Christmas is coming … are you ready? This post is part of the update-old-blog-posts project, undertaken nearly 15 years in to my blogging journey! It covers my European Christmas experience back in 2005 and includes so many fun and fond memories.
Sleigh Bells and Mulled Wine
Seasons keep marching on … the Christmas markets set themselves up across Europe and I visited my favourite ones in Bad Wimpfen the weekend after my return from Down Under.
They call these the Altdeutscher markets and at some stalls the timeless appeal of sweet-smelling Glühwein and handcrafted wooden toys is apparent, especially when set amongst the picturebook cobbled streets and cutesy houses of this heritage-protected village. For the second year running, Bad Wimpfen wins my vote for the best Christmas markets in Germany. But for sheer sentimentality and a much more total lack of commercialism (but how long will this last?), Bratislava’s markets are still my overall number one. Readers, give me some tips on your favourite Christmas markets so I can add them to my to-visit list!
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow
What a great sister I must have – and perhaps an even better brother-in-law – when they decide to spend their honeymoon visiting me in Europe. In exchange I undertook to give them a uniquely un-Australian Christmas season, starting with them arriving in Heilbronn to a perfect snowy welcome.
After some serious persuasion to get Zoe and Geoff into warmer clothes, we “hit the slopes” with our plastic sleds at nearby Stocksberg. Not a normal Sunday afternoon activity for Australians, but they adapted well and had enough energy left to enjoy lunch and a beer in Bad Wimpfen and an evening glugging Glühwein at Heilbronn’s Christmas markets – a highlight at the latter being the live crib with a Joseph who had obviously drunk too much good mulled wine himself, or been attacked by the errant donkey.
A White Christmas
I’ve often thought we Australians have it tough, having to wait until the morning of the 25th to open our presents while most European kids have been playing with their new toys since the night before. But this Christmas, the three of us got ourselves so busy with enjoying the snow that we didn’t unwrap our parcels until the evening of the 25th.
Our pension in tiny Haldensee, in the north-west Austrian Tannheim Valley, included a small shop where Geoff could rent skis and Zoe could stock up on warmer clothing. At the nearby slopes, Geoff spent Christmas swooshing (more or less) over fresh snow while Zoe and I ate and drank ourselves silly, with strudel and hot chocolate featuring prominently. Only when the sun set did we finally catch up with all the packages under our little wooden Christmas tree.
Bathing at Bad Blumau
My obsession with Hundertwasser is something I’ve documented before – but this time it was in fact Zoe and Geoff who led me to Rogner-Bad Blumau, a thermal bath resort in southern Austria housed in spectacularly cool Hundertwasser buildings, just after Christmas. We were blessed with the heaviest snowfall since the resort opened, so we could swim in 38 degree water in the Vulkania pool while snow settled atop our heads.
Even without special weather, this place has to be one of the most unique places I’ll ever stay. From its 2500 windows which all differ from each other in some way, through the winding, crooked corridors joining the various buildings, to the vibrant colours that magically never seem to clash with each other: it’s a place where I can finally condone spending your entire holiday within the confines of a resort.
A Slovak Silvester
“Silvester” has become a regular part of my vocabulary since I’ve lived in Europe, but someone reminded me recently that most of my mates back home would think of the cat who stalks Tweety-bird before realising it refers to a New Year’s Eve celebration. Whatever you want to call it, the clock-watching as 2005 became 2006 took place for me this year in Bratislava, Slovakia, at the home of good friend Tatiana (who you may remember from her recent visit to Heilbronn) in suburban Dlhe Diely.
A highlight was the teamwork between Tatiana’s son Martin, my sister Zoe, brother-in-law Geoff and I as we built Zoe and Geoff’s first ever snowman: at least, that’s what I thought it would be, until it turned into a snow-woman! The Australian visitors were also enthralled with the local (illegal-in-Australia) fireworks, set off all over the suburb at unpredictable intervals and intensities. Towards the end of a slightly drunken night, Tatiana’s girlfriends serenaded us with a Slovak folk song and we attempted to respond with Waltzing Matilda, sadly realising that none of us really knew the words to one of our favourite national songs.
Wherever and however you celebrated, a Happy New Year to all – cheers!
Geoff-net Marks the End of our Trip
The teaching year is back in full-swing for me, and I am deeply indebted to my brother-in-law for a great story I’ve been able to tell all my classes to demonstrate that we English speakers can have just as much fun with German as my students do with English.
The important part of the story is that my brother-in-law’s name is Geoff – with a G. On his first day visiting me here in Germany, as we strolled through the streets of Bad Wimpfen, he shouted from a few shops ahead that “They have Geoff-net here too!” My sister concurred that they’d seen Geoff-net signs at the airport too – “It must be some kind of network or internet site, right?” Geoff thought he was quite famous and quickly snapped a photo of the sign.
I couldn’t imagine what they were talking about, until I caught up with him and saw what his camera was aimed at. Blissfully ignoring the umlaut (two dots) and not thinking to use a hard G sound, “Geoff-net” had been created from the ever-present German word meaning “Open” – “Geöffnet”. I laughed and laughed and we spent the rest of the holiday photographing Geoff with “his” sign, like this shot below at a Viennese park. Sorry, Geoff, but thank you so much!
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