Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season! Christmas was different for us this year, not being able to be around family was hard, but we made the best of it. We had some very thoughtful people invite Dan and I over for lunch and another thoughtful couple invited us over for dinner. It was great to spend the day with such wonderful people and their families, we had a great time.

As I'm writing this blog I realize I didn't get my camera out once on Christmas Day, so no pictures...kinda sad.

I'm not sure what we are going to be doing for New Year's, usually Dan makes a nice dinner and we just stay in because all of the crazy people on the roads. I hear that here in Italy fireworks are HUGE on New Years Eve. So...seeing that my dog is mortified of fireworks (or any loud noises) we will probably just stay in and make it a movie night or something.

When I got home on Christmas night I started getting a sore throat and runny nose. Once again I've got the cold/sinus infection thing going on. I tried nipping it in the butt with Vit C and Zinc, but no luck. It's starting to get a little better, but I have just been so tired. Hopefully I will get better soon.

It was nice talking to my family on Christmas, makes me wish I could be there with them even more. It sounded like everyone had a wonderful day though, which is great. I hope everyone's New Year is just as great. Stay safe and I will talk with you next year!

Salzburg, Austria Christmas Market

Our trip down to Salzburg from where we were in Germany took about 6 hours.  Thankfully, the roads weren’t bad like we thought they were going be since it snowed a good 6 inches the night before.  We did get stopped in traffic, but not for too long, it was a much easier trip than the 12.5 hour trip we took just 35 hours before.  It was nice to be able to stop and stay in Salzburg a few days, great way to break up the trip.

The last time we stayed in Salzburg we stayed at nice nice little hotel up on a hill overlooking the city. It was gorgeous. The only thing about that is, every time you want to go into town you have to drive through town and park in a garage somewhere and pay to park.  This time we booked a hotel right there within walking distance to everything. It was great. We went to Hellbrunn Palace, but besides that, our car was parked the entire time. I think that’s how it should be done, walk everywhere you go and get lots of exercise.

We got there Friday night, checked in, got the animals settled and went out to explore.  The hotel we stayed at was right off a street that had lots of shops and restaurants. Most of the road is blocked off to cars, so it’s just a walkway.  There was a great doner kebob place right by our hotel, so we stopped there are shared a wrap (durum). It was amazing.  We walked down the shopping street which led us to a main street that we had to cross, then walked over the bridge and made our way to one of the main Christmas Markets in Salzburg. We walked around, got some awesome dessert that we’ve had here in Salzburg before, it’s called Kaiserschmarren. It’s like a cut up pancake with raisins and powdered sugar with plum sauce over the top. Doesn’t taste like plums, but so amazing.  We took some pictures and headed back to the hotel.

 

This is the shopping street I was talking about. For a little ways cars can drive on it, but then it is just a pedestrian walkway

This is the end of that street where you cross the road to cross the bridge

The bridge with the fortress in the background

Looking over at the other bridge

Main Christmas Market

Fortress

One of the stands

The next day we got up and went to Hellbrunn Palace, it’s about 10 minutes away from where we were. We knew there was a Christmas market there too, but most didn’t start until 10am.  It was before 10am when we went, but we just wanted to go and check it out and see what Hellbrunn looked like covered in snow.  I cannot believe how different this city looks with a blanket of snow on it. We were here in June and I absolutely LOVED it. I loved it this time too, but I have to say, it is prettier in the summer. Here are some pictures of the Palace and the grounds.

The pavilion from The Sound of Music

This was the only pond that wasn’t frozen. The last time we were here they had big ole fish in them. They were called Sturgeon. We didn’t see them here this time. I call them man eating fish, the things were huge!

The gardens covered in snow. You can see the hedges under the snow is you look closely.

Can you see us?

Advent calendar. When it first starts, all the shutter are shut. Then, as the day comes they open the shutter with the day behind it and leave it open.

We then went back to the hotel, dropped off the car and walked to Mirabel Garden to another market.  This one was a lot smaller, probably only about 10 booths, so we took some pictures in the garden and headed back to the shopping street and looked around for a bit and went to the Natural History Museum. We went back to the hotel, got warmed up and looked online for a place to eat dinner.  I found a place the got great reviews, in English is was called “The Old Fox” and it was a 2 minute walk from the hotel.  It was wonderful food and a great environment. We will definitely have to go back. After dinner we walked back towards where we were the night before, but decided to go to the right once we crossed the bridge instead of going straight and hitting the Christmas market.  We walked around the old town and went in the “Christmas in Salzburg” store that’s there year round. We bought some egg ornaments, they are pretty popular here, I will have to take some pictures of those and post them.  We took some pictures and made our way back to the main Christmas market for one last look. We got this pretzel that was really a doughnut, it was interesting, but good!  Took some more pictures and went back to the hotel. Here are some pictures from that day/night.

Mirabel Garden looking at the fortress

Pretzels

We left the next morning to head back here to Italy. It was nice to get back and relax a bit, we were on the go for days, but it was a lot fun. I will have to post a blog later with pictures comparing Salzburg in the summer and winter.  I would recommend going at both times if possible

Trip to Germany

On Wednesday Dan, Kristina and I left for Germany. Kristina’s husband , Ian, works with Dan and he has been up in Germany the past 7 weeks going through Noncommissioned Officers Academy and graduation was on Thursday the 16th.  We left pretty early that morning, we picked up Kristina and were on the road by 0830.  It was supposed to be an 8-9 hour drive that ended up being 12.5 hours.  First all was good, we were moving right along, then we got stopped in traffic, I believe it was because the road got narrower and there was construction going on. Then we hit snow, so that slowed us down a bit, then we got stopped in traffic a few more times, it wasn’t fun. The most important thing is that we made it there safely. 

The next day (the 16th) was Dan’s birthday, so I gave him his card and present and we headed onto base to take a look around.  I’m glad we got to spend the day together. We went to the BX on base because we heard the thing was ginormous…and they were right. I am SO jealous of the BX they have there.  I know they shared by Army and Air Force, but still, that it so much more than what we have here in Italy. I couldn’t believe how big the BX was, then they have a mall around it, a normal, US looking mall! Simply amazing.  Wish we had something like that in Italy.

The graduation went well, Ian got distinguished graduate, all in all, it was a great time. Here are some photo’s from the trip.

This is when we came out of one of the tunnels and here was a lot of snow on the ground.

Our Hotel

Cold car

Kristina and Ian

The 4 of us

The 17th we drove into Kaiserslautern to see a friend we were stationed with in South Dakota

Downtown Kaiserslautern

It was a short trip, but nice to see somewhere new. We left the morning of the 17th and headed to Salzburg, Austria to stay for a few nights for the Christmas Markets. That post will come soon