This month was spent almost entirely in Europe. I have added a few photos in the following, but will do a photo book at some stage with a much broader selection. There are 2500 photos just of mine for this trip, so they need some curating before anyone sees them!
Leaving our fur-babies in the exceptionally able hands of Wendy, we left on the first Monday of the month. We had a hellish flight through to Dubai on an exceptionally full plane. Jam-packed. The food was horrible, though between us Jan & I did manage to swapsie enough food for my dietary requirements. I did eat a tiny pottle of yoghurt though, followed by salt, to try and counteract the two teaspoons of sugar in the damn thing. I had no ill effects though, which was great.
I didn't sleep on the trip over, which was a pain, but I did walk. We were in Airbuses each time, and I walked over 10ks per flight, mostly down at the tail of the plane where there is a rear-facing steward's seat. Even though I was tired when we arrived in Europe, I think the walking helped. I didn't read, but watched movies and documentaries as we crossed the planet (two noteables: The Guilty, and The Magic Pill). On the Dubai to Munich leg the plane was quite empty, so Jan got to lie down across three seats, and had a sleep for a bit over four hours. I had seats that I could lie down across too, but every time I closed my eyes, I seemed to snap awake again. I wondered if I had slept, but my fitbit supported my impressions... two days without sleep!
We arrived in Munich, picked up the rental car, and headed into central Munich to go to the Christmas market. Finding car parking in the central city was a bit fraught, but we managed it eventually. It had started to rain, and the markets, while pretty, were not that exciting - even less so when you haven't slept for two days! I had hopes of markets elsewhere in Germany being more interesting.
After several false starts at getting out of Munich, we headed off to Ulm to stay with Aunt Uta. Oli came on our first night, which was lovely, though Katrin was working. Oli was able to organise his practice to most mornings to Uta's for breakfast, and we all ate out for most lunches and some dinners. It was wonderful to see everyone again after so long. Uta fed us superb breakfasts, though she put out less as each day went on, as she realised that we didn't need lots. However, we did have three meals a day, and Jan was starting to put on weight (though surprisingly, I didn't). Uta showed us areas that we had not yet explored near Ulm, driving to the Allgau, which was lovely. We got some lovely photos. I ate goose for the first time at an old fashioned pub that Oli and Katrin took us to. It was very nice: I was expecting it to be like duck, but it is much tastier than duck (and the dogs - Beardies - were allowed to go too: they lay quietly under the table while we had dinner. A mucher nicer dog tradition than we have in New Zealand). Manchego cheese was a new discovery (and utterly delicious!). Overall though, I think that both Jan and I must have been very disappointing guests to have had as we didn't shop or eat enough!
We went to the Christmas market, and caught up with Eberhard and Monika at their apartment, who took us to a lovely, relaxing restaurant near the Fischerviertel, QMUH. The food was terrific. We went to see the Paechs, which was lovely, then off to lunch again with Uta, Oli, and Katrin. It was fabulous how much time everyone took out of their normal regime to spend with us. Uta gave us some Ritter Sport bars, which Jan is very much looking forward to eating as well go :-D
From Ulm we had been going to go to Eppingen via Stuttgart to visit Nane, but instead we went to Thomas and Bettina's place overnight. Thomas had just flown in from the middle east, and was able to work from home, which was great. They are in a great little place on the site of an old farm, bordering the countryside. We went for a lovely walk in some lightly rolling country two minutes away from their door. Svenja is now taller than I am and it is easy to see the lovely young woman she will grow into. Superb hosts, this was also a perfect technical stop as my laptop would only turn on for a couple of minutes before locking up (and had been doing that since the beginning of September but Jan had been too busy to have a look at it). Jan and Thomas solved the problem between them: a Windows update was choking the system. They managed to stop the cycle, so I had my laptop working again.
From there, we went to Eppingen via Speyer, as John F was in Speyer, staying at Nane's godmother's place. It was great that we got to see both John and Nane despite the change in plan. We all went to the Christmas market in Speyer, and by now I was feeling that all Christmas markets were going to be the same... except that in Speyer they did a mushroom and onion fry up in butter which you could buy. Delicious! We also went to a Vietnamese restaurant for lunch, which was great too.
From Speyer we called into Heidelberg and caught the Birkenstock shop before it closed: and bought all the Birkenstocks that we were needing to replace. Perfectly timed! Then onto Eppingen (for Jan to formalise his contract with Dieffenbacher and to see Andreas and Katrin), where we stayed in a pension for two nights. Jan went into Dieffenbacher on the first day and was back by 2.30 with everything sorted. I had already been out and done the shopping, and had just got into my writing on my repaired laptop when he got back. Instead of working, we went out for a walk, and called into a local bank to get a bank account sorted. A lovely afternoon, complete with cafe latte German-style, topped up with an espresso to make a latte NZ-style. That night we went to visit Andreas and Katrin for dinner. They were in good spirits and gave us some Colombian coffee to take home which was lovely, as well as some Christmas ornaments. It was lovely to see them both, and to catch up in the short time available. We also had the joy of seeing in Andreas's shed, which was rather full of painstakingly restored machinery, from a Porsche tractor to a Trabby sedan.
The next day we left earlier than we thought we would be able to, and with the extra time we went into Sinsheim to see the Technical Museum. This was really interesting, and included us going on board a Russian Tupolev 144 and a French Concorde. The Concorde was really interesting, but the angle that the planes were mounted played hell with my sense of balance as they are on the roof of one of the museum buildings - we have seen them many times on our way between Heidelberg and Eppingen, but had never had time previously to stop in and take a tour. We also did an iMax screening of the Hubble space telescope which was quite good: and I realised just how long it was since I experienced my first iMax at Dreamworld way back in the 1980s!
All this was our way to see Simone and Andreas in Langen. Once we arrived, Simone told us that her shower has a fault, and she was waiting for the plumber, so had checked us into a hotel nearby. That was a very kind thing for her to do, and gave her and Andreas room for privacy as well. We had a very restful two days with her: we caught up on washing, read, talked, wrote, picked up lunch, and generally had a lovely time. We went for a lovely walk in the afternoon past the allotment land that Simone had bought for her and Andreas for summer. They both seem as well as can be expected. On our last night we went into Frankfurt for dinner at a speciality fish restaurant, Fisch Franke, which was an adventure in itself with nose to tail traffic the whole way and a city full of roadworks on the one way system. We ended up nearly in hysterics listening to the American-voiced Navi system saying "Stat-mit", inflected like 'pot-mit', with a New York nasal twang (instead of "Stadt-mitte"). Total location joke. Despite the travails of getting to the restaurant, the food was superb. What a mouth-watering delight! To finish the evening we had a walk through the just closed Christmas market with Simone's new friend, Markus.
From Simone we went onto Pohlheim to see Holger and his family, and were delighted to be greeted by Katalin. We were not expecting her to be in Germany, but rather at her other home in Saarland, so this was most unexpected and most welcome. We stayed with Achim and Katrin next door. Much food and much laughter, and a visit to the Christmas market where some Gluhwein was sampled. And everyone looks the same as they did last time we saw them except Charlotte and Mariella who are both young ladies now. The next night Dieter and Gudrun came over to Polheim for a traditional German Christmas dinner. We were stuffed with two geese, potato dumplings, rosenkohl (rose cabbages are a much nicer name than Brussels sprouts), red cabbage and wine, wine, wine. Goodness: it was lovely, but so, so rich. Heidi came for dinner and I monopolised her rather, finding out how things are going for her, and how her boys are. She also told me how her trip to Iran went. Very interesting.
We only managed to eat one goose so the other was packed up to go to Treysa for the next night where we were due to be staying at Gudrun and Dieter's for a second go at the traditional Christmas dinner.
The next morning it had snowed. We had breakfast with Achim and the girls, then went for a two kilometre walk in the snow, which made me rue not having bought new tramping boots before we left New Zealand. My Urban Angels managed, but they didn't have enough grip for snow and slopes. Once we got back, we packed up and headed off to Treysa.
We went straight to the cemetery and found where Oma Friedel and Oma Lieselotte were buried so Jan could say goodbye in person. From there we went to Gudrun and Dieter's to find that Ernst and Karin had come down from Kassel for the evening to say hello. This was an unexpected pleasure! Holger also joined us.
...and round two of the Christmas dinner was even better than the first. The goose was a wee bit drier and the skin was crunchier and it was lovely. Ernst and Karin left that night to catch their train back to Kassel, and Gudrun made the mistake of asking me about the shoes I wanted to buy in Amsterdam so I showed her the ones that I had brought with me and the Fluevog website. She seemed quite taken by them... which may or may not have been politeness!
The next morning Holger left for Pohlheim, and the rest of us went to Anne and Herbert's place for breakfast: another stellar feast, just in case we were feeling a bit peckish. Jan's cousin Kristine was there, whom Jan hasn't seen for many, many years. I think they enjoyed catching up.
From Treysa we headed to Celle, to meet Jan's Uncle Gerhard for afternoon tea (!). We had a clear drive, and the snow was receding in the warmer Northern temperatures. We arrived in Celle without incident to have just green tea and water with Gerhard... who understood about not needing any food, and who had also booked us into a hotel. Claudia was out at work still, and they would both meet us at the hotel to take us to an Italian restaurant by the river, Divino. Boy, what a lovely place that was. Again, wonderful conversation, heavenly food, lovely wine. Wonderful to see Gerhard and Claudia again. They walked us back to the hotel, with Gerhard promising to pick us up for breakfast the next morning at 9.
The next day we went to the Museumcafe - which was once an old apoteke - for breakfast, around the back of the museum (I was also taken by the drawer entitled "Migraine Powder", wondering what might have been in there! From what I know now, it should have been salt). Savoury breakfast items are served on tiered cake plates, which is quite clever. I had cheese, ham, egg and vegetables which was perfect. And a hot chocolate. We did some wandering about, went through the Schloss and the museum (and an exhibition which included one of Ruth's paintings), then had a regional dish, chicken soup, at Cafe Kiess. We went for a wander through the Christmas market, then Gerhard had to go to meet Claudia for a dinner engagement they had. We went to see Ruth, which was lovely: she too still looks the same. Peter now has Parkinson's and is in a care home, but she sees him several times a week.
While in Germany I found I managed to understand quite a lot of what people were saying when they were speaking German: more than I had expected (even though I had been listening to my language tapes at night). However, everyone spoke English, and all in the family are superb English speakers. It was hard to get them to speak German so I could improve my understanding. This time it only took Jan two weeks before he was asking me questions in German, but most of the time I understood him and was able to simply answer him without comment.
The next morning Gerhard came to see us off, and we drove to Hanover to drop the rental car and catch the train for Amsterdam. Initially we had difficulty getting seats, but by the next stop we both managed to get seats together with a table and were set until we arrived in Amsterdam.
Once we arrived we had a few minutes to wait for Justine who had got in before us, and had checked into our apartment. We caught the tram, manhandled our suitcases up two narrow flights of stairs, and opened a bottle of bubbly!
We packed an awful lot into the next few days, but it was certainly a city where there was plenty to do when there was bad weather. It rained quite a lot - that time of year - but we were never missing anything to do. Jan was slightly museumed out, but he coped quite well. For me the highlights, aside from seeing Justine, were the Rembrandt Museum and the Fluevog shop. Jan was very patient when Justine and I went shoe-trying: we were there for three hours. The salespeople plied him with chocolate and coffee though. Justine bought four pairs, I bought two. But I tried on everything I could get my greedy hands on. Now I know there are many shoe families which simply don't suit me. And I know that Justine takes the same size shoes as me. This opens up many possibilities!
I was a bit jaundiced as on day two as I was feeling quite grim, having caught Jan's cold. I wanted to bail on the Rijksmuseum after just seeing "Night Watch". I was done. After much trailing around feeling woebegone, I realised that some neurofen might perk me up, so we walked 2.5k (there and back) to the nearest apoteke get some tablets after we had been to the Diamond museum. I was MUCH better after that, so the Van Gogh museum was much more enjoyable. Who would have a cold?!
Justine, Jan & I all caught the train to Shipol airport, and spent some time together before Justine's flight. On the way back to Kiwiland the flights were again very full, but at least I had slept for three hours: two hours on the first leg, and an hour on the second. I also walked a lot again. We got home at 2.30pm on Christmas day, to be picked up from Nelson airport by my mother's neighbour, whereupon we drove home, unpacked, fed the dogs and fell into bed.
The next few days were spent with Jan getting organised for his new job. He is now a commissioning engineer with Dieffenbacher, a German company which is installing machinery in US timber processing plants. His first commission will be in Grayling MI on the Northern tip of the peninsular between Chicago and Detroit. Apparently it will be minus 14 degrees when he starts on 2 January. Ouch. That is a lot earlier for him to go than I was expecting; and a lot colder on arrival than he was expecting.
He gets back to NZ sometime after 10 March for a week, before returning for another two month stint. He is basically going to be away for 90% of the year, which I am not looking forward to, but we will see how it works out. At his second furlough, which will be May or June-ish, I would imagine, I might go and visit him in the US (providing I can get cover at AUT and NMIT). It is going to be an interesting year.
We went to see a tax accountant that Oli had recommended so Jan can set up his tax payments correctly, and who can liaise with Robbie here in New Zealand. I think this has been a very worthwhile investment, as the accountant's advice has already helped Jan to opt out of some taxes when he went to sign his contract at Dieffenbacher. It always pays to get good advice.
My mother was away on a bus tour over Christmas, and got a gastro bug on Christmas day. That was not a nice way to spend that time of year. She is OK now though. Barb spent Christmas with Tessa and Izzy in Auckland, then called in to see us on her way back to Christchurch.
We had our usual New Year's eve party, though the invitations went out very late, we had a dozen or fifteen people here to help us see in the New Year, including Barb and my Mother, and an assorted collection of the neighbours.
While 2019 will be very different to 2018, hopefully Jan is happier in his work, and all will be smooth. Some plain sailing would be nice :-)
Sam (& Jan)
