Strasbourg - Capitale de Noël

We decided that we will connect Cléments job interview in Strasbourg with a little trip to visit his friends there and to shop for some christmas presents. Calling themselves the "Capital of Christmas" seemed pretty outrageous at first. But offering 11 christmas markets made it look quite legit.

Every little space that the city offers is covered with little cabins where people sell amazing things to eat, to wear, to play with or to decorate your house. There are stages with choires singing that it gives you chills that are not caused by the minus 2 degrees. Every street has some different kind of lightning and the the thin layer of snow that covered the city made the impression of a winter wonderland complete.

Mail box of Santa Clause :)

We met Sabrina on one of the christmas markets and took a little walk around. Then we found a little cheese restaurant to fill our stomachs with wonderful french cheese. Afterwards we rolled home.

Raclette and crusty cheese 

The next day we did another trip around the markets with Sabrina and Mathieu, ate wonderful Gauffre and Schuupfnudels and did some shopping before taking the crowded train with a lot of drunk football hooligans home which was quite sad because it ruined the peaceful pre-christmas atmosphere we built up in Strasbourg.

Sabrina & Mathieu

So everybody who loves christmas and christmas markets, I can only recommend you Strasbourg with its wonderful diversity between kitsch and art.

Advent, Advent, ein Päckchen bringt

And there is was.... the 1st of December. And every kid in the world knows what starts on this very day, starting the christmas marathon of christmas decoration, gift shopping and card wrtiting: the advent calendar! To start every day with a smile, I made one of my famous and proven to be fun calendars for my friends in Enschede, Laura and Frank.

I took some pictures that Frank shot when they where visiting me and Clément here in Ulm and turned them into a 100 piece puzzle. I wrapped some pieces in some paper and made 24 little parcels. I can say that this kind of advent calendar is fun, because I tried it last year with Clément, who was actually not able to keep himself from opening the parcels before the date that was written on it was reached!

One could say, it might even be too much fun.... Or that Cléments self-regulation is not very well developed. Either way, I sent a box with the 24 little parcels along with two jokers to them and yesterday and with a six day delay it finally arrived . Lucky for them, because they were allowed to open six parcels at once.

And I got this picture showing how far they have come.

Have fun guys, with your advent calendar!

And Clément got another one this year, again with a puzzle so he can work on his ability to delay gratification. And this year, I can keep an eye on him and make sure he stays on shedule.

Visitors of Heart

Last weekend we had dear friends over from the Netherlands. After more than half a year without seeing each other this reunion was far overdue and Laura, Frank and us spent a few precious days together here in Ulm. When you show your (new) home town to friends sometimes you are surprised by how much and how little you know about it. I know quite something over the old buildings and their purposes and also have my few places I like to go for coffee. But then there are a million things I haven't done yet such as climbing on the Münster.

Being surprised by blinding sunshine proving the weather forecast more than wrong, we took our chance and made our way up the what seems to be a million stairs. And every one of them was worth it. When my mum and my sister came to visit some weeks ago we climbed a tower on one of the surrounding hills but being so high up in the middle of the city and being able to see the Alps was a whole other dimension.

The next day the weather forecast was right (damn it) but still did not prevent us from going to Blaubeuren where the source of the Blau is, which is a little river flowing into the Donau in Ulm. The so called Blautopf is an underground cave which reach far into the mountain and were discoveres only 50 or 60 years ago by divers. The pictures they show about the inside of the cave are just fenomenal!

On Monday I had to go to work because one of our projects were due on that day and we had to finish. So Clément played tourist guide and took Laura and Frank for a little bike trip around the city. For evening we had home made Käsespätzle, which seem to become a tradition when we have visitors over.

It was such a nice relaxed weekend, spending hours on the couch catching up, watching movies and drinking tea... Thank you so much for coming and filling our home with your geniality!! <3

Musical discovery...

One new discovery in the shiny music skies. Blending in very well withour record collection of all-time-favourites such as Ben Howerd, Angus Stone, Bon Iver and Ed Sheeran. 

Presenting James Vincent McMorrow. 

Nights in Ulm...

Curious things happen in Ulm when night falls. Roboter try to make their ways across streets and into cinemas.

Snow appears out of the blue  and wrappes everything in icy coldness.

Global Home

We went to see the premier of "Global Home" yesterday in the Lichtburg Cinema in Ulm, which celebrated also its 60th anniversary. It's a very nice and humble documentary about the Couch Surfing Network that makes it so easy to travel and collect with the locals in a way that's almost impossible if you stay in a hotel (even more when it's a all-inclusive one). This movie did its job if you have this feeling of restlessness in your heart afterwards that makes you signing up on Couch Surfing and look for people that happen to live in places you always wanted to see. 

Wohin möchtest du gehen?

„Grinse-Katze“, begann sie ein wenig zaghaft…

„Würdest Du mir sagen, welchen Weg ich von hier aus nehmen soll?“

„Kommt darauf an, wohin Du gehen möchtest“, antwortete die Katze.

„Es ist mir gar nicht so wichtig, wohin“, sagte Alice.

„Dann spielt es auch keine Rolle, welchen Weg du nimmst“, sagte die Katze.

Lewis Carroll; Alice im Wunderland