sauce to dip them in, so it was like cheeze pretzel pizza. So good!
Today was laundry, laundry, and some more laundry, followed by returning the rental car, shopping for groceries, and cooking. We're wating for Mike and Monica to come, but their plane from Warsaw is delayed two hours, so they're going to be a while. I hope they're not miserable after their delay. At least it's not sleeting anymore, so hopefully their walk from the bus stop will be ok. I made a tasty pork loin roast and some sweet potatoes for dinner, so if they're hungry when they get in, there will be pork goodness waiting for them.
Tomorrow, NYE in Paris! Bonne fin d'annee!
--Aimee
On Friday, December 23, we rented a car from Avis (yes, the same company as the crashed car) and Dennis drove it to our apartment for loading. Driving in Paris is no simple task, even if you're only going a mile, as we were. It's not *complete* chaos, as there are a few rules, and most people follow them, but it's about as wild as, say, a stampede. Everyone's going in the same general direction, but the level of organization is pretty low. Here's the car we rented -- a little Renault, which was perfectly reasonable and was full of little storage compartments inside:
With two bags full of skiing stuff, my skis, poles, and boots, a suitcase each of normal clothes, plus bags full of wine and other goodies loaded into the car, we were off! First step, the periphique, which is the beltway surrounding Paris. We got to it and on it with no trouble (there's an exit very near our house) but then it was so packed that it took us half an hour to go the first 10k. Then we were on the Autoroute, and on the way.
It was a pretty drive to Bad Homburg, just north of Frankfurt -- full of farms and hawks on poles and excellent signs to tell us what part of France we were passing through. We crossed the Argonne Forsest and the Maginot Line, as well as passing through the Champagne region. As soon as we got into Germany, the autoroute became the autobahn, and we were able to put the pedal to the metal, as it were. This is as fast as our little tyke could go (on a downslope):
Sorry the picture is so blurry, but the car was vibrating quite a bit. :-) For those of you unfamiliar with the metric system conversion, that's about 122 miles an hour. For another frame of reference, the maximum speed limit in all of France is 130kph. After about 6.5 hours, we arrived at the home of Frank and Mithra. We had a nice dinner and spent the evening catching up on the last year since we've seen them. Their children are so cute, and have grown so much in a year, but since the kids still don't speak English, and I still don't speak German, I was quite an oddity. The next day was Christmas eve, which is when Weihnachtsmann (Santa Claus) comes to their house. Everyone went to church to see a Christmas play, and Dennis and I stayed at the house. Which of course means that we got to put the gifts out.
When everyone got back, there was the usual excitement and delight, with Ramin peeking into the window to see if Weihnachtsmann had come. But before Ramin and Maryam were allowed to open their presents, they had a little performance for us. Maryam played two songs on her recorder (quite well!) and both children performed choreographed dance to a few recorded songs. Here's Maryam:
After the presents were opened, the normal playing and chatting happened, followed by an awesome dinner of duck and goose (I discovered that I love roast goose!) and dumplings made from soft pretzels, and warm red cabbage slaw with cinnamon and cloves. This is probably pretty similar to scenes all around the world:
The next day, Christmas day, we headed to Stuttgart with D's aunt and uncle, Gerda and Manfred (seen in the picture above). We drove separately from them, since we planned to return to Paris directly from there. On the way to Stuttgart, we drove through Heidelberg, which is known for it's Christmas Markets, and it's gorgeous old town. Here are a few photos I took on the way through:
I hope we get to go there for a weekend sometime soon -- everything was closed on Christmas Day, of course, but I'd really love to explore that city more. Anyway, we spent one night in Manfred and Gerda's apartment in Stuttgart, then we drove in Manfred's BMW to their cabin in Allgau, in the southernmost part of Germany. It was snowing most of the way, and Dennis and I enjoyed looking for deer and birds and foxes while we drove. Bavaria is incredibly beautiful and traditional, and I was really looking forward to spending more time there. Here's Dennis in front of a typical house:
It was cold there, usually between -6 and -3 C. We went skiing at a small local resort. There weren't many runs, but there had been snow the night before (pretty much it snowed the whole time we were there, except when we were skiing) and it was fun to get back on skis after a year's hiatus.
The next day we went to Oberstdorf and walked around the cute town. I bought a traditional Bavarian hat! It has an excellent feather holder and a set of feathers. It's meant for men, but I think they're so cute.
They were having a ski-jumping competition the day we were there, and while we didn't buy tickets to see it from the stands, it wasn't hard to see it from the street:
In the center of the picture, just under that red thing, you can see a speck of dust that is the ski jumper. We decided to go home and watch it on TV, where we could get the "between the legs" cam and hear the commentary. That night, we went to a local restaurant, and after an excellent dinner of Hirschbraten (Venison and gravy, served with brussels sprouts cooked in bacon and tiny fried mashed potato puffs) and Pig Schnitzel with salad and fries, we saw an oompah band dressed in traditional lederhosen and edelweiss suspenders. Those big brushy things on their hats are apparently made from the hair of a goat's beard.
There was also some dancing by younger men in lederhosen and women in dirndles where the women spun around a lot, and the men did some kind of fancy shoe and thigh slapping and foot stomping activity. It was definitely interesting!
We really enjoyed the foods we ate in Germany, ranging from perfect soft pretzels dusted with salt, or with pumpkin or sunflower seeds, to the strangely delicious leberkase, which is like a thick slice of a hot dog that's the diameter of a bologna roll, and puffed up with some air. It's name means "liver cheese" but it contains neither. It's very strange, but, mm! We brought breads and pretzels home with us, and froze most of them, but last night when we got back we couldn't resist a dinner composed of the two cheese coated pretzels warmed up in our toaster oven. I made some spicy tomato sauce to dip them in, so it was like cheeze pretzel pizza. So good!
Today was laundry, laundry, and some more laundry, followed by returning the rental car, shopping for groceries, and cooking. We're wating for Mike and Monica to come, but their plane from Warsaw is delayed two hours, so they're going to be a while. I hope they're not miserable after their delay. At least it's not sleeting anymore, so hopefully their walk from the bus stop will be ok. I made a tasty pork loin roast and some sweet potatoes for dinner, so if they're hungry when they get in, there will be pork goodness waiting for them.
Tomorrow, NYE in Paris! Bonne fin d'annee!
--Aimee
See our photos on Flickr!
About me
- I'm off2paris
- From Paris, France
- off2paris at wonky point org
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