We'll see if I can finish this before December is gone. It's 8:45 PM local time, so the clock is running!
In Germany there's the 1st Christmas Day and the 2nd Christmas Day. I used to have fun teasing my students about that. What? There is Christmas. Then there's the day after Christmas.
It was a losing battle.
Christmas eve: There was cheese fondue with friends, five of us around the table, two pots of cheese fondue, more than enough bread (baguette and rye), broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, apples, to make us happy and full and finish off the cheese. It was really good! I don't think we did that at all last winter, but we will do it again before this winter is over.
Christmas day, we were happy to have Ursel with us for salmon and fried risotto cakes. That was yum. That was sadly without pictures, but Ursel is not sad because she hates the picture-taking bit.
We opened the few presents, took a walk and packed for our trip. Next day, off to René and Rima's.
Have I mentioned that we are without a car these days? Our old lady is having issues and we've decided to give her a rest till spring. In the meantime, we walk, use our bikes or public transportation. Thank goodness, that's a real option here.
So, off to Ohlendorf and the family. We took the train from here in Vegesack to Hamburg-Harburg, where Amina picked us up from the train station. From there, it's about 20 minutes by car to their house.
We saw Monica and Lex earlier this year, but they weren't able to come for the holiday. So, the table was a bit smaller.
The food, however, did not suffer from their absence! We had the usual goose with all the trimmings and it was as good as always.
After the feast, we opened our presents. They are more and more of the home-made variety. We LOVE the preserved goodies that René makes - this year some Bolognese and gourmet noodles. They will be put to use. After our guests left, we snuggled down and watched a movie. Family time!
Next day, we were taken back to the train station and went to Cuxhaven on the North Sea coast. We' d been through there before but not really stayed, and we were both looking forward to several things: quiet, walking, quiet, reading, quiet, eating, quiet. It was a great success.
It's often windy on the coast and it was!! And cold!! And a bit of wet! But we were prepared. Last year Michelle and Joey sent us back to Germany with a bag-load of hand warmers and body warmers and foot warmers. We took advantage and those little boogers came in handy.
Our hotel was cute, old and not a little bit shabby, but our room was generous in size and the folks were so nice. I'd stay there again. We were there on the 2nd floor in the corner. Neat.
Lighthouses are loved and still in use.
We walked and walked and looked and ate. One breakfast took care of two days of breakfasts!
We ate as much as we could and made a sandwich of the leftovers.
There are lots of pretty old buildings around Cuxhaven.
Next day, we walked even more, to the "Kugelbake" - the lighthouse at the end of a spit of land that Cuxhaven is well-known for.
Along the way, more lovely sights.
One of Werner's old classmates comes from Cuxhaven. When he saw this pic, he said, "Oh, that was the church where my father preached!"
Later we walked on the down side of the dike, also a pretty view. There were lots and lots of folks there, all ages, enjoying the sea air and the views. That the day was sunny was a super extra.
What a great little get-away. We're ready for the new year and planning all kinds of wonderful things to do - cleaning up and clearing out and losing weight and moving more. Let's see how that works out. Lots of LOLs.
Happy New Year.
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