OT -Food Centric European Christmas Market Tour -OT

Sea2Ski

The only carb free pretzels I know of:

Sea2Ski

They had different singers and choirs singing through the evening and it was played throughout the entire market.  The best were when the kids sang. Again - it really gets you in the Christmas mood. 

thetrim

Wow.  Totally awesome. You are making a strong case for post of the year!

northGAcock

Well the pictures you are taking are off the chart. Keep um comin.

SciAggie

You have convinced me to make this a bucket list trip. It looks as though you are having an incredible experience.

Sea2Ski

Everything has been great guys. The weather has been damp today, but we are prepared with goretex, thinsullate, and appropriate footware. Today we just walked around the city. The exciting part is yet to come and we are in our seats. We have tickets to see the Liipizzaner stallions!  The lights are low as they start in 5 min. 

The horses will be performing with the  Vienna philharmonic orchestra. They only do this 4 times a year, so we are pretty excited for this event. 

nolaegghead

meat pretzels.  BRILLIANT!

Sea2Ski

Okay. That show was fantastic.
Never saw horses trot in unison.
Never saw a horse balance on its rear legs. Never saw a horse hop on its back legs with a person on its back.
Never saw a horse walk sideways in unison with three others. 

Now watch it all happen in synch with live music? Insane. 

And yes, between “exercises”, they even had a professional “poooper-scooper” come out and pick up any “droppings”.  

Sea2Ski

Been a while sine I posted, so I will catch you up.  So the following day we left Vienna, and we drove most of the day to Prague. However, we took a quick detour and stopped off at Cesky Krumlov a small picturesque town. 


And we got some food


Then we continued to Prague. 

Sea2Ski

We did not allocate much time in Prague, but we really lucked out.  As we were checking into our hotel, we were talking to Sophia our receptionist who was glad to have an English speaking customer. We were glad to be able to speak to her in English. As we were getting ready to call an Uber to go to the markets, we asked what she was doing, and invited her to go with us. She did. She gave us a tour of the city and the best-of-the-best of the markets. We also treated her to a meal at her favorite place to eat. I got steak Tartar and the Old Prague Plate 

northGAcock

How much weight have you gained?

Sea2Ski

The following day we were off to Poland. It took nearly all day to get to where we were headed - Ciechanow. For years, this is the day I was waiting for. I was going to try and find the street that my father grew up on as well as find my great grandparents grave and FaceTime it all with my parents.

Success!

First, as I walked down his street, he showed me where he and his brother hid in the gutter as the Germans did roundups to take people to the concentration camps. I scanned the area with my phone as I traced the route when he fled for the last time and came to the US. What an amazing experience!


The grave was going to be the hard part. On a vague description from my father of what he could remember when he was 12, he told me what he could recall before we left. Randomly, we went to one of the two cemetaries it would have been in. After an extensive search, we found it!  I called my parents and Facetimed with them again. My father was overcome with emotions as you can imagine. 


While the traveling and food was great, this was the highlight of the trip by far. Simply amazing! 

Later that night, a traditional polish meal of parogies and a stuffed chicken breast:

Sea2Ski

northGAcock said:

How much weight have you gained?

Have not checked. Besides, all the scales are in KIlograms, and I only know my weight in pounds.

Carolina Q

What an AWESOME trip!!! The Ciechanow story was the best. The foodie stuff and the wonderful backdrops have been great, but the family part was better!

Photo Egg

Amazing photos and narration about your trip.
Damn I'm hungry now!

kl8ton

Love the family history!  Thanks for sharing.

A reoccurring theme on this trim is " . . . and we stopped for some food. . . "  

Good times!

g8golfer

@Sea2Ski awesome post. Post of the year by far. 

northGAcock

I am so glad you found the grandparents burial site. That is quite an accomplishment and had to be a touching moment. The gutter and escape....wow.....just wow. My best to your lady. You guys have a safe trip back.

Sea2Ski

Thanks for the comments guys, glad you enjoyed the thread so far.

So the last day we slept in where we stayed for three nights. It was a working farm or Agroturismo like place. Off season It is a good time to go because it is cheap and not a lot to do. I think it was $50 a night and my only job was to feed this dog in the morning and evening:



He learned quick and and taught him how to sit.
Made him a bilingual dog. He also slept outside our door at night. 

A few few shots of the place. We were literally the only people staying there. 


Anyway: we went to Warsaw and saw some sights including the narrowest house in Europe. People wanted narrow places because you were taxed on how wide your house was at one point.  The width of the place was 48”. Talk about little outside maintenance....


Of course the 1.5 hour trip made us hungry, so we needed some food as we went to the markets.  

For the last polish market meal, I got some bread and some sliced Lardo pictured in the left of the last picture with a few slices of Salami or how they say it in Polish: Salami (Okay poor polish joke there...) but now I realize I do not have a picture of that.  Damn....

Sea2Ski

After touring, we decided to eat at home so we picked up four sausages at the butcher to cook at home:





And paired it it with a beer:


Then we went off to Berlin for the last day. 

Sea2Ski

Toured many places on Berlin and the main market of course market:


And grabbed a little food:
Fried cheese balls with bacon. Forget about the sausages - these took a year off my life. 

 And right before we left, I had one last gluhwein as a sendoff:


What an an incredible trip we had!  I hope those who viewed it enjoyed this thread. And just to verify and confirm: Europeans know how to do Christmas right!!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night! 

NPHuskerFL

Thanks for sharing!!! Good stuff man

bud812

Wow, just Wow.

thetrim

Awesome post from beginning to end.  I'm seriously sad that you're leaving!

buzzvol

Fantastic!   Thank you for sharing this.
Merry Christmas!