Vienna

This weekend we took a trip to Vienna to visit some friends we met in language training at FSI. Vienna is a beautiful city with some amazing architecture. It also gets some artic cold, though...

David inside St. Stephan's Dom. The church is beautiful, but difficult to photograph from the outside because it is so tall and we were too close. Reminded us a little bit of the Duomo in Florence, though.
Inside St. Stephan's Dom
Art History Museum--it was closed on Monday, the day we were going to go. But the Christmas market in front was great and we were able to go to the Natural History Museum, housed in a building that is the mirror image of this, across the Platz.
Christy in front of the Natural History Museum. This Museum hasn't changed much since the 1800's---rows and rows of stuffed animals and collections of gems, meteorites, and other rocks. But it was interesting because of that, too.
Mammoth tusks--2 1/2 times as tall as Christy?
guillotine that killed Marie Antoinette (in the Natural History Museum)

Statue in courtyard of the Belvedere
Belvedere
the Rathaus--our friends' apartment was very close to this. Another huge Christmas market.
booth at the Christmas market
dinner at an Italian place with Debbie and Marcos

in front of Schoenbrunn (and another Christmas market)
Haschenmarkt--one of the oldest and most famous markets inVienna
we ate the raviolis on the bottom in the middle
it was so cold even the horses needed hats

backside of the Belvedere

Our Address

Our address is Mr. and Mrs. David Machak & Moe
PSC 120 Box 3232
APO AE 09265

thinking ahead... New Year's plans

http://www.silvester-berlin.de/English/start.html

New Year's in Berlin is supposed to be quite a party... anyone want to come join us for the fun?

Weihnachstmarkt Time!

Thursday and Friday we hit the Christmas Markets ("Weihnachtsmarkt") full force. Thursday we visited a smaller one near Potsdamer Platz. The highlight was the huge man-made sledding hill in the middle of the city. Friday we went to Unter den Linden, near Friedrichstrasse. We went "bummeln" or window-shopping (in this case small tent and hut shopping).

Enjoy the pics!

our "Wilder Loewe" or "Wild Lion" (since we hadn't posted a picture of the diplo-cat in a while--it is his blog, afterall)

did I mention there is also a fair-- who wants to ride the ferris wheel or go on a Drop Zone ride when it's 30 degrees out? That's the radio tower (Funktuerm) in the background--the "Eiffel Tower of Berlin"
ahhhh.... the mushrooms....cooked ones and fresh ones the lady had just poured in the pan
the Christmas tree (Weihnachtsbaum) at Pariser Platz, in front of the Brandenberg Gate
Unter den Linden
in front of the Russian Embassy

the bustle of the Christmas markets
Christy at the Christmas market
David enjoying his grog.
Christy enjoying her Gluhwein

David enjoying his "Kartoffelpuffer" (potato pancakes)

Good Evening,

Today we set out for another adventure...Christmas tree chopping. We found a place to cut one down, about an hour away in Zossen. There were lots to choose from and unlilke in the states where they charge you by the foot, here they charged us by the centimeter!!! So we ended up with a nice 9 1\2 footer. They had brats and gluwine for a snack afterward; so it was a worthwhile trip. She is a beaut and we will have pictures up when she is decorated. It was a trip to get her home too, an hour car ride partly on the highway with a huge tree tied to the top of the aveo with twine is not a soothing experience. You can see my new Diplomatic plates on the car too... On the way home we did stumble upon a Kentucky Fried Chicken though :) so overall it was a very worthwhile trip.

Poland Pottery take II

So since I (Christy) missed out on the first round we decided to make a second trip to Poland (about an hour over the border) for some pottery shopping. We overcame a confusing "Umleitung" (detour) before we even got out of Berlin, and a lot of rain, and the suddenly very-bumpy road once we crossed the border, and made it there safely in time for a few hours of shopping before it was pirogi time. The pics below are of some of the stores, the signs for the stores, and a cool church we saw. Over all this particular town was very run down, and the gray weather didn't help, but the pottery was definitely worth it.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

We hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!! David and I had a feast for two, with lots of left-overs. We broke out the wedding china and flatware, which I love!!! The turkey turned out "ausgezeichnet" (excellent). Later we had friends over for dessert, and Saturday night we were invited to a second Thanksgiving dinner (because the kids at the international school don't get Thanksgiving day off, some embassy families celebrate on Saturday instead). We certainly missed everyone and wish we could have been home!

Below is the table, pre-dinner (good thing there were only two of us or we wouldn't have had room for all the food!)


still pre-dinner, but with all the food.
so we had to scrunch the pan up a little bit to make it fit in the German-size oven... still turned out well, though!