Sneaking In One More 2012 Post

Happy New Year's Eve everyone!  It feels like forever since I've sat down at the computer to write a blog post.  We have been on the move a lot over the past week.  Jon and Christina left Eindhoven yesterday after a jam-packed week of good times.  Like I've done with a few recaps, I think I'll break this one up into more than one post.  We have too many photos to do just one!  Plus, then I can wait to include some of Jon and Christina's pics as well.

But before I jump into the recap, I wanted to note what's happening on our street (and basically all streets in the Netherlands) right now.  Fireworks.  Noise.  Lots of both.  Jackaroo is not a fan and neither am I.  She is shivering under my feet right now.  Apparently NYE is the only day the whole year where you are allowed to shoot off fireworks on the street.  And these Dutchies are taking full advantage.  It sounds like WWII out there.  And the best part is that right now, it's all little children doing the merrymaking.  Unsupervised 8 year olds with fireworks. Yeah, I'm not concerned at all.  We hear that tonight the adults will get involved and things will be even crazier.  Hopefully it will at least be fun to watch!  And that our car, house, and hair makes it through un-singed.

So, on to the visit.  We picked Jon and Christina (I'll henceforth refer to them as J and C) from the Amsterdam airport and then basically headed right for Germany.  We wanted to catch the last day of the Christmas markets in Dusseldorf.  We arrived there with no issues and walked through a bunch of the markets, snagging some delicious potato pancakes and sausages along the way of course.  We then hit up the Rheinuferpromenade (walk along the river) to the Rheinturm (large tower). 

The crew on the trip in.

Along the promenade.

Rheinturm

The view from the top.

After our sightseeing and walking, we hit up a few German pubs and then scouted out dinner.  We went to a very traditional German brewhouse and managed to snag the last seats in the place.  

C and I went for the wiener schnitzel while T and J were more adventurous.  They tried the boiled pig knuckle.  Our server even made sure to let the boys know that they were ordering boiled meat, but they persisted.  It looked like this:

Yep, that's the skin.

They both said that it was delicious though, so it seems they made the right decision.  Christmas Eve was a busy day spent in Eindhoven.  We biked to Nuenen (same place we went with my parents) and enjoyed some lunch and then oliebollen (fried dough balls).  

I missed this girl.

At night, we were going to join a torch-lighting procession happening downtown, but ended up leaving the house too late. Lucky for us though, as we biked in for dinner, we came across the route they were processing along.  There were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people with torches. It was pretty cool to see.

The boys at dinner.

After dinner, we went to an acoustic concert at a restaurant/bar.  We saw Woody and Paul, two guys playing guitars.  Lucky for us, all of their songs were in English, which made the experience more enjoyable.

Christmas day was spent at home. We didn't take any pictures that day, so I'll have to check with C to see if she has any. Our friend Amanda, a fellow expat from Amsterdam, joined us. We spent the day cooking, eating, drinking, and playing games (with a few Skype sessions to the States thrown in there).  All in all a very enjoyable day.

I'll be back in the near future to finish writing about the rest of J and C's visit. Catch ya in 2013!  Happy New Year!