Frohe Weihnachten, everyone.

It's probably best to rename the Meldrumhaus the Meldrum Mobile Home, given the travel we've been doing these past few weeks. Besides our several awesome days with Jaren in Paris, Brussels, Maastricht (post coming soon!), and Aachen, Sara and I spent four days in London for New Year's, followed by five days in Bavaria. That said, sorry we're behind on keeping you up-to-date on our lives. For now, though, I want to bring everyone back to 2011 for a look at the Christmas Market in Cologne:



Of course we made Jaren climb the 509 stairs up the south tower of the Cologne cathedral and saw the red-roofed Weihnachtsmarkt below.



And looking back up was pretty impressive, too.

We saw this street group playing Pachelbel's Canon in D; note the guy on the left playing the Balalaikacontrabass. Probably the coolest instrument I've ever seen.



No day at the Weihnachtsmarkt is complete without some tasty treats. Here's Jaren enjoying Glühwein and roasted chestnuts.



Köln (or Cologne) is large enough to host several Christmas markets; here are the swinging gnomes marking the entrance to one a little further removed from the Cathedral with wares of somewhat higher quality (and price):



And to make sure his luck wouldn't run out while in Europe, Jaren rubbed the nose of the Cologne statue-icon Tünnes (the tall one is Schäl). Apparently, the sign says that Schäl is going to be deported. Don't get it at all.



Though Sara and I aren't terribly pleased with the dining options in Aachen, we've never tasted anything as disgusting as we had in Köln. Recommended to us by the Cologne natives and tour guides from our German courses at the Goethe Institute (back from when we were living in Bonn), Früh is a brewery/restaurant dating back to the 12th century. Apparently it serves the best traditional dishes found in the Rheinland. Apparently, the food from the Rheinland is gross.

Jaren ordered goulash. We didn't really know what goulash was, so we asked the waiter. The conversations went something like this:

Tyler: Excuse me, could you explain what exactly is goulash?
Waiter: Goulash?
T (nervously, thinking that he had mispronounced it): Yes, goulash.
W: Umm, that's an international dish.
T: Well, we don't know what it is, so...?
W: I guess it has chunks of meat in it and it's in a sauce...
T: So it's like Sauerbraten?
W: No, it's not.
Jaren (to T): I'll try it.
T (to W): He'll have the goulash.
--five minutes later--
W to J: Here you go. Das ist Goulash.

The emphasis on his das in das ist Goulash can't be overstated. We used that phrase about 500 times during the remainder of Jaren's stay.

The verdict? Jaren reports that his goulash was like canned Dinty Moore stew. A 15 euro can of Dinty Moore stew.



Sara tried some bean dish that was supposed to be accompanied by bacon. Apparently they raise bigger bacon out here--it comes by the slab!



I, on the recommendation of the locals, tried the local beer (alcohol free). As a service to all of you, let me warn you: DO NOT DRINK KÖLSCH BEER BY FRÜH. IT IS DISGUSTING. The only upside was that it was cheaper than water. A lot harder to put down that water, but cheaper. Overall, Früh was the most disgusting thing that we had eaten in a long while, and we paid around 50 EUR for it. Just so you know, dear potential visitors, we won't take you there. (But at least you know we've done our research.)

Christmas was well described by our guest poster, Jaren. The three hats he mentioned were a clever stand-in for the usual stockings. (Only after Christmas did our German friends ask if we got presents in our shoes--why didn't Santa think of that instead of hats?) Each of us got some hot chocolate from The Chocolate Company (excellent), some Ritter Sport chocolate, and a TV show on iTunes. (For the curious, Jaren got season one of Prime Suspect with Helen Mirren, Sara got season two of Downton Abbey, and Tyler got season one of Dexter. All highly recommended.)



To increase the Christmas spirit, Sara took some time on Christmas Eve to whip up this Christmas tree. It was festive, if a little unorthodox, and provided a home for the new pig ornament that Sara received from her family. (Sara loved pigs as a little girl. Still does.)

Perhaps the best Christmas present was a three-way video chat with our brother Austin, currently serving a mission for the Mormon church in Chuuk, Micronesia, and with our family in Denver. It was a great chat with him that left all of us feeling closer as a family; a surprising feat given that we were all at least eight time zones removed from the others. The conclusion of the video chat was that following Austin's return to the States in May, my family will be making a trek out here to see us in Germany/Europe. So, dear readers, rest assured that there will be plenty more guest posting to come.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

Would you like (Belgian) Fries with that?

Prior to our trip through France and Belgium, several people (Sara's sister Laura) had given us lots of suggestions about what to do and eat in Paris. Not so in Brussels. Since we were both pretty crazy leading up to this trip and didn't have time to make a complete itinerary, Brussels was somewhat short shrifted for planning purposes. So, what does one do in Brussels without a plan ahead of time? Chocolate and waffles, of course!

We arrived on Tuesday evening and went for a dinner at a very Belgian restaurant in the Grand Place market area. We had mashed potatoes with bacon and leeks topped with various things. (I had them topped with fried eggs--surprisingly tasty.) We then went to the Brussels Christmas Market and had waffles and Glühwein (an optionally alcohol-free hot wine served around Christmastime). Here are Sara and my brother Jaren enjoying the Belgian treats of the night.



We even went for a ride in the Ferris wheel overlooking the market area. However, we didn't go into the inflatable 45 meter-long Christmas Monster (not sure what it was really), nor did we get to ride the very Steampunk carousels in Brussels (we were too tall). The market was nice, though, and the way back had the Ghost of Christmas Past watching us:



The next morning we walked around the Grand Place during the daylight to take some pictures. It's truly a stunning square with beautiful buildings on all sides:

This year at Christmastime, the Place was filled with light beacons (arranged in a spiral "inspired by the Fibonacci sequence") that would do a light show to music by Tchaikovsky (among others). It was cool, if a little weird. Here is the main Christmas Tree in front of the spire of one of the Grand Place buildings.

We went for breakfast at a cafe and walked around a little bit and, fortuitously, caught a glimpse of the benefits this EU-capitol provides its workers:

It's an EU-branded head umbrella! So crazy.

The cartoons point the way to major landmarks:



And there's the landmark itself:



Overall, Brussels seems a clean and fairly well-organized city, a "curious mix of conservative and avant-garde," as the New York Times recently reported.

We took a trip to the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudule (which sounds like our friend Dula--we'll have to ask him if he's been canonized yet). It is a huge, beautiful building that, at the time, was hosting a selections of creches from around the world. A few of our favorites:







And the organ, always a subject of my interest, was beautiful:



We made a visit to the famous Manneken Pis. It's smaller than I thought.



We also noticed this crazy H&M store. It was set up just for the Christmas market and is advertised as a "Pop-Up H&M." In case you just can't possibly wait.



We had planned to go to the Museum of Musical Instruments, but it wasn't open for breakfast when we arrived and we wanted to walk around more, so we settled for admiring the facade. (And the facades of several other buildings right around there.)








And lastly, we spent a few hours in the Magritte museum. The paintings were rather beautiful and the museum was well laid-out. However, at the end, Jaren wasn't terribly sure what was real and what was not. The title of this photograph: Ceci n'est pas un Jaren.



Special Section: Chocolate

I mentioned earlier in this post that we spent an inordinate amount of time visiting and sampling chocolate from various chocolatiers in Belgium. Let me quantify our experience a little bit. We were walking around the Grand Place and saw three chocolatiers immediately: some special Belgian one, Godiva, and Neuhaus. We didn't even bother with Godiva since it's everywhere. The unnamed one was good, but not as good as Neuhaus. We walked about 50 meters and passed two other chocolatiers before stumbling upon Leonidas, Elisabeth, and another one (more famous for its cookies than its chocolate, but good nonetheless). We passed over Leonidas, since we've had it before and it's available in Aachen. Besides that, the cookies at the cookie place were really good but Elisabeth was astounding. All of us involuntarily slowed our walking pace while eating those truffles--they were just that good. We also stopped in one more chocolatier (name forgotten) to try a dark chocolate truffle filled with chestnut cream. The guy wanted to close soon, so he gave them to us for free. In total, we visited six chocolatiers and a cookie shop. This was in the space of one hour on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday morning, we sought out Mary, another world-class chocolatier from Belgium. It, too, was delicious. In the afternoon we wanted a snack, so we stopped by the bakery Paul for croissants, macarons, and hot chocolate. The chocolate macarons there may have been the best thing I have ever eaten. The crust was perfectly crisp with a chewy chocolate cake/cookie layer, and the chocolate filling was rich and smooth. It was amazing.

What is the moral of the story? When in Belgium, always look for chocolatiers with Biblical first names: Paul, Elisabeth, and Mary. You won't be disappointed. (Of course, only after we got home did we see the previously mentioned New York Times article about chocolatiers in Brussels. We hit four of their top 14. Time to go back.)

We've Become Lame

Dear readers, we have a confession to make. We've become lame. Sara is in the end of finals, working frantically on her blog (a review of books and other materials for young adults) until the early hours of the morning, while I'm feeling particularly swamped with work, topped by preparing a presentation for a group of art historians, lawyers, and journalists about the science I do and how we are using it in an investigation of forged paintings (one of which was sold to Steve Martin). Luckily, both of us will finish this week, Sara on Thursday at 9 am and I on Saturday at noon, and then we will celebrate in style.

You are probably wondering how Germans (or wannabe Germans, or at least those of us living among Germans) celebrate in style. In our case, we travel. On Monday, December 19, my brother Jaren will be flying into Paris, where we will meet him for a 30 hour stay in the city of love. Then we'll take the fast train approximately ninety minutes to Brussels for an equally long visit. We'll then come back to Aachen for Christmas proper and to visit some sights in the Rhineland before Jaren leaves 10 days after his arrival.

That's still not enough for us at the Meldrumhaus, though. Taking advantage of Sara's time off of classes, we'll hop on a fast train to London on December 31 (the total trip is 3.5 hours) to spend New Year's Eve watching fireworks over the Thames and a few days more in the city. We then get home just in time to catch one more work-related trip (one on which Sara gets to join) to Munich, where we'll meet up with Franz, a friend and colleague of mine whom I met in Berkeley, and spend a weekend seeing the city and the Alps. I'll have some work to do during the weekdays so, just as in Berlin, Sara will do the sightseeing and museum-seeing and report all about it.

This post boils down to an apology and an invitation. The apology is for not keeping you all up-to-date on our happenings. Primarily because there haven't been any, but also because the few that have been (like the party we threw for two members of Sara's Sunday School class for young adults) have been short on photos and we've been short on time. The invitation is to come back to the Meldrumhaus after the holidays. If our travel itinerary is any indication, we'll have PLENTY to talk about.

With that, perhaps we can leave you the best (and most affordable) Christmas card we could manage. It summarizes our six months in Europe and, hopefully, gives some indication for the months to come.

Frohe Weihnachten! or, in other words, Merry Christmas!

P.S. After reading this post, Sara told me, "We could also just tag it 'bragging.'" Which is mostly true.

Christmastime is Here

The holidays are in full swing in Aachen, and I've got some catching up to do. Last weekend our friends Kimberly and Tim came for Thanksgiving--making them our first-ever visitors! We had finally made it to Ikea the week before, so we even had towels and bedding for them. (Oh, and have we mentioned that we now have living room furniture? Hooray!)

So when the Prices were here we moved the coffee table out of the way and put the air mattress in its place. It worked very nicely, I must say.

The main event was this meal, prepared almost single-handedly by Tyler.



(Kimberly and Tim weren't supposed to be in the picture. Sorry guys.) In case you're wondering, that feast consists of mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, Brussels sprouts with bacon and figs, rotisserie chicken (turkey is hard to find and expensive here), roasted sweet potatoes and apples, and homemade rolls. There was also a glorious apple cake with caramel sauce for dessert. (I have yet to see a pie pan here, and canned pumpkin does not exist.)

Besides eating, the weekend's other activities were touring the Dom (I went with the Prices while Tyler cooked) and playing lots and lots of games--exactly the things we'd been hoping to do with guests! The Prices introduced us to Ligretto, which is like Nertz, and even brought us our very own copy. I am usually good at speed games (really!) but Kimberly and Tyler destroyed me (and Tim). The Prices also graciously agreed to learn Agricola, and we played two games. Huzzah! I won. Twice. Huzzah! Huzzah!

By the time Thanksgiving came around, the Aachener Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) was already in full swing. Tyler and I went the day after it opened, and have been back several times since. It's kind of hard to avoid, since it fills the squares around the Rathaus and Dom in the center of town. The main attractions seem to be Printen (Aachen's specialty--a kind of hard-to-chew gingerbread that Tyler likes and I do not) and Glühwein (mulled wine). I don't think there's a spot in the whole Weihnachtsmarkt that's more than ten yards away from a Glühwein stall. Our most exciting food find, though, was waffles.



The entrance to the market, in front of the Rathaus.



One of two Christmas carousels.



The giant Printen man on the back side of the Rathaus.



The Dom square, packed.



Hexenhof. Christmas witches? In addition to Glühwein and food, they sell "Rumgrog."

Tyler and I both have ludicrous amounts of work to do in the next couple of weeks, but then his brother Jaren is coming to town for Christmas and we will play. We can't wait!