In which we revisit UK Christmas 2019.

 

On this Twelfth day of Christmas and First Day of Snow in Hamburg, I felt inspired to go through my photos taken over the Christmas and New Year holidays in the UK last year -- a wonderful time filled with family, friends, muddy hikes in North Yorkshire, mince pies. adventurous excursions in Cheshire and Wales, and many, many cups of tea. It was my second visit with Tom after our previous springtime trip, and turned out to be our last for a while as the following Easter and Christmas trips were cancelled for obvious reasons and the festivities were outsourced to zooming from our respective couches and sweatpants. Here's to the fond memories of the old normal.

Zooming (old usage) over London.

An evening stroll in Skipton, North Yorkshire.

A family stroll along the Strid in Bolton Abbey.

A misty walk to Malham Cove.

(A spectacular jump.)

Lovely views at Dunham Massey, Cheshire.

A stunning walk over the River Dee on the Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Wales.

Evening falling on Llangollen, Wales.

New Year's Eve canal stroll in Stockton Heath, Cheshire.

Sunny adventures in Chester.

And finally, the second sunset of 2020.

In which the rain smells like Glühwein.

It's been a busy few months. Lots of adventures and wonderful visitors from afar, lots of rehearsals, lots of work. Lots of time spent baking instead of sorting through photos in the rare moments of free time at home, as the last thing I want to do after a long day at the office is look at a screen. Lots of pumpkin and chocolate-pumpkin pie, lots of cookies -- from ma's classic gingerbread (one of the best ways to introduce Germans to the rich, spicy flavor of molasses) to soft, almondy, meringuey, cinnamony Zimtsterne, to hilariously ridiculously delicious chocolate peppermint marshmallow cookies that, when brought to work, instigated emails from my colleagues with such subject lines as "OMGOMGOMG!" and "OH MEIN GOTT DIESE KEKSEEEEEE" (= omg these cookies). Lots of pumpkin spice truffles. Lots of recipes I have yet to try.

I spent more time than usual at the Christmas markets this year -- still not a lot, but more than usual. Here are some scenes from Hamburg during the longest nights of the year. 

Christmas was very quiet this year, spent in the company of a few fellow far-flungs, a brisk walk along the beach in Blankenese followed by a fab meal. Good food, good friends, damn good eggnog, a good deal of snoozing, and more downtime than I've had in weeks. Just the ticket.

One of my favorite people recently made the voyage all the way from San Francisco to Hamburg, and a couple days ago we took a little stroll in nearby Lüneburg, picturesque even on the rainiest, gloomiest of December days.

Speaking of picturesque, I spent 10 days hiking/exploring with friends in Ireland and Northern Ireland in November, and gahh, it was glorious. The weather was mostly miserable, but the hours spent wandering through those wild, remote landscapes were totally worth the Authentic Irish Headcold I had in the weeks that followed. Photos to come, sometime.

And snow? We've had a little. Just for a couple days, and just enough to make this ecstatic Minisnowmensch come to life. I'm hoping he'll make a comeback in 2018.