Inspired! (Posted on 12/19/15)

After a fabulous celebration with family and friends marking my mom's 75th birthday and Bat Mitzvah, we left Florida for Germany on the 2nd of December (2015).

Practically the minute we landed in Hamburg - or the minute we got our first beer and donner kabab, which wasn't too much later - I told Matthias how I was already inspired to write in the blog.  We realized it was five years almost exactly to the day since we left Germany and so much had happened.  When we left, my father seemed healthy, and we were blissfully unaware about what was to come.  Living in Portland was no more than a crazy idea, a stab in the dark, and we had no idea how great it would be and how we'd grow to love it there.   Five years on, we wondered how much Europe - or we - had changed since we were last there.  Turned out, at least as far as we could tell, Germany hadn't changed much.  Of course, we got older - for example I'm now an old woman complaining about bad knees, deteriorating vision and a freaky skin condition, all of which didn't exist five years earlier.  But being in Germany brought us right back.  It was non-stop fun and amazing food!

First Donner Kebap and beer in Deutschland!  MMMMmmmm!

We arrived in Hamburg around mid-day, which gave us  enough time to grab lunch (above) take a quick nap (did I mention we're old now?) and hit the Reeperbahn in the evening.  The Reeperbahn is a street in the St. Pauli neighborhood that's famous throughout Europe as a red-light district.  I would describe it as a family-friendly red light district - and it was there that we hit our first Christmas market.  We didn't go into the "stripper tent" with its "North Pole Dancing", but enjoyed gluhwein and grunkohl and more. (for those in the know, please excuse the fact that I'm not using umlauts - too tricky on my little tablet.)

Grunkohl at the St. Pauli/Hamburg Christmas Market

Saying goodbye to the coolest Christmas Market in "Santa Pauli"

After a quick evening in Hamburg, we headed to Hannover where we visited Katja and got to see Ines, her mom, and meet the two new men in her life - her husband Timm and her adorable two-year-old son, Paul.  Despite the changes in her life, we were delighted to find that Katja hadn't changed a bit, and we had a blast touring through Hannover, enjoying the Christmas markets there, and solving the worlds problems over beer and gluhwein.  We promised to visit more often and we will!

Hannover Christmas Market with Katja

Probably after the second or third gluhwein

Breakfast with Katja, Paul and Timm (not pictured). Did I forget to mention how fabulous the breakfasts were?

Next stop was Magdeburg and a lovely visit with Matthias' parents.  Magdeburg had the best Christmas market of all so we took full advantage.  I also got to try out Achim's fantastic electric bike - can't wait to get one.  And, as if we didn't have enough good food to eat, Birgitt made us a wonderful roast duck dinner.  Mmmmm!

Eating and drinking at the Christmas market in Magdeburg

Last stop in Germany was Berlin - still one of our favorite places in the world.  We stayed in one the neighborhoods we once lived in and made sure to visit some old haunts, see the new Schloss (palace) in progress, and of course continue the eating frenzy.  We couldn't even pass up a gluhwein at the Alexanderplatz Christmas market, although we swore we had had enough.  A few donner kebaps, a few Schultheiss beers and one Schweinshaxe (each) later, we set off for Asia.

Alexanderplatz Christmas market

Construction of the new palace in progress

At one of our favorite Eck Kneipe (corner bar)

Schweinshaxe!

Because our flight to Bangkok (the cheapest one I found that didn't have a stopover in Ukraine) had a stopover in Beijing, we made use of the 72-hour visa-free travel deal and spent two nights there. Fortunately, we made it there right in between the two great smog alerts and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary (for China).  It was cold, but not as cold as we feared.  So, what did we do there?  More eating, of course, walking through the hutongs and markets, and a little bit of sightseeing that involved dragging Matthias out to see an interesting Taoist temple. The food was good and the  hutongs (old, or old-style-but rennovated neighborhoods) were fun!  Probably my most memorable experience was using one of the public toilets when we were out to dinner (most places in the hutongs didn't have their own bathrooms).  It was a row of squat toilets without doors (or real walls in between) so I could easily see the video the woman next to me was watching on her smartphone as she squatted there!  Would have stayed longer but had to rush back or Matthias would have polished off the delicious food on the table! :-)

Blue sky in Beijing! 

Best Beijing Meal!

Funky statues at the Dongyue Temple

We landed in Bangkok with a few extra kilos but were able to shed some of the winter clothes we brought with us, so it may have evened out.  Matthias did insist on a diet of sorts for the first couple days (Seriously, Thailand is no place for a diet!) but he has backed off a bit and settled for "normal-to-light eating" (as opposed to feasting).  We bypassed Bangkok and started heading north, making our way toward Chiang Rai province where we plan to do another motorbike tour.  That'll be a topic for the next post.

My first meal in Thailand was pre-packaged curry on the train - and it was delicious!

View from the basketball court in Lopbury, our first stop in Thailand

First "bike" ride outside Lopburi - more to come!