I went to visit a friend (Sandy) in Nuremberg (in German: Nürnberg, or as the locals say: Nämberch).
I spent a sunny winter day with my parents in the Allgäu, to visit a friend, Hannelore, with her sister and daughters. They own a cottage, Weber Hütte, situated in the Wertach Valley landscape conservation area near Nesselwang. In Weber Hütte, two self-contained apartments (for up to 12 respectively 8 persons) are available for rent throughout the year. In summer you can go for walks or mountain hiking, e.g. to the nearby Alpspitze. In winter the area is attractive for winter sports.
While Augsburg has no more snow at present, the Allgäu is picturesquely white. The reason is altitude: we're here at 900 m above sea level. We went for a lovely walk over snow-covered fields against the backdrop of the Alps, and alongside the rippling Wertach river. I think it is safe to say this is one of the most beautiful areas of Germany.
I have to show you another book I made, and this one was a great creative act on my side.
I made the book through a German company, Fotokasten. My insider tip is to buy a coupon from Tchibo, you can save considerably compared to the regular price. The printing and binding quality is good and they have a very friendly and fair service. The only negative I can say is that the software crashed a lot while I designed the book, probably because I had used so many big photos.
Aah, how nice it is to be home for Christmas and to celebrate it in the traditional way. In winter, with a real Christmas tree (Nordmann Fir) with real candles (in addition to electric ones), with my parents, granny, sisters and nieces.
with Schichtsalat, yum!). Time to unwrap the presents. The cat -- my parent's pet is a fat, good-natured white male with the absurd name of "Pixie" -- liked his present too, a piece of sausage. To our shock, he gulped it down with the bow (mit der Schleife) before we could stop him! But he seems all right -- it will go the normal way.
The evening ended with church. I don't usually attend church, but made an exception because my mom performed in the Gospel choir. From there we walked home in the 'silent night', with a torch (Fackel) to light the way, for the mood. Unfortunately we did not have white Christmas because it had thawed. Well, you can't have everything. Today we're going to have turkey for lunch (with potatoe dumplings and red cabbage) and then we'll celebrate with my elder sister and her family.
Today I have received a book I had ordered last month from a company in America, contents: this blog's postings from the first (18 October 2008) through to 26 November 2009.
It's good to have my diary with all my memories, experiences and thoughts of this exciting year in Australia not only online but also in printed form. The book has 163 pages, A4, hardcover, and the printing quality is good.
Es treibt der Wind im Winterwalde
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Frost has come, and it still has not thawed in my home town. This morning we had -10 degrees! Here are some photo impressions of the current winter land. Now everybody hopes we might be lucky to have a white Christmas -- but meteorologists say they still can't predict it.
This is the pine forest at the Königsbrunner Heide. In the middle of this beautiful ice covered forest, I heard voices: the local forest kindergarten "Waldwichtel". They are out here with the children playing (in warm winter clothes of course) at any season. Hats off! (I mean, kudos, Respekt!)
And this is one of the swans on the Ilsesee (Lake Ilse). I went to the lake to check if it has an ice cover, but it didn't - not yet.
Today was my granny's birthday. The 96th! We had afternoon coffee and two homebaked cakes -- yum! And of course a bottle of sparkling wine to drink to her health. My parents were there, my two sisters, my brother-in-law, his mother, and my two nieces, Sarah and Lisa. And a lot of people called on the phone to congratulate the birthday 'child'. I'm very happy and lucky to have a grandma who is still that amazingly fit at her age.
My working visa preparations are going well. I have nearly all the required documents ready to lodge the visa application. I'm very tired; I haven't caught much sleep in the past days and my days have been very busy.
While Australia swelters in summer heat, we have had the first snow in Augsburg today! I'm happy; I love snow.
I'm doing what we do here in the Advent season: baking Christmas cookies, known in Germany generally as Weihnachtsgebäck or Plätzchen, or in Swabia as Loibla. There are hundreds of traditional German varieties. One of the best known is probably Lebkuchen. Here I'm making a kind that's made of Marzipan, similar to Bethmännchen but with hazelnuts instead of almonds.
It's a small world... or so it seems. I happened to meet an Australian here in Augsburg who happened to have moved into the room my sister used to live in. Kane (from Melbourne) sent me a link to a website where I found pretty cool stop-motion videos of a miniature world version of Sydney. Or so I thought.
On Wednesday I met with the members of Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg for their annual Xmas dinner. I was the surprise guest and everyone was so happy to see me again! Lots of big hugs and hellos.
Plan Aktionsgruppe Augsburg is a group of volunteers who organize and run charity projects in Augsburg to popularize and raise funds for the international aid organization Plan. See plan-deutschland.de for their German and plan.org.au for their Australian office. Blue in the map: donor country, yellow in the map: project country of Plan.
