A Ski Christmas!

We're taking off soon for our Christmas vacation, so we want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. We're going skiing in Austria (we know, we know, our life is very rough) and will be out of the loop for the next week. We will miss sharing the holidays with family and friends, but we're also very excited to get some skiing in. Here's a picture of our hotel and a link to the trail map:




Have a wonderful holiday and we'll be back soon with pictures and video!

Rob makes a grab for 'Favorite Uncle'

On our way to Dresden, we stopped in Frankfurt one night in order to see our friend, Vicki, and her daughter, Denali. It was great to see Vicki, who was on her way home for the holidays and we were able to give Denali an early Christmas present:

If you can't tell, that's a Kitten scarf with matching Paw mittens. Yes, it's ridiculously cute and Denali pretty much refused to take them off all night. While Erika is technically Denali's godmother, Rob was utterly selfish and spent the whole evening playing with her, spoiling her rotten and keeping her to himself. Here, he teaches her how to climb out windows:


Denali narrowly avoids being eaten:

In the end, he wore her down completely, which allowed Vicki to enjoy her dinner and helped Rob maintain his favored status over some guy in New Jersey (you know who you are!)

My Christmas Market can beat up your Christmas Market

This weekend took us to yet another German Christmas Market, this time in Dresden. Dresden is a beautiful old city in eastern Germany overlooking the Elbe River and the old-town district is absolutely stunning at night. We met some friends who flew in from London and spent two days alternating between freezing our toes off while walking through the market and stopping for Gluhwein or Grog and some of that oh-so-healthy German food. Dresden is nine hours away, which seems like a long way to go for a bratwurst, but the city puts on one of the best markets in the country. This year was the 573rd Dresden Christmas Market. Yeah. And look how huge it is:


This dwarfs the Aachen market and, for those of you who might get this reference, it's about 5 times larger than the Nuremberg Market. Luckily, we had already done most of the heavy shopping in Aachen, so we were able to enjoy the food and company rather than fight the crowd.

And now, the obligatory giant church photo:

This is the Frauenkirche, the giant Lutheran church in the center of the old town that has come to symbolize the rebuilding of Dresden after WWII. And this is the Lego version, which is almost as impressive as the real thing:


We've really enjoyed the markets- Erika was as excited as a kid on Christmas when we stumbled onto a small market wedged into a side-street on the first night in town and her eyes went wide when we found the giant Christmas 'pyramid' above. It's been a great way to get out and enjoy the holiday season while we're away from home. Look for more pics soon in our Flickr link on the right.

A little Christmas spirit

We decided against a tree this year- the Dutch do have them and they seem to be a pretty popular tradition. But, we're going to be out of town for the week of Christmas and for a long weekend before that, so we decided instead to get a wreath. This isn't the greatest picture (Rob had a hard time keeping the shadow of his giant head out of the way) but it's decorated with crystal icicles we found in Aachen and, although it weighs a ton, the tiny nail it's hanging on has held up so far. Erika went crazy and decorated the windows, too, and now it feels a little more like Christmas in the apartment.

Ahh... Ahh... Aachen!

...Gesundheit.


This weekend we traveled to Aachen, Germany to shop at the Christmas Market. Aachen is Germany's westernmost city, so while the city itself doesn't have much to offer tourists, the traditional German Christmas Market brings in all the Belgian, Dutch, and other neighbors. A Christmas Market is exactly what it sounds like: an insane mass of crazed people yelling in foreign tongues, elbowing each other for position at the front of the line to buy ornaments and sausage. And the little old ladies are the worst, because they look so sweet and kindly, but, in reality, they have the sharpest elbows- how else do you think they survived this long? (Hint: It's the elbows!)

Here, Erika works her way into the crowd:

Somehow, we survived the gauntlet and managed to enjoy ourselves. Several of our friends also made the trip, so we all shared in the bratwurst, gluhwein, and schnitzel. Gluhwein is a mulled red wine (Rob doesn't know what that means, either, but he likes it anyway) and is perfect for warming you up as you take a break from the elbows and the gnashing of teeth. We like it so much, we brought some home with us, along with some beautiful crafts and ornaments and even a "German Christmas Decoration Thing" for ourselves:


The candle-smoke turns the fan, which spins the figurines. And, yeah, it's as cool as it sounds. It has fire and wind and it's made out of wood! What could possibly go wrong?

The Late Thanksgiving Post

Thanksgiving was our first holiday away from home since the move and Erika's first ever away from home, so we weren't sure what to expect. Erika ended up working out of town on Thursday and Friday, so she spent the actual holiday eating Mexican food in a tiny town with a couple of coworkers. Then, over the weekend, she caught a nasty cold and spent most of Sunday and all of Monday sleeping. (She's feeling better now, though.)

However, somewhere, between the Mexican food and the Kleenex, we did manage to get in a nice little Thanksgiving. On Friday we went to a music festival and caught a couple of bands, including a singer/songwriter, Jenny Owen Youngs, who Erika and her friends were really excited about. (Rob liked the show, too, but mostly because she also sang this song.) Then, we went out for DISCO BOWLING! Well, it was called disco bowling, but Rob suspects it was really techno bowling since they didn't really play any disco...

On Saturday one of the bigwigs from Erika's office hosted a huge Thanksgiving dinner for the Americans and there was even some college football. The dinner was great and it was nice to celebrate with other people and eat some pumpkin pie. On Sunday we had another Thanksgiving dinner with our friend, Jon, and several of his Dutch friends, who were pretty much in awe of the vast amounts of food.

In the end, it was a pretty good Thanksgiving despite being away from our families. We had plenty to eat, saw most of our friends, and we learned that the Dutch really, really like sweet potatoes.

"Labor Rather Permitted"

That's the literal translation on the back of Rob's shiny new residency/work permit, which he picked up today. So, the, ahem, six month vacation is nearly over as the search for a job begins. We don't really know what kind of job he'll land, but we are sure hoping he gets paid in Euro- the dollar is killing us over here!

Rob is definitely ready to get back to work, not that the vacation hasn't had its moments...

If you're wondering what to get Rob for Christmas...

Isn't this so much better than a scarf?

It's Always Sunny in Barcelona

It doesn't snow much in Amsterdam, but after getting hailed on last Friday, we sought refuge in Barcelona. Well, that would be a cool story- whenever it gets cold we jet off to the beach- but the truth is that Erika's firm has a week of "training" and Rob tagged along for the weekend. (Rob is pretty sure that it's all an excuse for a trip to Barcelona, but Erika assures him that somewhere between all the sangria and the sunshine there are conferences and classes to attend.)

The weather and the city were beautiful and like good tourists, we managed to see the obligatory giant European church, although the one in Barcelona is actually a lot different than most:


Mostly though, we had fun hanging out with our friend, Colleen, who was in the neighborhood visiting her cousin, who is studying in Spain. Together, we saw the Sagrada Familia basilica above and took a gondola to the park that overlooks the city. Here, Erika enjoys the view:


Not everything went according to plan, however. Our friend, James, was supposed to join us and couldn't, so the girls mourned his absence over a few dozen drinks. James, you were missed.


Still, it was another great trip and Erika gets to hang out in Spain all week, "training" with the firm. Here she is, hard at work on her siesta:

Killer of an Advent Calendar

Does everybody know what an advent calendar is? Rob's family spent so much time in Germany when he and his brother and sister were kids that he's not sure if it's a mostly German thing or if it's universal. An advent calendar can take many forms, but for Rob it is a box of chocolates with one chocolate for each day of advent (each day in December leading up to Christmas, for you heathens). Each chocolate is behind its own cardboard window and every day you find and eat (for breakfast, preferably) one delicious chocolate in solemn anticipation of the coming celebration of Christ's birth. (Actually, the best part is when you forget about it for a few days and then have to eat three or four pieces of delicious chocolate in solemn anticipation of the coming celebration of Christ's birth. Plus, when your little brother is six years younger than you, he doesn't always know what day it is, so you can..., um, wait, that story doesn't exactly fit with the Christmas spirit... Nevermind.)

Anyway, the calendars are usually decorated with Christmas imagery or winter scenes, or a house with 24 windows, etc. But then there's this article (click to read):

"What says Christmas like a serial killer?"

How about that? Here's the pic:


And they say Germans don't have a sense of humor...

A Brand New Expat

Don't you just hate those people that do everything better than you? We've been pretty happy with ourselves for making the big move to Amsterdam and navigating through the Dutch bureaucracy and the new culture and then our friends Aaron and Sara come around and do it all while blindfolded, 7-months pregnant, and with one hand tied behind their backs. Well, okay, maybe they weren't blindfolded, and maybe they didn't have their hands tied behind their backs, but they were 7-months pregnant and moved over here anyway. Well, that was a couple of months ago...

Meet Andrew, the newest member of our little circle of expats here in Amsterdam.

Andrew was born last week in a Dutch hospital, which, by the way, is totally optional here. His mom spent a night in the hospital and then was promptly sent home. The Dutch health-care system sends a nurse to their house for several hours a day to help out with baby care (and cooking and cleaning!) . She also gives great advice for new mothers: Limit yourself to one or two cigarettes a day and absolutely avoid drinking more than a liter of wine per day. Can't be too careful, you know?

Uncle Big Bob and Aunt Lu

This weekend brought a return to one of Rob's many "hometowns." We visited our friends, the Duffies, in Vilseck, Germany, where Rob lived for 4 years. It's a small Bavarian village surrounded by farms and forests. Erika got to see a little of where Rob was from and we got to eat at a few of Rob's favorite restaurants. We spent most of the weekend playing with Denali- Rob spent most of his time reading her books and flying her around the room, and so he didn't take many pictures. Here, Denali and her dad feed the ducks at the stream behind their house:

We also spent an afternoon in Nuremburg, a gorgeous medieval city that still has much of the original wall encircling the city center. We did a little shopping, walked through the market and followed an old city tradition of turning a brass ring in a fountain for luck:

The pics from Bruges that needed explaining

When we were in Bruges, we did a little shopping in a little arts and crafts store. Some of the stuff was cute, some of it was junk, and some of it was just odd. There were these hand-carved figurines of people in various professions, like dentists, fishermen, karate experts, etc. Our favorite was the butcher, although it's a little graphic, don't you think? (Also, one of us, ahem, thought he was some sort of psycho dog killer at first...)


Speaking of scary killers, we found this cool sculpture of the 1st Horseman of the Apocalypse:


Later, Erika bonded with another, more fabulous horse:


And, finally, there was this. Actually, we have no explanation for this.

Like a Kid in a Candy Store

As lovely as our apartment is, one thing it lacks is a garden. Erika's been missing her yard and her plants and while we've enjoyed some beautiful flowers, our only plant has been a sad little pot of basil. That all changed this week when we found the local nursery. It's one square mile of all things green- it's huge, like a Home Depot devoted to gardening. So, now our little basil plant is no longer alone, Erika gets a house full of beautiful plants, and Rob still doesn't have to mow. Everybody wins!

That's Heavy...

1.21 Jigga, what?!

Yes, Rob is a dork.

Other People's Boring Vacation Photos

Just a quick post to say that we updated the Flickr account with a few more photos from Bruges. Enjoy!

We Have Seen the Future and it is Red

Once, years ago, when Rob was in college, he teased a girl at a party about her pants, which seemed a little, well, short.

"They're called capris," she said with disgust, "and they're huge in Europe right now. Pretty soon you'll see them everywhere so you'd better get used to it."

Rob learned two valuable lessons that night. First, making fun of a girl's outfit is not good strategy. And second, you can't stop fashion, no matter how silly it might look. Sure enough, soon capris were everywhere, even on people with no business wearing them. Even on men.

With that second lesson in mind, men of America, I give you the latest European fashion trend, coming soon to a store near you:

Red Pants!

These things are everywhere and on men of all ages. We can't figure it out and we can't stop it- we already know one American here who bought a pair to be 'ironic.' And, of course, that's how it starts. One man's ironic red pants is another man's trendsetter. So, fellas, consider yourselves warned.

Beer, Beer, and More Beer

Wow, some of you just spent three days with Rob's parents, which is more than he can usually handle. (Just kidding, Rob's parents- we love you). But, while the rest of you were wondering what Rob was doing in that awesome blue suit, we took a little trip to Bruges, Belgium.

Bruges is mostly famous for being famous- it's always full of tourists. But it's still worth a visit as it's a very charming medieval city with a grand church and a beautiful bell tower that Never. Stops. Ringing. No, it's nice. Although, at one point the church decided to ring, too, and went off for about 30 minutes as we sat next to it, eating lunch... This is the bell tower:


More importantly, though, is the beer. Belgium has more brands of beer (over 600) than any other country and the beer is very flavorful and higher in alcohol content. We took a good shot at trying as much as we could, even touring the local brewery and enjoying a sample. Please note the delicate placement of the pinky finger:



In between beers, we wondered through the city and enjoyed another weekend of spectacular weather. The city has a few canals running through it that offer some stunning views of the neo-gothic buildings. Bruges is said to be 'more Gothic than Gothic,' but we didn't see a whole lot of kids dressed in all black. Well, there was the one lady, but she may have been a nun. A view:


Finally, a trip to Bruges wouldn't be complete without a giant bowl of mussels (polished off with more beer, of course):


Bruges was a beautiful city and we're looking forward to heading back there with some of our visitors. Notice how we always end these posts with plugs for visitors?

Happy Anniversary!

On this day in 1975, these two crazy kids got hitched. They've hung in there all this time, and even managed to raise three great kids, although one of those kids seems to think that posting an old picture of them on his blog constitutes a 'gift.' Not sure about that kid, but let's hope the other two turned out okay.

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!

Booyah!

Rob biked by this store again today. It's always been one of our favorite store names in town:

Our Friend, Flickr

You'll notice a new feature on the right that directs you to our Flickr account. Flickr, for those of you "of a certain age," is an online photography album where you can store photos, either privately or publicly. You only get a 100 MB per month free and with Rob's new camera (and Rob's trigger-happy camera use) we're not sure how far that will go. But, until we figure out something better (or decide to pay for more space), enjoy our test run of some more pictures from our trip to Paris.

Baby Yoga?

One of the places we shop is a little organic grocery. Everything in the store is all-natural or chemical-free or organic. Except this creepy dolphin/baby fetus. I don't think that's natural.

Our First Visitor!

A big part of the reason the transition has been so smooth so far is that our friend, John, works in Amsterdam for another firm and our friends, Aaron and Sara, moved here with the firm just after we did. So, we've had a small piece of home here already. But this last weekend we had our first official visitor. Michelle had some work in Brussels last week, but then she met up with us in Paris and afterwards spent a few days with us at home. We had a great time in Paris, and since Rob is a jobless bum, he was able to show her around Amsterdam a bit. It was great to have a visitor and Michelle has set the bar for the rest of you very, very high: she cooked us dinner last night! Here are a couple of pictures of the girls mugging for the camera and our first attempt at a little video. The video's not very long (or interesting) but you can see the amazing weather we had. The tree just behind Erika is shielding the base of the Eiffel Tower:

Savoir Faire Is Everywhere!

Update: YouTube had to take down the video we linked to. Here's another one with just the song and no cartoons. Listen to it and then see if you can go all day without singing it.

Rob doesn't know any French, other than what he gleaned from a lifetime of watching cartoons. Hence, he spent the entire weekend in Paris quietly muttering lines from Underdog and humming this song from The Little Mermaid. Isn't he so worldly and refined?


Our weekend in Paris was wonderful. We took the fast train from Amsterdam- well, it's called the fast train because it can hit speeds of over 200 kmph, but it doesn't really reach those speeds until you leave Brussels three hours later, so really, it should be called the same-as-every-other-train-until-you-get-to-Brussels Train, but still. It rained Friday night, but we managed to have a plate of cheese and some drinks at a nice café near the Louvre and dinner at some fancy-schmancy (or was it hoity-toity?) restaurant that is famous for being cool and having appeared in some TV show that Rob doesn't watch and therefore must not exist (Erika says it was in Sex and the City). But, it was in a great location, and though this isn't the greatest photo, you can see that it is on the roof of a building overlooking the Seine:


On Saturday we enjoyed a walk through the park and headed to the Sainte-Chapelle, which is famous for it's vast columns of stained glass that tell the story of the Bible from Genesis to the Crucifixion. It was gorgeous:


Then, we took a walking tour of Montmartre and the Sacré Coeur, only the walking tour was in Dutch (the trip was sponsored in part by Erika's Dutch firm), so we ditched it with some other Americans and made up our own tour, which of course was centered around crepes and beer.


Finally, on Sunday, we rented City Bikes and pedaled along the Seine, down the Champs Elysées, over to the Eiffel Tour and back again. While the Metro system in Paris is fantastic, biking was an amazing way to see the city. We had wonderful weather and it was a great first trip out of the city. And, it's only a "fast" train away from here, for any of you potential visitors out there...