At the beginning of last week we started to see forecasts for snow. Nothing major, and accumulation was around an inch. But we had several storms through out the week, which all added up to the 3-4 inches that sits on the ground now. Of course not really a big deal, but...it's only November. I can only imagine what the coming winter months will bring. Thankfully, though, the Germans are prepared and the roads were mostly fine.
As you can see from the picture above, the dogs were prepared with winter jackets. We also found out that Murphy loves to eat snow. We were playing with them by tossing small snow balls their way, and after chomping down on a few, Murphy figured out the source of the snow was a lot easier to eat then waiting for snowballs, and went to town on the piles of snow on our deck.
Thanksgiving week started at our friend Penny's house. We met her when we first got to the hotel back in April. We'd seen her in the lobby a few times and said hi, but it was when she saw us walking the dogs that we really started to talk more. Her husband stayed back in Minnesota with their three dogs, and at the time she was not only homesick, she missed her dogs, so enjoyed every opportunity to play with Milo & Murphy. Not only was it us three, but several other friends of ours. By the time it was all said & done, there were about 15 people there, with everyone bringing food, drinks, and dessert. One of things we thought of back when we were discussing moving was that for the first time in either of our lives, we wouldn't be around family for the holidays. I honestly thought for at least the first Thanksgiving / Christmas, it'd just be us & the dogs, so it was nice to spend the holidays with friends.
That Saturday some other friends of ours who had to work on Thanksgiving day invited us over to their house. They live in a small town outside of Stuttgart called Esslingen. Their Christmas market is one of the older ones, with the earliest records saying it started in the year 777. In addition to the normal Christmas tents, they also had a Medieval section with a tent to practice your Archery skills, fire breathers, sword swallowers, and tons of great food. Shanna & I decided to visit it a few hours before we were supposed to be at our friend's house. It was a neat market, and the Glühwein was great, but I liked the place even better when we came across the Medieval section. While I was looking at a tent with wooden beer steins, Shanna noticed a game that was being played near us. When I walked back over, she showed it to me and we both thought it was great. It's easier to describe if I show a picture first.
As you can see, it looked almost like a wishing well, surrounded on the edges by little "houses". You bet on a house, then the lady would put a mouse in the center of the "courtyard" area. If you bet on the house the mouse went in to, you won. It was fun to both watch and play. I ended up betting on the wrong house, but I still enjoyed playing.
We walked around for a bit more, then it was time to leave. When we got to our friends house, they had done me a HUGE favor. American Craft beer is not easy to find around here...in the past 7 1/2 months I've yet to find any. But I knew of a store in Amsterdam that sold them, and our friends, Kate & Charles, had been up there a few weeks prior. I'd given them a list of beers to look for, and they delivered. It was pricey, but well worth it. I even enjoyed one of them this past weekend watching the Chargers game.
We brought a few dishes over, but they supplied the majority of the food and it was DELICIOUS. Afterwards we sat around talking as Milo and their dog, Pixel, played...for HOURS. They went non-stop from the time we got there around 7 until we left around 10. Needless to say, after all that walking around & playing, all we heard was snoring in the back seat the entire ride home. When we got home the night wasn't over yet...LSU was playing Arkansas. We left Kate & Charles's house after the game started, so Shanna watched part of the game on my phone, then the rest on our TV when we got home. Arkansas won, which was the perfect cap off to a fun day.
The next day we called our friend Penny and told her we were heading downtown to Stuttgart's Christmas Market. She met us down there and we walked around. It was pretty neat and HUGE. It stretched all across the Rathaus, Schillerplats, and Schlossplatz. In the Schlossplatz, which is where the two Palaces are, they had built up an ice skating rink that stays there through the Christmas season. And like all Christmas Markets in Germany, there was plenty of Glühwein to go around.
Monday was a day off for Shanna, and we had planned on driving up to Nürnberg for their Christmas market. When we woke up Monday morning, though, there was a few inches of snow on the ground and it was still snowing. By 11am the roads were mostly clear, so we decided to give it a shot. It was supposed to be a 2 hour drive, but traffic was jammed up and the snow was starting to come down hard, so after an hour of driving (with still 2 hours to go according to the GPS), we decided to turn around. The rest of the day was spent cleaning the house and putting up Christmas decorations.
So overall, while we missed our family on the holiday, we were thankful to have friends here to celebrate with. I'll be writing more about Christmas markets in the coming weeks as we have plans to go to a few each weekend until Christmas. This weekend is the Chocolate Festival in Tübingen on Saturday and the Christmas Market in Ludwigsburg on Sunday. Next weekend we're heading to Strasbourg, France, for their Christmas market on Saturday, then we have train tickets for Nürnberg that following Monday. The weekend of the 18th we're heading up to Weisbaden for a friend's birthday and seeing their Christmas Market, and on the way back home stopping in Heidelberg for theirs. And finally, on December 20th, some friends of ours from DC will be in the area on vacation and are staying the night at our place. Busy times ahead!
Click here or any pictures in this post to see all of the pictures from the Christmas Markets and the first snow of the season.
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