Christmas in Annweiler

Mette and I set out in her Suzuki Swilft early on the 24th of December for Annweiler.  The drive from Berlin to Annweiler should take about 6.5 hours.  However, due to adverse weather conditions (in other words uber snowy!) it took us 11 hours!  Despite the slow going on the autobahn, we enjoyed ourselves on the road.  Once we arrived, we had a quiet dinner with Mette's parents, Uwe and Tove who are such lovely and welcoming people.  After dinner we sang German Christmas carols (I was learning to read German on the autobahn - my favorite word is 'Ausfahrt' which means 'car exit').  Occasionally we sang in German, Danish and English all at once!  (Tove is Danish).  Then they requested some Chanukah songs, so I entertained.

Christmas day was a great day of visiting with the entire family shown below.  The goose was delicious!

 Christmas dinner

 A walk through the city.  This is the Queich river.

Uwe is lighting the candles on the tree.

The following day was super chill.  We read, played games and went for walks.  My final day there, Mette, Tove and I went to Trier, which is where the Gumprich's are originally from, and there are many buried in the Jewish cemetery there, along with Karl Marx's grandparents!

 This is the outer wall of the Jewish cemetery (and it combines my bike chronicles in the same picture!). Unfortunately, we did not manage to enter the cemetery, as the gate-keeper was in Israel, and the alternative contact said that he didn't have the key :(  Well, we tried!

Trier is a very pretty city.  This is the central square.  A few days earlier it had been filled by the Christmas market.

The Cathedral.  I was unable to get a good picture of the organ - too dark inside.

This is the Judische Strasse - the Jewish street.  Not really much to see now, though we did see a Chanukia in a window.

Porta Nigra - Roman ruins.

And that's my Germany trip in a nutshell!  

I went to Stamford a day later - photos to come!

New Year's Eve was spent at Edwin and Linda's, in Pinner.  They had a huge dinner party, which was lovely.  I'm going to scrounge up a photo to include.