Blog catch up for November

Had a busy November – Jay has been busy with work, of course.  He had a trip to the states for meetings in Hartford.  He also went to the Netherlands for a few days to do plant surveys for two Heinz factories, one which is the largest producer of Ketchup in Europe.  I ended up going to Chicago for a week to visit my mom.  I tried to stock up on a few things that we haven’t been able to find here in Germany like Granola bars, instant oatmeal packets, hot chocolate mix, etc.

Netherlands

Jay’s mom came for a three week visit, starting on November 16.  We showed her around Munich and we took her on a Food Tour, where you get to sample some of the local foods.  The tour started with a typical German breakfast – Beer, sausage (wiesswurst) and a pretzel.  We also sampled different meats, cheeses, honey, honey wine and the winter favorite, mulled wine which is a warm wine.  It is also called Glühwein.  Every tour we go on we learn a little bit more of the history of Munich. 

Typical German meal

We had friends over for Thanksgiving dinner.  We celebrated Thanksgiving on the following Saturday, since Jay had to work on Thursday and Friday.  The hardest thing to find here was a large turkey.  There is no such thing as a 25 lb Butterball here.  Good thing I brought pumpkin pie mix with me, otherwise we wouldn’t have had pumpkin pie.  It was hard enough to find a pie plate.  Our German friends never had pumpkin pie before and they thought it was different.

We also took her to some of the Christmas Markets also called Christkindlmarkt.  The Christkindlmarkt is a tradition that started in Germany in the 1400’s.  They open four weeks before Christmas.  One of the largest markets in Munich is located walking distance from our apartment.  We went there on the first night.  It was beautiful to see the square all lit up with a huge Christmas tree.  It was snowing that night and it really put you in the holiday spirit.  The markets have different themes, such as mangers, medieval, handmade goods, nutcrackers and all types of ornaments. Jay’s mom really liked the Glühwein booths, which we managed to visit almost daily. The Glühwein booths had different styles of glasses.  One of the ones that we kept was a boot shaped glass and another had a train shaped glass.

Christkindlmarkt

Jay and his mom at the Christmas Markets



Glühwein mugs

I took her on a day trip to Salzburg and we went on the Sound of Music Tour and we also went to London for a week.  In London we visited Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, City of Bath, and Buckingham Palace.  We saw the Changing of the Guards, Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  The weather in London was awful.  It was very cold, windy and snowy.  It was around 30, if we were lucky, but with the wind it was really cold.  The changing of the guards’ ceremony lasted about two hours.  They even had to close one of the airports in London for two days due to the weather.  They are not equipped to handle snow there.   In the three weeks time that she was here we walked about 90 miles. 


Windsor Castle

Stonehenge
  

Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace



Big Bend



Westminster Abbey

Tower of London (where to Crown Jewels are)

London Bridge

Jay was in the London area during the same time, but he was at a management training course.  The course was at a castle.  The entry way reminded Jay of the stairway in the Harry Potter movie.  We didn’t see him until he got back to Munich.

Entry way in Castle

Outside of Castle