Winederful Christmas - Friday (Strasbourg)

 

Each year in December I take a long weekend for Christmas markets on the continent.  Strasbourg was the destination of choice this year (Salzburg last year, Vienna my first year).  Strasbourg's little known claim to fame is the European Parliament headquarters, Christmas markets and not much else.  It's a beautiful French Alsace city surrounded by a river and beautiful German buildings. 

 

My airport of choice was Basel - cheap flights galore between London and Switzerland all the time.  The bus/train combo is about 2 hours, on a very nice French train through the valley between the Vosges mountains and the Black Forest (Germany).  They are baby mountains, much like the Appalachians, rather than the Rockies.  There was snow on the tops of the mountains, which was perfect for a Christmas weekend.

 

 

 

Train station just outside Basel airport.  I was cheeky and got a stamp coming in from Basel and a stamp going out of the French side of the airport.  Two country trip!

After settling into the hotel, it was off to the first Christmas market.  I had to figure out the trams to get there...they were surprisingly futuristic for a small city in the middle of France.  The first Christmas market was magical....this one had a lot more Christmas lights for sale, which makes things just glow even more.

Gorgeous

The stands in the Alsace region are required to have a certain percentage of locally sourced goods / crafts.  The quality of the knick knacks, etc was so much better than a lot of the city markets I've seen.  There was a funny stand with old used French Christmas CDs - including one in the middle called Country and Trucker.  I'm assuming this is not French.

One of the many scrumptious food stands

I took a boat trip around the city with the swans in tow.

The boat was decked out with Christmas and mulled wine.  Full tour around the city and Christmas cheer.

Lunch was ham, sauerkraut and some sort of potatoes with cheese.  Love market food!

Pretzel stand.  Really fun to see the German and French influences...Alsace is the best of both Germany and France - nice people (Germany), German and French food, attention to detail (German), French art, and French fashion.

Another stand in the market - hundreds of stands all prettier than the last.



Strasbourg Cathedral in the centre of town

Nativity scene inside the Cathedral - starting with the Annunciation and ending with the Wise Men

The manger scene

The Wise Men (who apparently rode an elephant to visit Jesus)

Stain glass windows in the cathedral

Amazing rose stain glass in the Cathedral

Windows and tapestries in the Cathedral.

 

 

Beautiful cityscape with Christmas lights and market along the canal

German architecture along the river

Building over the canal (missed which one it is in the audio commentary....too much mulled wine)

European parliament

Beautiful building with bridge shot on the canal tour

Beautiful building at the locks (boat actually used the locks - I've never done that before!)

Lutheran church along the river (now used as an exhibit hall)

All the medieval streets were decorated with lights and the buildings had their own Christmas displays.  This elaborate display burst with bubbles.

RS restaurant - he knows how to pick them!!!

Rooster in white wine sauce...yum!

When in France, Crème Brule!

Beautiful lights in Strasborg

Lights through the streets of Strasborg

Ah, I am so much in love with Christmas in Strasbourg.



Thanks and giving

Year 3 of Thanksgiving in Europe was exciting in the UK.  Praise the Lord for WholeFoods!  I finally got a taste of home - turkey, stuffing, yams, sprouts, beet root, corn bread, pecan pie!

I invited some coworkers over to help celebrate.  It was definitely the oddest Thanksgiving I have ever had.  The conversation was weird and wonderful - 4 Brits, 1 Aussie and 1 American Thanksgiving.  I didn't make them do the traditional "what are you thankful for", which was a bit of a miss, but still fun had by all.  Sadly all the pictures are on someone else's phone....lost cause!

Things I was thankful for this year, but didn't share that night:

1.  Health, both for me and my family
2.  New opportunities, new start living in London
3.  A great job that I love
4.  Coworkers who are/were supportive/patient during my move and transition
5.  New running habit
6.  Theatres just a tube ride away
7.  Netflix
8.  A good commute to airport and office
9.  My apartment (and the guy who fixes everything in it)
10.  Tube maps

I am a Jelly donut - Berlin

One of the greatest myths of all time is the story of JFK in Berlin.  His famous quote, "Ich bin ein Berliner" became an urban legend in Europe and the States when some misinterpreted his comment as not "I am a citizen of Berlin", but rather "I am a jelly donut".  Its an urban legend, but absolutely hilarious.  I too, JFK, am a jelly donut, but only when in Berlin.

Berlin was a work trip, so not much site seeing done and my iPhone rear camera went out, so some of the sites are very unflattering selfies only, so won't be posted.

On Saturday night, I headed up to the Reichstag for a walk up the dome.  You have to book online in advance due to security concerns, but the website is fairly easy to navigate and I booked about 4 hours before I wanted to go.  After an amazing dinner at an RS recommended restaurant (and scoped out some other places for potential dinners the rest of the week), it was off to the Stag.

The Reichstag is free to go in and they give you an audio tour.  It's open late so you can see the city lit up at night.  I went about 9:30PM and surprisingly, it was still packed.

On top of the Reichstag with the Brandenburg gate behind me.  That's the one time I think I've taken a decent selfie.

Then on the way back to the hotel via the subway, I stopped for some pictures of the Brandenburg gate lit up.  The subway was really easy to navigate as well, but equally, it was definitely the most cab friendly city I've seen.  They were everywhere and pretty cheap.

Brandenburg gate

After Saturday night, it was wooooorrrrrkkkk.  And lots of it.  There were good times and stressful times, but thankfully made it through in mostly one piece.  I used an RS restaurant for dinner one night with coworkers and looked like a hero - a beer hall in the centre of the city with great food and beer.

On Thursday before I left, I did a bit of site seeing:

Bombed out church near the hotel.  The back side of the church had the rebuilt new church.  A lot of the city has been rebuilt since the war and the wall fell, but there are some areas that are left as is to remind the world what happened there.

After that, it was off to Checkpoint Charlie.  I can remember the wall coming down when I was a kid.  I really just remember my mom being happy about it and the history of the time after the war wasn't really taught in my school.  I really didn't know much about it.  The museum was interesting - a bit too much information.  I've never seen a museum crammed with that much stuff and solid boards to read in about 20 rooms.  I didn't get through it all, but I did get a taste for just how bad life on the East side was before it fell and how far Berlin has come since then.

Signs that still remain from the crossing point.

Covert picture I took in the museum.  So sad and poignant.

Russian Charlie

 

After that, I met a coworker and we caught a cab to the Jewish Memorial, which is very poignant.  We had an odd incident where the cabbie told us before we got out that the Holocaust never happened.  I think he was trying to wind me up, but I didn't get into it with him.  Very weird and disturbing. 

 

Then it was off to the Brandenburg Gate during the day time and a non-selfie photo:



 

Then continuing on our tour of all things sad, we visited the memorial to the Roma which was much smaller than the Jewish memorial.  It was beautiful and serene, in the park near the Reichstag.

Finally, we saw the Reichstag in the day light.

Berlin was amazing and definitely a repeat trip when I don't have to work.  The city feels like Austin, but a bit cooler (don't throw stones!).  The city feels reborn with all of the new construction everywhere and I think in 20 years time, I wouldn't recognize the city.  It just feels like a place where you can be creative and make your own way.  Capitalism at its finest.  I liked the areas behind the wall better than West Berlin, precisely for that reason - it felt like people were excited about opportunity and embracing challenge.

USA USA USA

In November, fate intervened.  Or the FIFA schedulers.  Either way, it couldn't have worked out better.

I live within walking distance of Craven Cottage, home to Fulham FC.  For some unknown reason, the stadium also hosted international friendlies in November, including USA vs Colombia.  Why those two teams were playing London a stones throw from my house is unknown, but what a gift.  It was like Christmas in November!

The crowd was decidedly pro Colombia - the American contingent was far smaller.  I went with an England fan / coworker, but was insistent he root for the USA as we were clearly out numbered. 

It was definitely the rowdiest football game I have been to. Colombians take their football very seriously.  It was like going to a game in South America, but a lot safer.  The US put up a very valiant effort, but fell 1-2.  We had amazing seats just down the goal line and saw a lot of the action.  Toward the end, it got really crazy as fans started to run on the field (kicked off by one who got far enough on to bear hug a player).  The crazies to police ratio was way off, but thankfully it appeared that the crazies were generally harmless.

We had a nice walk back along the river after, me thinking back on how weird and wonderful this city is (and silently chanting USA USA USA).

Amsterdam Marathon

April, October, July, January-March are slowly becoming the best months of my year.  I'm guaranteed excessive amounts of work but also guaranteed tons of fun.  Work hard, play hard....

October was no exception to the rule.  Three of my co-workers signed up for various lengths of runs in Amsterdam for a weekend and a few of us decided to stay the weekend to support them.  Saturday was a lazy day of relaxing, site seeing and enjoying the Hague on a quiet day:

 Me with the girl and the pearl earring at the Mauritshuis

 The girl in all her glory - much like Mona, what is she thinking?

Nice stroll back to the hotel for drinks before dinner

Then on Sunday, it was off to watch the marathon, half marathon and 8K.  I've never seen a Marathon, so the whole thing was fascinating.  We had prime spots in Vondelpark, which is just beautiful in the fall and the weather was ok most of the day.  My favourite part was seeing the winners run by and watching some other people you would never think could run a marathon, who not only did it, but did it well.

My least favourite part was standing in the rain waiting for my marathon coworker to go by and missing him twice.  Not cool!  I have no idea how we missed him, but 3 pairs of eyes and 4 hours of waiting.......for nothing.

But we did see the 8ker and the half marathoner, so that was great!  After that, it was off for a drink with the marathon coworker and back to the Hague for a long week at work.  Thankfully, I didn't have to recover from a Marathon!  Just the 4 hours of watching one....