Glædelig Jul!

So in an effort to blog about our fun times in a more timely manner, I bring you...CHRISTMAS 2014!!!  Wherein, David and I take the train south to Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic for our first Christmas outside the USA.

So, first off, traveling on the train, even with 2 suitcases and a giant bag with snowboards and gear, was about 5 million times less stressful than flying not to mention seriously cheaper.  For real.  Our train out of Aalborg was at 6:00am.  We left our apartment at about 5:48am, walked the 5 minutes down to the train station, and boarded the train with enough time to store our bags and find a good seat.  No security checkpoint, no extra bag fees, and no stale airplane air.  Trains -> highly recommended.

Note from David: the train does have its disadvantages - the main one being finding a place to put your gigantic/heavy snowboard bag on each train.

First stop...Munich!  On our way to Austria, we took a one-night stopover in Munich to check out the Christmas market action and fill up on some Bavarian food and drink.  Shout out to our Munich Airbnb hosts Nadine and Mark who gave us a bunch of great recommendations to make the most of the short stay.  Their apartment was conveniently located around the corner from the Augustiner brewery where they recommended that we dive into Bavarian food and beer culture.  The place seats something like 500 people on long tables with benches where you're encouraged to find an empty spot and make new friends.  While they probably had an English menu somewhere, there wasn't one on the table so I asked the waiter to bring me whatever he recommended and ended up with a giant leg of meat and a huge potato dumpling doused in gravy.  David picked something with a word he recognized "schnitzel", and neither one of us was disappointed.  Afterwards, we hit up the Tollwood Winter Festival (another Mark and Nadine recommendation) to check out the modern version of a Christmas market complete with vegan Christmas food and giant pig statues.  But no German Christmas market (even an untraditional one) is complete without glühwein.

Giant pig art at Tollwood Festival

Glühwein at Tollwood Festival

For the traditional Christmas market experience, we headed to Marienplatz the next day.  The Marienplatz Christkindlmarkt has its roots in the 14th century (or so the Internet tells me) and was oozing with carved ornaments, caramelized almonds, and of course more glühwein (tastefully served in actual mugs rather than styrofoam cups).  With some unexpected good timing, we showed up at Marienplatz just in time to watch the glockenspiel chime and dance.

If you look close, you can see the statues that
dance around when clock chimes at 11am.

The red cone is filled with caramelized almonds,
a Christmas market staple.

Santa Claus dressed as a priest handing out oranges with a
sleigh pulled by angels?  I'm sure this tradition makes sense to
people who actually know what's going on.

Sustained by caramelized almonds and pretzels, we tore ourselves away from Christmas land and caught our next train headed towards Austria and our first European snowboarding experience!  When planning this trip, we basically had no idea what were good versus not as good snowboarding places around Europe, but after some extensive Google-ing and soliciting recommendations from anyone who had an opinion, we settled on the village of Mayrhofen in the Tirol area of Austria.  What it lacked in early season snow fall, it made up for in mountain majesty and traditional Tirolean charm (and enough snowmaking that we still got 4 days on the slopes).  In hindsight, we should have started the trip just a few days later because it started snowing on our last day there.

We spent Christmas day snowboarding at the Hintertuxer glacier, singing Christmas songs as often as possible, and opening the little gifts we bought for each other the day before in Mayrhofen.  After an unsuccessful search for slippers, I got David a sweater.  He was way more creative and got me a fresh-baked pretzel, Mayrhofen hazelnut schnapps, and soap shaped like a pickle.

We probably could have spent another week in Mayrhofen snowboarding during the day and watching Breaking Bad at night, but we managed to say goodbye and headed back to Munich for a few more days of Bavarian goodness.  We braved the snow (yeah, it snowed after we left the ski area) to check out the Olympic park, Museum Brandhorst, and the church where the devil left his footprint.  The cold prompted us to stop in a donut shop we passed by and led us to experience the pastry revelation known as "the cronut".  And David tried something called a "pork knuckle" at another Munich beer hall.

Olympic park covered in snow

The last leg of the trip started with a 5 hour bus ride through the snow to Prague for New Year's Eve fun...
But this is where I have to stop since David has claimed that blog post (and claims he'll actually write it!).  Glædelig Jul og godt nytår!

Enjoying Danish holidays (in Berlin).

What's this?  Another blog post less than a week after the last one?

Well, I'm not sure I can keep up this posting frequency (my days aren't all that exciting, and I can't seem to convince David to write a post of his own yet), but I did say that I would write about the second half of our Easter holiday in Berlin.  And I didn't want to get too far behind because there will be other things to write about soon (like maybe a new apartment...maybe...I hope).

Anyway...

Berlin was really cool!  Now that I've actually been there, I'm surprised that I hadn't visited the city during any earlier trips to Europe.  I was definitely missing out.  Remnants of the Berlin wall overlook an exhibit on the Gestapo that's next door to a building that formerly housed the Prussian parliament, and it's all next to a conveniently located currywurst stand.  There is so much in this city.  Just during my lifetime, some world-changing things have happened here.  I don't really consider myself a big history nerd/buff/enthusiast/whatever, but walking through these sites of major historical significance
was fascinating.

However, even with all it's historical places, it struck me that Berlin didn't look very "old".  The city was basically destroyed during World War 2 so extensive re-building was required, but the Cold War hampered that to some degree with the restoration of many areas being completed only in the past 20 years.  And the building continues with construction cranes appearing in every photo I took overlooking Berlin.

As we explored, it was interesting to see how the city has chosen to mark/remember the different places and events, especially the ones where really horrible things were happening.  For instance, the site of Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide right before the end of the war is now a parking lot with a sign that explains the significance of what happened there 70 years ago.  This seems appropriate.  It doesn't deserve a museum, but it is important to remember.  The remnants of the Berlin wall that remain around the city are interesting too.  I'm sure some people wanted to destroy all traces of the wall in the city, but enough people recognized that it would be important to remember this part of their history.  So an area that was formerly the "death strip" between the two sections of the wall is now a park with a memorial to the people that died trying to cross that death strip to escape to West Berlin, and a huge section of the remaining wall is now the East Side Gallery where artists from all over the world were invited to paint murals on the wall.

Berlin Wall Memorial

East Side Gallery

One of the most thought-provoking and well put together exhibits was on the site of the former Gestapo headquarters.  The building itself has been demolished, but on top of the rubble, there is an exhibit describing the political, economic, and cultural atmosphere in which Hitler and the Nazis came to power, the atrocities that were committed against various people groups by that regime, and the German society in which all this took place.  David and I planned a quick visit to this site before having lunch one day but ended up staying for 3 hours.  (Because we stayed so long, I ended up buying a delicious butter-filled pretzel from the on-site cafe.  Not a bad decision.)

I was also very impressed with the way that the different museums and memorials sought to go beyond just the numbers and statistics and tell the stories of actual people.  The Holocaust Memorial (or its official title "Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe") is a 5 acre site honoring the 6 million Jews murdered during the Holocaust.  Underneath the memorial, the information center has collected an impressive number of cards, letters, photos, and other items from which they've been able to tell the stories of victims and their families.  We can read about the sheer numbers of people killed during the Holocaust (numbers so big that they're hard to comprehend), but hearing some of their stories gives a much better perspective.


In addition to all the historical places, we spent a lot of
time just walking around some of Berlin's different neighborhoods: Mitte, Prenslauer Berg, Schoneburg, Tiergarten, Potsdamer Platz, etc.  Each neighborhood seemed to have a unique vibe, and in between the history lessons, we relaxed in the neighborhood cafes, gelato shops, and parks.  (You can't beat 1 euro for a scoop of gelato in waffle cone!)


We also found a fun place to go dancing (but unfortunately missed swing dance night).  Clärchens Ballhaus is a 100 year old dance hall, and on the Saturday night that we were there, it featured a live German cover band and was packed with people from 20 to 80 years old (no kidding).  It was here that I realized just how pervasive American pop culture can be.  Almost every song the band played was in English, and the audience was singing right along with them.

On Easter Sunday, we even found a church to go to.  The Berliner Dom is a huge cathedral in central Berlin, and we celebrated the resurrection (in German!) with the amazing choir and organ.  After the Easter service, we climbed the 270 steps to the top of the dome (ya know because we hadn't done enough walking already).




















One of my favorite parts about Berlin was the food.  There were so many different types of food, and compared to Denmark, it was all SO cheap!  (It's really impractical to eat out in Aalborg.)  We had German food, Chinese food, Korean food, burritos, gelato, fries, doner kebabs, and of course, the ubiquitous currywurst.  Basically, anytime we passed a place that looked good, we stopped to get a snack.  (Such a great way to spend a vacation.)

After 4 days in this city, Berlin is a place I would definitely go back to.  There are still more neighborhoods to explore, a couple palaces to visit, a whole island full of museums that we didn't see, and of course, more food to eat.  Throughout this post, I've linked to the places that I'd recommend if you're planning a visit to Berlin anytime soon.  And if you are, let us know!  We'll totally meet you there!

First taste of currywurst

Hanging out with the Ampelmännchen