Happy Thanksgiving

We are really feeling far from home this week. Tomorrow the kids will go to school and I will go for a normal day at work even though we are all feeling the Thanksgiving holiday spirit.

We will get to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings thanks to a restaurant down the street called, "The Big Easy". While TBE normally produces some of the best New Orleans cuisine in Europe, tomorrow they will prepare our US Thanksgiving dinner. We will also get to watch "American Football" although our games will start around 6pm instead of noon.

While we are missing home and some of our traditions, we can still be thankful for all of our blessings. We hope we have a greater appreciation for friends and family and look forward to future chances to reconnect to all those close to us.

We wish everyone a healthy and happy Thanksgiving holiday.

Christmas Markets

The big celebration point during the holidays in Germany is the Christmas Markets. These are temporary structures set up to sell gifts and food and drinks to shoppers intoxicated by the season.(The first picture is out of a window in my building)

What we didn't know is that it is really a huge outdoor cocktail party where people agree to meet and socialize.


A couple of days ago they started building the market outside of my office in central Munich at the Wittelsbacherplatz. Each market has a theme in Munchen - ours is medieval times. They started building last week (when I took these pictures).
When I spoke to the people in my office, they asked, "Surely you have these markets in NYC?" After a short discussion about how these markets are really a venue for people to meet and socialize more than shop, I had to tell them that we really don't have anything like these in NYC.

These pictures also show that our weather has been dynamite. We have had sunshine and 60 degrees for many days of the past two weeks. Today I had coffee outside in the sun with a friend with no coat.
I took this picture tonight while leaving the office. They do install a Christmas tree in the center of the market - which in our case is lit by Siemens bulbs.

Guest!

We had a guest this week in Bavaria. Our former neighbor, Stephen McCreary, had a business trip to northern Germany and came out of his way to see us in Munich. We picked up our sleepy guest and immediately set about a full day of showing him Munich. Poor guy.

Stephen is interesting because he took years of high school German but has never been to Germany. He could say short things to the kids in German but never knew the country.

He has a BMW so we took him to the BMW museum (after a double espresso). He was a good sport. After the museum (and more espresso), we showed him some more sights. The poor guy was tired.

After a full day, we forced him to go out to a traditional Gasthaus (German restaurant) and we feed him schnitzel, German potato salad, Sausages, and weissebier.

The morning after was a brunch and then we shipped him off to Dusseldorf. Maybe we should have let him sleep a little bit. Oh well. It was great to see an old friend.

To anyone reading the blog - we love visitors and everyone is welcome. Please come. We don't want anyone to feel compelled, but if you are game - you're welcome!

This weekend we were lucky enough to be invited to a traditional Bavarian event.
We woke early and drove south one hour toward the Alps. We were going to the Leonhardifahrt Hundham event. This is a ceremony that goes back to pre-Christian events. The current ceremony looks to bless the horses and other farm animals that are important to the townspeople.

We started with the parade. Many of the surrounding villages prepare for weeks for the religious event by preparing the coach, dressing up their horses, and wearing very beautiful traditional dress.
One of the floats pays homage to the patron saint who will protect against fire in the home or barn.
The groups paraded into the center of a very small town and into a small field by a small church. While this is happening, any observers, like the 5 Americans, could walk through and talk to the participants and pet the horses.

It really struck Daphne and I that these were not costumes. There were no tourist brochures, no programs, no advertising. We only came because our friend invited us to see a real Bavarian event.
As we walked around, the outfits were terrific, but we were the ones who looked strange. We were the only ones taking pictures and acting like outsiders.


The men's hats have these flourishes that look like upturned brushes. These are actually the hair from mountain goats that are hand crafted and highly valued. The bigger the 'brush' the more important the man and the more important his rank.
Everyone was friendly and approachable - they were just having their annual event to bless the animals.


The view was several of the highest mountains in Germany/Austria in the background.


At the end, David saw a dripping fountain in the town square and asked our host about the quality of the water.
He said that as long as there is not a big sign showing that the water is not safe, it is clean, clear water that is very safe and quite tasty.

We don't know what the kids are getting from this, but this was a truly special peek into a different culture. I love how proud the Bavarians are of their history and how some are willing to share with us Americans.

Halloween

Yes, we had Halloween in Germany. Some of the parents from the international school arranged to have their neighbors distribute candy to any kids who would come. We had about 100 kids go to about 30 houses outside of Munich.

Mom and Dad didn't take any pictures but we can report that Julia was in costume as a witch, David was a ghost and Brian was Darth Vader. Darth Vader is global.