Did you know Germany loves advent calendars? I mean, loves. We’ve seen them everywhere for months now. Nail polish ones, perfume ones, chips, dog treats, murder mysteries, books, and of course chocolate ones.
This is one cultural tradition I can get behind!
Especially when the market square looks like this!
Can’t you just smell the glühwein and würste?? Mmm!
We spent quite awhile in Italy this summer, but ignored Venice. Partly because flights and trains were inconvenient and hotel prices were high. But mostly because we knew it would be a sardine tin of tourists without an Italian in sight.
Then Maggie suggested we go for her birthday. Amazing idea, kiddo. We waited till about a week before, found a flight and an apartment for really reasonable prices, and boom! Venice!
We went for the city alone, passing all the churches and museums and even parks. We immediately recycled the map we were given upon check-in, turned off Google maps, and just walked.
Amazingly, we did find our way through the labyrinthian streets and bridges, managing to find grocery stores, vaporetto stops, and (every night!) our apartment. By the third day, we even had a sense of where we were going.
Since we had no real goals, we could let the kids lead us wherever they wanted to turn, and we only got turned around by flooded streets the last morning. (Yes, my shoes are still wet, but my feet have been kissed by the acqua alta of Venice!)
I took sooooo many pictures — in Venice proper, the glass-blowing island of Murano, and the picturesque Burano too — so just get ready for a big photo dump. It’s Venice!!
We didn’t get to do Halloween this year; we won’t do Thanksgiving either. But we are getting to be part of German holidays that we had never even heard of before. Like St. Martin’s Day on November 11.
Clif’s Notes version of the holiday: St. Martin was a cool Roman dude who did nice things like rip his cloak in half to share with a poor guy out in the cold. When the Powers-that-Be decided he should be made a bishop, Martin said no thank you and went and hid with the geese. They made too much noise, though, as geese do, and he was found out. He had to be bishop, and the geese had to be dinner.
To celebrate St. Martin’s Day, children make paper lanterns (some people said they used to carve turnips into lanterns as kids), and there’s a dusky parade with carols and all the lit lanterns. Probably you’re supposed to have roast goose, but our celebration involved yummy goose-shaped cookies. When you get your cookie, you break it in half to share with a friend (some people said the breaking and sharing part was not part of their upbringing).
Here are the girls’ lanterns they made. Tessa did hers at school with professional kindergarten teachers and a fancy potato stamp. Maggie did a beautiful job decorating hers at home and then mom mangled it a bit forcing it into a cylinder.
The procession was definitely joyful, the singing was fun (although I wish we had known the carols), and the bonfires were cheerful and warm. Plus, the geese were delicious. Happy St. Martin’s Day!
Magrilless 