Our Christmas Vacation Part Two – Austria

Sunrise from our hotel window in Munich.  Although we had planned an entire day in Munich, after our flight issues, that’s about the extent of what we saw of Munich at the beginning of our trip.  Besides this beautiful sunrise, all we really saw was the airport, hotel and train station, which is where we found ourselves bright and early Monday morning to catch our train to Salzburg.   We picked up some pastries from one of the many food shops in the station, and as we were standing in the middle of the train station getting ready to eat them, right where the lovely picture below was taken, Ellie announces she has the stomach flu.  Aye yai yai! 

I will spare you the gory details but will share that it is anything but easy to have this sprung on you in the middle of a large, bustling train station where everything is in German.  Imagine trying to locate a bathroom QUICKLY in this situation, and then, once said bathroom is located, an escalator ride downstairs of course, you need to fish through your purse for change in euros and then insert the change into the machine outside the bathroom before the gate will open to let you in - all this with a sick kid in tow.  For those of you who have not traveled in Europe before, believe it or not but you often have to pay to go, so make sure you ALWAYS have some spare change in your pocket, in the correct currency of course.    

We boarded the train anyway as we had no other option, quickly grabbing the seats closest to the onboard bathroom, crossed our fingers for the 1 hour and 40 minute train ride to Salzburg, and off we went.  Incidentally, we later realized that we had reserved seats and by some unexplainable quirk of fate, we happen to randomly choose the four exact seats assigned to us on a train carrying several hundred people.  How weird is that?   When we arrived in Salzburg, we jumped into the first taxi we saw and a short 10 minutes later we arrived at our hotel where they graciously allowed us to check into our room despite the fact that we had arrived a few hours before check in.  Thank you, thank you, thank you Hotel Via Roma! 

Ellie was like a drooping flower and it was quite apparent that we would not be venturing out of the hotel room that day as a family.  As it turned out, that was just fine.  First of all, I had booked a family room which ended up being a two bedroom suite with big rooms and a huge bathroom.  It felt more like a small apartment than a hotel room.  And, there were great views out the windows. 

Secondly, Eric and I could get a cappuccino right downstairs and enjoy it in our room, which is the first thing we did as we had missed our morning coffee given the whole incident in the train station back in Munich.  Third, Leah was happy as a clam to spend the entire day in the hotel room watching cartoons in German with her sick sister.  And finally, Eric and I were chomping at the bit to get out and see the city so we decided to take turns, and getting to stroll around the city by myself was a treat!  Traveling with four people can be challenging at times and affords very little alone time.  After Eric ran down the street to the grocery store to get some lunch for us, I put on my boots and winter jacket and out the door I went for a walk by myself.

That is when my love affair with Salzburg began.  It was early afternoon and the sun was shining so I decided to walk towards the edge of town, in the direction of the snowcapped mountain we could see from our hotel room to get a better view.  Salzburg isn’t a very big city.  It’s very, very walkable.  It only took me about 15 minutes to reach the outskirts of town where I not only had a better view of the mountain I had seen from our hotel room, but I could see more mountains in all directions.  There were walking and biking trails darting off every which way, and as I looked across the field at the edge of town, off in the distance I saw a large yellow gated house with a beautiful tree-lined road running right in front of it that looked suspiciously familiar.  A smile spread across my face.  Could it be?  As I walked closer and closer, the more sure I was that yes, that was the Von Trapp family home that I know so well from The Sound of Music.  As I walked towards it, I could almost see Julie Andrews bounding up the road swinging her suitcase and guitar and singing as she first approached the house.  I know this may all sound a bit corny to some of you, but I truly was excited that I had been in Salzburg for a mere two hours and had already stumbled upon The Sound of Music house!  It was actually smaller than I had expected and after walking around the back, I started to suspect that just the front of the house is featured in the movie.  Sure enough, when I got back to the hotel room and did a little research on the internet, I found out that was indeed the yellow house and tree lined boulevard used in the film, but a different home in Salzburg was used for the inside and backyard scenes. 

Look familiar?

As I headed back to the hotel, I passed a bakery with a table set up outside full of beautiful Christmas cookies and breads.  The man standing at the table stopped me and said something in German.  I shook my head and said, in English, “I don’t have any money” and I really didn’t because I had left my purse back at the hotel.  He easily switched to English and told me no worries, try some samples anyway.  By the time I made it back to the hotel, I had had my fill of Christmas cookies and was sipping a hot cup of the bakery’s special mulled wine.  Are you starting to see why I love Salzburg?

I waited until the sun went down before I ventured out of the hotel again.  I wanted to see the Old City in Salzburg lit up in all it’s Christmas glory because that is the area of Salzburg we had seen described over and over again as “magical” at Christmas time.  Before I tell you more about my trip out that evening, a little information about the Old City.  In Salzburg, the Old City refers to a complex of buildings that are squished between the Salzach River, which snakes right through the heart of the city, and the Hohensalzburg Fortress, the largest, fully-preserved fortress in Europe (dating back to 1077) that sits high on the bluff overlooking the city.  Much of the Old City is a pedestrian only zone and as it is relatively small, it is very walkable.  Salzburg has very strict preservation laws.  The narrow, winding streets within the Old City lead from square to square and past a plethora of architectural styles including some from the Middle Ages, Romanesque, Baroque, and Renaissance periods.  Squares all around Salzburg play host to Christmas markets during December, with the largest and probably most popular being located within the Old City.  Our hotel was a mere 10 minute walk to the Old City, so again, I put on my boots, winter jacket and hat and left to explore it on my own.

View of the Old City during the day, with the Fortress sitting high above it.

First street I saw in the Old City.

 The first 10 minutes of my walk took me along a busy road, until I reached a tiny little park and veered towards the back of it where I found the alleyway that would lead into the Old City.  I followed the alley and as I emerged into the Old City it felt as if I had been transported to a different land.   The street I emerged on was quiet and peaceful.  There weren’t many people around.  A welcoming warm glow came from the shop windows that lined the side of the street.  Simple but beautiful yellow Christmas lights dangled overhead.  I could see a beautiful building straight ahead with a Christmas tree in front of it adorned simply in lights.  There was only one street to follow – the one straight ahead.  I wandered from street to street, around this corner and that and soon found myself deep within the Old City.   Eventually, I made it to the square where the Christmas market was bustling away.  Wooden chalets with counters full of merchandize, most of it with a Christmas theme, lined the square.  There were vendors selling a variety of Austrian food, drinks and treats.  People were milling around in small groups, shopping for last minute gifts or enjoying a warm cup of mulled wine.  Christmas trees were everywhere (later in the week, Leah counted how many Christmas trees we passed in one day and lost count at 100).  And at one end of the square, towering over the Christmas market, stands the magnificent Salzburg Cathedral.  Later that evening as I started to head back to the hotel, I would pass the Cathedral again and see five men singing The Little Drummer Boy a cappella and in German from the front steps of the Cathedral.  Beautiful!  Simply beautiful!

The beautiful building I saw straight ahead as I entered the Old City.

Before I had left the hotel, Eric had read that the Old City is Salzburg is home to one of the loveliest shopping streets in all the world called Getreidegasse.  I wandered through the market, down one beautiful street after the other, but when I rounded one particular corner, I knew immediately I had found Getreidegasse.  For several minutes I stood frozen on the corner, mesmerized by the street in front of me.   

Getreidegasse - indeed one of the loveliest shopping streets I have seen!

This street, with its simple strings of lights hanging over head, was stunning.  It’s lined with shops, cafes and restaurants, and lots of little arched alleyways leading to small, intimate open air courtyards filled with more cafes and shops.  

A beautiful Christmas tree and a little Christmas market in one of the smaller courtyards down an alley off the main shopping street.

If you looked up in any direction, high above the shop walls, you could see beautiful copper steeples now green with age, colorful clocks sitting high up in their towers, and bell towers that sing out at all times of the day and night.  And when you dress this beautiful street up with Christmas decorations – I don’t even have the words to describe it.

Notice the clock tower high above at the end of this street. Nearly every street you looked down had a view like this at the end.

As I walked down the entire length of the street, I felt as though I was in a trance.  I ducked into this alleyway and that, strolled slowly past the shop windows (and fell in love with a pair of boots that I am still kicking myself for not buying, grrrrrr), savored the delicious smells emanating from the cafes and restaurants, listened to the different languages coming from various groups of fellow tourists (we heard later in our trip that although Salzburg is a fairly small city, only 150,000 residents, 7 million tourists visit each year), and finally, reluctantly, turned back towards the hotel. 

Prayer candles inside the Cathedral.

On the way back, as I mentioned early, I was treated to The Little Drummer Boy, one of my favorite Christmas songs, being sung on the steps of the Cathedral and as I stood watching and listening, I noticed people entering and exiting the Cathedral doors.  I ducked in myself and immediately was struck speechless by the sheer size and magnificence of the Cathedral (that's good because I didn't have anyone to talk to anyway).  It was huge, beautiful and dark, with rows and rows of flickering votive candles on the sides which people had lit in prayer.  The balcony above the back of the church was entirely taken up by a massive organ, with four more organs located on smaller balconies below the ornately finished dome at the front of the church.  Eric would visit this church a couple days later when he attended midnight mass on Christmas Eve - but more on that in the next post.

Inside the Cathedral.  Notice the organs sitting in balconies on the column supporting the dome.  These are tiny compared to the one in the balcony in the back which, unfortunately, we could not get a good picture of because is was so dark up there.

 I headed back to the hotel where Eric had ordered a pizza and some salad for us to have for dinner.  Lucky for us, there was an Italian restaurant in the same building as our hotel.  This proved to be very convenient as going out for dinner with a sick kid was not an option.  We enjoyed the pizza with some wine and beer Eric has picked up at the grocery store earlier that day, and then it was his turn to head to the Old City, with his camera of course.  So I leave you today with some more photos of the beautiful Old City we discovered on that first night in Salzburg.  Tuesday, was spent in much the same fashion as Monday because, while Ellie woke up that morning chipper as a bird in the Spring and ready for some breakfast, Leah sadly did not.  She had come down with the stomach flu as well.  It would be another day of taking turns strolling through the city, although I had some company on my first trip out as Ellie and I strolled down to the Old City together to walk around the Christmas market and to pick up some lunch – delicious Austrian pretzels.  One was filled with cream cheese and raspberry filling, and the other was made into a pretzel cheese sandwich.  Mmmm!  They know how to do pretzels in Austria.

The pretzel stand.

The Fortress at night.

An alcove off the Christmas market.

Nutcrackers lined up for sale at a booth in the Christmas market.

And snow globes too.

Horse drawn carriage rides through the Old City.

To be continued…

Our Christmas Vacation Part One - Amsterdam

Welcome to Amsterdam!

For the first time ever, the Engebretsens went on a Christmas vacation.  While we have never spent an actual Christmas day in Indiana as we always travel to Wisconsin to spend the holiday with family, I don’t consider that a vacation.  I love spending the holidays with the family and if I wasn’t living in Europe I would have it no other way, but that is just what it is – spending the holidays with family.  A vacation, to me anyways, is traveling and experiencing a new place or returning to a favorite place for purely fun, selfish reasons.  Basically, doing whatever the heck you and you family want, be it exploring a new city, lounging poolside sipping margaritas, or climbing Mount Everest.  Since we couldn’t be home for Christmas this year with our loved ones, we decided to make the most of the time off from school and work and headed to Austria. 

While we experienced nowhere near the challenges that met the Griswold family during their infamous Christmas vacation, we did have some curve balls thrown our way (and incidentally, while on the trip, we got to watch Christmas Vacation in German and it was just as funny).  The original plan was to fly to Munich, Germany, where we would spend two nights and have one entire day to explore the city and their famous Christmas Market, which is really several different markets around town, each with their own flavor.  Unfortunately, this was not meant to be as I will share with you in a moment.  Then, we would move on to Salzburg, Austria for five nights and this is where we would spend Christmas.  The last day, Saturday, we would take a train back to Munich, jump on a plane and be back in England by evening.  Well, things didn’t exactly go according to plan, but oddly enough, everything turned out just fine.  Despite the challenges we faced, this ended up being one of my all time favorite trips.  You see, I have always been fascinated with Austria.  Before moving to Europe, Eric and I discussed the places we both most wanted to see while we were here and Austria was at the top of my list.  I’m not even entirely sure why, but this country has always called to me.  Maybe because I am a HUGE fan of The Sound of Music.  I think I’ve seen it every year since I was born and can probably recite the entire movie by heart.  In doing research on the best place to spent Christmas in Europe, Salzburg kept showing up at the top of the list.  Despite being a smaller European city (only 150,000 residents), it is full of history, culture, amazing architecture, and it sits at the edge of the Austrian Alps.  The Christmas Market in Salzburg was repeated mentioned as one of the best in Europe, and over and over again, the word “magical” showed up in the many reviews we read on Salzburg at Christmas time.  It really didn't take much discussion for us to decide on Salzburg as our Christmas destination.  And boy, I am so glad we did. 

Being a small city, finding flights directly into Salzburg was difficult and expensive.  That is why we chose to fly into Munich, Germany.  It’s a relatively short train ride from Munich to Salzburg, affording some great views of the Alps as you travel, and we could spend a day in Munich, which is also a beautiful city on our list of places to visit.  And that is where our story begins – traveling to Munich.

We didn’t even make it onto the plane in England when our troubles began.  We were booked on a flight leaving late in the afternoon, flying to Amsterdam where we had a short 45 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Munich.  Our plane was delayed.  Then delayed some more.  And then some more.  After the first delay, there was little doubt in our minds we would not make our connecting flight to Munich.  After the second delay, all doubt was erased – we would definitely not be making our connecting flight.  When the plane was finally ready for take off, we decided to board and head to Amsterdam anyway and see what happens.

We arrived in Amsterdam and we, along with probably two-thirds of the rest of the passengers on our flight, were sent to a KLM agent to rebook our flight for the next day and get our hotel voucher for the night.  Oh yes, and we had to pick up four courtesy overnight packs as we were not getting our luggage back that evening.  For the girls, these little plastic bags were like an early Christmas present.  I never knew anyone could get so excited over toothpaste, some wipe on deodorant, and a paper thin white t-shirt for sleeping.  The girls thought their gigantic nightshirts were hilarious. 

As it turns out, missing our flight to Munich wasn’t so bad after all.  When given the options for our rebooked flight, we could (a) have spent the day at the Amsterdam airport (which is one of the nicest airports I’ve ever seen, by the way) hoping there were four standby seats available on the flights earlier in the day, or (b) we could bag our plan to see Munich, spend most of the day in Amsterdam instead, and take a flight later in the day that we could definitely get seats on.  We chose option b.  Why not see Amsterdam instead?   We’ve never been here either.  When life sends you lemons, make some lemonade, right?  So that’s just what we did. 

 Because we only had part of Sunday to spend in Amsterdam, we needed a clear plan on how we would spend our time.  Usually, we just wander around new cities and discover them that way, but when you have a short amount of time, you need a better plan than that.  Amsterdam is huge, and there is so much to see.  It’s full of world-class museums (both Rembrandt and Van Gogh are from the Netherlands, not to mention Anne Frank), canals, parks, amazing architecture, beautiful neighborhoods, shops, restaurants and the infamous Red Light District.  We decided to spend the few short hours we had at the Rijksmuseum (don’t ask me how to pronounce that because I have no idea), a national museum dedicated to the art and history of the Netherlands.  I love both Rembrandt and Van Gogh and Eric and I are not afraid to expose the girls to some good art and history, so off to the museum we went. 

Double-decker bike rack

To get there, we had to take a bus to the airport to catch a train to take us to the tram that would eventually drop us at the Museumplein (did you get all of that?), a big, beautiful grass covered square that is home to three of the top museums in Amsterdam, including our destination, Rijksmuseum.  It may have been faster to take a bike and we would have had plenty to choose from because I have never seen so many bikers in my life, much less in the cold of winter.  They even had double-decker bike racks sitting around town to park them at. 

The panini, I mean chicken truck.

By the time we arrived in the square, we were hungry even though it was a bit early for lunch.  You should never, ever, ever take a hungry 7 and 9 year old into a gigantic museum filled with art and history – bad idea!  Well, as luck would have it, there just happened to be an outdoor market in the square, complete with a section full of food trucks and outdoor food stalls.  These food vendors weren’t selling your usual corn dogs and cotton candy.  The food sold at outdoor markets in Europe is very different from that of the US, generally speaking of course.  It is simple and good, tasting like your mom cooked it in her kitchen kind of food.  There was a truck selling curry – only two kinds, with meat or without.  There was a panini truck, again, only two choices.  The girls chose tomato, cheese and pesto - oh and chicken.  We somehow missed that the main point of this particular food truck was its chicken.  The girls enjoyed the sandwich anyway.

The gyro stand.

It took Eric and me about three seconds to zero in on the gyro stand – one of our very favorite foods to have whenever we are out and about and happen upon someone selling them.  They looked fantastic and smelled even better.   There was only one choice – gyro meat (which was being prepared right there over a steel drum stove type thing) slapped onto a chewy pita with some grilled peppers and onions, wrapped up with a big dollop of sour cream and a handful of dried Greek herbs thrown on top for good measure.  It was messy but delicious!

Our bellies full, we headed into the Rijksmuseum and wandered from room to room enjoying the collections of art and history.  We saw Rembrandt’s famous painting called The Night Watch, which is huge, and we saw Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting The Milkmaid, which is tiny.  We saw many other paintings, sculptures, furniture, collections of old guns and other weapons, and a magnificent collection of wooden ship models from the 1800’s complete with masts and ropes and every other detail you would find on a life size ship from that time period. 

The market in the square with the Rijksmuseum in the background.

After a few hours visiting the museum, we needed to start thinking about heading back to the airport.  We walked back outside and strolled back through the market, stopped to get a warm hot chocolate from one of the food trucks for Ellie and Leah, complete with a huge dollop of whipped cream and a couple of gingerbread wafers.   

This is one happy girl when she has anything sweet in her hands.

Vendor selling sausage and cheese at the market.  The man in the back is making crepes.  Not sure how the two are related, but crepes are a big thing in Europe.  We see street vendors selling them everywhere. 

Back on the tram we went, and then the train, which dropped us off right at the airport.  Our flight to Munich was on time.  We wouldn’t be arriving until late in the night, so straight to our hotel we went where we all got a good night sleep.  We had an early rise the next morning to catch our train to Salzburg. 

Sweet dreams little ones.

To be continued...

 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from England!  It’s hard to believe 2014 is over and my, what a year it was.  We spent the first half of the year wondering if this great adventure of ours was going to come to fruition, and the second half preparing for it and make the move across the pond.  We only spent three months of 2014 in Europe, but we’ve already been to seven different countries and seen so many amazing sights and made memories that will last a lifetime.  Now, into 2015 we go.  We will spend the entire year living in Europe.  Chances are, this will never happen again for us.  I wonder what this year will bring?  There will be the usual routines - school for the girls, work for Eric, and for me, blogging, chauffeur, head cook, laundress, afterschool tutor, etc.  But we’ll also be doing as much traveling as we can afford the time and money to do, as well as welcoming some of our family over to England for visits, which we are all very much looking forward to.  And, we’ll be making a much anticipated trip back to the states for a few weeks in the summer to visit family and friends because, despite all the wonderful adventures we are having here, we really miss home. 

We spent a wonderfully lazy, relaxing week here at home in England after returning from our trip to Austria on December 28, a day later than planned as a snow storm blew across Europe canceling two of our flights and delaying the rest.  We had nothing to rush home to anyway with another week off of school and work, so we weren’t put out by the delay at all.  We did spend the first couple of days back home worrying about our luggage though, which didn’t seem to make it onto the same plane we flew back to England on.  On Monday, two of our three bags showed up, and good thing too as those were the bags that contained two very special blankets and a bunny that the girls were very worried about.  We came back from our family shopping trip to Ashby (we needed to restock our empty kitchen shelves) to find a note on the door that said, “Left two bags at Laurel House.”  Hmmm – two bags?  We are missing three.  And, where exactly is Laurel House?  We are still new here and while everyone else living in the village may know each and every house here by it’s name, we certainly don’t.  If someone is going to leave something for us at a neighbor’s house, there is really only one logical place as we are on a corner with no houses in front of us and the one behind is rather difficult to reach from here with hedges and fences to contend with.  We went next door and knocked.  No, the bags had not been dropped off there, but luckily for us, they thought Laurel House was the house across the street and back one, the one with the gate and the yippy dog.  Yes, we know that house.  Every time we go out our back door, even though that yippy dog can’t see us through the hedges, he lets us know he knows we are outside.  As we walked up to the gate, sure enough, there is a sign on the iron gate that says “Laurel House,” and there are our bags sitting in their open garage.  Our third bag showed up the following day.  Sigh of relief all around.

  The rest of the week was spent reading, going for walks in the afternoon, putting a puzzle together, decorating cookies, watching movies, and eating good food.  The girls spent Saturday afternoon running back and forth between our house and the house behind us where one of their friends from school lives, sharing their new Christmas toys with each other.  And we all got to play in some snow.  We came back from our trip to find a very unexpected couple of inches of snow on the ground here in England that stuck around until Thursday.   Snowball fights, snowman contest - never thought that would be a part of our time here in England so we thoroughly enjoyed it.

 We ran out of time before Christmas to make and decorate gingerbread cookies so we decided to do it right before New Years.  We've never made them before.  I hunted and hunted for molasses for the cookie recipe but alas, I could not find any here in England.  What I did find is something called Black Treacle, sort of like molasses but not exactly molasses.  When I opened the can, I found a very strong smelling pitch black sludge with a molasses like consistency.  Into the cookie batter it went and the gingerbread men turned out just fine.  A little strong in flavor, but add some sugar icing and sprinkles on top and you balance out the flavor.

So serious about her cookie decorating.

 Santa came on New Year’s since we weren’t home on Christmas, so the girls got to spend plenty of time playing with their new toys and drawing and writing in their new journals.   And Eric and I had some fun making paella for our New Year's feast.  Paella is a Spanish rice dish with chicken, sausage, and seafood.  It was delicious!  Turned out even better than I had hoped.  And of course we had some sangria with it. 

We also had baked Camembert cheese with garlic and rosemary for the first time.  Camembert cheese seems to be a popular thing here in England and it was ooey, gooey cheesy deliciousness.

  On Friday, we headed to a little town not far from here and had lunch at a wonderful old pub called Harpur’s.  When we walked through the door, a warm fire crackling away in the fireplace with a glowing Christmas tree standing next to it greeted us.  After a leisurely lunch, we hiked to the edge of town and found the trail that if we followed for 6 miles south would lead right to our front door.  Maybe someday.

 Oh, and Sunday, I celebrated my first birthday here in England.  Eric and the girls treated me to some wood fired pizza at the Bull's Head in Repton.  They know the way to my heart.  

And Eric, what did he do?  Well, besides partaking in all of the above, he also spent time going through the 1700 photos he took on our trip.  Yes my friends, you read that right – 1700 photos.  At first, I thought he said 700 photos and said, “Wow, that’s a lot of photos.”  Then he correct me and said, “No, 1700 photos.”  That is a lot of photos, but let me tell you, he outdid himself this time beautifully capturing so many of the things we saw on this trip that I can’t wait to share them with you, which is exactly what I will be doing over the next few days.  Don’t worry, I don’t plan to share all 1700 with you.  He’s weeded through them all and pulled out the highlights.  As I’ve done with past trips, I’ll split the posts up so as not to overwhelm you or me.  

This was one of my all time favorite trips and I can’t wait to share Austria, Germany and Amsterdam (where we unexpected had to spend a night) with all of you.  I fell head over heals in love with Salzburg and the Austrian Alps.  The blog journey will begin tomorrow.  Until then, auf wiedersehen!
 

Merry Christmas from England

Merry Christmas everyone!  This is our final post of the year and because it would cost a small fortune for us to send Christmas cards to everyone, please let this post serve as our Christmas card to you.  The girls have a couple weeks off of school and Eric has some time off work, so I’m going to take some time off as well so we can concentrate on spending the holidays together as a family.  We’ll be doing some traveling, spending some time hanging out at home, and just general enjoying some rest and relaxation away from school, work and the normal household routine. 

Rest assured that our thoughts are with all of you this Christmas, even though we are thousands of miles away.  We will very much miss being with our family and friends, but this adventure already feels like it is passing by quickly and before we know it, we will find ourselves back at home in the good old USA.  So despite the fact that our hearts long to be in Wisconsin, we are going to do our best to make the most of this opportunity and enjoy every minute of it, and we will continue sharing our adventure with you in the new year.

Until then...

Happy Christmas family and friends.  I am sad I won't see you this Christmas.  Hope you all have a lovely Christmas.  Love, Ellie

Merry Christmas family!  I wish that I could be with you this Christmas.  Hugs and kisses.  Love, Leah

We wish you all a happy, relaxing and safe Christmas and a very Happy New Year.  See you all in 2015!  Love & miss you, the Engebretsen Family

The Christmas Jumper

We’ve had a real eye opening experience over here this Christmas and I can sum it up in three simple words – the Christmas jumper.  A jumper is what the English call a plain old ordinary sweater here.  So basically, I am talking about ugly Christmas sweaters which have become more popular in the US over the past few years, but let me tell you, we have got nothing on the British and their love for the Christmas jumper!

If you’ve ever seen the movie Bridget Jones Diary, you may recall the scene where she meets up with the man who eventually wins her affection, Mark Darcy, at a family Christmas party and he is wearing a Rudolph Christmas jumper.  Well, my friends, they are for real here in England and they aren’t just reserved for Ugly Christmas Sweater parties.  They are everywhere!  I see them at the grocery store, in window displays all over town, on shoppers at the mall in Derby, and Eric and his coworkers were even encouraged to wear them to work.  The girls have Christmas jumper day at school today, but we had to substitute elf headbands instead as we were unprepared for the popularity of Christmas jumpers in the UK and don’t have any.  At the Christmas market a couple weekends ago, we saw loads of people sporting these jumpers, including a group of young 20-something men who were obviously out for the evening enjoying the beer gardens at the Market.  One young man’s Christmas jumper even lit up like a Christmas tree.

 

Once December hit, I started seeing so many of them that at first, I thought people were wearing them because they just really like their Christmas jumpers here.  It makes you wonder when you see a grown man strolling through a Christmas market with his family in tow, none of whom are wearing jumpers, but he is wearing a sweater with a snowman on it that has a carrot nose protruding out a few inches from his chest.  Could it be he’s just in a really festive mood and wants to enjoy it with his kids?  Maybe.  But that carrot nose – seriously?  And then you walk by an older lady who is wandering the market alone with a squirrel dressed up for Christmas in a scarf and Santa hat on her jumper.  She’s all by herself, probably has grandkids so again, maybe she’s just really feeling the spirit of Christmas.  But that is a SQUIRREL on her sweater!  She can’t be serious. 

In doing a little research, I found out that the popularity of the Christmas jumper has seen a resurgence in the past few years here in England.  They first became popular here in the 1980s when TV hosts started wearing them during the holiday season.  They fell out of favor in the 1990s and turned into more of a gag gift item.  But they're back now.  In 2012, The Daily Telegraph described the Christmas jumper as “this season’s must have.” Even higher end fashion labels like Burberry are producing Christmas jumpers.  Eric finally asked someone at work if these Christmas jumpers are for real or not.  Turns out it is a joke, to some extent.  From what we could gather, the British do think these Christmas jumpers are funny, but wearing them throughout the Christmas season has also become a huge tradition here in England.  They like wearing them.  So I’ve come to the conclusion that yes, the British find humor in them, but they aren’t going to stop wearing their beloved Christmas jumpers. 

I hope I haven’t offended any of my English friends with this post about Christmas jumpers because quite honestly, I don’t care if they are a joke or for real or any combination in between.  When I walk into the local coffee shop and the first thing I see is a grown man sitting by himself quietly sipping his cappuccino and reading the local paper with a bright red pom-pom Rudolph nose dangling from the front of his Christmas jumper, it makes me smile.  It makes me feel good.  It makes me giggle a bit, but in general, it fills me with Christmas cheer, and I’ll just bet that is exactly what he intended.  

Now that we know we need to shop early, maybe we'll invest in some Christmas jumpers next year.  Elf headbands are cute too though!