Winter biking

We finally got a few days of sun, and they finally coincided with the weekend, so Anna and I decided to set off on bicycles in search of Castles and Birds.  The weather was chilly, but the sun felt nice as we headed out north of Marburg.  We passed a Sparrowhawk in one of the fields (similar to a Cooper’s Hawk back in the US).  Before too long, Anna had to consult the map, to ensure we were on course.  Due to my wife’s skillful navigation, we were soon at the first castle of the day, in Schönstadt (translation Pretty City).

Hmm... This looks familiar...

Schloss (castle) on the right and half-timbered house on the left, with horses and stables in front

It was more of a giant house, but the city lived up to its name, with many attractive-looking buildings, including some with gray slate tiling, which Anna’s parents’ guidebook said is typical of the area north and east of Marburg.  Schönstadt also had some very attractive half-timbered houses.

As we continued along, our feet began to feel chilly, and we wished for some nifty shoe cover things that help keep your feet warm when cycling in the winter (Anna’s unfortunately only half made it to Germany, and I’ve never owned any – we will each soon have a full set).  But that didn’t deter us, and we made it to our second and last castle of the day, in Rauschenberg.  Up a steep hill, we found the castle.  The first castle on this hill was started in the 13^th century, and expanded in the 1590’s.  The castle was ruined in 1646, and the newer construction has not stood the test of time so only remains of the 13^th century structure remain.

Below the castle, we found the Felsenkeller, which if my German is correct (and it rarely is), means cliff cellar.  To us, it resembled an interesting hole in the cliff-side, which of course meant we had to go inside and explore.

 

Down from the castle, and out through a gate and by a neat church, and we were on our way to our next destination: HOME.  Yes, there was a third castle about 2 km out of our way that we could visit.  Yes, there were some great ponds for birding that we were about to go right by.  But we were rapidly losing daylight and also the feeling in our toes.  So we headed straight home, except there wasn’t a road that went there, so we wound our way back, making a few wrong turns in the process.  My wife’s toes must have been freezing, since we passed some sheep along the way, and she barely batted an eye (Some of you may know that Anna has been somewhat obsessed with sheep lately). We also found a nifty little pond that provided excellent views of Tufted Ducks, Common Pochards, and Eurasian Moorhen, and we had a fleeting look at a Little Grebe before it dove under the water, never to resurface again (okay, so I’m sure it resurfaced again.  But either it could hold its breathe a LONG time, or it swam underwater to somewhere we couldn’t see).

Once home, I discovered the water in my water bottle was partially frozen, which will come as no surprise to you veteran cyclists, but was a novel experience for me.  All told, we covered 48 km with 2 castles en route.

And for the post-bike ride dinner?  Homemade sausage and red cabbage soup & biscuits!

Silvester in Frankfurt

SO, I'm going to skip over our awesome travels and go right to new years eve, so this is the 2rd of 3 holiday posts but chronologically goes third (I'll fill back in later).  Since my parents were flying back to the States on the 1st, we decided to spend New Year's Eve in Frankfurt, since that's the city they were departing from the following day.  Since it was a holiday (and a Monday) none of the museums, etc. were open, but we had fun wandering around generally, and Sasha and I climbed the tower on the Frankfurter Dom for a nice view of the city.

Every time I think I understand Germany, the Germans, and the German mindset, something comes along that makes me re-think everything.  Like New Year's Eve.  Generally, I'd peg Germans as good rule followers and rule enforcers.  Case in point, a co-worker said it is against the rules for you to take your child out of school for a vacation, etc. when you feel like it.  In fact, she said that during the days preceding the winter break, they have officials in the airports, etc. to make sure you aren't taking your kid out early to beat the crowds on the ski slopes, and there's a fine if you are caught.  Not having children, I can't vouch for the accuracy of that, but still, it illustrates my point.  There are the things that are "supposed" to happen, and there are methods to enforce conformity.

So, why were we dashing through the streets of Frankfurt fearing for our hearing and our skin and hair?  Because the rules for New Year's Eve are a bit different than the rules any other day.

OK, one short tangent: I need to point out, it is called Silvester here in honor of the saint whose day is celebrated on December 31, St. Sylvester.  He was a pope a really long time ago, and I think it's just coincidence that his day is associated with New Year's Eve.  In any case, the major way to celebrate Silvester is to make things explode, largely in the form of fireworks and firecrackers.  A quick perusal of the interweb suggests that this originates from an ancient custom of making lots of noise to scare away spirits/devils/winter personified as a spirit or devil.  Personally, I think it's just an excuse to free the pyromaniac hiding in the heart of each rule-abiding German.

Starting on the 28 or so of December, fireworks legally become available in many stores, and are only allowed to be fired on Silvester (German rules in force again), although a few naughty souls set off a few firecrackers a day or two preceding the 31.  Then, on the 31st, the noise grows steadily through the day. 

On Silvester, my parents, Sasha and I went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in one of the nice shopping districts in Frankfurt.  It was a long, lingering sort of meal (the custom in both Germany and Italy, I gather) and it was 11pm or so when we left the restaurant.  As we headed into the streets, everywhere we looked, people were shooting off explosives of some sort, but we dodged them all and headed for the river, since we'd heard that the fireworks down by the river are great. 

Now, I love the 4th of July in Boston, watching an awesome, professional fireworks display from the banks of the Charles.  I have to admit, that's what I was expecting.  Fear not, my expectations changed very quickly as virtually all of the other revelers streaming towards the river were thus equipped: under one arm, they had a big bunch of fireworks, and in the other hand, a bottle of champagne (good thing most people have 2 arms...I think they'd have a hard time deciding between the two).  We reached the river at 11:30 or so, and there were already fireworks going off all over the place. And judging by some of the angles on those fireworks, I think the people launching the fireworks were well into their adult beverages, too.

Now first, I know that fireworks are nothing like mortars and rockets and such used in wars, but it still is pretty terrifying hearing explosion after explosion, and never knowing exactly where the next one is coming from (or headed to).  Second, I grew up in MN where fireworks are illegal, and are only smuggled in from Wisconsin in small quantities, so I've never seen so many personal fireworks.

Needless to say, after a very short time, we decided to make a beeline for our hotel, and then creep back out to hover near some very sturdy pillars on some fancy building near our hotel... To be honest, it was hard to tell when midnight hit...we watched our watches, but by that time, the fireworks were near continuous as far as we could see the length of the river, and it continued at nearly that intensity for an hour, and then only slightly less intensely until at least 2 in the morning.  After a few near misses on the porch of that fancy building, we retreated inside to watch out of our hotel window (until someone decided to launch fireworks in the street right outside our window).

These people were a block down the road from our hotel and seemed quite good. AND they put up a few cones to divert traffic, while launching from the middle of the street...

Now, where were the police in all this chaos?  We saw them visibly all around the city, but it seems like their orders were just to help traffic resume afterwards and help deal with the casualties.  A previous google search suggested that something like 500 people are brought to the ER each Silvester for burn injuries of varying severity, and I expect the numbers for Frankfurt are relatively high, too.

We slept in and joined my parents for breakfast in the morning, and then went with them to the airport to say goodbye.  It was clear that almost everyone there, from the rental car workers to the airline representatives at the baggage counter, had partied until around 3am then headed right to work.  At least 2 of them admitted as much.  Thankfully, the pilots clearly weren't native Frankfurters, because my parents made it safely home.

Well, I can't say I want to spend Silvester in Frankfurt again, but I am glad I did it once, and I am very glad that none of my family will be bearing any scars to prove it.

And I hope that 2013 started auspiciously for you all, and that you too escaped without any serious burns.

Weihnachten in Marburg

Hello family and friends,
I hope you all had happy holidays, wherever you spent them.  I have to say that Christmas and New Year's went incredibly smoothly for us here in Marburg, despite the logistical challenges of trying to accommodate the needs and desires of 8 guests visiting during the last few weeks of December.

Rather than give a blow-by-blow of all of the feasting, touristing and general hanging out, I will just give the highlights, and to spread out the procrastination opportunities/keep me from monopolizing the computer too long, I will break this post into 3 parts.

Here is part one: Christmas in Marburg.  I half apologize for going off on tangents periodically.

First, the planning that took much of my spare brainpower as the holidays were approaching was figuring out what to eat for Christmas and Christmas eve.  Effectively, Germany shuts down for Christmas, and stores (including grocery stores) close mid-day on Christmas Eve and don't re-open until the 27 (because here, there are 2 days of Christmas, the 25 and 26).  One of the restaurants I wanted to take my family to (KostBar) was open on the 26, so that night was taken care of, thankfully, since our refrigerator is pretty tiny.  But I wanted us to cook and eat in our apartment on Christmas Eve and Christmas day, and since we are in Germany, I wanted a German touch to the meals, so I started asking all of my German colleagues, friends and acquaintances what they typically eat for the holidays.

My mother with a Christmas Mouse bread, complete with hat. It may not be "traditional" (except at our favorite bakery) but it sure was yummy! (picture by Peter Keyel)

Some people eat pea soup, some people eat fondue, some people eat fish, but it was funny because everyone spoke about those things this way, "the tradition for many Germans is to have something simple on Christmas Eve like sausages with potato salad, although in my family the tradition is [some other food]".  Well, since what they actually ate varied, I decided the easiest would be to do what "everyone else" does and prepared to make potato salad, sausages and (sticking with the German theme) red cabbage with apples.  SO, about a week before Christmas, I checked to make sure that my favorite sausage stand at the Saturday market would be open.  I learned 2 things during my inquiry: 1. they would indeed sell sausages on the 22, and 2. I have become a Recognized Person by the woman who runs my favorite sausage stand.

In my defense, their Krakauer sausages are AMAZING, and well, also in my defense (lest you think that I am only feeding my husband sausages) I do often come in a bright yellow cycling jacket, put my food into paniers, and am an obvious foreigner who can speak tolerable German (most of the time).  BUT I'm not sure whether to be proud or embarrassed that not only did she recognize me, she gave me a little Christmas present of a package of sausage seasoning and a paring knife...in any case, after we go off our post-Christmas salad diet, I am sure I'll be buying more of those Krakauers, and I do need to try my sausage salt seasoning...

Oh, and my second market mission: I needed to find a piece of animal to cook for Christmas day.  SO, while I dearly love a Christmas goose, my mother said "in a toaster oven?? Are you crazy?" so we settled on a nice piece of cow.  And my mother said "howabout a nice rib roast?"  Should be easy, right?  Alas, German butchers cut their cows slightly differently, but I found a German Cow Cut image on the google, and went about trying to order a "Hohe Rippen" to be picked up on the 22. Somehow, they didn't understand what I was asking for, but asked me if I wanted a "roast beef" (sounding just like the English term) and I said sure.  Fast forward to the 22, and I picked up our 2.5 kg of "roast beef", which looked a bit different than what I expected, but it looked like cow, and it looked good.

With my mother in law's help, I acquired the necessary cheeses, vegetables, etc. from the various stands at the market, and even made it to the train station in time to meet my jet-lagged family in Frankfurt.

Well, I'm going to skip over showing off Marburg to Sasha's grandpa and aunt (who left before our Christmas merriment really got going) and other members of our collective family because, well, we've already told you about Marburg, and I'll doubtless have more time to talk about Marburg later.  So I'll skip right to Christmas Eve festivities.  Our family all gamely agreed to come to church with us, and we thought ahead and asked the pastor for the sermon in advance so we could translate for our families.  As it turns out, that was good but didn't go quite as we'd planned.  Normally, the church is relatively full, but there were 3 services instead of 1 on Christmas eve, so we didn't worry about getting there -too- early (although we didn't do our usual jog to get there before the bells stop, either) but oops.  But 10 minutes to the start of the service, the church was PACKED and the extra chairs and benches pulled in were full, too.  I guess a lot of Germans really are "Christmas and Easter" worshipers.  Now, I'm not trying to sound judgmental, I firmly believe that everyone needs to follow their own conscience when it comes to matters of faith, I just was a bit flustered to have my poor family standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a flock of Germans in the entryway without being able to give them more than a word or two of translation now and again.  Still, they were patient and even tried to sing along with some of the hymns (at least the ones we knew in English) and I translated the sermon later  over Christmas cookies, so it all worked out. 

After church, we headed back to the apartment to prepare for the meal.  My mother and mother-in-law had helped bake a few batches of cookies earlier, and helped prepare the food (and mulled wine) while Sasha directed the setup of our dining room.  Thanks to furniture borrowed from an out-of-town labmate (living in the same building) we even had chairs for everyone to sit on!!

Dinner, Christmas Eve (picture by Peter Keyel)

Dinner was delicious, and we had fun deciding which sausage was each person's favorite.  They were all pretty good, I guess, since there were no leftovers. There wasn't even any leftover cabbage!  Afterwards, we sat around singing all of our favorite Christmas carols, since they missed most of the good ones at church.  If our sense of tune was lacking at times, we made up for it with enthusiasm, and it was really fun.

 Everyone went to their hotel/guest apartment for the night, then came back in the morning for presents and such. 

Look at that loot, er, love being exchanged between family members...yes, those socks belong to Sasha and me...not everyone had stockings so we helped them out! (picture by Peter Keyel)

Awesome hand-made stuffed Bacillus subtilis from Sasha's mom...if you're jealous, she might take orders...I'm not sure what the price is (picture from Ted Keyel)

We spent the day hanging out and playing games, until it was time to start cooking dinner. Sasha's mom made Sasha's favorite food: "Yeast Rolls", and we made brussel sprouts with walnuts, roasted green beans and the "roast beef".  As for my somewhat mysterious cut of beef, my mother took one look at it and said: "I know what this is, it's a tenderloin".  Well, I can assure you that while the wallet may be thinner because of it, NOBODY complained when that came out of the oven.  YUM!!  Mom turned the drippings into a tasty sauce, and even the picky vegetable eaters among us loved the brussel sprouts and green beans.

We hung out eating cookies and drinking tea and playing games until bed time.  To me, the meaning of Christmas is love, and we had plenty of that to go around, with some left over to share with all of you, my distant friends and family.

Family!! (picture by Ted Keyel)

Advent in Germany

Note: all my relevant pictures are on a different computer, and only Sasha knows the password, and he's gone birding along the North Sea with his brothers, so I will update this post as soon as I can with photos.
 I write this with a bit of hesitation, since I think a full 1/3 of my normal blog audience is now here in Germany with me, but for friends and family still stateside (or Asia), here are some thoughts on Christmas time in Germany.

The short version: it's awesome.  

That about sums it up, but since nobody turns to a blog for a 2-second diversion, I'll give you the long version, too.
Germany (and Germans, as a whole) LOVE Christmas. This is a good time to note, for those of you unfamiliar with German politics, etc. that that whole separation of church and state thing that makes the US a (hypothetically) tolerant place for Muslims and Buddhists, etc. isn't at all a policy here.  When you move to Germany (or within Germany) and go to the Stadtsbüro to register, in addition to asking where you live, your name, etc. there's a box where you fill in your religion, and if you put in one, money is taken out of your paycheck.  This "church tax" goes to the regional/national organization of the religion of your choosing, which mostly means the Evangelical (aka Protestant) or Catholic church, and then gets divied out to the local churches based on number of people in the geographical area aassociated with that church. Also, there are lots more religious pre-schools, I think there can be religion classes in the schools, etc. They are making a push to become more friendly to the sizable Muslim minority, but all things considered, this is still a Christian country, even if many (most??) people don't actually go to church regularly.

That is just a long-winded way of saying that there are no pan-religious "Happy holidays" signs around here, it's "Frohe Weihnachten" and manger scenes aren't uncommon, even in public places. Holiday parties for the MCB department at Harvard tended towards the awkward, but the one here at the MPI was pretty awesome, with plenty of bratwurst, Glühwein, and games and other entertainment: 

Who says scientists can't dance?

Just like in the US, there's a steady summer-ward creep of Christmas.  Around Halloween, we started seeing advent calendars, special christmas cookies (including Lebkuchen and Spekulatius. Yummy!) but things get serious when Advent officially starts.

That's when many towns set up a Christmas market with lots of little stands/tents selling all sorts of fabulous Christmas food: roasted candied nuts, bratwursts, and mulled wine (aka Glühwein) at a minimum, and if you're lucky, things like roast chestnuts, potato pancakes, cookies, etc.  There are also stands selling all sorts of arts, crafts and "gifts" of varying qualities and types.

I have been to 3 different Christmas markets this year and they were each vastly different experiences.  We had great plans to go to Nürnberg, one of the most famous, but in the end, we have to wait until next year for that one.

First up was Groβseelheim, a small village just outside of Marburg.  Their Advent market lasts only one afternoon/evening of the year, and it was great.  Unfortunately, I don't have the photos on this computer, but I'll add them as soon as I can.  As far as we could tell, their market was really a community affair; all the farms and stores and clubs had tents or openned up a room of their barn or yard to sell food or crafts, and it was clear that most if not all of the crafts were made by hand, and that some of the foods were things like the cheese from that farm, or that family's favorite goulash and polenta recipes (which were yummy).  

Even the gas pumps showed the holiday spirit, dressing up like Santa.  The entertainment was also more interesting, including a fire dancer and a variety of musical acts.  The one that probably was the most emblematic was a group of, ehem, "musicians of a certain age" dressed more or less in Santa suits who, when we first walked by were doing a German version of "Rudolph the red nosed reindeer" (or something similar) and then switched to a heavily accented English version of "How many roads must a man walk down".  Awesome.  I felt a little rude, I started laughing so loudly when they started that second song, but it was just such a strange combination of awesome, I couldn't help myself.

Next, we took a brief tour of the markets here in Marburg (ahem, merely scouting in preparation for our family's visit....).  There are actually 2 small Christmas markets here, one up in the "Oberstadt" (the old part of town that's up on a hill) and one around the Elizabeth's Church.  These are much more commercial than Groβseelheim, but have just a handful of stands, and it seems like it's still mostly locals hanging out, drinking Glühwein, and listening alternatively (at least as I've been passing through) to surprisingly talented kids, or to the local brass band, who also were quite good, I have to say. 

Today, while Sasha was out birding with his brothers, I hit up the market in Frankfurt as I went to meet my family.  It was HUGE in comparison to the others, and had pretty much all of the foods I listed above and more: nuts, cookies, candies, bratwurst, pretzels, crepes, waffles, potato pancakes, dunplings of various types, and of course, Glühwein and other hot beverages.  In good McLoon fashion, we munched our way through the market, trying one of, well, if not each, at least many of the options.  There also were tons and tons of stands selling all sorts of stuff, some cheap, some nice. Do you want a stuffed Santa climbing a ladder to hang from your window? We could have gotten you one.  What about lovely ornaments made of glass or straw? Those were available, too.  We heard a LOT of languages being spoken, so I definitely felt like this was more touristy than the others two markets, but then again, we were out in the early afternoon, and I did see flocks of German teenagers, so while there were plenty of tourists, I didn't feel like it was -just- a tourist trap.  Besides, who doesn't want an awesome bicycle cookie cutter?

Well, this is getting long, but that brings me to the next great thing that Christmas means in Germany: FAMILY!!  We are feeling the family love after many months of only Skype contact since my mom, dad and sister, and Sasha's mom, brothers, aunt and grandfather have joined us here.  Together, we'll do some serious exploring of Marburg and surroundings, and of course, some serious cooking and eating, so stay tuned for more about Christmas in Germany.

And, since I may not post again until after the holiday itself, "Frohe Weihnachten".

Lacrosse in Germany!

OK, friends, I know what you're thinking; "aren't you a swimmer/skier/runner/rower/cyclist/paddler"? and the answer is, well, yes, I love all those sports to varying degrees, but Marburg is not a great ski area, my road bike hasn't made it to our house yet, and besides, the perpetual mud/drizzle and the fact that I am effectively in lab for all daylight hours makes riding a bit depressing. But what better way to meet people when arriving in a new place than doing some sports with them, right? So I decided to take a class through "unisport" (like rec sports at a US university).  There was this great little booklet that appeared on the lunch table with all the class offerings, and I tried to decide which would be the most fun. Soccer sounded good, but the women's classes were too early in the day, so that was out.  I didn't want to do strength training, and couldn't picture myself doing Zumba or Spinning, and it seemed like team sports would be something new and exciting.  So, I settled on Lacrosse.  You know, that team sport derived from Native American games, where each player has a little basket on the end of a stick and you use that basket to try to throw a ball into a goal.

Now, if I were you, the next questions I'd ask would be: "wait, you went to Germany and are learning a sport invented in North America??"  And the answer is, well, why not?  and then, "Wait, aren't you just like one big slow twitch muscle from all those endurance sports?" and the answer is, well, yes. I think I'm about as good at sprinting as I was in high school, and back then, the splits in my 2-mile were the same speed as when I tried to do any shorter distances....(needless to say, my coach back then never had me do any short races).  And, I'm probably the oldest person in the class by almost a decade, and I'm the only one whose German is decidedly not that of a native speaker.  But all that is OK because I'm having So Much Fun.  Class is on an artificial turf field in the evenings on Thursday, and happens rain or shine (or snow).

SO, last weekend, we went to Münster for a tournament.  Awesome.  Keep in mind, we are all total beginners, and have been playing once a week for almost 2 months.  Two months really isn't much when the first few practices probably looked more like broomball than like Lacrosse (you have you use your stick to pick up the ball, and that's harder than it sounds). And most of the opposing teams actually knew what they were doing.  Oh, and instead of outside on the field, it was inside a gym with this bizarrely bouncy rubber-ish floor.  But I am serious about the awesome.

Marburg (the club, not our UniSport team) vs. Münster, I think. 

 It was a low-key sort of tournament; the teams kept borrowing each other's goalies, and the coaches and players doubled as refs and scorekeepers, but it all worked out.

Maggie (right, #33), one of our class instructors/coaches in action. She's also on the German National team.

 

The first game was a bit miserable.  I drew the short straw and was stuck in goal, and while my teammates were trying to figure out how to pick up the ball off the bouncy floor and how to not have the ball snatched away from them immediately, I was being pummeled as time after time the opponents made it to the goal and took shot after shot.  I have to say, that's not a sports experience I am used to...half the time I couldn't even  
see the ball before it went past me into the goal.

The next games were more fun.  Partly because I got to run around more (One of my other teammates was in goal next and then found she actually liked it) and partly because we actually figured out how to deal with the ball some.  Although to be completely clear, our coach congratulated us after one of the early games for actually getting in 3 passes in a row...so I'm not talking true expertise here.

Friday night, we camped out in a gym with all of the visiting teams for lacrosse and all of the other sports playing at the same time (it was a crazy multisport tournament, taking over all the gyms across Münster's campus and beyond).  It was a strange experience seeing hundreds of sleeping bags laid out in every configuration in a gym, but people were amazingly quiet and respectful of each other.  The partying went on outside and in the giant cafeteria building.  To that, I can only say that I am about as old and boring as I'd feared.  Oh well.  I am sure the "extra" sleep gave me a leg up the next day...

Some groups still hadn't shown up yet, but you get the idea...it was better than it looks

Saturday, we played the other teams that had lost most of their games the previous day, so we were less out-matched.  In fact, for the last game, we played a team from Osnabrück, and they were also beginners, so it actually looked like a game.  They scored a few points more than us, but due to some bad calls from the refs, they decided a few of those goals were invalid, so we went into sudden death overtime, and I actually scored a goal (?!?!?!) so we ended up winning and coming in 7th out of 8 teams!!  I can't remember when I've ever done that poorly (excluding some of the times I've raced with the men), but it's kind of refreshing to admit that you are going to be really bad at something and do it anyway.

Marburg UniSport team after the last game

It's actually fun playing a team sport (yes, crew and cycling kind of count, but in very different ways), and I think it will be better when we actually figure out how to catch balls.  Right now, our strategy leans towards "get the ball and run as fast as you can to the goal and shoot", and I think the game can be a lot more nuanced than that with passing and stuff.  Give us a few more months. We play Giessen tomorrow; we'll see how that goes!

My new favorite game: "Find a Castle"

Hi folks!

In some ways riding around Marburg reminds me of riding around Colgate.  Sadly, I haven't found such a nice group to ride with, but the terrain is hilly, there are tons of awesome dirt roads, and the pavement is generally really good.  The major difference being, instead of playing my "favorite" bike riding games from Colgate (1. how many cows in that field will look at me? 2. Is the farm Amish or not Amish, with the old-order Mennonites adding some confusion now and again, and 3. Is that scary dog going to chase me?), my favorite game here is "find a castle". 

This is how you play "find a castle".  Step one: look on your trusty "Marburg + Umgebung" map and locate a close-ish castle symbol.  This area is dotted with them, which makes the game a bit easier.  Step 2: Plot out a bike route there. Step 3: kit up and put your plan into action.

Sometimes step 2 bears repeating mid-ride.

Now, you may think that this game should be easy, I mean, you'd think castles are hard to overlook.  Alas, castles are so ho hum here that they've let tons of them fall into ruin.  I mean, if you were a medieval peasant and there was an old pile of hewn stones near you that wasn't being used for anything, you'd take a few for your house, too, I suppose.  Plus, the towns are full of steep hills and narrow streets and tall houses (relatively speaking) so, for instance, when I picked Fronhausen for a destination (which has not just 1 but three castle symbols near it on the map) I lost the game.  I did not see any castles near Fronhausen.  In my defense, it was rainy, so I wanted to minimize map viewing, but still...I came home cold and soaking wet and only saw "our" Marburg castle on the way home.

Other days, I luck out and just happen upon signs pointing to a Schloss.  That approach led me to discovering this one in Rauisch Holzhausen (or as Sasha has taken to calling it, Rauisch Hotzenplotzhausen, after a character in our favorite German kids book).

It's owned by the University of Giessen and used for retreats and such, I think.  Too bad Harvard didn't own a castle.

Sometimes the castles are more ruins than castles, and involve more poking around in the woods to find.  Since my road bike STILL isn't here, poking around in the woods makes me feel justified in leaving the Mud2 tires on my cross bike, so that's still cool.    This past Sunday was a 3 "castle" day, or I guess more accurately, 1 castle and two VERY old ruins of fortified settlement/dwelling places.

First off, I went a town called Nordeck, which was a cute little town to begin with, and then it had a nicely maintained castle to boot.

It is clear that this one is still inhabited; some of the windows had cute curtains and, you will note, around the back there was a fire exit.  You may rest easy, the folks living right under the roof will still be able to get out safely in an emergency.

I loved the horns over the door.  If a jackalope is antlers on a rabbit skull, what is this, a castlelope?

The next two stops took a bit more careful navigating, and weren't nearly so picturesque. Although I will say that even the most ruiny-est ruin is still pretty satisfying to me.  The next stop was an unlabelled "ruined castle" symbol on my map, just outside of Dreihausen. It took some wandering through the muddy woods to find, but the signboards were quite helpful.  There were excavated stone foundations of a few buildings, and some wall remnants, but not much else from this 800 AD ruin.  Still, given the German climate, even that seems good.

The signs said this was a church.  I remain unconvinced.

Outer?? fortifications and my bicycle. 

The third and final stop of the day was a presumably even older fortification, and one that (although it gets a symbol on my map and on the town map) doesn't even get a nifty explanatory sign.  I visited it shortly after getting to Marburg, but didn't have my camera.  At first glance, it just looks like a hill or mound, but then I realized that the mound was almost perfectly circular, and had a big depression in the center with a raised mound inside it.  At one end, the inside mound connects to the outside.  Either it's so old that any stonework is buried, or there were only wood buildings that have long since rotted away.  I swear that I made very similar sand castles...

It's too odd of a thing to be photogenic, but hopefully this gives you some idea.

That ended this past weekend's round of find a castle.  3 castles in a 3ish hour ride (on cross tires with a smattering of dirt roads, even) which is a pretty good castle per hour rate.

Thanksgiving in Germany

Hi folks,

I hope our US based friends and family had a great thanksgiving, full of food and friends and blessing counting.  Sasha and I enjoyed the holiday, celebrating it together for the first time (last year, Sasha was in Argentina, and before that, we celebrated with our respective families, etc.).  Since I had lab meeting on Thursday and we had other Thursday commitments, we decided to celebrate on Friday instead.

One thing that I had heard from other US ex-pats was how hard it is to find a turkey in Europe.  I was, however, pleasantly surprised that such is not the case in Marburg.  While I wouldn't entirely have minded having an awesome "Mission: locate turkey" story like my friend Amber (http://amberrais.wordpress.com/2009/11/30/thanksgiving-in-austria/) I'm OK with it being easy.  I had seen small turkeys in the "frozen meat" section in our local grocery store, but since they seemed small and I wasn't sure we'd have the fridge space for defrosting, I decided to go to the local market instead.  The market here is AWESOME!!  I went last Saturday on a recon mission, and bought the pumpkin and various root vegetables that I would need to round out our feast (and a few pastries, and a bottle of young fermenting cider, a sausage, some yummy cheese...which did NOT last until Thanksgiving), and found a friendly butcher's stand and ordered a turkey, to be picked up on Wednesday.

Shopping at the market! Sorry it's blurry. There was food. I was excited.

SO, on Wednesday I biked down and picked up a gorgeous looking bird.  And I think it might even have been organic, free range, fed by hand with only the choicest of seeds and bugs...OK, maybe just organic, but let's just say that while fresh turkeys were not hard to locate in Marburg, you pay dearly for the luxury.  Totally worth it, though. AND, I found a cool fall-colored centerpiece.  Normally, I'm like my mom and when it comes to decorative stuff, my favorite response is: "who do you think I am, Martha Stewart?" BUT when I saw this, I decided it would be perfect:

Take that Martha S. Who's classy now?

Sasha picked up most of the other things we needed at the grocery store on Thursday and in the evening, we went over to a German friend's house to have turkey with her family, so in a way, we even got 2 thanksgivings this year.

Then on Friday, I got up early and (for the first time without my mom or housemate Sian) started preparing for the holiday.  First up: apple pie.  Then, over the course of the day I made beet clementine salad, sauteed parsnips, sauteed sliced brussel sprouts with pecans and shallots, mixed roasted root vegetables including sweet potato, pumpkin (OK, not technically a root vegetable), onion, turnip and carrot, cranberry apple sauce, and a pumpkin cheese cake following a new recipe from my Saveur magazine (http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Pumpkin-Cheesecake). Including the rolls that Sasha made, our little toaster oven was working for most of the day.
The cheese cake was a bit tricky, since the crust was supposed to be made from smooshed ginger snaps, and, well, we couldn't find any.  Nonetheless, the German holiday spice cookies called Spekulatus were a tasty substitution, and making my own pumkin puree worked fine in the absence of canned pumpkin.  I did wish for a food processor at some points, though. 

Anna the human food processor, preparing cheesecake crust.  Yes, that is a water glass in my hand.

  SO, maybe you are noticing that I haven't mentioned the turkey yet.  Needless to say, our toaster oven could not handle a big bird, so figuring out how to roast the turkey was more problematic than locating it in the first place.  BUT after looking into many options, our friend Kristin saved the day and let us roast the turkey in her oven AND did the basting over the course of the afternoon.  It was perhaps amusing to have to keep dashing between buildings to check on the turkey, but in the end, the bird was quite yummy.  Kristin also brought mashed potatoes and stuffing (I guess it's dressing for you grammar mavens, since we baked it outside the bird, or maybe dressing is just a Southern term, I'm not sure). Add friends to the evening, and the feast became Thanksgiving.  

What a gorgeous bird, right?

With thanks, thanksgiving.

Aside from an incident with the stuffing and the floor, the evening went incredibly well given all the hurdles, and gave me ample time to count my blessings.  I am thankful  for food, the opportunity to spend a few years in Europe, friends to make the experience more pleasant, family supporting us from the states, and (of course), my faithful partner in this crazy adventure, Sasha, the bestest husband I could have.

Sasha hiding the party's evidence in good German fashion.