Nuremburg Marché Noël

One of my favorite things about the holiday season in Europe is going to the Christmas markets. The atmosphere is always festive and it's a good way to get in the holiday spirit. It's also fun to look at and to buy some of the kitchy, German ornaments. The tradition is to shake the winter chill by drinking hot, mulled wine called Glüewhein.

We had already been to several Christmas markets throughout Belgium, Germany and France over the years so we decided to go to a new one. The Nuremburg market was said to be one of the biggest in Germany. The market was nice and so was the city. However, the cold, rainy weather kind of put a damper on our trip. Nevertheless, we managed to do some shopping and see a good bit of the town.

There is an extensive system of underground caves in Nuremburg where beer was once fermented and stored. Later, the caves were used as shelters from the bombing during WWII. We took a tour of these caves, which we thought was pretty interesting. At the end of the tour we stopped by a microbrewery and got to taste beer that was sold on the premises only. We found one beer that we liked, but it still was nowhere near as good as Belgian beer :-)

It was way too cold and rainy to bother taking many pictures so we only have a few.

Milan

I accompanied Rick to Milan in November, where he was facilitating a training. I wasn't that impressed with the city. I guess I expected more from one of the biggest fashion capitals of the world! I did see some fashionable people and I spent a day window shopping, but that's about all I could do. The stores were expensive exclusive and intimidating .

The city is not all that attractive. However, there are a couple of interesting things to do. We saw the Duomo, which is a big cathedral on the main square. This was pretty cool because they let you go up to the roof where you can walk amongst the spires. We also walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel (basically, just a fancy, indoor shopping area).

The best thing we did was visit the church where Da Vinci's Last Supper is housed. That was pretty amazing. If you want to see it you have to book months in advance. We got lucky though, and were able to book only a few days before due to a cancelation. Apparently, the method Da Vinci used to paint it did not hold up well to wear and tear and started deteriorating less than 60 years after the painting was finished. The painting was freshened up at one point, but then later restored to its original color. The wall that contains the fresco is the only wall of the church that wasn't destroyed during WWII. The rooms are all climate controlled to prevent further deterioration so doors open and close at timed intervals to let you in and out. Moreover, they only allow 15 people in at a time for 15 minutes. Seeing the painting was worth the trip to Milan alone.

The other cool thing we did was to go see Vinicio Capossela in concert. He's kind of like an Italian Tom Waits but more bizarre. He played circus type music and had an entire show to go along with his concert. It was very entertaining, but would have probably been better if we knew Italian. It seemed like his song lyrics were interesting and he also interacted a lot with the audience. But, we felt like we were missing something b/c everyone else was laughing a lot.

The Duomo

View From The Duomo

Galleria Vittorio Emanuel

A Typical Milan Building

Church Where Last Supper Is Housed

Betsy Visits Brussels

My Friend, Betsy, came to visit in early October. She had been to Europe several times prior to this trip and had already seen a lot of the major cities. Therefore, she was interested in visiting some of the smaller places in Belgium and seeing the country through the eyes of a local. Besides Brussels, we went to Ghent, Bruges and the Ardennes. We also did a side trip to Champagne, France (see separate Blog). For me, it was great just hanging out and catching up on girl talk. It was also fun introducing her to some of my friends and giving her a glimpse of my life here. She also brought some great weather with her!

Betsy was amused by the fact that my European experience is all about food and alcohol. A lot of the activities I had planned involved eating or drinking something that I was passionate about. I made sure she got to try the best frites, waffles, bread, cheese, olives and beer. When we were not eating or drinking, my friends and I were talking about food or alcohol. Betsy seemed to get a kick out of this and I think she enjoyed trying all of the different things.

She also got into the fine art of scarf-wearing. Scarves are not just for winter over here. They are a big part of the fashion. She bought a couple of awesome scarves so we were able to share. Although, I have to admit that I had a bit of scarf envy as I really liked one of the scarves that she bought.

Here is a collection of pictures from our various outings. I was more in local tour guide mode than I was in tourist mode so, unfortunately, there are not many.

Chatelain Market, Brussels

My Birthday Dinner

Brussels

Bruges

Some weird town that we biked to from Bruges

This was next to a church...don't ask!

An Interesting Cemetery

We had a picnic here

Caves at Han-Sur-Lesse in the Ardennes

That's one great scarf!

Ghent

A good way to end the day.