Before we left the U.S., I was under the impression that the Internet in rural America, where we live, is the worst in the whole wide world. I discovered this past weekend that I was wrong: it's also bad in rural Germany. This is why I wasn't able to work on this blog for the past few days. I apologize to my sister Sara for putting a scare into her when I suddenly stopped communicating. We're fine! :-)
Before we left town, we met up with a former student of Gary's and her family, at a little cafe near our flat that Peter recommended, called Frau Brömse. They make their own kuchen there, all the china cups and plates are charmingly mis-matched, and it looks like this from the outside, next to the children's skating rink I mentioned earlier:
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| Frau Brömse Cafe |
After a visit with Imke and her sisters and nieces and brother-in-law . . .
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| Imke, Michel (Imke's son), Ute, Birte, Gary, Antje, me, Andy, and Kirsten |
. . . . we walked down to the main Christmas market for:
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| Gary and a former dental student, Imke
Feuerzangenbowle! This is hot wine made with a loaf of sugar that's been soaked in rum and set afire so that it drips melted sugar into the wine. The fire in this case had been done before we arrived at the Christmas market, but we still enjoyed the last hot wine of the season together before parting ways. This was our last visit to the famous Lübeck Christmas market this season; it's now been dismantled.
The next day, December 30, we boarded the train and headed toward Lüneburg, east of Hamburg, to meet Gary's former colleague Georg and his wife Angie at Georg's family farm. I talked about this farm in my previous blog (germangetaway.blogspot.com). This is the farm with the big combination barn/house that's been in Georg's family since the 13th century. It's where we would be celebrating Silvester: New Year's Eve.
The night we arrived, Georg & Angie treated us to an elegant goose dinner at a nearby restaurant. |
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| We were happy, spoiled campers. (Angie, Georg, me, Gary, Maria) |
The next day, New Years Eve Day, we went for a long walk around the farm. Across the fields you can see little villages nearby, like this one:
And this one:
. . . and also a few pferde:
When we got back after our walk, we had gluhwein out on the patio:
. . . and then Maria asked us over to her combination house/barn for kuchen. She served us apfel kuchen, chocolates, and stollen at this table:
We then had time for a nap before Silvester started. At 7, we met in the kitchen at George & Angie's house to meet the other guests, Henrick and his family. Henrick is a chef who brought all of the ingredients, pre-cut, for raclette:
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Pears, olives, herbed butter, shrimp, raclette cheese, tomatoes,
and a variety of wild game: hare, wild boar, venison . . .
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| ... and peppers, white potatoes, blue potatoes, brötchen, smoked pork, liver, guinea fowl . . . . . . which we all cooked ourselves at the raclette grill in the center of the table. (Gary and I now also have one of these at our island, and serve raclette to guests in the winter, thanks to Georg & Angie showing us how it's done. In the U.S., you can buy raclette cheese at Trader Joe's at Christmastime, but any good gouda or Swiss will do).
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| Fieder, Birgit, Maria, Henrick, Angie, Gary, me at the raclette table |
At midnight, Fieder put on an impressive fireworks show outside, along with people in the villages all around us (during which the local fire brigade was called upon, apparently, to put out a fire in an awning).
After that, Angie served Berliners (we call them bismarks), and then, around 1:00 a.m. Maria's served us chocolate mousse! Ach du lieber! There was no sign that the Germans were slowing down, so at 1:30 this exhausted and wimpy American announced she was going to bed. The rest of them stayed up until 3 -- and then got up the next morning at 8 a.m. to serve us früstück . . .
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| Georg at the breakfast table |
... and to drive us to the nearest bahnhof, about seven minutes away.
I hope they napped all day New Years Day, because they deserved to after such a grand Silvester!
We were headed next to Heidelberg, which I'll cover in the next post.
Wow - impressive celebrations! Your hostess must love setting a nice table - they were beautiful.
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