Another Munich New Year

We have enjoyed a wonderful two-week break from work with no responsibilities but the dogs.  Almost every day we have slept in and then decided how lazy we want the day to be.  Mostly we have been watching movies, doing lots of jigsaw puzzles, and eating good food.  I’m sure there were a few days we would not have made it outside if it were not for the dogs (thanks girls!).  Just when our laziness streak was beginning to violate social acceptableness, we had visitors come and pull us up off of our butts for Silvester/New Year’s Eve. 

As a side note, this year marks the 3^rd Christmas in Munich without snow.  However, as mentioned before, the day after Christmas it started snowing and didn’t stop for the rest of the year.  This was probably the most snow we have experienced since moving to Munich.  Therefore, this is the first time we’ve captured Munich so detailed in the snow, aka there are plenty of snowy pictures coming up! 

Our new friend Jason, who is a Houston-native now living in Mannheim, came into town with two of his friends, Jorge and Carolina.  We met up first on New Year’s Eve, and I joined our guests on a free, guided walking tour through downtown. 

Odeonsplatz in the snow

I learned a lot of incredible new stories about Munich, although it was no real surprise that most of them involve beer in one way or another.  For instance, many years ago the opera house had once caught on fire and the relatively modern gravity fed sprinkler system was put to the test.  Unfortunately, it was winter and the water for the sprinklers was all frozen which called for a plan B.  Because of the proximity to the Hofbräuhaus the officials called on the locals to form an assembly line and pass mugs of beer down to the Opera house to put out the fire.  Well unfortunately, most of the locals started drinking the beer as it came down the line, which meant not enough beer made it in time to save the Opera house.  I don’t know if it is true and I don’t really care, this story is just too funny.

After the tour, we warmed up at our apartment before going out for a lovely Indian dinner.  Our upstairs Colombian neighbors joined us as well, who shortly after New Year’s moved back to Colombia.  This meant Julie and I were the only pathetic ones who could not speak Spanish (seeing as Jorge is Cuban, Carolina is in fact Colombian herself, and Jason just happens to speak Spanish too).  It made for a lively mixed language conversation with hints of German, Spanish, and English mixed in.  As usual, the food at Taj Mahal was incredible.

We continued on our tradition of doing the German custom of “Bleigießen” fortune telling, where we melt lead trinkets and recast them into randomly formed shapes via cool water.  The new shape reveals what is in store for the following year.  Just like previous years there was plenty of arguing about the interpretation of the shape.  Where I was certain my new shape was a golf club, other people were dead set that it was a sperm.  Since neither option was on the list of interpretations, the group settled on a frog (tadpole), so my fortune for 2015 is that I will win a lot of money in the lottery.  Julie’s snake meant she is due for some haters this year (“people are envious of your success”). 

Before and After shots of Julie's Bleigiessen

We finally made it to Hirschgarten about 11:30 with our fireworks and alcohol in tow.  Thanks to the snow, we were able to pull our cargo down to the park via a sled, although we were missing the rope to properly secure things to keep them from falling off every 20 feet.  Soon the cargo was carried by hand, and replaced by Julie looking for a free ride. 

Due to the foot+ of snow on the ground, we couldn’t post up in the field.  Instead we had to keep to the groomed walking paths to start our fireworks show.  We rang in the New Year with prosecco, homemade cupcakes, and 12 grapes each to go along with the war zone of fireworks surrounding us.  

Between the two group shots, both of us are captured

By 1am we ran out of drinks and fireworks, so it was time to return to the apartment.  Our party had only just gotten started because we all stayed up and celebrated until 3:30am, when Julie was the first to throw in the towel.  Go us!  Lucky for us, we had rested up plenty the prior weeks and were actually able to properly party. 

All in all it was a really great way to start off the new year – surrounded by friends (new and old), fireworks, and family (Julie and the pups).  Here’s to 2015 and everything it will bring! 

PS - Here are a few more snowy Munich photos just because. 

Snowing in Nymphenburg park

Across from our apartment

Hirschgarten aglow from smoke and fireworks

Sledding into the New Year

After our awesome trip to Budapest we settled back in Munich for act III of our family adventure.

As we were down to the last 2 days of the year (and the last 2 days of our family visiting), we wanted to make sure we got to spend some time with Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger.  With 2 cars, we easily fit crammed all 9 of us in for a drive down to Garmisch again.  However this time, our destination was different – we wanted to see Partnachklamm again, but this time we were hoping to see it partially frozen.  After hitting a rather large Stau (traffic jam), we finally made it down to Garmisch. 

Seth and Rüdiger hanging out in the traffic

As we walked up to the Olympic Ski Jump – the start of the hike to the gorge – we sadly learned that Partnachklamm was closed due to the melting ice.  Apparently there was danger of icicles breaking off and potentially killing everyone in sight.  And the worst part is there is a website that tells you if it is ‘geoffnet’ or ‘geschlossen’, but it had been down for a few days.  This must be how Chevy Chase felt when he finally made it to WallyWorld and it was closed.

Thankfully we had Ellen and Rüdiger with us as they came up with a wonderful backup plan for the day.  Right at the same ski jump stadium is the lift to the top of Eckbauerbahn!  After Rüdiger finagled us the group discount (technically we were 1 shy of the 10 needed), we hopped in line for the gondolas.  But before we handed our ticket over in exchange for a ride up the mountain, Sandy announced she really wanted to try sledding (a true sign she was born and raised in Texas).  Noah and Seth had her back and quickly ran back down to the store to rent 3 sleds for the group.  Finally we (and our sleds) were on our way up the mountain in the gondolas. 

We were really excited

Once we reached the top, we immediately headed to the sledding hill.  Marty, Margie, and myself all hung back at the bottom to photograph my mother’s first sled experience ever (and capture the others too).  Ellen and Rüdiger went to the top of the hill to cheer the sledders on. 

First up – Seth. 

Next – my mother’s inaugural sled ride.  With the ‘breaks’ on the majority of the time, she ended up with pretty good snow spray. 

Then it was Noah’s turn. 

Then the self-proclaimed expert, my father.  Though based on the photo you can see he didn’t really have the best form.  (He blames the sled…. sure Gary) 

After a few more runs in for all, including a brother run, and a run where Seth flew all the way to the restaurant, we had all built up our appetite and were ready for some food.  This was when I took my turn on the sled – to slowly make my way down the path to the restaurant.  What can I say – I know the dangers uncomfortable-ness of snow spray first hand. 

After our fill of food and beer (and a few more runs on the sled), we were ready to call it a day and head back down the mountain. 

Before heading back to Munich, we decided to walk around the town of Oberammergau first. We asked a random man on the street to take a group picture of us in front of the famous painted houses, but sadly the bill of his hat pushed the flash down, resulting in a dark and grainy picture. 

When we returned to Munich we said farewell to Ellen and Rüdiger and took off to downtown for a delicious meat-filled dinner at Der Pschorr.  Even Margie’s vegetarian baked cheese dish was amazing.  

It's hard to see, but the name of the restaurant behind us is 'Weisses'

New Year’s Eve found us all rather spent from the past 2 weeks activities.  The day was spent playing Settler’s of Catan between packing (as everyone flew out the next day).  Before dinner though, we partook in the German tradition of Bleigießen.  This is where you melt a small lead figure and dump the liquid in water.  Then you have to determine what your newly created shape looks like.  The shape is interpreted (via online blogs for us) to predict how the upcoming year will be.  For instance, my lead came out looking like a swan.  Based on the list, a bird means I have good luck coming in 2014!  Unfortunately ‘penis’ wasn’t on the list for Noah’s shape, so we had to go with a different opinion on what his object looked like. 

After our fortunes were foretold, we went out for a wonderful Indian dinner.  And since this is all about ‘firsts’ this trip for the parents (Margie’s first time in a gondola, Sandy’s first time sledding), it was now Gary’s turn.  This was his first time eating Indian food!  We went with some safe choices for him of butter chicken and tikka masala, and I was happy to say he didn’t go hungry that night.

It was finally time to grab our blankets, champagne, and fireworks and head to Hirschgarten.  Last year Noah and I marveled a the way German’s do fireworks on New Year’s, so we thought the park near us would be a good place to 1) set off our own fireworks and 2) have a nice view of others as well.  Noah and I were also looking forward to showing our guests how over the top it gets here.  To quote Adam Fletcher’s ‘How to be German in 50 easy steps': “New Year’s Eve in Germany is the evening in which all the nice, normal, practical, risk-averse people are replaced by gun-powder-touting, death wish-seeking pyromaniacs. Running around lighting fireworks with reckless abandon. Sections of the country become much like Baghdad on market day. In Germany, leaving the house on New Year’s Eve is like stepping into a giant, 80 million person multiplayer game of Bomberman.”.  

We get started around 11:30 lighting our bottle rockets and our 3-foot long sparklers.  With all that time waiting for the sparkler to burn out, I had my go at sparkler-writing. 

At this point we were really the only ones around, and Noah and I were a bit nervous that maybe we misremembered last year and exaggerated the experience to our family.  But once the clock hit midnight, the warzone broke out.  We did have a few more groups show up to the park, but the main event was over at the Hirschgarten restaurant.  They had their own professional show going, and we had great viewing spots away from the massive crowd we could see in the distance.  Between their show, and all the fireworks that began to explode all around us, we could see the awe in our family’s faces.  It was a great way to ring in the New Year. 

The next same morning we bid ‘Auf Wiedersehen’ to our loved ones and spent the rest of the day recovering from both the late night and the 2 weeks of hosting.  Plus our apartment resembled how the city streets looked after all the fireworks… it was time for us to clean for the first time all year. 

Who’s Hungary after Christmas?

I’ve come to realize that the day after Christmas is kind of like a hangover.  Usually the whole day is spent recovering from the previous day’s gluttony and realizing that normal days are kind of boring.  But this year we definitely avoided the December 26^th hangover when we set off with the family for Budapest.  Our stay was only 3 short days but we had an incredible time enjoying life along the Danube.

After checking into our centrally located hotel we caught a quick meal at one of those touristy Hungarian-Italian places.  Some had their favorite meal here, but unfortunately my lasagna wasn’t one of them. 

The chicken paprikash on the right was one of the 'favorites'

The daylight disappeared so quickly that our first walk around the city was in the dark.  But we quickly realized the charm of Budapest is at night when the whole city lights up (at least around Christmas time, which is the extent of our exposure).  Unlike Munich, Budapest continues the Christmas markets and light displays after Christmas.  Additionally, just about every beautiful building is illuminated at night in a dramatic golden yellow light. 

Please note that Julie handles all blog photos... hence the inclusion of the misspelled 'foot massage' sign

After some crappy souvenir shopping, our group of 7 split up and Julie and I headed for the river to get in some nighttime photography.  We saw the famous bridges and buildings along the Danube before the rain pushed us back to the hotel earlier than we wanted. 

We dried off and regrouped for our late night stop at the brilliant New York Café.  Trust me - these photographs don’t even do this place justice.  This is an absolute must-see in Budapest. 

We started the next day with a tour of Europe’s largest synagogue – the Dohány Street Synagogue.  Actually this is the only active Synagogue we have toured in Europe because the rest of them are either closed to visitors or were closed because of opening hours.  It was particularly interesting to learn about the controversial organ piano which can only be played by a Christian as not to violate the Shabbat rules (although the Orthodox Jews have other reasons to disagree). 

I bought the dreidel at the gift shop

Me and Seth (grammar be damned - that is the order of us in the photo)

After a disappointing falafel lunch (note to self, cheap eats don’t translate to good eats) we split ways with Gary and Sandy (who set off after the HoHo bus).  We took a stroll through the Jewish quarter and down to the big Central Market.  The market and its low quality souvenirs were a bit disappointing to us, but perhaps we have been spoiled by the lavish markets of Istanbul (I know….we are huge travel snobs now).  

At this point our feet hurt.  So we went back to the hotel, caught a cab, and went for a dip in the famous Gellert baths. 

For dinner we went out for some amazing Italian food at the Trattoria Toscana.  Julie’s calzone came out puffed up with hot air, the size of a basketball, and caught the entire restaurant’s attention.  And my Mom’s tomato soup….well she claimed this was one of the best meals of her life.  Seth ordered lobster fresh out of the fish tank, but then dodged a bullet when after hearing him say that the lobster was cheaper than the pasta, Julie informed him the price in the menu was actually the price per 100g ( he had ordered about 600g).  The waiter didn’t make it very far before Seth grabbed him to swap his lobster order for ravioli.  But still I’m proud to be the brother of a guy who almost ordered lobster.  After dinner us kids went out for drinks and closed out a bar….just before midnight! 

The next day we did some more city touring and made stops at Heroes’ Square, the Opera House and St. Stephen’s Basilica. 

Heroes' Square

Opera House, me modeling my bro belt outside the Opera House (again... Julie manages the photos)

St. Stephen's Basilica

We barely scratched the surface when it was time to play Trap!  Although not something that screams typical Budapest, this game was a major highlight for us kids who put together an awesome, almost record breaking team.  Basically, you are locked into a room and have to figure your way out.  I don’t want to write any spoilers, but let’s just say I would not recommend going to Budapest without playing this game.  Seth was the brains.   Julie was the orchestrator.   Marty was slapping sense into us when we would get side tracked (like me constantly turning off the lights) and she was also good at keeping the scene sanitized (after watching me stick my hand down dark rat holes and Seth climbing on top of dirty barrels).  My strength was eliminating the false clues by doing all of the wrong things.  We had so much fun and a big laugh when it was all over. 

Our final dinner was traditional Hungarian food, but unfortunately the excessively big proportions made the bland/greasy food that much worse tasting.  I’ll let the photo do the talking on this one: 

We finished the night with a quick stop over at the Parliament building- probably the most dramatic building illumination we have seen in Europe. 

The life winners (my mom, Julie, and I) got up early on our final morning to take in the ‘sunrise’ view from Castle hill.  We were greeted instead by an inescapable fog which put a pretty cool twist on our photography.  Although the views were bad, the damp and foggy weather gave us a very private look at Buda Castle and Fisherman’s Bastion.  It’s all about making lemonade from those life lemons. 

Chain Bridge

Also the Chain Bridge

Buda Castle

Fisherman's Bastion

We really enjoyed both Buda and Pest, and I would say the city definitely exceeded my expectations.  It was a great place to visit this time of year, though we might have to go back to check out Budapest in a warmer season.  Good thing we have some more time here in Europe! 

A Weiss/Steffens Family Christmas!

This year Noah and I hosted our first family holiday event in Germany (we used to host Thanksgiving in Phoenix, but the last one was over 2 years ago).  We figured there is no point starting small – we invited our family from both sides!  My parents and Noah’s brother/sister-in-law all flew in from Texas, and Noah’s mother flew in from San Francisco.  We had a fun-filled 2 weeks planned for them.  And since we saw so much and did so much, Noah and I decided that the visit deserves 3 individual blogs.  I was tasked with writing the first blog which takes us up to Christmas Day. 

My artsy photograph of our Christmas tree using the bokeh technique

The first to arrive were my folks – landing Thursday the 19^th.  Since they always suffer badly from jet lag, they were off for their naps right after I ate lunch (they were full from their ‘cheese and snot sandwiches’ on the plane – straight quote from Gary).  While they were sleeping, I prepared the Steffens’ family traditional Christmas cookie dough.  Once they returned fresh faced (but still jet lagged), I enlisted their help to roll and cut and decorate the cookies.  This is the first time Gary has had a hand in helping, and his Christmas pick-axe was just lovely.  Too bad he ate it before we had a chance for a photo.  Unfortunately they would have to wait until the next day to see Noah, as he was off at his work’s Christmas party and didn’t come home until after 11pm.  Way too late for 2 oldies who are still on Texas time.

Noah left early the next morning to meet his mother at the airport.  An hour or so after her plane landed, I received a frantic call from Noah saying he must have lost his mother (before the trip even started!) – everyone else from her plane already made their way out of security and he had seen no sign of Margie!  I reminded him that I had the same freak-out a few weeks ago with our last visitors, and it turned out they were delayed from lost luggage.  30 minutes later Noah updated me that it wasn’t lost luggage – just damaged luggage – and his mom was finally out of security.  One new suitcase and a few hours later they were finally on their way to the apartment. 

Since our last two guests (Seth and Marty) were set to arrive later that evening, we took the opportunity to do some grocery shopping.  After determining that the cost of a turkey at Galeria Kaufhof was just ridiculous (~10 EUR per pound!), we all piled into our new Honda Jazz to search for a turkey at the Pasing Arcaden (mall).  This isn’t as crazy as it sounds – there are actually 2 grocery stores attached to the shopping mall.  And of course we managed to park in the underground lot on the complete opposite side of where the Hit grocery store is located.  That’s ok – it provided some good exercise for those world travelers.  After locating a much more reasonably priced frozen turkey and some other essentials, we begin the trek back through the entire mall to the car.  Only Sandy wanted to get some photos of the lovely Christmas décor in the mall.  As I waited behind with her so she could snap a few photos, I see a woman and her dog walk by.  The dog proceeds to take a giant, runny dump just 2 feet from us.  And the poor woman had nothing to clean it up with!  I felt so bad for her – luckily I haven’t had that happen in public with our dogs, but Rita did once barf in a restaurant.  I handed her some red poop bags and a package of tissues, and wished her luck.  Sandy and I ran to catch up with the others (and leave the nasty smell behind).  Side note: I have successfully talked about dog poop in 2 consecutive blogs.  Winning! 

The photo taken right before the dog poo incident

A few hours later Aunt Ellen and Uncle Rüdiger arrived at the apartment with Seth and Marty in tow – but with 1 bag less than they started out with.  One of their bags was left in Austin!  I am not sure why the majority of our visitors in December have all had bag problems (3 issues with 3 different airlines) – must be something to do with the holidays.  Anyways, we kept the evening low key and called it an early night to let everyone get their sleep. 

Saturday morning we were ready to finally venture into the city and check out these Christmas markets Noah and I had been talking about.  We piled into the public transportation and started the downtown market tour with the main attraction– the Christkindlmarkt at Marienplatz. 

Next stop on the market tour – the Weihnachtsmarkt in der Residenz.  This one is one of our favorites – it is naturally smaller as it has to fit within one of the courtyards of the Residence, and they have the much coveted Baumstriezel!  It is a Hungarian pastry (they call it Kürtőskalács – though in English we can just say Chimney Cake) that is essentially a sweet bread dough that is wrapped around a metal cylinder and baked as you watch.  You then can choose a topping that they will roll the hot pastry in – my recommendation is the cinnamon and sugar (Zimt Zucker).  I might have made a mistake in introducing my mother to this as she spent the rest of the time in Munich looking for more of them (she successfully found many in Budapest – I think her tally was 3… one for each night we were there). 

After a lunch of sausages and Baumstriezel, we made our way to the Middle Age Christmas market (Der Mittelaltermarkt auf dem Wittelsbacherplatz) – a first for Noah and I.  As there are so many Christmas markets in town (even one at the airport), we prefer to not see every single one each year.  It can become rather tedious and monotonous if you see too many at once, as they all pretty much have similar things.  The Middle Age market one reminded me of a tiny Renaissance Festival, but with a Christmas flare.  Lots of handmade goods out of leather, bark, glass, etc.  I found some nice glass snowflake ornaments myself. 

After everyone had their fill of shopping for the day (or at least Noah, myself, and the parents did – Seth and Marty would stay on to replenish some items missing in her lost luggage), the group headed up to the top of the Neues Rathaus at Marienplatz (via elevator, thank you very much).  We were treated to a lovely 360 view of the city, and in the distance we could even make out the outline of the Alps. 

Sunday morning was an early one for Seth and Noah – they were gone by 7am to take the first train of the day to hit the slopes in Garmisch.  The rest of us slept for a few hours longer and reached Garmisch Classic (and the brothers) for lunch.  The two snowboarders met us at the bottom of the lifts and we all took the gondola up the mountain (Margie’s first time riding a Gondola in her life!) to eat at the Garmischer-Haus restaurant. 

After taking in the food and the views, we left the boys to finish their runs.  We checked out the town and (of course) their Christmas market. 

We all met up again to take the train back to town for a nice dinner of stew and birthday cake.  Technically, my mother’s birthday was the next day, but I had made a giant 4-tiered monstrosity that would never come close to being finished unless we started it ASAP.  We went ahead and pretended anyways and sang Happy Birthday a day early.  Though don’t tell the German’s!  They find it to be horrible luck if you tell someone happy birthday early… but no one can tell me what exactly happens! 

 

The story behind HORST – Noah and I were looking for cake toppers and found name candles.  Of course they don’t have Sandy, or any name with a Y.  Noah’s idea was to by ‘Astrid’ and ‘Andreas’ to have the letters for Sandra.  Mine was to just buy ‘Horst’ and convince her that was German for Sandy.  After a quick email to my brother for a tie-breaking vote, Horst it was!  And she did believe that Horst meant Sandy… until I started laughing and told her it is just a random man’s name.

Monday brought my mom’s real 60^th birthday.  We celebrated by hitting up Tollwood – yet another Christmas market, but this one is more on the hippy/earthy side.  Plus lots of drinking options beyond regular old Glühwein.  Mom and I found a winter hat and scarf, and Seth and Noah bought coordinating ‘bff brother’ belts, or something like that. 

For dinner we celebrated at our favorite Greek restaurant Poseidon, where we had way too much food and were given a free bottle of Greek wine per couple.  Needless to say we now have 4 bottles of wine at our apartment.  We celebrated again with a small candle in the shape of a birthday cake, and headed home to eat the real stuff. 

By Christmas Eve we were ready to have an easy day.  Since the weather was nice, we took the S-bahn down to Lake Starnberg with the dogs.  We had a nice walk around part of the lake, and Marty was able to find her a nice rock to take back to her dad (it’s their thing apparently). 

Christmas morning started with Noah (I joined a bit later) in the kitchen making our traditional Steffens’ Danish Ebelskivers.  Slowly the others woke up, and we all feasted on the thousands (or at least it felt that way) of little balls of dough dipped in granulated sugar. 

There was no time for Noah and I to sit as we were coordinating the Christmas dinner of Turkey, homemade yeast rolls (that wanted to take over the kitchen, they rose so much), homemade ginger cranberry sauce (that was actually leftover from Thanksgiving….), au gratin potatoes, and green beans.  Thank goodness we had access to our upstairs neighbors’ oven – but even then it was hard to have everything ready at the same time. 

We were able to take one mid-day break to open presents.  I think my favorites were the antlers for the dogs (thanks Ellen and Rüdiger) – they reminded us of the dog from the Grinch.  Sadie just glared at me when I made her wear them, and Rita actually froze.  She lost the ability to move with those on her head!  My precious babies. 

After presents, we all squeezed into our little kitchen for our Christmas feast.  My dad found an amazing dry brine recipe that I would 100% recommend.  It was honestly the best turkey I ever had – even the white meat was super moist and delicious!  So of course, Gary took all the credit for how the bird came out. 

Dessert came in the form of an apple pie we baked the day before (thankfully, as I have no idea how we would have found time on Christmas day).  It was off to bed early for us all though, as we had to get up the next day for our next segment/blog: Budapest!