GERMANY!

Okay so Life in Italy with the Brenners took a road trip to Germany.  The girls had a swim meet in Ramstein so we thought we would make a long weekend of it and explore Germany.

First of all, the swim meet was TERRIFIC!  The girls swam great.  They both dropped seconds in each event they tried.  Blythe took 3rd in the 100 IM, 1st in the 100 freestyle, and 2nd in the breast.  Delaney took 4th in the 50 freestyle, 2nd in the 100 freestyle, and 6th in the breast stroke.  We had no disqualifications and they scored points for the team in each of their events!!  Go Brenner girls!!

We flew to Germany and as Delaney looked out the window and saw snow, her excitement mounted!  The girls could not wait to get off that plane to throw a snowball or two.  Thank goodness for Lands End!  Grandmum ordered them winter stuff for Hanukkah and it came in just in time. They had boots on and they just needed to add their coats and gloves.  They stomped the whole way into the terminal!!

The drive to Ramstein was beautiful.  Seeing all the snow covered trees and rolling hills was just gorgeous!  It certainly put us in the holiday spirit!  We hit our first Christmas market in Ramstein.  They just had a few boots with food and gifts.  They had some really cute holiday smokers.  How picked up a couple for a friend at work and we picked out a cute pot bellied man.  He will look cute on the mantle with our other decorations!

A little smoker!

We went to dinner at big Emma's.  It was a German beer house.  We had heard the food was good but huge portions.  I had a half portion of wurst and it was 4 huge sausages.  We did find out that the girls LOVE schnitzel.  It is really yummy!  Now we need to try some noodles!

After the meet on Saturday, we headed to Kaiserslautern to their market.  It was so much fun.  All the different smells and sights.  All the boots have lights so it is all very festive.  Delaney even managed to find the perfect place for some great holiday photos.  It was super cold outside.  I can see why the Germans drink gluwein, while at these things.  Gluwein is mulled wine.  It is hot so it warms you up!  Sometimes they add liquor to really warm you up.  We got one with jagermeister, boy was that strong.  Brought back some rough college memories.  How could not even finish his!!  I think the kinder was better. This was the kids non alcoholic version.  They also made real hot chocolate.  It was not the girls favorite but I loved it!!  At these markets, they have little fires along the way so you can warm up as you go.  It was such a fun way to get in the spirit!  We tried all sorts of things from brats to wild boar stew.  It was fun to be eating such different food!

This is her copper bowl.

Family Photo!

Sunday we went to Heidelberg.  This is a beautiful city on the river.  There was a pretty big Christmas market here.  We wandered the streets checking out all the things the town had to offer.  Blythe used her Hanukkah money from Aunt Linda to buy a ceramic dragon smoker.  He is really cute.  She can not wait to get him working!!  We saw some great decorations and went into some of the most festive shops.  We experienced some more food and enjoyed a waffle before heading up to the Heidelberg schloss (castle).  The castle was really amazing.  Parts of it were falling apart but it still towered over the city.  There were amazing views of the city below from the castle.  There were more markets outside the castle.  There was a metal worker right next to the castle.  The girls begged to make something.  It was late in the day and the sign said the project could  take up to an hour to complete.  The girls wore us down and we let them each make something.  Blythe chose a bowl and Delaney chose a bracelet.  I have to say that it was well worth the money.  The girls turned their strips of copper into really neat creations.  Yes daddy and I helped them, but they really stuck with it.  They worked really hard and were eager to complete their projects.  Even as the sun went down and it started to get cold, they kept working!  Their hard work paid off and they have really unique souvenirs.  We were really glad we took the time to make them =)

The castle glowing at night!

Delaney working hard at the anvil!

Back on base that night, we stopped in the Germany beer hall.  There we had noodles!  All I can say is that Julie Andrews was correct, Schnitzel with noodles is one of my favorite things!  Yummy!!!

The gingerbread house.

Eating Reibekuchen

Monday we stopped in Berncastle-Kues on the way to the airport.  This is a quaint little town in the valley.  The streets were all crooked and narrow.  The houses were typical German style homes.  How and I enjoyed just strolling the streets looking at the architecture.  This market had all little fair tales throughout the streets, one house was decorated like Hansel and Gretel.  We even found the Nutcracker castle. At this market, we found a new food, reibekucken.  I saw someone eating it so I had to try it.  It was a potato pancake that was out of this world!!  We all liked them so much we had to get a second order!!  This time we opted for the applesauce.  Yummy!!  These were way better than any latke I could have made!! This was the perfect ending to our trip to Germany.

 I hope this is the first of many trips because this was such a beautiful country! Thank you Germany for getting us in the holiday spirit!!

Naples Underground and Ercolano

We had a wonderful thanksgiving here at the house.  How made the turkey and I worked on the sides.  We had two families come to the house and join us. They brought desserts and a ham.  Long story, Janelle prefers ham! It was a lot of fun.  The kids ran around and played all afternoon and the grown up just got to enjoy some good company and a glass of vino!

Since we did not travel for the holiday, I told the family we needed to explore some things around here!

Naples Underground was our first outing.  We took the train from the JFC to downtown Naples.  It was not hot and I found a seat, so the ride was uneventful=)  We followed the map to the right square!  We were a little early for the noon tour, so we checked out Christmas Alley.  This is a street lined with Nativity cribs.  The Neapolitans love to decorate Nativity cribs.  They do the usual Mary and Joseph but then they do what the village would look like.  They make all different little scenes of every day life.  There can be pizza makers, meat markets, cheese stores.  They are really quite elaborate.  The girls had fun looking at them and snapping a few pictures!!
We went to the Underground for noon and had a private tour.  It was really awesome.  We went to an apartment that had been an old woman's house for many years.  She even had a cellar that when she pushed her bed back, she could access.  Upon inspection of the house, it was found out that the house was built in the old theater of the Romans.  It was amazing to see the brick from years ago hidden behind layers of plaster.  This was a recent discovery, just in the last 10 years.  It was amazing that there is a whole apartment building covering this old ancient theater.  We then walked down the street to a discovery in the last month!  Another person left their house to the city.  Once the plaster was removed, they found parts of the theater.  It was amazing to think people were living on top of this stuff and had no idea!!

We then got to go underground.  There were 121 steps to the underground.  These were aqua ducts back in the time of the Greeks.  They were used as a bomb shelter in the 40's during WWII.  It was crazy to think people piled under ground to try and stay safe.  There was a huge network of tunnels all built by the Greeks to get water from the mountains to their cities.  There are lights now, but it is hard to imagine being down there with hundreds of people and no light.  We did get a glimpse of that feeling.  For the last section, we had to light a candle to guide our way.  The path was very narrow.  How and I had to duck many times.  We also had to walk sideways in order to make it through.  The path opened up to a big pool of water.  It was really cool!  It was really pretty in there!  It was the perfect ending to a neat maze under the city!  The girls had sort of grumbled about going, but after the last part, they were so excited.  They apologized and said it was one of the coolest things we had done to date =)

The next day we went to Ercolano.  This was just a short drive from the house.  This is a smaller and less known version of Pompeii but Ercolano is more well preserved.  It was truly amazing to see this huge archeological find in the middle of a thriving town.  There were apartment building circling the site.  That is one amazing thing about being in Italy.  Italians are always in touch with their past.  They do not take down old stuff, they just build around it!  Ercolano is an amazing little town.  You can see house and how they use to live.  There is even plaster left on some of the rooms.  The colors of the art is so vibrant.  I can only imagine what it looked like when it was first made.  Ercolano was covered in hot ash from Vesuvius.  It is unbelievable that there is anything left to look at here.  But some of the support beams on the houses are still visible as black chars of wood.  The Roman bath houses are huge!  The girls thought it was so funny that the Romans took baths together.  We tried to equate it to a gym locker room.  So once we found the men's bath, Delaney went running around looking and found the woman's locker room.  She was so proud of herself when we found the sign saying it was indeed the female baths!  A recent discovery at the site is that of a boat.  They found hundreds of bodies in the boat tunnels trying to save themselves from the ash.  They are now reconstruction one of the boats.  It was really impressive to see how they are piecing these chard remains together.  The girls were fascinated by the process!  Who knows, maybe we will have future archeologists!

Amalfi Coast

My parents came to Italy on a package deal.  They got airfair, hotel and a car for $700 a piece.  The deal was too good to pass up.  They did not need the hotel but we still wanted to see the Amalfi coast.  I emailed and asked the hotel if we could have two rooms for Saturday night instead of staying the week.  They were kind enough to allow this change so we drove down Saturday after Delaney's soccer game.  We drove down to Vietri and then started our trip up the Amalfi coast.  We did stay in Vietri long enough to get some pottery and pick up some more sea glass for our collection =)  The drive to Minori was pretty.  It was getting dark which was a good thing.  The road was so narrow that being able to see the lights coming was actually helpful as I navigated around some blind corners.  Minori was about 20 minutes north of Vietri.  We found the hotel, Villa Romana, a few blocks from the water.  We got settled in our room and found out they had dinner at seven.  The chef had a special menu and he would come into the dinning room to prepare the meal.  We thought that sounded like fun so we made reservations.  While we waited, we walked down to the beach.  It was a bit windy but it was a nice walk through Italian streets.  The girls played in the sand for a bit while we collected some sea glass.  It was a nice night for a walk.  We found a cute pottery shop, where the girls got a magnet to member the trip.  Mom got a really pretty tile painted with the city of Minori on it.  We wandered through the cobble streets back to the hotel.  There were only two table for dinner.  The chef made his own egg pasta which was outstanding!  Then we had a fish dish with pickled pumpkin on it.  It sounds yucky but it was really good.  We were all happy eaters!  Dessert were little popovers that were very spongy.  They were good except they were drenched in limoncello.  Italians love the stuff.  So the dessert wasn't the best but it was a really fun meal!  The next morning we had a big breakfast at the hotel and then started our Amalfi drive.  The views were just spectacular!  It is amazing to see the ocean look green!  The cliffs and building built into these mountains are just incredible.  It was hard to drive and not look around.  Although, I really did have to pay attention.  This is a tricky drive with narrow roads and crazy Italians on these roads.  The narrow curves and cars parked on the sides of the roads at random make this a challenging drive.  It is one you must do at least once!  The views are so worth it.  There are plenty of overlooks to stop at along the way so that even the driver can enjoy!  It was such a neat experience.  I am glad we got to do it with Grammy and Grandpappy!

Cooking Class!

My parents came into town on Thursday afternoon.  Friday I took them to a cooking class.  We rode the bus from the Support Site to the train station in Aversa.  We stopped at the bar for a cafe and then proceeded to the hotel.  We washed up first and then headed to the kitchen.  We actually got to prep the vegetables, sausage, and bruschetta.  It was fun to watch my dad get his hands dirty in the kitchen.  The group took turns prepping the food and then we got a chance to eat.  We made broccoli and sausage pasta, bruschetta, and grilled zucchini and eggplant.  It was fun learning all the proper ways to cut and prep the food.  The food was wonderful!  It was simple but so yummy.  And the wine on the table was the perfect compliment.  It was such a fun way to spend the day with my parents.  Italy is known for its food and it was fun being able to cook with a real Italian chef!

Cantina di Solopaca

Coolest pump ever!

Okay so we heard about this winery in Solopaca.  Unfortunately, it is only open on Saturdays.  Since Howard left for CA today, we pilled in the Hatteroth's car for a family outing.  It was a pretty drive through the country.  The leaves were actually starting to change out there so it finally looked like fall here.  Many of the tree were a pretty orange but when we got up close we realized they had actual oranges on them and no leaves!  Funny!  The winery was the actual manufacturing plant for the wine.  They had many different bottles to choose from.  It was a typical wine store.  They did sell wine in damijohns which we were super excited about.  For 6 euros, you could get a 5 liter damijohn of wine.  We thought it was a great deal and planned on getting two each.  The neatest part of the winery is the fact that they fill up bottles using gas pumps!  They greet you before you enter the store.  So many customers just pulled their cars up to the pumps and then woman filled the up.  You could pick different types of wine and whether you wanted white or red wine.  It was the coolest thing!  So many people had the 24 liter damijohn in their car and pulled up to the pump to fill up!  We really wanted the damijohns but we also wanted to have the lady fill something for us.  Then we found out you could get a damijohn filled.  We were so excited.  It seems so silly, but it was so cool to stand at the pump and have the lady fill our bottle with wine.  An Italian, who spoke English, told us we had stumbled upon a great place.  He said it was the best tasting wine around!  He told us we were fortunate to have found this place!  We agreed.  This was a really cool experience!  Then we went in to pay.  The wine was 4 euros and the damijohns were 2 euros each.  Since we both got two 5 liter damijohns, we expected to pay 24 euros.  When the man rang us up, it only came to 14 euros!!  We were surprised, shocked and not sure what to do.  So we just decided to hide our smiles and get in the car and go!!  Janelle, James and I were so excited about our trip and we have not even tasted one sip of wine!  If it is as good as the man said, this will be a fabulous day!!

It only got better.....on the way home we found two 24 liter damijohns by the side of the road!  So Janelle and I each got one!  Great day!!!

Vietri sul Mare

Okay, living here in Italy we all get use to using our GPS.  People give out coordinates as directions.  You would think it would make life easy.  Well it doesn't if you GPS has a mind of its own.  I have been to Vietri three times now and we some how get lost or drive out of our way to get there.  It is just nuts.  But I must stop complaining because it is so worth the drive.  The little town is so quaint.  The streets are cobble stone and are lined with stores selling pottery.  You can get all sorts of things from bowls to toilet paper roll holders made out of pottery. I have a Limoncello set, a mozzarella bowl, and a wine cork.  Today I took my children and in laws there.  We had a beautiful day.  We walked around, stopped for a panini, and then went to the beach.  I had not been to the beach so this was a treat.  The sand was black from all the volcanic activity in this region.  There was also lots of sea glass and pottery to pick up.  We only spent an hour but we got so much stuff.  We are going to have to go back.  The pottery pieces are so cool, we want to make a mosaic flower pot with them.  It was surprisingly warm today, about 74 degrees.  Just the perfect day for a drive down the coast and a visit to the beach!  I know this will become a favorite destination of ours!

Granmum and the girls!

Enjoying the beach!

The pottery pieces.

The damijohn is starting to get filled!

Fresh Wine!

Thanks to a good friend, we went to a local wine store.  It is the most charming place.  Brick and wood beams everywhere.  There are wines lining the walls.  Everything you can imagine.  Their prices are all really reasonable.  After looking at all the shelves, we head to the back room.  There lining the wall are four huge metal vats.  Each has a label on it.  We ask the woman if we can have a taste.  They speak no English but we manage to get our point across.  I tasted three different wines.  One is a Cabernet, which is just wonderful.  It isn't too harsh, it is smooth and tasty.  I try two others which I am not sure what they are but they taste great!  We tell them we want two bottle of each type.  The owners  take six clean bottles and fill them and cap them for us.  They also add the "fancy" label.  This wine is organic so once it is  open you have to drink it, it does not keep.  This is not really asking too much since the stuff is so good.  Now you know the secrete to my "house wine".  We will be serving this wine at our house since it is inexpensive but tastes fantastic.  Just another little joy of living in Italy.

Eat Love and Pray Pizzeria!

What a fun day!  Thanks so Kody.  She took Jannelle and I on our first bus trip to downtown Naples.  We parked the cars at the Capo base near the Naples airport.  Then we walked to the airport to get the bus.  It was 3 euros to ride.  The bus was pretty hot but we got seats so it wasn't too bad.  We rode it for one stop and got off and walked.  Naples is like any big city, crowded and busy.  One section reminded Janelle of Market street in San Francisco and I agreed.  We got off the bus dodged a few cars along the way and walked the couple of blocks to the pizzeria.  Kody wasn't exactly sure of the side street to take, but as we were looking at one street a street vendor looked at us and said ,"Pizzeria, si!" and pointed right.  I guess this place is getting very popular with tourist.  I know locals have always known about it.  We got there early, at eleven, because we have been told you can not get in the door at lunch time.  The smell of fresh homemade goodness greeted us at the door.  It was so nice that it was empty because we got to look around. I tried to take pictures of everything.  We were asked if we wanted cheese or double cheese.  We went all in and got the double.  I took a few photos and before I could put the camera away the pizza was ready.  The oven is so hot it cooked so fast.  It was so pretty I didn't want to eat it.  But of course, I did!!  It was so yummy.  The sauce was not heavy or overly tomato.  It was perfect.  The cheese had the perfect blend of salt so it worked well with the sauce.  The crust was very think but you could still pick it up!  It was just wonderful!!  We had Jacob with us, who is 8 months, and the staff just loved him.  Italians love babies.  It was such a fun lunch!  I can not wait for visitors so that I can go back =)