And now for the history and fun facts... again :)

Munich -

Munich's location is just north of the Bavarian Alps and is the Capital of Bavaira, Germany. It is home to about 1.3 million people and is the 3rd largest city in Germany. The native name Muenchen, comes from the old german word Moenche, which means 'monks'. It gets its name from the Benedictine order who founded the city. 1158 is the assumed foundation date which is the earliest it was mentioned in documents. The city plays host to one of Germany's largest festivities known as Oktoberfest. (yes I do realize I spelled it with a 'k', that's how you spell it in german) If you don't already know what Oktoberfest is, it's basically just a huge fest where people from all over the world come to Munich over a period of 2 1/2 weeks to drink a lot of beer. Approximately 6 million people attend the fest every year. Munich is known world-wide for it's beer-brewing business and nowhere is it taken more seriously than in Munich. Bavarians are said to be the world's biggest beer consumers. The average intake is about 240 litres of beer per person. yuck!!

Frauenkirche (in Munich)-

This church is one of the main, if not the main site of Munich. The site of the church was originally occupied by a small chapel that was dedicated to the virgin Mary and was built in the 13th century. But about 200 years later a much bigger church, Frauenkirche, was built there by architects Joerg von Halspach and Lukas Rottaler. It was finished in 1488 but the very distinctive copper onion domes were not added until 1525. It is now one of Germany's largest Gothic structures. It can hold a congregation of approximately 2000 people.

Frauenkirche

Oberammergau-

This is the small little village that we stopped at during our tour in between the two castles. It was such a cute little town and I loved the setting of it right in the mountains. I couldn't find much information about it except that it is famous for its production of a Passion Play and is used in a popular german tongue-twister. The Passion Play resulted from a vow made by the people of the village that if God spared them from the effects of the bubonic plague then they would perform a passion play every ten years. It started in 1634 but is now played in years ending in zero, which means it will be performed this year. It consists of about 2000 actors, singers, musician, and technicians, most of which are residents of the village.

Oh yeah and here is the cute little tongue-twister (remind me to say it for you when I get home)

" Heut kommt der Hans zu mir, / Freut sich die Lies/ Ob er aber ueber Oberammergau, /Oder aber ueber Unterammergau, / Oder ueberhaupt nicht kommt, / Dass ist nicht g'wiss."

Translation- Hans is coming today/ Lies rejoices/ Whether he's coming via Oberammergau/ or via Unterammergau/ Or not coming at all/ that is unknown. :)

King Ludwig II-

King Ludwif II took the Bavarian throne in 1864 at the age of 18 after the death of his father Maximilian the II. He led an unusual and solitary lifestyle. His unique style, and passion for building castles led to him being known as the 'Fairytale King'. He was fascinated by the composer Richard Wagner and devoted himself to ensure financial security for the rest of Wagner's life. He spent most of a lonely childhood in Hohenschwangau, which little prepared him for the adult world where his word as king was a key factory in the course of his country. His desire for absolute monarchy came in conflict with the Munich court which led to him slowly withdrawing himself into his own childhood-fantasy world- a world reflected in the works of Wagner and which produced the Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee Castles. He strove to create a world far away from reality all the up up to his death in 1886.

Neuschwanstein-

This castle began being built in 1869 on Swan rock above the beautiful Alpsee Lake. It's tall slender towers give it the image of a fairy-tale castle. It is 5 stories high and was built in a Romanesque style. Sadly, the king died during the construction of the castle causing it to be left unfinished. It took roughly 18 years to build what you see today and in total the king only spent about 172 days there. The tour of the castle takes you through all the finished room, which only takes about 30 minutes. The completed rooms include the throne room (minus the throne because it was never built), the dining room, bedroom, living room, study, and kitchen... which is hardly anything considering the size of the whole castle! Just as a fun fact... the barely-used bedroom had so many intricate wood carvings that it took 14 wood carvers 4 1/2 years to complete!

Neuschwanstein (taken from the internet) :)

Sorry it's sideways.... really hard to get a good picutre... because it's HUGE!!

Taken from the village of Fuessen just beneath

Hohenschwangau-

This wasn't actually a part of the tour but it is located right below Neuschwanstein. It sits right in between the Alpsee Lake and Swan Lake and was owned by King Ludwig II's parents . His father Maximillian II bought the ruins in 1832 and had them rebuilt and decorated in the style of the middle ages. Ludwig most of his childhood here.

Hohenschwangau

Linderhof-

Ludwig II had the Linderhof built in the mountain landscape in the years 1870-1878 as a tribute to the absolute Monarchy of the French Kings. He got the idea to build the caslte after a trip to Versailles in 1867. The location was chosen and purchased by Ludwig near a hunting lodge that was owned by his father. It was built in a rococo style as a reflection of the Burbon Kings. This was a private sanctuary where Ludwig could go and retire in seclusion.

Linderhof Palace

Courtyard of the palace... the boxes are covered statues.

Christmas Vacation

Considering that I've been home from my big Christmas trip for over week now I suppose it's time to update the blog. This year for Christmas break I had the option of either going with the family to an Austrian ski resort for a week or taking the week off and doing my own thing. Seeing as how I'm a fan of personal space and just happened to be in desperate need of a break, I opted out of sharing a room with 4 kids (with no escape) for a week, and decided to take my own trip. So the week after Christmas, on Tuesday the 29th, I hopped on a train and headed to the Bavarian Alps (in southern Germany in case you didn't know) to escape the space-invading duties of nannying and to fulfill a dream of mine to see the Neuschwanstein Castle.

My trip began with a short 4-hour train ride to good old Munich, Germany. After arriving I had the lovely task of navigating myself through an unfamiliar and large city to find the hostel I would be staying at. As it turns out, I'm getting really good at navigating myself through strange European cities, so finding it wasn't the problem. However, as easy as it was to find, it wasn't nearly as close as I had hoped and expected which made for an extremely NOT fun and tiring trek through sketchy streets while carrying my luggage (which wasn't that much but just to enough to make my back want to snap in half). A million blocks and silent prayers later I finally found the hostel, Easy Palace, where I checked in and hunkered down for the night in a room with 5 other strange girls (but at least they weren't crying kids) - 3 from Brazil, 1 from Singapore, 1 from China.

The next morning I had to be at my tour bus (for the castle tour) at 8:00 so I set my alarm for 6:30 which would give me just enough time for a shower and breakfast before I had to be to the bus. But, thanks to my ability to sleep incredibly deep, I slept right through the alarm and woke up just in time to throw on some clothes, grab my stuff and sprint back down the million blocks to the train station where I would catch the bus. Thank goodness I made it just in time jump on the bus and get a fairly decent seat on the upper level of the double decker bus. :) Of course I felt like a complete dork being alone on a tour bus full of old british people, and rich american parents who had to force their spoiled kids to try and enjoy the vacation... but to be honest I thoroughly enjoy being a dork. I loved the warm, cozy bus, and the nice tour guide who was a perfect medium between helpful/informative and pesky/annoying. The tour took us from Munich to the beautiful Bavarian Alps and would take us to two beautiful Castles built by the Bavarian King, King Ludwig II, and a beautiful little village in the mountians. Our first stop was the smaller of the two castles called the Linderhof Castle. After our rather short guided tour of the Castle and a little postcard shopping, it was back on the bus to head to the pretty village of Oberammegau. There we were able to take a while and do some souvenir shopping and just enjoy the scenery and atmosphere of small town Germany. After that we were finally on our way to the highlight of the trip, the Neuschwanstein Castle. Along with the castle itself, the setting and surroundings of the castle are so incredibly breathtaking. I could hardly believe that I was actually there, like I had just stepped into the picture that is still hanging on my wall in my bedroom back home. (that is if Penny hasn't taken it down) :) The castle has a very 'disney fairy-tale' feel to it. While inside, I half expected the furniture to move and talk, and I even peeked around the corners for signs of 'the Beast'. :)

There isn't much to report after the tour because the next day I just spent the day in Munich sightseeing and basically killing time. But after a couple hours I had come to the conclusion that I really hate Munich. There are few cool things to see but other than that, the only thing to do there is drink beer and eat pretzels. I'm not complaining about the pretzels, they were positively delicious, but the amount of beer consumed by the people in Munich is horrifying and disgusting.

But all in all, it was great to have a few days to myself and check another dream off the list. :)

View of Neuschwanstein from the "village" of Fuessen. I put village in quotations because it's pretty much a joke, it basically consists of souvenir kiosks and a hotel. :)

Remember how I mentioned the castle being like a 'fairy-tale' castle? Well while I was there I found some pixy dust that Tinker bell had left there on her last visit to see Belle and the Beast, so I took it and used it to take this picture of Munich from above.

Ok really I just paid 1.50 to go to the top of a bell tower of one of the churches to be able to look out over the whole city.

The ever-so-lovely hostel room... my bed is the middle top one.

Christkindlmarkt

One of my favorite things about Christmas in Vienna are the Christkindlemarkts. The markets consist of a group small wooden huts where you can by anything from christmas decorations, to homemade toys and candy, to almost anything else you can possible imagine. And then of course there are the stands that sell the traditional foods and snacks. Although my personal favorite food stand was the pretzel stand, it seemed that the majority of the people thoroughly enjoyed the Gluhweinpunsch stand. Literal translation being, glow-wine-punch, and more understandable translation being, punch with alcohol in it.

These Christkindlmarkts are all over the city. There are small ones of about 10 huts set up on every major shopping street and larger ones set up near a couple of the major sites such as the Schoenbruenn Palace. But the biggest most popular one is set up in the courtyard of the Rathaus (city hall). It has about 140 stands and is decorated to make you feel as if you're in a christmas movie. It also has the largest Christmas tree and Advent-Kranz in Vienna and probably Austria.

These Christmas Markets were so cute, I loved just walking around them for hours eating delicious pretzels, and listening to Christmas music in two different languages, and just enjoying the Christmas atmosphere. I have literally spend all of the last 4 weekends there. :)

My feeble attempt to get a good picture of the tree. :)

My even feebler attempt to get a decent picture of the market with the Rathaus behind.

(For better pictures or details you can check out www.christkindlmarkt.at)

Vienna's largest Advent-Kranz. (And before you ask.. No Jansen, they are not real candles)

Viennese Christmas traditions

As kids we were always told that Santa Claus and his reindeer had to travel all over the world in one night in order to get all the toys to all the good kids, but more importantly, we've always been told that Christ loves all of the children in the world. So, naturally, I've always known that Christmas is a world-wide holiday. Little did I know that the traditions for one holiday could differ so much from country to country.

Obviously the main origins of the holiday are the same, but this year, after having spent the first 18 years of my life in the states with the same traditions every year, my eyes were opened to new traditions, new ways of celebrating, and lots of yummy new recipes!! :)

During the month of December, as you walk through the city (or any town for that matter), it becomes quite apparent that Christmas is the most important holiday celebrated in Austria with all the beautiful, huge, and intricate decorations. As is the case with most European countries, December 6th is actually the day that Saint Nicholas, the giver of gifts, comes. He comes to all the children who have been good that year and brings them the traditional apples, mandarin oranges, peanuts and chocolate. Rather then setting up trees in their homes in the beginning of december and leaving them up to enjoy for the whole month, Austrians don't set up the tree until the morning of the 24th. Instead they enjoy other decorations, the most popular one being the Advent-Kranz, which translates to Advent-wreath. On top of these wreaths there stands 4 candles, one for each of the 4 sundays before Christmas. One candle is lit on the first sunday, 2 on the second and so on until Christmas when all four candles are lit at the same time. After the tree is finally set up on the morning of the 24th, each family dresses up in there best clothes and gathers together with all their relatives for a nice dinner. The traditional Austrian Christmas dinner consists of Gebackener Karpfen (Fried Carp) and Sachertorte (Chocolate and apricot cake), and the most delicious cookies ever, which are called, Vanilla Kipferln. (To all those who know me and my eating habits really well, you'll be shocked and proud to know that ... yes, I did in fact try the fish... just to confirm that ... yes, I do in fact still hate it!!!) After the meal the family relocates from their gathering around the table to a new gathering around the tree, where they proceed to read the biblical story of Christ's birth. Following the reading they all sing Christmas songs such as Silent Night (Stille Nacht) and Oh Christmas Tree (O Tannenbaum).

*Fun Fact- One of the worlds most popular Christmas carols, Silent Night, was written and first played here in Austria in a town called Oberndorf near Salzburg in 1818. The story is... On Christmas Eve the priest went to the church only to discover that the organ was not working. The leather bellows that are used to pump air through the pipes had lots of holes in them. So the priest, not wanting to have a Christmas without music showed the organist a hymn he had written and the organist, Franz Bauer, quickly composed a tune for it that could be played on a guitar.

Finally, after all the eating and singing, the kids are allowed to go crazy and open all their presents. However, here in Austria the kids don't believe in Santa Claus. They are taught that their gifts are brought by the 'Christkindl' (Christ child), a golden-haired baby with wings who symbolizes the new born Christ. The story is told that the Christ child comes down from heaven on Christmas Eve and decorates and distributes trees.

German Lyrics:

Silent Night

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Alles schläft; einsam wacht
Nur das traute hochheilige Paar.
Holder Knabe im lockigen Haar,
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!
Schlaf in himmlischer Ruh!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Hirten erst kundgemacht
Durch der Engel Halleluja,
Tönt es laut von fern und nah:
Christ, der Retter ist da!
Christ, der Retter ist da!

Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht,
Gottes Sohn, o wie lacht
Lieb' aus deinem göttlichen Mund,
Da uns schlägt die rettende Stund'.
Christ, in deiner Geburt!
Christ, in deiner Geburt!

O Christmas Tree

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur
zur Sommerzeit,
Nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum,
wie treu sind deine Blätter!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!
Wie oft hat nicht zur Weihnachtszeit
Ein Baum von dir mich hoch erfreut!
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Du kannst mir sehr gefallen!

O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Dein Kleid will mich
was lehren:
Die Hoffnung und Beständigkeit
Gibt Trost und Kraft
zu jeder Zeit.
O Tannenbaum, o Tannenbaum!
Das soll dein Kleid
mich lehren.

German Christmas Recipes

Gebackener Karpfen (Fried Carp)

3 - 3 ½ lb.s carp fillet
Salt
Flour
Bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
¼ lb. shortening (not butter)
1 lemon, sliced

Wash fish fillet and cut into serving slices. Sprinkle with sale and let stand for 1 hour. Put bread crumbs, flour, and beaten eggs in three separate dishes. Roll each slice of fish first in flour, then eggs, then bread crumbs. Fry slices on both sides in shortening until golden brown. Arrange slices on a hot platter and garnish with lemon.

Sachertorte (Chocolate and Apricot Cake)

1 cup butter
8 egg yolks
6 oz. cooking chocolate
1 cup confectioner's sugar
Vanilla
10 egg whites
1 cup flour
4 tablespoons apricot jam

Cream butter. Melt chocolate in a double boiler. Add gradually to creamed butter melted chocolate, sugar , and the egg yolks, one by one, stirring constantly. Add flour and a dash of vanilla and beat well. Beat egg whites until stiff and fold into batter. Pour mixture into a well-greased 10-inch mold. Bake at 300 degrees F. for about 1 hour. Let cool and turn out of mold. Split and spread heated and slightly diluted apricot jam over the lower half of the cake. Replace top and brush with apricot jam and cover with chocolate frosting. (Recipe below.)

Chocolate Frosting

1 cup sugar
7 ox. cooking chocolate
1 cup water

Boil sugar and water until sugar is completely dissolved. Melt the chocolate separately in a double boiler. Add sugar syrup gradually to chocolate, stirring constantly. When cooled, frost the cake.

Weihnachtsbaeckerei (Christmas cookies)

4 ½ cups flour
1 ½ cups sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 cup milk
1 egg yolk
5 eggs
3 tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups butter

Sift flour, baking powder, and salt onto a board. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and milk to butter and sugar. Mix lightly. Pour the moist ingredients into a depression in the flour and work ingredients into a dough with a knife. Divide the dough into 4 parts. Roll out and cut into desired shapes with cookie cutter. Place on a greased baking sheet and brush with egg yolk.

Bake in a moderate oven, at 300-350, until golden brown.

Batman Smells

So upon teaching the kids a new version of 'Jingle Bells' they absolutely fell in love with it and wanted to make a video of them singing it. So... I thought I would put them on here so everybody could see the kids but I'm having trouble uploading the videos to the blog so I posted the links below... hopefully they work. :)

Keep in mind that one of them is painfully long, but if I were to edit it then you wouldn't get the whole picture. (and I promise, they do sing at the end) And... Flora wrote my 'script' and was very strict about it! lol :) The shorter one is quite pointless really but it captures the kids perfectly... Christoph spazzing, and Fanny getting angry... :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwFjRumq4Ms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6ipAiiF-TU&feature=channel

That Darn Spirit

This weekend was supposed to be the weekend of my trip to Budapest. And I was so excited to go and experience, and then come back and tell everyone about it! However... over the last week or two I had been having this nagging feeling that I shouldn't go. Of course I tried to ignore it, because I really wanted to go, but in the end there really just isn't a way around the spirit....at least not comfortably. So I finally decided to pray about it, and I knew that I should NOT go to Budapest this weekend... for whatever reason I don't know. On top of that my parents had been getting really nervous about my trip alone (more than usual), and had also been getting strong feelings that I should not go. So after discussing it with them it was finalized that I would stay home this weekend and make my dream trip to Budapest another weekend. :(

Wish I had a better story to tell, but all I can say is... that darn spirit...it'll get ya. :) But as frustrating as it can be, I'm grateful for 'that darn spirit'.... because even though I don't know why, I know I made the right decision.

Bittersweet Birthday Wish

Flora's birthday is coming up in a few weeks. She will be turning 8 on Dec. 6. The other day while we were discussing party plans, and she was showing me all the decorations she wanted, I asked her what she would like for her birthday from me. I personally thought it was a fairly simple question, but apparently I was wrong. Because she then proceeded to spend the next two hours going back and forth and back and forth with a million different ideas. Her list consisted of barbie ponies, horse stickers and posters, games... and thousands of other things I've already forgotten. Every time I thought she had made up her mind, she would change it again or say, "oh I don't know Neecol, it's too hard to decide." To which I would respond, "Flora, it's really ok, you don't have to decide right this second." Finally after literally hours of ping-ponging ideas I thought she'd given up for the day. But then she came up to me again and said, "No Neecol, I KNOW NOW what I wish from you for my birthday....I wish that you never have to go back to America and just stay with me forever."