Frohe weinachten

Today was, as it is known in Germany, the second christmas holiday - where I joined Karin's family to go to the little town of Oberpframmern, where Karin's mother's family comes from and still lives.

After a church service (about St. Stefan - to the best of my understanding from the german, the first person to have died after the birth of Jesus and thus reaching the heaven through the "new" way which Jesus made possible... but don't quote me on this as the service was in bavarian German and at some times quite hard to follow) we went from house to house of Karin's family (uncles, brothers, etc), having schnapps to drive away the cold and then some christmas cakes.

It all ended in a restaurant where all the various family members met for lunch. I had "tafelspitz", which is actually an Austrian speciality but as we are quite close to Austria here, it is quite a well-known dish in this area as well. Tafelspitz is basically meat which has been cooked very very long in a type of minestrone soup until it is dried out - in effect basically cooked biltong. This was served with a type of cabbage and fried potatoes, all really excellent!

After the big lunch a nap was called for which was very welcome indeed (it is the time to rest after all!). With a lazy afternoon and some TV we now face a light dinner, nice german breads, cold meats and sausages. Tomorrow I will definately have to go for at least an hour's run after the nice eating that I've done the past 3 days!