Thanksgiving - Germany Trip 1

November started our second year of marriage and a German extravaganza that began over Thanksgiving.

For Thanksgiving we went to Robert & Meg's in Kolitzheim. Robert and Meg served as excellent hosts for the weekend and we hope they will come visit us so we can pay it forward before they leave. Thanksgiving was great - mainly because of the delicious food, but the company was not too bad either ;-) we made lots of new friends. Oh yeah and I think we drank some wine which was also quite delicious as always and it turns out that Italian wine has competition from German wine. We ended the day watching the Red Skins Cowboys game until three am and Phil was one happy camper with the score.

Friday we took a short drive to Kulmbach. Kulmbach is a nice little German beer town. First we took a walk around the main sites finishing with the castle at the top of the hill. Then it was time for some gluwein by the fire at the Christmas market (that hadn't really started yet). I should note that one of the reasons we decided to make the trek to Germany for Thanksgiving is because the Christmas markets there are amazing and they generally start right after Thanksgiving - except this year when Thanksgiving was early and they didn't start till the following weekend. So after the gluwein which was the only Christmas market stand open we ended our visit to Kulmbach with a tour of the bread factory and brewery. Back at Robert & Meg's we had great leftovers and watched a movie - very relaxing.

Castle on top of the hill in Kulbach

The Christmas market is in that square -- can't see it?
That's because they hadn't even finished setting up yet!

Brewery & Bread Factory 

Saturday we took a trip to Rotenberg which is another great German medieval town. The town is one of my favorites thus far - though I feel like I feel that way about a lot of places here. Anyway, we strolled around the shops a little, had some gluwein (this is really a German requirement in the winter) and started a stroll along the outer wall and more rural part of the town which was quite nice as well. Then we met up with some more friends for a nice German lunch followed by a little more shopping before heading back.

Robert told us this was the postcard picture
At least I think this was the one :)
Everything was postcard worthy in my mind

The old city wall is very much intact and
we enjoyed exploring the outskirts. 

Kathe Wohlfahrt is a HUGE Christmas store
It ALMOST made up for the lack of Christmas Markets. 

That night Phil & I did dinner in Volkach (only a town over) and while it was pretty quiet when we were there it looked like a cute little area. We ended the night watching Meg & Robert play darts; they are part of a German dart league - how awesome is that? This of course led to a night of drinking and a card game which led to more drinking.

So on Sunday Phil and I got a little bit of a late start but all in the all the drive home was not too bad.

No promises on when the next post will be up but I promise I will try.