Two [Smart] Idiots Abroad: Christmas and New Years

At a time when everyone in Munich is either traveling out of town or skiing, Joe and I had a good old fashioned quiet Christmas this year. We enjoyed taking lots of walks to see lights and sights, especially Christmas markets, and enjoyed having some quiet time at home. This has been Joe's first "time off" since he started work in September, so he enjoyed watching lots of soccer/football (I don't know what to call it anymore) and practice reading the children's German books we checked out from the library.

A sight we got to see was the Coca Cola Weihnachtstrucks (Christmas trucks) as they drove through the Olympic Park! They stop in each major city in Germany throughout the holiday season, and we really didn't know what to expect except that they were coming. They drove through blasting music and with a parade of dancers, baton twirlers, and followers surrounding the trucks as they processed. We also enjoyed watching all 5 of the trucks struggle to make a fairly tight turn in the route. We watched from the middle of the "big hill" at the Olympic Park in freezing cold weather.

New Years was really entertaining. It's tradition to either go out to a place that launches fireworks or launch your own, and they sell all the big (and small) ones at the GROCERY STORE. They are only on sale for a day or two, but since you pretty much have to grocery shop every other day here, that works out. So, everyone stocks up and then sets them off at midnight. Well, actually they started about 20 minutes before midnight, and kept going for several hours. We watched them for quite some time from our apartment window, and we could barely see the building across the way through all the smoke. Then there was a haze of smoke covering the city for the next 2 days. Talk about starting New Years with a bang!

Here's our favorite snapshots of the 2016 Holiday season! Full album (with more videos) can be found here!