Home Improvement

I finally have an office set up in our spare bedroom.  It is great not to have computer monitors covering the table where we eat.  We also put up some IKEA shelving in the kitchen.  It's still a mess but at least  we have more counter space.

Holiday Trip Part 4: Munich

We spent the last part of our trip in Munich visiting Richard's sister Anna and her husband Andreas.  We had a great time seeing the sights of Munich, eating Bavarian food, and celebrating the New Year.

You can buy huge pickles at the Viktualienmarkt.

Odeonsplatz

A German fortune telling game: melt lead with a candle,
pour it into a bowl of water, and the shape tells your fortune. 

Sofie is about to find out her future...

Sofie, Robert, Andreas, Anna and Rico-- it's almost midnight!

Fireworks in the Nymphenburg Palace gardens

Holiday Trip Part 3: Rovereto, Italy

We had planned to go to Zurich after Freiburg, but friends Marius and Paolo invited us to come to Rovereto and we gladly changed our plans to see them and meet little Charlie.  Rovereto is on the southern edge of the Italian Alps.  Because it's close to Austria and Germany, this region has a little bit of German influence in the food, language, and culture.  A lot of people speak both Italian and German, and the food is Italian with a little bit of German influence (think Italian food plus cabbage, bacon and apple strudel).

Our first day in Rovereto we drove to a tiny town in the hills for lunch at the mother's house of one of Paola's friends, and were treated to one of the best meals I've ever had, all homemade (including the wine and limoncello) and some of it collected from the woods (spinach, mushrooms).  For the first course we had barley and vegetable soup and for the second course spaetzle with wild spinach, cheese and speck.  The main course was vitello tonnato (veal with tuna and caper sauce), sauteed wild mushrooms and cabbage salad (with homemade red wine vinegar).  For dessert we had semifreddo, apple strudel and panna cotta, with limoncello to drink and espresso to finish things off.  Afterwards we had a tour of the local apple factory, and hiked to a beautiful old church on a hill.

The next day we went to Riva del Garda on Garda Lake.  We had a great meal and took a stroll around the lake.  The final day we did a little shopping in Rovereto, visited the Museum of Modern Art, went for a hike and wine tasted at a local restaurant.  The last night we overlapped with Joost and Karen, friends from Nashville, who also came to visit Marius and Paola.

The main attraction of the trip, of course, was Charlie.  Always happy and smiley!

Italian mama and daughter preparing lunch

Hike to the church

San Remedio (??)

at the precipice

Melinda apple factory tour

The apples are sorted automatically by size, shape and color using special cameras.  Very exciting.

Charlie

Where Mozart used to stay while visiting Rovereto

Rovereto valley

Wine tasting

Charlie can stand on his own!

Garda Lake

lunch in Riva del Garda

Joost and Karen

Holiday Trip Part 2: Freiburg

After Nieder-Olm we took the train to Freiburg to stay a week with Richard's parents.  We had a lot of fun walking around Freiburg, eating Richard's mom's great German food, and seeing sister Sophie and some of Richard's high school friends.  We visited the Christmas markets everyday for our fill of Gluehwein, and Richard finally had his fix of proper German sausages.

We celebrated with a typical German Christmas eve meal of beet soup with pierogi, carp, dumplings, sauerkraut and poppyseed cake.  For Christmas dinner we had Sauerbraten (beef roast marinated in vinegar), Rouladen (beef rolls filled with bacon, pickles and mustard), turkey stuffed with chestnuts, dumplings, sauerkraut and sand cake.  All of our meals were tasty, served in copious amounts and always followed up with the comment, "but you haven't eaten very much yet" regardless of how much you've eaten.

finally

Gluehwein at the Freiburg Christmas market

View of Freiburg from the Schlossberg

Albert and Richard

Sofie, Richard, Tony and Albert

Richard, Mops and Sofie drinking Gluehwein

Dampfnudel and sauerkraut at the Christmas market

Fondue and schnapps

Richard and Sofie

Christmas eve dinner: Richard, Kelsey, Kasimir, Sofie and Mops

Evening view from the Piech house

Waldsee

Waiting for the train on our way to Italy

Holiday Trip Part 1: Nieder-Olm

We had a great trip to Germany and Italy over the Christmas break.  We first visited Nieder-Olm to see Richard's sister Margarethe, husband Matthias, Daniel and Julian.  We hadn't met Julian yet and Daniel had grown up a lot since our last visit.  We did a lot of fun Christmas-time activities with sledding, walks in the snow and making cookies.

Daniel and Julian were making us laugh a lot during our stay- especially Daniel who often says "Ich habe eine Idee" (I have an idea) and then follows it up with an insightful thought.  My favorite was after he sled down the hill with Richard, he said "I have an idea: next time I want to go with someone who is better at steering," and then later that day pronounced that I was a better sledder than Richard.  Yes!