Mingli's Visit 1 (22 Dec 2008)

Mingli came for a visit to my humble hut in Ludwigshafen!

We went to the Lorsch, Speyer & Heidelberg (all in a day), sightseeing & shopping.

We were exhausted by the time we came home after being on the road for abt 13 hrs !!!!!!

Hmm, and wondered if Bayern Bundesland really lack Nordsee Restaurants, since Mingli Serina Vin were all impressed by the Nordsee shops here...

Wissembourg, France (13 Dec 2008)

It was a very nice day, & the germans had the exact same thoughts as me, to visit Strasbourg(Strassburg)!!!!!

I took the early trains at 8am so that I might spend most of my sunlight time in Strasbourg, but when the jammed packed train reached Wissembourg, there were 2-hundred or so other germans waiting at the station, for that old, small & run-down french train that will take us to Strasbourg in 1-hr.

At the ticket office, the lady told me that I have to wait 1-h for the next train to Strasbourg becoz the train was too packed. I was so mad, esp since the temperature at Wissembourg was -3 grad & snow flakes were falling on my head! And by the time I reach Strasbourg, it would have been 12+ already. I told her I will be back next week, earlier, to take the train to Strasbourg......I know, economic crunch, so everyone wants to take a cheap train to france......

Went round Wissembourg for a while, to the cake shop to buy a bag of star cookies, the church & the little french Xmas markt!

Worms, Osthofen (7 Dec 2008)

Wormser Weihnachtsfest was pretty & big, but much less touristy than Heidelberg.

Bought a Nutella Herz Waffle, but after 1 bite, realized that it was not fully cooked, so with my lousy german, explained the situation to the stall holder. Luckily, he understood what I was trying to tell him, & apologized by giving me 2 very hot & crisp Nutella heart waffles (i happily gobbled both up by myself. Ja! It feels shiok to eat waffles, Kartoffelpuffer, vanilla Dampfnudel, Thuringenwurst & drink hot Glühwein while strolling through the 4°C Weihnachtsmarkt....
Had 2 cups of Glühwein before deciding which cup to keep as souvenior (Worms has 4 designer cups). But the italian eis shop was closed, so couldn't eat any eis (& who except me will be so crazy to eat eis on a frosty nite??????)

After the hearty dinner, I rode over to Osthofen, and Andreas' parents picked me up at the Bahnhof to the Kirche for the Jahre's concert. I was a 'special guest of honor', coz I was the first singaporean at their concert! Ha! But I could not say anything coz most of the elderly could not speak english, & my german vocabulary is limited to Schön, Super, Gut, Danke......

It was 1030 pm when I reached home & gosh, the weather had turned drastically cold, Sundaz nite was 3°C & Monday morning was terrible, -1°C.

Heidelberger Weihnachtsmarkt (6 Dec 2008)

Heute ist St. Nikolaustag (6 Dec)

Since St. Nikolaus forgot to come to my door & put candy in my boots last nite...I decided to comfort myself & buy myself a gift (A new leather bag)...Weinachtsmann (Santa Claus)...pls don't forget me on 24 Dec...!!!

Visiting Weihnachtsmarkts are rather costly, luckily I have only 3 more weeks of wurst, Crepe, Kartoffelpuffer, Mandeln, chocolates, cookies & Glühwein binge!!!

Cute lovely mug from Heidelberg (with a red heart).

Oh, and cheers to those in Singapur participating in the StanChart Marathon 2008 on 7-Dec-08 (Sorry folks, I can't come this yr, will promise to join in 2009!)

X'mas Gift from company (3 Dec 2008)

Received an early X'mas gift: a Big calender for 2009. Really big, 65cm by 40 cm. I am clueless how to carry it back to SG though. A series of postcards and a small diary were also included.

I was surprised by this, esp since an intern is usually hmm, invisible here. Though i secretly wished they had given me a 25% X'mas bonus(€€€) too!

Burghausen (29 Nov 2008)

Burghausen: Kahai & Mingli's hideout in Deutschland.

Started off the day with Frühstück at Kahai's place. Had a hard time making hard boiled eggs. Kaya was supplied by Mingli & Weisswurst was prepared by Kahai (Danke schön!). A simple yet delicious meal. Then, we went walking around the New town, & went shopping at Aldi, Kahai's favorite bargainplace. Then, Mingli's freund drove us to her Haus for Chicken Curry lunch. Everything was yummy, but the black pepper beef was a little too hard...(but definitely delicious)...
After lunch, Kahai brought me to the Schloss Burghausen, which was the longest castle in Europa...abt 1km long. But I gave up walking after awhile, because it is now converted into a residental area, so there was nothing much to see.

We went to the Altstadt for the Weihnachtsmarkt...small, but cosy...

Time flies, and I had to return to grab my bags and head to the Bahnhof to take the RE back to München.

Thanks Kahai, for the nice chocolates & candy treat prepared for me to stave off boredom on the trains & also the nice pencil gift from Budapest!

Reached München Hbf in time for dinner at BurgerKing and currywurst before boarding ICE 990 back to Mannheim.

Exhausting trip, but it was nice to see familar faces again...

3 Days 200€....gosh, traveling is really expensive...esp coz i like to eat so much...