Munich

Upon our arrival in Munich, it quickly became apparent that my generous little JR had shared his nasty flu virus with me.  What a sweetie.  So while we had big plans of Christmas market strolling and castle touring, we had to cut a few things out in exchange for a bit of extra rest and relaxation at the hotel.  We'll have to catch you next time, Neuschwanstein!

Travel and Leisure included Munich in it's list of "Best Places to Spend Christmas."  But after spending three days there in the thick of holiday season, I have to disagree.  Perhaps I was clouded in flu fog, or maybe it's that we were there on the Saturday before Christmas when crowds were at their heaviest, but the city just didn't feel very... festive.  Don't get me wrong, it had it's moments!  And there were some impressive efforts made, most notably the enormous Christmas tree rivaling that of Rockefeller Center, and the daily concerts performed from the balcony of the town hall.  But the market itself offered little variety in the shopping.  Half of the booths seemed to be selling Christmas ornaments made from straw or thin wood.  We did snag a few good finds, but the only reason it took us more than an hour to see all the booths is that the crowds were so thick that it was nearly impossible to navigate the aisles, especially with a stroller.  

Town Hall at night

Giant Christmas tree at the Christmas market

JR thought these things were really neat...

Christmas market during the day

Munich actually had several Christmas markets, many of them small and focused on a certain theme.  Aside from the main market, we also made it to Nativity market, where you can buy yourself Baby Jesus's by the euro, and the children's Christmas market.  The children's market had Christmas scenes on display for the little ones' entertainment, a few more booths selling straw ornaments, and lots of food and drink options.  One stall in particular gave off the irresistible smell of baking cinnamon and sugar, and after walking the small circle of the market a few times, we gave in and bought ourselves a chimney cake.  Dough is wrapped around a wooden stick and baked, then quickly removed and packaged in a plastic bag to be sold warm.  I thought they were dubbed chimney cakes because of the vertical baking apparatus used to cook the dough, but it is actually for a different reason.  We found a table and ripped ours open to discover... a steaming chimney!

Get it?  It's a chimney!

Children's Christmas market

That evening we got a sitter for JR and attended The Nutcracker Ballet put on by the St. Petersburg Festival Ballet.  By this time the flu was really kicking in, and I was grateful that our evening out required little activity and allowed me to rest my head on my handsome date's shoulder for the entire evening.  We have seen the Nutcracker many times now, but this variation was a new one for us.  Even I had to consult the program to see what exactly was happening.  Did you know that in the Russian version, Marie (or as I know her, Clara) gets married to the Prince and they have a wedding ceremony?  We also didn't see a Sugar Plum Fairy.  It is always interesting to see different culture's takes on familiar traditions.

Another necessary stop on the Munich agenda is the Hofbrauhaus, a traditional, historic, somewhat cheesy but undoubtedly entertaining German beer house, and it did not disappoint!  We went for an early lunch, figuring it would be less crowded and that bringing a baby to beer house in the evening probably wasn't a great idea.  We ordered sausages and schnitzel and two of the biggest beers we've ever seen... what is the point of mugs this huge??  Mine was warm by the time I got half way through it.  And no, I didn't finish it - the jumbo beer defeated me.  It was an enjoyable lunch, with live German music playing in the middle hall and countless waiters in costume zipping around effortlessly carrying about a dozen beers in each hand.  And they never seemed to spill even a single drop!  I would imagine that the Hofbrauhaus really comes alive at night, with all the tables filled to standing room only and volume levels through the roof.  A tourist attraction yes, but it seemed there were plenty of locals around as well, and I expect it is one of the more entertaining places to be in Munich on a Saturday night.

Making our selections...

Very excited about the huge beers!

Bar at the Hofbrauhaus 

 Munich is a big city, and that's exactly what it felt like.  It's also a German city, but that felt more like a detail than a defining factor.  The city center was full of major chain shopping and large, uninteresting buildings housing businesses and large department stores.  Munich didn't charm us, but I believe that it could.  We stuck to the city center, and while that works perfectly fine for a number of large cities (Paris, New York, Barcelona, London), I suspect it takes a little more work to find what makes Munich special.  If I ever do find myself in Munich again, I won't rely on wandering the city and enjoying it's unique atmosphere.  Instead I might look for an informative tour, venture out to some of its parks, and explore some of the smaller neighborhoods for shopping and dining.  I know Munich has more to offer than what we saw in only three days, next time I'll make sure to find it!          

Nurnberger Christkindlesmarkt

I've had my sights set on Germany for a while.  Two years ago, I knew we'd be visiting the German Christmas markets before our time here was up.  This was the year for it!  What I didn't see coming was Vienna, Austria - a fantastic surprise, and we topped it all off with Amsterdam.  Flexibility is a great thing to have when traveling, and for this trip, we went where the winds took us...

I couldn't decide between Nuremberg and Munich.  After many days debate and research, I quit debating between the two and settled on both!  Nuremberg's Christmas market is well known as one of the best in Europe, and Munich had a showing of The Nutcracker Ballet that I simply couldn't pass up.  The other two cities were chosen in close collaboration with our traveling companion - not only did I get to spend Christmas in some incredible cities, I got to do it with my best friend!  Robin joined us for Christmas in Vienna and then we all hopped over to Amsterdam, and I got her all to myself for 8 entire days!

So here is what we got up to during our two week venture through northern Europe:

We had a bit of a rough start.  Three days before we left, JR woke up with a 104 degree fever.  We panicked.  About three months ago I had a conversation with someone who's daughter had a fever so high as a baby (110) that she had permanent brain damage and now lives in a home where she can have 24 hour assistance.  I have been haunted by this story ever since, and when JR's fever registered at 104, it was all I could think about.  We immediately shot some Tylenol down his throat and rushed him to the emergency clinic.  The very kind pediatrician on duty checked him over, assured us it was not that uncommon for babies to have fevers that high, and held back giggles at the extremely anxious first time parents standing in front of her.  She was confident that it was just a virus, likely the flu, and sent us home for lots of cuddles, rest, and juice, and said to keep the Tylenol flowing.  We weren't entirely sure he would be in shape for vacation in only three days time, and were very nervous we would have to change our plans.  But when it came time to go, the fever was low enough that we packed ourselves up anyway, assuming he was on the mend and just needed another day or so to get himself back to normal.  In the end, that assumption was more or less correct. But before I could get my sweet little boy back, we had to endure hours of screaming on the train (locked in the bathroom - it was that bad), and two nights of coughing and crying fits that lasted hours, along with a handful of unusually early mornings (6 AM?!) while he sorted out his schedule again.  We made it through, but it wasn't a very relaxing start to the vacation.  Good thing Nuremberg isn't full of tourist attractions, and all we really had to do was spend two days strolling the aisles of the Christmas market and wandering the city.

Sick, grumpy baby aside, Nuremberg felt like being in a movie.  The main Christmas market was compact, but plentiful.  It took us an entire day to see all of the stalls; each one was so full of treasures I could have browsed for days.  The spicy scent of gluhwein tempts you from two streets away, beautifully decorated cookies hang so thickly from the awnings that you can barely see the people working the booths behind them, and around every corner there is someone cooking up something deliciously greasy and sausage-y,  And then there is the backdrop: a magnificent church dating from the 1300's towers over the market, complete with a working glockenspiel and flanked by Christmas trees.  In front of the church are choir stands, where every few hours you can hear festive tunes put on by local choirs and bands.  On the other side of the square is the impressive Schonner Brunnun, or Beautiful Fountain.  The masterpiece is in fact so tall and unusually designed, that if you didn't know better, you may not suspect it to be a fountain at all.  Also, we didn't see any water running through it so that was kind of a major element missing.  I assume it was turned off because of the cold weather?  The church bells chime hourly, and while the bells are singing their song, and the sun is quickly fading at the early hour of 5:00 P.M. and the decorated booths begin to glow and twinkle, the scenario seems impossibly perfect.  Of course that's when the sick baby wakes up from his snooze in the stroller and reminds us that it is in fact, real life!

Some of the Christmas market highlights:

Christmas market stalls in front of the church

Cookies!!!

Vats full of steaming hot gluhwien

Close up of the glockenspiel

Beautiful Fountain at night

These "prune men" have been a Nuremberg tradition for decades.  Likely invented by a father looking for something to delight his children, these little characters are now widely popular throughout the city and of course, with tourists!  

The majority of the market is lined up in neat rows in one of the town squares, but it also seemed to go on and on throughout the streets of the city.  At nearly every turn we spotted more red and white striped tents, mostly selling sausage sandwiches, cookies, and gluhwein, but every now and then surprising us with something yet unseen.  And just when we thought we had seen it all, we stumbled upon the children's Christmas market.  Less booths for shopping, but a market in it own.  Here is where we found Santa and an angel ready to hear the little one's Christmas wishes, numerous small kiddie rides, baked cheesy pretzels, and a playroom full of toy trains and legos.  But the highlight was easily the giant carousel in the center.  It looked straight from the pages of a fairy tale.  Intricately detailed, whimsical, and glowing in golden light, I could have started at it for hours.  But it was quite cold out, so we settled for a quick spin with JR and called it a night.  It was his first carousel ride, and he loved it!            

We did pull ourselves away from the Christmas market for a few hours to see what else Nuremberg has to offer.  We explored the outside of the old castle, but skipped the tour because really, we've done so many of them.  The inner city was very typically and beautifully German.  Skinny cobblestone streets that shone with fresh rain showers lined with tall, attractive buildings.

Walking the streets of Nuremberg

JR selfie

Kaiserburg Castle

The Nuremberg Christkindlesmarkt certainly lived up to it's legendary reputation.  For Christmas market fanatics (such as myself!) it is a must-see!                      

    

October / November / December

This pretty much sums it up:

Not pictured: 2 empty bottles of infant Doliprane (Tylenol), 1 box of infant nausea medication

JR: 2 colds, the flu, 1 stomach virus, bronchitis
Delaney: 2 colds, the flu, 1 stomach virus
Kerry: 2 sick family members

2 emergency room visits
3 visits to the pediatrician
At least a dozen runs to the pharmacy

Here's to a healthy new year!

JR's World Tour - Last Stop : America!

Home Sweet Home!!!  After almost a year and a half, I finally got to visit my wonderful homeland, the United States of America!  The land of football, tex-mex, cheap and plentiful shopping, ice cold beer, an absurd number of Starbucks, huge roads, english television, and best of all, friends and family.  The trip was a bit last minute.  We thought after our ten day vacation to Greece and Paris, we would come back to Montpellier and relax for a few days before resuming normal work / entertain baby all day life.  But about a week before we left for Greece, we got thrown a curve ball - a long awaited work trip to Houston.  Not exactly the greatest timing, but we had to make it happen.  Work trips are by far the best way for us to visit home.  We are able to be stateside for a week or so, the hotel is taken care of for us, and we don't have to use any vacation days to do it.

Since we were in Paris anyway for vacation, we decided not to bother coming back to Montpellier for only two or three days, and jumped on a plane Wednesday morning to Houston.  The flight time is a little over 9 hours, plus about and hour for boarding and landing - easily the longest plane ride we have ever done with JR.  And let me tell you, it was rough.  JR had been crawling for a couple of weeks, long enough to really get the hang of it, and sitting still was the absolute last thing he wanted to do for 10 hours straight.  Even now, 8 months in, he still continuously on the go
.  Toys are something to be picked up and dragged around, not something to sit and play with.  The flight left at 10:00 AM Paris time.  This means that JR had a full nights rest under his belt and was ready for a busy day of crawling and exploring, but not sleeping.  I think he slept about 2 hours total during the entire flight.  Fortunately, most of the other passengers and crew were very understanding.  Some people even told me horror stories of times they flew with their babies, including one man who said he hid in the bathroom for two hours because his little girl wouldn't stop screaming.  So, I guess it could have been worse.

In the end, we all made it through.  I am also happy to report that the return trip was much easier.  He slept about half of the flight, and was very well behaved during our 11 hour layover.  But back to our time in America... We spent the first two days resting, shopping, and eating.  Priorities, right?  I had a very joyful (maybe even shed a tear or two) morning when Kerry offered to drive the sleeping baby around and drop me off at Target.  All. By. My. Self.  Did you know Target has an entire aisle of diapers???  In France, we have Pampers.  To tell the truth, it was a bit overwhelming, I'm just not used to that kind of selection anymore.  After our two day shopping spree, we packed our suitcases once again and set out on a long, rainy drive to Baton Rouge.

JR finally got to meet all of his aunts, uncles, and cousins:

And we also took him to his first tailgate.

Sadly, we were so busy chatting it up and having a great time that our camera sat on the sidelines most of the weekend.  So I had to steal most of the photos from Facebook (and thanks to all who shared photos!).

After a full weekend, it was back to Houston once again for a week of busy days at work and lots of visiting with family and friends.  For a last minute trip, it all worked out surprisingly great.  We got to see sooo many people and filled our hearts with enough love to get us through the next six months in France.  We spent two days with grandparents, great-grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles:

  

And spent many hours shopping the Galleria, swimming, watching American television and filling up on delicious Tex Mex with friends!

It was a successful first trip to the states for our little guy.  We are always so spoiled by everyone when we come to town, it reminds us of everything we have left behind to have our European adventure, and makes us very eager to be back in the middle of all that love.  But until then... it's a good thing we have a fantastic Christmas vacation to look forward to!