The Festive Season
Graptolite's Sailing Log
Martyn Pickup & Heike Richter
Wed 12 Jan 2011 15:08
Dortmund, Germany, Wednesday 12th Jan 2011
I'm getting a bit behind with this blog and forgetting what I've been doing
so here's a quick romp through the festive season.
Christmas in Germany starts 24th December when the Weinachtsmann comes to
thrash the kids who have been naughty and give out presents to those who are
nice. It is also the day for the big dinner which was at our place. Or, in
fact, in the apartment next door which we currently have un-tenanted and
filled with spare furniture normally stored in the basement. Heiki's sister,
Micki, entertained with Christmas carols on the "squeezebox" piano-accordion
while we attempted to digest both a German traditional dinner of two geese
and a dangerous assortment of British Xmas delicacies.
The 25th was bizarrely mostly spent naked in the sauna-house in the garden
and rolling in the snow while waving to the neighbours.
As New Year approached we collected Mum & Dad Pickup from Dusseldorf airport
and had a working road-trip across a snowy Germany back to Berlin stopping
for the night in various stately schloss and being entertained in circus
tents on the way.
Daughter Holly arrived at Schoenefeld airport on the 30th with five friends
for birthday and New Year celebrations. We met them and took them for
breakfast in Kreuzfeld. Son Tom had to cancel his visit to Berlin though due
to raging 'flu.
New Years Eve and Day was in a big resort hotel next to a frozen lake to the
south of Berlin. Along with assorted parents we had friends Siegfried and
Renate with us. It was a 1950's themed dinner-dance which neatly coincided
with nobody's actual adolescent years.
After New Year, Holly and friends came for a fondue and again for leftovers
the following night when we took them back to the airport. Dinners for ten
are hard work. Mum and Dad had another few days sightseeing in Potsdam and
Berlin before flying home although the icy streets and sub-zero temperatures
didn't allow for too much outside.
Yesterday I was in Mechelen near Brussels. Today I'm in Dortmund. I've no
idea where I will be tomorrow but it's not going to be Berlin. I'm fairly
sure that there are a couple of bits of foreign travel coming up over the
next few weeks including a previously unvisited country. Is it possible
there are any of those left?
M