Christmas market-ing

Sarah and I recently decided that we liked the idea of going into a career of "marketing."  Christmas marketing, that is :)

I'd heard of the elaborate celebrations in Luxembourg and most European cities around Christmas time but I had no idea to the extent that Christmas was celebrated here.  Beginning the week after Thanksgiving, city centers and major squares all over Europe transform into winter wanderlands. Rows and rows of little wooden stalls are brought in to house everything from mulled wine to gingerbread to Christmas ornaments and other gifts.  The set up, complete with lights, decadent smells and live music is still very similar to what the markets looked like hundreds of years ago.  The first Christmas market took place in Nuremberg, Germany and dates back to the 16th century.  Though we didn't make it to Nuremberg this year (its just over 4 hours away from Lux), we did hit 4 other markets and brought back commemorative mulled wine (hot, spiced wine) mugs as souveniers.

Here are a few photos from the Luxembourg Christmas market in Place d'Armes - one block from our apartment...

And here are photos from Trier, Germany's market, which was adorable!  We caught the train to Trier with our friends Kristy and Jacques and met other friends, Christie and Eddie at the market...

With Jacques and Kristy

Gingerbread!

Because Alex and I were headed to the States in mid-December for Christmas, we were running out of time to see more of the markets on our list.  Strassbourg, France is known to have one of the best markets in Europe so Sarah and I decided that a girls' trip was in order.  Conveniently, an old client of mine was on tour in Germany and performing 30 minutes from Strassbourg in Offenburg, just over the German border.  Sarah and decided that meant the trip was meant to be!

We took off early on the morning of the concert and made the 2 hour drive to Strassbourg.  Though we weren't the only ones who thought to travel to Strassbourg on that Wednesday (it was jam packed!), the market and city surpassed our every expectation.  We were so incredibly happy that we made the trip and didn't miss out on what we think must be one of the best markets, indeed.  Here are a few photos from the Strassbourg market...

The Strassbourg market with the grandest cathedral I've ever seen in the background

The magnificient cathedral

A shot of the store fronts, which were all decked to the nine's for Christmas

Another store front decorated with a cute, gigantic gingerbread man

My partner in crime

When Sarah and I returned with big eyes and great tales from Strassbourg, Alex decided that he had to see this place before we headed home.  We had one day to do this so we also drove to the magical city the weekend before our US departure.  Alex loved Strassbourg and the market there just as much as Sarah and I did.  Here are a few more photos from my trip with Alex...



One of the many canals running through the city

Needless to say, Alex and I will be going back to Strassbourg.  It will also be put on the list of places to take guests when we have more visitors :) 

Though I'm so happy to have made it home to Atlanta and Nashville for Christmas, I'm so glad that I was able to experience a little bit of a European Christmas a few weeks before we left.  It was special indeed!  Hope y'all had the merriest Christmas!

With Love from Luxembourg...Melanie

A Thanksgiving Feast!

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, Alex and I planned a big Thanksgiving feast / Birthday party for last weekend.  We wanted to celebrate Alex's birthday, as well as our friends Jacques, Nollaig and Valerie's special days, which were all at the end of November.  We also wanted to show our friends here (from Luxembourg and all over the world) what an American Thanksgiving was like. 

I cooked all day on Friday and Saturday preparing the turkey - my first ever (brave, I know, with 30 mouths on the way :) homemade cranberry sauce, green beans, glazed carrots, a 3-layer strawberry cake (for the birthday cake) and two pumpkin pies.  I'd asked everyone else to bring one other item to share and gave a few suggestions since this was almost everyone's first Thanksgiving.  Our home was full and the evening was just wonderful!  Here are a few photos...

Hopefully I don't get in trouble for posting this one.  Definitely the first time I've seen Alex in an apron but he was an excellent turkey carver :)

Mr. Turkey (a huge thanks to Sarah for her help getting this bird oven-ready :)

The Spread

Sarah and her turkey leg :)

The birthday girls and boys with their cake

I wish I'd taken a group photo but with all that was going on, I didn't get around to it.

I think everyone enjoyed Thanksgiving and it brought me joy to be able to share the special day with our "family" here since I was away from home.  Now, the countdown is on until I board a plane on the 13th for Christmas - destination USA!

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie

A castle, caves and...wild pigs?!

I think its every little girls' dream to spend the night in a castle.  So, I was delighted to receive word from my new friend (and castle owner) Brigitte that the Prieure de Bonvaux B&B had availability for the weekend! 

Prieure de Bonvaux (Dijon, France)

Every year, the tiny French town of Beaune (in the Bourgundy region) has an enormous wine festival after harvest to kick off the holiday season.  Alex and I had been planning on making the trip for months with the Queens and we were excited that two other couple friends of ours joined us as well.  A fantastic quadrouple date it was!

When we arrived at our castle in Dijon (30 minutes from Beaune and yes, the city of mustard) on Friday, we were greeted by the adorable Brigitte.  The first thing Brigitte said to me (after her welcome) was, "See the grass?"  "Do you know what that is?"  She was pointing to the torn up grass around the castle.  "Wild pigs!" She said enthusiastically.  "Wild pigs?!" I said, sure that she had gotten some of her Engish words mixed up.  But no.  Brigitte continued to explain to us that wild pigs come out at night around the castle (did I mention we were in the middle of the country?) and they had destroyed her yard.  Cute Brigitte then told me not to worry, she'd invited a hunter-friend of hers out to take care of them and he shot 9 wild pigs in one night!  My castle dreams were beginning to diminish for fear of being eaten by a wild boar. 

After the story of the wild pigs, Brigitte casually showed us into our bedroom and I temporarily forgot about the pigs.  Here's the royal chamber where Alex and I got to stay.  I know...I'm officially spoiled.

Here's a picture of our crew eating breakfast in the castle. Brigitte woke up before us to go into town to pick up fresh bread.  So sweet!

Sarah and Chris, Alex, Jacques and Kristy and Bertrand and Nollaig

Our plans for the day in Beaune consisted of one particular wine tasting in a cave called Patriarche.  The tour took us four hours because they offered 10 tastings of wine dating from 2009 back to 1959.  Of course, the 1959 wine was my favorite and it was only 369 Euros a bottle :) Needless to say, Alex and I left Patriarche without a making a purchase.  The tasting was a blast, though; the highlight of the trip. 

Bottles of wine dating back to...a long, long time ago :)

Dear friends Nollaig and Sarah

The cute boys - Bertrand, Jacques, Alex and Chris

After the tasting, we had a nice dinner down the street in Beaune where Beef Bourguignon and Coq au vin rouge (Chicken in red wine sauce) were the local dishes. The little town was hopping with people, Christmas lights, food booths and mulled wine (though the last thing we wanted after a 4 hour tasting :)

It was a fantastic weekend and the eight of us decided that the trip to the festival should be an annual event.  Here's one final picture of the crew in front of our castle.  With a little more practice, I think I can get used to this sleeping in a castle business :) 

Love from Luxembourg...Melanie



Full of Thanks

This is my second Thanksgiving abroad (the first being in China 10 years ago) and, again, it is a strange feeling to wake up and know that today is just a regular Thursday to everyone else in Luxembourg.  Clearly, they don't celebrate the holiday so everyone is working and turkeys are impossible to find at the grocery store.  Thanks to the American Women's Club, however, I was able to order my very own 11lb Butterball (frozen) turkey!

Because Alex's birthday was also this week, we are going to host a big Thanksgiving feast / Birthday celebration this Saturday.  All of our European friends are very curious about this Thanksgiving that the Americans celebrate so we're going to have a full house.  Hopefully our apartment can hold 30 people (and the tiny oven can hold Mr. Butterball :)  I will fully document Saturday's Thanksgiving / Birthday celebration one day next week!

On this Thanksgiving Day, I have so much to be thankful for... 
I'm thankful for a precious family back home who loves me and misses me. 
I'm also so grateful that I have a plane ticket home for Christmas in just over 2 weeks! 
I'm thankful for a husband who has made our first year of marriage the best year of my life. 
I'm thankful for friends both here in Luxembourg and back in the US (we'll come back, I promise :) 
I'm thankful for an opportunity of a lifetime to make my home in lovely Luxembourg for a few years.
I'm thankful for my health.
I'm thankful for the unconditional love of a Savior who gave his life for mine.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all! 

With love from Luxembourg...Melanie

Tales of a visit from Ms. Connie

Clearly, I have no excuses for the delay.  I can't believe its been so long since my last post but I'm back with news of recent adventures in this little Luxembourg of mine :) 

The day after Alex and I returned from Italy, we had a very special visitor!  Alex's mom (AKA Ms. Connie) arrived from Tulsa, all smiles - and seemingly without jetlag - ready to hit the ground running in Luxembourg!  And that we did! 

A few hours after Ms. Connie's arrival, we piled in the car and headed through the beatiful countryside toward Vianden's Walnut Festival.  Vianden is a cute little Luxembourgish town north of the city that is best known for two things - the annual Walnut Festival and its huge castle...

Vianden Castle

Over the next few days, Alex and I were able to give Ms. Connie a grand tour of Luxembourg - the countryside, the Grund, the City Centre and the vineyards - in addition to taking her on a few day trips to Belgium and Germany.  Here are a few pictures from our travels.  The first, is perhaps my favorite...

Dinant, Belgium

Luxembourg's bi-weekly market

Luxembourg's vineyards

Cochem, Germany

Cochem = Adorable!

One of my favorite things we did during our road-tripping with Ms. Connie, was a cruise down Germany's Rhine River.  The tiny towns that dot the coast of the Rhine River are quaint and lovely.  The river cruise we chose took us from the town of St. Goar, Germany to Bacharach and we saw castles galore!

Perhaps our most amusing part of the cruise was our encounter with a German bowling club.  It was noon, they were several drinks in and they were having a jolly good time.  Ms. Connie and I even got serenaded (in German, of course :)

A few from the top of one of the many castles

Many castles later, our trio returned to Luxembourg to spend a few more days with Ms. Connie before she headed home.  What a fun week and a half it was!  We covered most of Luxembourg and numerous cute towns in Germany and Belgium.  I think Ms. Connie quite enjoyed herself, as did I!

Love until next time...Melanie



Italy, part 2

One thing is for sure - the words and pictures in this post will in no way do justice to the magnificence of the city of Rome. 

I had no idea what was in store for me upon arriving in the "eternal city."  The train station and first glimpse of Rome was similar to that of any other large European city: bustling tourists, traveling businessmen and vendors selling everything from sunglasses to scarves to tiny replicas of the Coliseum. 

But, the second our bus pulled away from Termini, I was hushed by views of enormous buildings that were older than any architecture I'd ever seen, colorful vespas wrecklessly zooming in and out of traffic and then boom - ruins of the ancient city - right there, carefully built around yet smack dab in the middle of the city.  5 minutes into our stay in Rome, I was hooked.

Alex and I stayed in a cute little apartment in the Campo Marzio neighborhood, which was right around the corner from Piazza Navone.  Because I'd never been to Rome before, I didn't realize that Alex picked a prime spot for our home base.  The tiny cobblestone streets and narrow passage ways gave Rome and our little neighborhood in general, a homey, small town feel which I loved.  Though we were in a huge city, I was delighted by how tiny and quaint it could feel.  Here's our little apartment nook...

Alex and I arrived in Rome early enough our first day that we hit the ground running.  We went straight to Vatican City to see St. Peter's Bastilica...

Michaelangelo's Pieta

My favorite part of St. Peter's was the special Scavi tour that Alex arranged for us.  We were able to tour the Necropolis (ancient toombs under the church) with a small group of 10 people and see where the apostle Peter was buried.  I'm still not sure that I can wrap my head around the fact that Peter, a disciple of Jesus, was buried in the ground that I was walking on.  It is fascinating to me that excavators have even found what they believe to be Peter's bones, which are displayed on the Scavi tour.  Unfortunately, photos weren't allowed, but, to give you an idea, we were down here - under the grates in the church floor...

After an amazing dinner and a good night's sleep, Alex and I headed to the Pantheon (built in 126 AD).

The Pantheon's lovely dome and source of light (thank goodness it wasn't raining :)

Next, the Trevi Fountain...





And the Spanish Steps - the only thing that I was a bit bored with...

Another one of my favorite places in Rome was the Coliseum.  Its heartbreaking to think about the cruelty that took place in the Coliseum a few thousands of years ago yet its amazing that so much of the structure is still in tact.  Our tour (we did a Rick Steves' audio guide) was helpful and kept my attention.  The tour started at this huge cross, which was powerful and beautiful, as if it whispered, "all of what was here is forgiven..."



A view of the underground tunnels in the Coliseum where gladiators and animals were walked through prior to battle

Another one of my favorite things to see in Rome were the Roman Ruins located just beside the Coliseum.  Its amazing how many structures, columns and other parts of buildings they've excavated (and continue to uncover) in this area alone.  Another cool thing about this area is that they let you walk on and beside everything.  Alex and I walked right up to Caesar's palace and even inside the ancient Roman senate building.  Wow.

Other highlights of our trip to Rome included cycling on a 2-seater bike through Villa Borghese, exploring Trastevere, a cool neighborhood across the river, dinners at Matricianella and Antico Arco (quite possibly the BEST restaurants in Rome - thanks to Alex's Italian collegue) and the endless scoops of gelato that we treated ourselves to continuously for 5 days :)

Biking through Villa Borghese

Antico Arco

Before leaving Rome, there was one more thing that I just had to see. The Scala Sancta, or Holy Steps,  are supposed to be the very steps that led up to Pontius Pilate's palace in Jerusalem.  The steps were brought from Jerusalem to Rome in about 326 by St. Helena, the mother of Constantine the Great.  If these are indeed those steps, Jesus would have walked up them on his way to his trial before he was condemned and crucified.  The thought of seeing with my own eyes something that our Savior walked upon before he died for me literally took my breath away. 

So, Alex and I ventured to the outskirts of Rome to the church where the steps were housed.  We'd heard that anyone could see the steps but the only way to climb the stairs was on your knees.  I'll never forget the picture in my mind of these marble stairs, covered in protective wood, filled with people ascending them on their knees...

This is the beautiful, final picture of Rome that I wanted to leave with. It will be forever sealed in my heart.

Love until next time...Melanie