Amsterdam (for a cold minute) and Germany

Canals, castles and Christmas!

I left Nairobi for the cold northern climes of Amsterdam on Dec 7, 2022 at around 00:30. It was not a great time for flying. The (many) kids cried and the grown-ups snapped and snarked at eachother until most of the plane was asleep. But, we made it. I stepped out into the spotless, orderly, chilly Amsterdam airport at about 08:00 local time and, in spite of thinking I was done with the heat, it turns out I was also not quite ready for the cold! It was weird to go from warm and bustling Nairobi to cool and well-organized Amsterdam literally overnight.

I was sad to leave the more adventurous part of my trip behind and start the trip home but I was really excited for some Northern European organization and tidyness. I was SO excited in fact that my first photo in Amsterdam wasn't the huge, gorgeous Christmas tree in the middle of the airport atrium but the bathroom stall. 😆🤦‍♀️😆

I mean, look at those hooks! 😆

Alongside neat and tidy bathrooms, I was looking forward to reliable (if brief) instructions given to tourists, smooth border crossings, efficient transit, increased GF options with great labelling in grocery stores and safe exploration of cities. Still, it was difficult to come to terms with the end of the African portion of my trip. It was hard work for sure but I was sad say goodbye to the potential for adventure, a new crew of people to hang out with, the kind, talented and funny guides, drivers and cook, the excitement of seeing new views and new animals at every turn, enjoying new food and even hearing new news. I hadn't considered that it might be nice to have a break from the news cycle in Vancouver (for non-Vancouverites, usually the high-cost of real estate, the concomitant housing crisis and the ongoing opioid overdose crisis rotate through top billing here). It was nice to be reminded of the big wide world with all its ten thousand joys and ten thousand sorrows. News flash - in spite of its many problems (and strengths), the neighbourhood I have worked in and around for the past 12 years is not the center of the universe!

It was also great to meet so many fantastic people. The teams that supported our tours, the travelers and the kind folks we met along the way. I was so anxious about all the things that might go wrong on the trip that I had completely forgotten that, not only might I make friends with cool people, they might think I was cool and want to be friends with me too! What?! Honestly, it seems silly but there it is. It was another lovely reminder of what happens when you broaden your horizons.

Anyway, after all these big experiences and big feelings I was a bit sad to be heading home. I wanted to see my family and friends but didn’t want to give up the adventuring for my regular life. Combine this enui with general fatigue and post-viral malaise and I was a bit mopey in Amsterdam and Frankfurt but I was determined to enjoy myself. As my friend Kim used to say, onward.

So, back to the travel!

It really is as easy as everyone says to lock up your bags in Schipol airport (luggage check is in the basement, DO NOT lose your tag, they are very serious about that point), jump onto a train and be downtown in minutes. Here is their very pretty train station,

And from another direction earlier in the day,

The Dutch really DO love bikes! And, because there isn’t enough real estate to park them all at ground level they actually have bike parkades (behind me below)!

According to the boat tour I took after lunch there are also underground parkades but even with all that bike storage infrastructure approximately 12, 000 to 15, 000 bikes are dumped in the canals each year. This has even been confirmed by the people at the Guinness Book of World Records! 🤯

Evidence of Amsterdam’s campaign to educate/discourage young, rowdy men from coming to the city and acting like jerks was everywhere. This was my favourite type of sign,

There are also “greenpee” planters installed for the same reason although I don’t recall seeing any.

(I would like to point out that none of the signs admonishing people for “wild peeing” were silhouettes of women. 🙄)

I only had about five or six hours in the city so I had lunch at a GF restaurant (such a treat to have GF bread again!) and hopped on a canal boat tour. It was a beautiful day and a lovely way to see the city.

After the tour I had a bit more time so I popped into the famous Sexmuseum Amsterdam which was, to be honest, kind of lame. I mean, it could have been cool if they tried provide even a shred of thoughtful or critical analysis but they just kind of have a bunch of “sexy” stuff with labels. It might be titillating if you are a young, mid-Western, American college student but even they have the internet! There is so much sex and naughtiness online now that if you are going to offer a “Sex Museum” you have to offer something more complex than you can find online. It doesn’t have to be dense and academic but it needs to be more than vintage dildos, cheesy animatronic mannequins and “porn” from the 1800s. I definitely didn’t need to pay 10 Euro for it but it was warm and they have a gorgeous bathroom so it wasn’t a total waste. Plus, I can say I’ve done it.

After that it was back to the airport for the short hop to Frankfurt.

Why Frankfurt you ask? Why not Berlin you scream? When I first started working on this plan I was going to leave the Africa trip in Dar es Salaam and found the only direct flight to Europe was to Frankfurt and, sadly, not Lisbon or Barcelona. At first I was kind of bummed because, what’s going on in Frankfurt in December? But, then I remembered, Christmas markets! Once I had that as a theme for Germany I decided to go to Nuremberg which is supposed to have one of the best and oldest Christmas markets. Once I was actually in Germany I realized that of course Berlin would have had an amazing Christmas market. Never mind. The die were cast. Berlin, I’ll see you another time.

Frankfurt was very badly bombed during the war and they decided to build back as a modern city. As a result it is quite boring (sorry Frankfurt) but I was still really happy for a nice (tiny) hotel room which had a fabulous hot shower. The first night there I showered for 45 minutes and used almost all the towels. It was glorious.

Architecturally Frankfurt is kind of boring but it is *the* center for finance in Europe and you could tell there was a good deal of money sloshing around. For a small city they seemed to have quite a few Rolex dealers and high end jewelry shops. They also have a gorgeous opera house,

While I was walking through the financial district I had to take this picture. I thought it was a “Tell me you are in a financial district with out *telling* me you are in a financial district!” type of thing and for some reason I found it really amusing.

(You can tell I work in publicly funded, female dominated industry by how impressed I am by men's dress shirts!)

Perhaps if I had stayed longer some gorgeous banker with a Rolex and sharply pressed dress shirt would buy me fancy jewelry and take me to the opera! I guess we’ll never know! 😆

But anyways, the main goal was, the Christmas market!

That Apfelwein was very tasty!

It was packed!

I had a great time exploring over a couple nights and came away with some lovely German ornaments.

This is the current set up with the addition of a small Santa that I bought in the US and a wee Elephant from the sanctuary in Nairobi.

The figures with their mouths open are German Smokermen. They are hollow in the middle so you twist off their legs and then fit a small cone of lit incense into a holder and replace the legs. The smoke rises and comes out their mouths and they look like they are smoking. We had one when we were kids and I found it fascinating. They are much cheaper in Germany than here so I was happy to pick some up while I was there.

After a couple days of sleeping and Christmassing, with side trips to a tower for a sunset view,

And a visit to the local Botanic Garden,

It was off to Nuremberg to soak up some more Christmas and reconnect with friends from the first portion of the trip. Bruno lives in Germany and Shauna and Charles were visiting Tina (also from the Botswana part of the trip!) and Bruno, Charles and Shauna came down to join me for a day or two. Sadly, Tina couldn't join us but the four of us had a blast!

We started at the local castle and explored as snow fell.

Lunch was a bit underwhelming for me because the kitchen of the lovely restaurant we ate at got super stressed out when I asked about gluten. The server went back into the kitchen and came back and said everything had gluten. I tried to clarify that it was ok if it was in the air or on the grill but that I did need to know if something like a sausage or a sauce had gluten IN it. Sadly, I couldn’t get our server to budge on the “everything” answer so rather than risk hopscotching from bathroom to bathroom all afternoon I went with a salad. In winter. In Germany. *sigh* I was able to try a few bites of potato salad as the dressing appeared to be vinegar based and not have any sour cream in it and that helped bulk out my meal but man, it was a chilly afternoon being fueled primarily by salad. (People make fun of me for packing lots of snacks around all the time [and lots of stuff in general tbh!] but lunches like this are why!) Anyway, we had a lovely afternoon in spite of the chill and eventually made our way back to the old town to explore the Christkindlesmarkt. It was PACKED but beautiful!

Bruno found us a great restaurant in an underground space that looked like a huge wine cellar. I needed a degree to wade through the allergy information on the menu (the Germans are very thorough people!) but eventually found something hearty and robust for dinner. I added some wine and we went back out into the crowds well fortified.

Of course more warm, spiced Gluhwein, or “glow wine”, was needed to help keep us going so we tried a few different stalls and shops around the square. This is the view from one of our stops. It was so nice to be up and out of the crowds for a bit.

After we warmed up we went back out into the fray for more exploring and more wine!

We had so much fun!

Sadly, Charles and Shauna had to head off for the next portion of their epic adventure the next day but Bruno was able to stay and explore with me. The town was much more manageable during the day!

Lighting candles for friends.

So much fun!

…..

Fast Forward a year and the German Christmas vibes continue!

My little nephew Bear is now enjoying the mysteries of a German Smokerman!

(Picked up in the Nuremberg market after Morgan saw mine and wanted in on the festivities! And also, how cute is that kid?! 😍)

And my mom and I just finished a trip to Leavenworth Washington where they have embraced a Bavarian theme and go all out for Christmas. Saturday was bonkers busy! If you are interested in going and have the flexibility I highly recommend adding a weekday to your stay. Parking will be cheaper and more plentiful and you can actually see things in the shops.

Saturday lunch at the beer garden attached to the Cured meat and sausage shop,

Monday lunch at the Munchen Haus Beer Garden across the street. The line up was massive Sat aft but there were only two people in front of us on Monday at about 11:30. And they had GF buns!

Our cabin at Sleeping Lady Lodge. Super comfy, well appointed and lovely staff. Highly recommend!

Hot tub is open in the winter!

Sleigh ride with Icicle Outfitters. We were pretty sure that in the summer it was a boring field and and an even more boring parking lot for river access but in the winter it is very pretty!

We had a great time!

❤️