Winter wonderland

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Getting from Amman to Germany is a breeze. Takes only a few hours in a comfortable plane where you get food and drink. Well ok there was one drawback. All flights to Europe seem to leave at the ungodly hour of 3am and so did ours. Enough of the whingeing and on with the story.

Kellie always wanted to experience a real winter with snow and all that and I was absolutely against it as winters for me means, freezing cold, rain, slush, being inside all the time and gray skies. So we flew into Germany and to my surprise and Kellies delight we landed in Stuttgart which was powdered in the white stuff.

At the airport we were greeted by a friend of mine which took the bags of us and went back to work (someone has to do it). This left us to explore the city of Stuttgart a bit. One of the famous tourist attractions at this time of the year is the Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market). We even read about this said Christmas market in the Ethiopian Airlines magazine. There it was claimed (and who is arguing with Ethiopian Airlines) that the Stuttgart Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) is the biggest in Germany and because Germany is Christmas-markets-R-us it must be the biggest in the world. Either way they sell delicious sweets like Schokoobladen, Magenbrot and other stuff you haven't heard of. Most importantly they sell Glühwein (mulled wine). There is next to nothing that tastes better than a Glühwein in a Christmas market in Germany while being surrounded by snow (lets forget a ice cold beer or cocktail on the beach for a second).

After a few of those it was time to head to our new home, have a shower and snooze just to come return to the Christmas market for more in the evening, a lot more. We ate sausages (you have to), marvelled at the hundreds of shops selling Christmas decoration, ate sweets and drank Glühwein and more Glühwein. We had so much of it that Kellie suddenly realised that she is great at skating and went onto the ice rink. Let’s say she is not ready for the Winter Olympics yet and the bruises on various body parts prove that.

We didn't have lot of time in Stuttgart as we had to head down to my brothers place in Kempten to celebrate Christmas with them. We caught one of the high speed trains to Ulm where my brother and his family waited for us. Needless to say that Kellie was a bit nervous.

We barrelled down the Autobahn with something close to 200km/h (my brother likes to drive fast... with one hand) and arrived in Kempten just in time to go to (guess what) the Christmas market. Yet more sausage and Glühwein …

One tradition that shall not go unmentioned are the Christmas cookies that everyone bakes before Christmas. They come in various shapes and flavours but are all yummy and are a major contributor to waist size expansion during Christmas time. They are everyone pride and you are forced (I‘m a pushover) to eat them wherever you go.

Christmas really sneaked up on us this year and suddenly it was the evening on the 24th. For all English and other uncivilised people. Christmas is celebrated on the 24th not 25th. So there you have it. In either case it was quite a sight as my nice is the only child in the extended family and hence she gets more than her fair share in gifts. It was very cute to see her eyes light up when she came down and saw what the Christ Child (there is no Santa Clause in these regions. Don't ask) brought her. She was busy for a long time and there was a Kilimanjaro sized mountain of wrapping paper left in the end

Since the short spell of snow in Stuttgart, Germany was nicely decorated in grass green. No snow to be seen but Kellie got her wish of a white Christmas when is started to snow a little on the 25th in the evening. Never seen someone so excited about a couple of snow flakes.

We spent the time in-between Christmas and New Year exploring the region and went to Ulm the city I studied in to marvel at the world’s largest Church spire. We went to King Ludwigs Neuschwanstein a (dream) castle which is said to be the model for Disney’s castle in Disney World. We visited an indoor water park where we went down the watersides way too often and marvelled at the fact that it’s freezing cold outside and we were in bathers inside. A special attraction is the heated (30 degrees) outdoor pool. The body is nice and warm but the head was freezing off.
We also went tobogganing down a 3km long road which in winter doubles as tobogganing trail. Great fun!
We also bummed around my brothers house and were glad that central heating is a standard in German houses. It was mostly minus degrees outside and the lowest temperature was a whopping -12 degrees.
Kellie was also repeatedly (she forgets easily) introduced to the “Christbaumloben” tradition. It’s a southerner thing and every time you come to someone's place and you say something nice about the Christmas tree you get Schnapps and if you don't say anything nice about the tree the host gets insulted. Nice tradition I think but Kellie didn't appreciate the Schnapps at 9am in the morning. Funny that.

As Christmas so did New Years Eve sneak up on us. We celebrated at my brother’s place with a couple of his friends. We went outside at 9.30pm to set off some fireworks for the kids (yay fireworks are legal in Germany and we bought lots) and it was still no snow in sight. The whole thing changed when we went out at 11.45pm. Suddenly there was 5cm of snow on the street and thick snow flakes came down on us. Haven't seen that in 25 years. There were firecracker and rockets going off everywhere. The firework display in Sydney cannot be surpassed but it is something special to see rockets going off everywhere you look and it’s a lot more fun to set them off yourself.
After we set off all our firecrackers and rockets we walked in the snow while people were still setting of theirs. That was at 12.30am. People have stamina here and it was magical. Fresh snow is, well how to say it, pretty.

Once all that was done we had a few more days in which we visited the town I grew up. Marvelled at the changes in the last 10 years, visited my dad in his nursing home and my Uncle.

We left soon after to go skiing but came back for one more day in the end in which we visited a "Klamm". A Klamm is a small gorge with steep walls and a stream running through it. It’s quite popular to hike through it in summer and winter. Once we paid and passed the high tech barrier (who else than the German would put a high tech barrier in front of a small gorge?) we went in and it was amazing. The Klamm got narrower and narrower and there were icicles everywhere. It looks like a small waterfall just froze in mid air. Pretty cool stuff.

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Photos

Neuschwanstein
King Ludwigs dream castle. He never lived in it as he died before it was finished.

31 december 2008 11:55pm
Snow and rockets what a combination

1 Jan 2009 Kellie is back at work
and she loved it. never had a snow shovel in her hand before. Lucky girl. i remember too many bitter cold and grey mornings using that thing

Kellies Christmas present
I swear the title had nothing to do with my choosing that book. Really

Kellie enjoying her first Gluehwein
many more followed

Christmas cookies
Everyone bakes them and I eat them

Breakfast
-13 degrees outside +23 degrees inside

Ulmer Muenster
With 161.5m it also has the tallest church steeple in the world

The house I grew up in
Didn't change a lot

Pretty
Just around the corner from my brothers house