The Adventures of Jordon and Mal: Spain, Christmas, New Years, and LIZ!

We started off December right…. With a trip to Spain! Jordon and I and a friend, Josh, flew to the island of Mallorca. It was mind blowing to fly 1.5 hours from snowy Frankfurt to a sunny and 60 degree tropical island. This island caters mostly to tourists from Germany and the UK, and we found that we were definitely visiting in the off-season. Most restaurants, shops and hotels were shut down for the winter but we managed to find a hotel in the main city of Palma that was right on the water with a marina out front. One day we rented bikes and rode 20 miles down a winding promenade, all along the water. The next day we rented a car and drove to the opposite side of the island, where we toured the “Cuevas del Drach” which were these underground caves and the largest underground lake in Europe. It was pretty spectacular, especially when a string quartet came out on the lake in rowboats and played a mini-concert! We didn’t want to leave Spain, mainly because it was warm. Our flight ended up being diverted to another airport in Germany on the way home because of inclement weather, which made sense once we got to the car at the airport in Frankfurt- 8 inches of snow and more was coming down! It has been snowing all of December and none of it has melted, not what we are used to in Washington!

The next major event this month was Christmas! A few days before the holiday we drove to Luxembourg city, about 1.5 hours away. We did a little shopping and found a great Christmas market! We got our gluwein (hot spiced wine) and listened to some carolers. It certainly got us in the holiday spirit. We ended up getting our Christmas tree from a very German Christmas store a few towns over. The man who was helping us get the tree to the car would not let Jordon strap the tree to the top of the car! He insisted on making it fit inside, who knows it is probably against the law to drive with a tree on top of your car over here! We had Christmas Eve dinner with two other families and then Christmas Day we opened presents and were able to Skype with both of our families and grandparents.

A few days after Christmas, my friend Liz from PLU came to visit! She is currently living in Slovakia with a host family and volunteering at a community center, mostly teaching English and working with the gypsy population. It has been so great to have someone familiar here and to be able to show around. We have been “volksmarching” which is “hiking” in German, had a fondue party with friends, and have been cooking and baking a lot since she has been here. For New Year’s Eve the three of us drove to Cologne, Germany to ring in the New Year. Cologne is the 4^th largest city in the country and home to the Dom Cathedral, which is larger and more impressive than the Notre Dame. Our hotel was within walking distance to the cathedral so we toured the inside right away. At midnight, we walked down to the Rhine river where thousands of people were standing to countdown and celebrate. We walked through the crowds to a bridge where we were hoping to see more, but it was so foggy and smoky from the fireworks you couldn’t see much! It was really hard to walk anywhere because of the crowd and also because people would light off fireworks in the snow wherever they felt like! We wished we had brought goggles because fireworks would be going off 10 feet away all around you. It was insane! There were no regulations on fireworks and we only saw a few cops hanging around, not like New Years in the states at all!

Jordon and I wish you all a Happy New Years! We are looking forward to many good things this year and are excited to come back to Washington for Mollie and Peter’s wedding in June! Also looking forward to my mom coming to visit in February. We love visitors! Also, our wedding made it into South Sound Wedding and Event Magazine so if you see a copy in a store be sure to take a peek. Once again Happy New Years and we are sending our love from Germany