Tag Archives: Meckenhausen

Germany

Day 22 in Deutschland – Christmas Day (Meckenhausen, GE)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas day found us back over at Stefan & Annerose’s house in Meckenhausen.  We borrowed William’s car and took Opa with us.  William had plans to do other things with his girlfriend Jasmin’s family most of the day.

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Chalkboard in Stefan & Annerose’s kitchen. “Frohe Weihnacht” = Merry Christmas

Stefan & Annerose reserved a room and a special lunch for us at the nearby gasthaus called Gastfof Wolfl – Bei “Staffi”.  The locals refer to the popular gasthaus as “Stafros”.  The family that operates the gasthaus are originally from Greece and their good greek food and pizzas are well-liked.

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The Greek owner/operators are good friends with Stefan & Annerose.

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Opa had the Puten (turkey) and Kloß (dumplings).

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The rest of enjoyed platters of Gyros, Kalamari, and Gebackene Schafskäse (breaded goat cheese).  Our sides included, rice, tzatziki sauce, french fries, and salad.  Yummmm 🙂

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Christmas meal at “Stafros”.
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Christmas meal at “Stafros”.

After dinner aperitifs.

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After our awesome dinner – several of us went on a good long walk on the outskirts of Meckenhausen.  The weather was great, with temperatures in the high 50’s and lots of sunshine.

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(L to R) Stefan, Inge, Stilla, and Reinhart.

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We weren’t the only ones with the same idea.  There were a lot of folks out for a walk today.

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We paused for a picture at a rest bench.

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We passed by a couple hunter’s tree stands… the one below was especially well-equipped with flip-up windows, carpet, and even a kitchen chair.

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Stilla didn’t have the best shoes on today for walking.  She had to take a break from her high heels a couple times.

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Even some small german deer (Reh) were out enjoying the sun today.

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We ended up walking about 5 kilometers (3 miles).  I wished I had my cane or a walking stick, but it was good to get out and get a little exercise after all the fine but heavy meals we’ve had recently.

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Town limit sign for Meckenhausen with the church in the background (east side of town).

When we got back to the house, we found that Annerose had coffee and dessert set out for everyone.

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Check out Stefan & Annerose’s Christmas tree.  The “Floating Tree” (Schwebendes Baum).  Stefan put it on a swivel TV mount… guess he can fit lots of presents under the tree that way. 🙂

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The Floating Christmas tree. Patent pending (?).
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Stilla, Stefan. Prost or Prosit = Cheers!
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Prost!

Dessert:

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Dessert.

And because we clearly hadn’t eaten enough today… around 6PM it was brotzeit:

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Brotzeit.
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Brotzeit.
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Brotzeit.

Green eggs (?)  Can’t say I’ve seen those before… do you think the chickens are “green” too ?  🙂

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A few more family members showed up later in the day as their schedules permitted, i.e., Erich & Eli, William & Jasmin, Anneliese…

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Prost (cheers) again.

Several of us closed out the evening with a friendly game of poker after most folks went home.

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Another great day in Schnitzeland!  Merry Christmas and Thanks for everything Stefan & Annerose 🙂

Germany

Day 10 in Deutschland – Castles & Chocolate (Eysölden, GE)

On Sunday we were invited over to Richard & Gertraud’s house for another fine home-cooked meal.  Richard is Stilla’s oldest brother.

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Another great meal 🙂  Thanks Richard & Gertraud!  And thanks also to their daughter Tanja for the awesome dessert too!

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In the afternoon, we convoyed in two cars over to the small town of Eysölden.

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There was a Christmas market and event at the old town’s Schloß (castle).  Click HERE for a link to learn more about this castle built in the early 1100’s.

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Upstairs, after navigating the old narrow and creaky wooden stairs, we found a number of craft stands and booths with their wares on display:

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We met up with Wolfgang and Hildegard who were taking part in the craft market.  Hildegard had lots of sheeps-wool related items for sale.

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Hildegard (Wolfgang in background) with woolen hand-made items on display.

Nice view through one of the castle tower windows of the town kirche (church) down the street.

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In the courtyard, children sang traditional christmas carols.  A couple stands sold food and drinks in the yard.

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The castle also has a small wirtschaft (restaurant/bar) but there was limited seating, so we drove back towards Sindersdorf and stopped at the autobahn rest-area.  Here we went into the Schocolat® confiserie (confectionery) and café for coffee and cake.  This place had just opened when we last visited in 2013… it seems to still be going strong and was really crowded.

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Everything in this place is made of chocolate.  They also have a large viewing window to watch the treats being made.

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Anyone have a sweet tooth?  You can sure spend some money here:

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Have you ever tried a chocolate pizza?  Me either… we just bought a few small items after we enjoyed some coffee and kuchen (cake) in the adjoining café.

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When we got back to the house, William & Jasmin had bought and decorated their Christmas tree.  Nice 🙂

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In other news – one of our daughters in Colorado Springs sent us a picture (below) of the weather there.  Brrrrr 🙁   At least our weather here in Germany has been free of snow and ice so far.  Its just been cold, gray, and damp so far… hopefully our luck holds out.

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Stay tuned for more German adventure… Bis bald (until later)…