Events

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!

And so I finally made it to München! After quite some travelling I reached Haar (suburb in München where Karin's parents live) where it seems I'll be for the next few days at the very least.

I've had very warm reception here, which is very nice. The traditional thing for Karin's family is to have trout and potatoes for lunch on the 24th and fondue for dinner, as we did this year as well. This is actually the 3rd Christmas I am spending in München and in all fairness, Christmas in the cold just makes so much more sense than Christmas in the blazing SA heat.

To get back to the point - we decorated the Christmas tree yesterday, had the trout lunch which Karin's grandmother prepared for us after which I had a long overdue nap (I can never really manage to sleep on a plane - despite having sleeping pills and all). At around 18h00 we exchanged presents and moved over to the fondue. Having a fondue for Christmas is in my opinion a really excellent idea: it is very sociable and, since one eats for so long, one rarely overeats as much as one would do with the typical Christmas meal in SA.

At around ten-thirty we set off to the local church for the Christmas service. The catholic way is quite a long affair compared to the protestant way to which I am used. It really was great to take a walk in the -2 outside, reach the warm, cosy church, filled with beautifully decorated christmas trees and tons of candles. Having to partake in the german songs and prayers (Onse Vader, or: Vater Unser) is, although a bit difficult, very "romantic" experience (at a lack of a better word - any suggestions?).

Today is a nice and lazy day, with a run planned a bit later.

As parting words I wish you a MERRY CHRISTMAS