Christmas in Franconia

I know I just posted our Thanksgiving festivities, but presto, we are up to Christmas!
We went back to visit our friends the Herrmanns in Franconia (which is a part of Bavaria and as your random fact for the post it was one of the original 5 duchies of the Holy Roman Empire). They have a tradition of going on a Christmas hike (a wonderful idea I think we may carry on). So, Gabi, Anna and I went on a very pretty hike to two castle ruins (not something we could easily do back home in Wisconsin). Here are some images from the hike.




If you are up on your German, you can read all about the history of this castle. Fortunately for us, Gabi translated. Here’s the short version: it’s old, been fought over for centuries and was finally burned and destroyed in a dispute. 🙂

This is what it looks like today.




You can see the same castle here. This is also the stream that Rinehart fishes in (we sampled the tasty result during the last visit).

This is the view of the castle from another ruin on the opposite side of the valley.


Another village in the area.

This was a first for Anna and I, seeing a real May Pole. However, May Poles have been around in Bavaria since at least 1590. Bavaria is also where the tradition came from, with roots in Paganism.

Then, Christmas Eve, the fun began. We collected all the presents into piles for each person. At some point when no one is around (or when everyone congregates in the kitchen), Kristkindl (Christ Child) comes to deliver the presents for everyone. Also, different than Anna and my families, everyone tears into their presents at the same time (as opposed to waiting for each person to open them one at a time). The family also had a LARGE tree, which was very well decorated. There were even real candles to decorate it. Here are a few images from the evening.

Although there wasn’t any snow to make it a white Christmas (very unusual), it was plenty cold enough to enjoy a nice fire.




Christmas Day is a day to spend with family. The day after Christmas is apparently for the extended family. We were honored to spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day (usually only for immediate family) with the Herrmann Family. It was a wonderful trip filled with great food, thought provoking conversation, and of course great company. We look forward to learning more German so we can discuss in German as well!
So, until then, Grüß Gott!
–Jim