Aberdeen, Scotland - My Second "Visit"

Actual date of this event: 24-29 December

When people visit Scotland, they usually visit Edinburgh or Glasgow and think they have covered it all. In Edinburgh, there is lots of history, some Royalty, and a large castle on a cliff in the middle of the city. While in Glasgow, you get a sort of ruggedness with great nightlife, great shopping, and some super friendly folks. While I prefer Glasgow over Edinburgh, I don't prefer either of those over what really makes Scotland special: the countryside and the coast. And where can you get both of those? In Aberdeenshire!

Over Christmas, Luke and I decided to visit our friends in Aberdeen. It wasn't even four hours into our visit that we started to remember what made us love Aberdeen so much. We enjoyed Christmas festivities with our friends. A Mexican Christmas Eve with fajitas, margaritas and some "horrible" games at the Mahan's house, and on Christmas Day, we enjoyed a super nice relaxing evening with some good Christmas food at the Jantz's house.

What's with the crowd-hat-thingys, you ask? Crackers are a British Christmas tradition and always include some color of crown to wear. They can be randomly found in the United States, but no one really knows what they are. Click here to learn about this quirky but fun tradition.

Luke and I were not outdoor people at all when we first moved to the UK. Within two days, literally, of us living in the UK, we became outdoors people. Scotland has that special touch... especially if the sun is shining! And on Boxing Day, the sun was in fulllllllll force! We headed to Cruden Bay to see Slain's Castle. I had visited the castle once before, but the haar (Scottish word for fog) was so terrible, we couldn't see anything. Luke had never seen the castle before, so it was a perfect outing for the day. The quarter-mile path up to the castle was full of seashells. It was really really strange, but very cool! How did all of these seashells get there???

{By the way, Happy Birthday Jill!!!!!}

The story of Dracula was inspired by Slain's Castle, so many believe it to be haunted. The castle is not part of any organization, so it not well kept, but is still nice to look at! I love castle ruins so much more than complete castles!

Since Slain's Castle is located on a cliff, there have been several unfortunate incidents where people and dogs have fallen out of windows and off of the cliff. Even though a fence has been put up around the castle to prevent people from entering, it is still possible to get inside.

We did not enter the castle, but we did walk out to one of the giant rocks to get a small view of the castle from the sea. It was extremely windy (after all, this is the North Sea), and the rocky/slippery ground made it a bit frightening especially since we had Angus with us. We had to be extra careful!

We walked north along the coast to see the Bullers of Buchan since we never saw them last time. The view back toward the castle was extraordinary!!!

That is why I love Scotland! The coast and the water and the sun! It is simply gorgeous! Just be sure to bundle up :-)

Jill and Ryan live IN the country, and their backyard looks like a giant mural. I can't stay at their house and not take a picture of their backyard. Aberdeen has at least one spectacular sunset a week with a super colorful orange and pink sky. Since we visited just after the winter solstice in December, this was right after the 3:15pm sunset.

The Cairngorm Mountains offer skiing. Did you know? Yep, but I wouldn't suggest making a trip out to it if you're looking for a good day of skiing. The snow isn't that great and there aren't too many slopes. When there is a big downpour of snow, the roads usually close so you can't even access the mountain. It is a shame. Anyway, Ryan (the man who broke his leg last year within 30 minutes of ever putting skis on his feet) wanted to take a drive out to see the ski resort since he had never seen it before. The four of us headed out to Lecht Ski Centre just to see some snow top mountains. As usual, the countryside was beautiful so taking a four hour drive didn't bother us too much. 

Once we finally got to Lecht, we did what NO ONE driving in Scotland should EVER do: start to run low on petrol. Scotland offers very few rest stops, I'm talking like six in the whole country, and only one in every four towns offers a petrol station. So we ended up driving about 30 miles out of the way to find a station. That is why our quick three hour journey to the mountains ended up being four hours haha. At least we got to see those snowy mountains!

When we found out a year ago that we would be moving to London and announced it to our friends in Aberdeen, we insisted we would go back to visit them. A few of them said, "Why would come back here? There is nothing here." For anyone that says Aberdeen has nothing is totally missing out on some extreme natural beauty. I miss those hikes! I miss that good company! I miss the cliff-lined coast! I miss those sunsets! But I don't miss the constant drizzle. haha

RANDOM FACT:
The Houses of Parliament and the Waterloo Bridge, both in London, are built of Aberdeen granite.



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German Christmas Market: Wiesbaden, Germany

Actual date of this event: 15 December

The last stop on our German Christmas Market tour was in a town called Wiesbaden. Jill and I had heard about the town through a blog we read (Casey at We Took the Road Less Traveled), who is temporarily living there. We really didn't know much about the town except there is an Air Force base (so lots of Americans), it is close to Frankfurt (which is what we needed since we were flying back home that day), and that it had a Christmas market. We had seen a few pictures of the market on Casey's blog, and it looked like the prettiest market ever, so we were super duper pumped for this one!

As soon as we drove into town, we could tell it had a different vibe than the other two towns we visited. It was "elegant" and made me think "this is where the rich live". Haha! True? False? I don't know, and it doesn't matter, it just gave me that vibe. It makes sense that the town felt different though because Wiesbaden is in a different state of Germany. It is located in Hesse while Würzburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber are located in Bavaria. Anyway, we found a parking spot, and worked our way to the town square where the market is. Along the way, we passed by a store that claims to have "The World's Largest Cuckcoo Clock".

We weaved our way in and out of a few rows of stalls to see their offerings, and then pleased our bellies with sausage and of course a glühwein. We also met up with our friends, Kelly and Billy and their kids, who chose to drive in from Stuttgart for the day. We had just seen them the weekend before in Amsterdam, but it was great to see the kids, since it had been a long time since I had seen them last. Funny story: Kelly's youngest son referred to Luke as "my dad" a few years ago... I guess because Luke, um, has no hair?? We still crack up about that comment!

Unfortunately, the market quickly turned unpleasant. Since it was Sunday and the weather was nice, people were everywhere! It was definitely the most crowded market of the weekend. So much that we chose to plant ourselves in one location in front of the main stage to chat while we watched an American group of children sing carols. I was mostly focused on the town's cathedral though. I am not sure whether it was the blue sky or what, but I could not stop staring at it. It was breathtaking, and almost looked fake!

The kids started to get antsy, so we meandered our way to get more glühwein.

And also stopped for a treat. This was my most favorite thing I ate all weekend - a Zwiebelkuchen aka onion cake. It was basically like a pizza, but I must say that I enjoyed it more than pizza. <gasp!!!!>

It was about that time for the sun to disappear on us which meant that it was getting close to time for us to head to the airport. We watched as the market came to life with its beautiful Christmas decorations. This was what Jill and I had been waiting for all day!

We never really got to see the market in full darkness, but it's probably better that way. We may not have ever left! We headed to the airport, and Jill and Ryan went to Aberdeen while we went to London. There were no tears though because Luke and I crashed their Christmas party in Aberdeen just a week and a half later! Read about that soon :-)

Now that we have been to a few German Christmas markets, we feel a trip to Germany in December is an absolute must. The markets are super cute! They are relaxing (for the most part), and perfect to enjoy with friends. The research is on to find other great markets to attend! Do you have any suggestions for us?

Others posts on German Christmas Markets:  Würzburg and Rothenburg ob der Tauber

RANDOM FACT:

It seems Vienna (Austria) was the first to hold a Christmas market (in 1294), with Munich being the first in Germany (in 1310).

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Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany

Actual date of this event: 13-15 Germany

Our weekend of German Christmas Markets continues!

After visiting Würzburg, we drove to Rothenburg ob der Tauber which is where we planned to stay until Sunday. I had heard about Rothenburg from my friend Kelly, who lives in Stuttgart, as it is one of her "must-see" places to take her visitors. I didn't know much about Rothenburg, other than it being "quintessential German". I don't know about y'all, but I have a certain picture in my head when it comes to a German town, and Rothenburg was super duper close to that picture. It is charming, beautiful, quaint, relaxing, and has amazing medieval architecture.

Located on the edge of Bavaria, Rothenburg ob der Tauber is enclosed by a wall at the top of a hill. During WWII, German soldiers were stationed in the town making it a target for the Allies. Because one American knew about the town and its beauty, the Americans chose not to use artillery to take over Rothenburg. All of the main areas remained untouched, and only a portion of the town had been destroyed from prior attacks.

Luke, Jill, Ryan and I chose a bed and breakfast outside of the town wall, so we were lucky enough to climb the hill both days to visit the town. I would like to say it was a good workout, but I am pretty sure we ate more food and drank more glühwein than the calories we burned, but hey, who's keeping track?

When we arrived Friday, it was super foggy, we could just barely see across the valley that was not enclosed by the wall. It was pretty crazy, but it was great for our plans later that evening.

We wandered around the streets, visited some shops and also the Christmas market. We snapped pictures of the architecture as daylight disappeared on us by 4:30.

Rothenburg has several stores that sell Christmas decorations year-round, so it is not necessary to visit only during the Christmas season. Käthe Wohlfahrt is one of the famous makers and can be found at most German markets... it's the "good" stuff!

I didn't find the that the Christmas market was too crowded any of the days we visited. But maybe I am just used to crowds of people now?

We decided to sit in a restaurant for dinner as we were getting pretty chilly. At 8 o'clock, we met for the Night Watchman Tour, which took us around a few parts of the town. The man explained what the Night Watchman's duties were in the old days and gave a brief history of the town. It was pretty entertaining, and the fog really helped set the mood!

On Saturday morning, we headed back up the hill into town to see the parts we did not visit the day before. It actually snowed on us for a few minutes!

  {this door has been there since the 1500's!!}

 {A bar called "Hell". So when a tourist asks "Where can we go drink?", the response is "Go to Hell!"}

The weather turned terrible very quickly, so we ducked in a restaurant for a few beverages to wait for the rain to stop. We were also meeting our friends, Kristen and Dave from Zurich, who decided to visit for the weekend as well. Once they arrived, we headed back out to wander in the Christmas market again.

We ended the evening with dinner as a group... more sausages and sauerkraut and beer. And Luke refused to share his pork hock with the rest of us.

If you are in the area, I highly recommend Rothenburg ob der Tauber as a place to visit! I would love to head back there again someday!

Stay tuned for our last Christmas market visit in Wiesbaden... Click here to read about Würzburg.

RANDOM FACT:
Rothenburg ob der Tauber was the inspiration for the village in Pinocchio. Parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 and 2 were filmed in Rothenburg.



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