three days to go!

Oslo

Last weekend, we went to Oslo to visit our friends Josh and Randi, and finally see their apartment and meet little Atrid! We had a wonderful time, mostly just hanging out. The weather was quite cold (well below freezing), but on Saturday it was nice and sunny. We went to a small town not far outside Oslo and along the Fjord and had a great meal of gravlox in a cute little restaurant. While there, Cynthia did some exploring...



more pictures here.

I got back from China Saturday morning, after being gone for two weeks. Unfortunately, I was gone for Thanksgiving Day, but we had a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner Saturday night with some fellow Americans, and I even managed to stay awake through the entire meal! Cynthia made an amazing apple pie (I peeled the apples), as well as a pumpkin pie and brussels sprouts. Others brought the rest of the dishes, and the turkey was prepared by the hosts. It was born and raised in Strassbourg, but purchased and consumed in Nurnberg. Unfortunately, no pictures from the evening to share.

Today, we ventured to the Nurnberg Christkindlesmarkt, which started Friday and goes through all the way until Christmas. We walked briefly through on Saturday, and it was incredibly packed with people. The market is mainly in the central market, but spills throughout much of the central part of the city. Sunday was no different. Apparently the Nurnberg Christmas Market is the oldest in Germany. Lots of stands with ornaments, various decorations, cookies, etc. And Nurnberger Gluhwine, which we sampled. Yummy and warm! The whole town feels so Christmas-y!

Cologne und mehr

Hello everyone! We have established a pretty set routine over here in Deutschland. We realized we've been here almost a year already, and we still felt like we haven't seen very much of Europe! Last weekend, we decided to dash up to Cologne for the weekend. The beauty of Nürnberg is that it is in the very center of Europe - leaving many cities within weekend driving distance.


Late fall seems to bring in tons and tons of fog to Bavaria. Every day driving to work I sort of feel like we're in the middle ages. Getting up at 6 on a Saturday seemed to heighten this feeling!




Most of Cologne was destroyed in the war, but the large cathedral still stands. It was rather pretty.


We were really excited because this cafe where we ate breakfast on Saturday sold Rogue beer from Oregon. We decided it wasn't worth it to buy it, rather to wait until we get home in a few weeks. It sure was tempting though ...


Finally, we bought this odd doughboy thing. We couldn't figure out exactly what it was, or why he has a corncob pipe, or why every bakery in town was selling them. Someone at work seemed to think it was tied in with a religious holiday ...

We're getting excited to travel home for the holidays! They are rapidly approaching over here - especially since everyone starts their holidays around the second week of December, and all of Nurnberg is already preparing for Christmas. The market has moved out of the main square into the surrounding streets in order to make room for the famous Christmas market that starts in two weeks. The city was putting up its decorations today. Many stores already are banked by evergreens, and many facades are already covered with lights. Pictures of all that coming very soon!!

Bierfest!

So these pictures are a tad outdated, but worth sharing anyway. These are from the Herzogenaurach bierfest. This is the town where we work, and we get 2 "beer tokens" from work. And yes, one beer is one liter. And they had the biggest schnitzl sandwiches ever.

Hiking in the Fraenkische Schweiz and BBQ with Kubb!

We drove to the Fraenkische Schweiz on Saturday and did some hiking. It was really fun. We drove to a small town called Pottenstein, an hour or so Northeast of Nurnberg, ate lunch at a biergarten (mmm, flammkuchen), and went off hiking. We navigated around, following signs with various symbols on them, passing through farm fields, and forest, and small villages.






Sunday we had a BBQ with some friends in the "grillplatz" along the Pegnitz river near our apartment. We christened the new Kubb set we bought on amazon.de. Everyone loved it! Such the perfect lawn game! You can see Cynthia and I well ahead of our opponents in the picture below...

Tacos

You may know that tacos are one thing that we really miss from home. We finally gathered the ingredients and equipment (um, that's a tortilla press and the right flour) here to make them ourselves, and tried for the first time last night for John's birthday. We were quite impressed with ourselves. Check out the delicious results! And happy birthday to John!