A European Christmas

There's only so much you can fit into a backpack and after travelling for two weeks with someone, you get to know the wearable contents of their pack pretty well. So as we casually scanned the people waiting outside of the 'arrivals' gate at Frankfurt airport, we almost didn't recognise Sebastian who'd arrived the previous day.

A snow storm was predicted for the following day, so the airport authorities had set out temporary beds in preparation for stranded passengers.

 Europe had been an after thought really. Our return flights either required a trip home via the US or Europe and so we'd decided to spend a white Christmas with my family in Poland. But along the way we'd made new friends who invited us to visit 'next time we were in Germany'. And so on a snowy afternoon in December we were welcomed back to Europe for one of the friendliest months ever.

Heidelberg couldn't have been more pretty that first afternoon we spent walking around while waiting for my cousin and her partner to finish work. After traipsing the broken footpaths and deteriorating buildings of Chile and Argentina, Heidelberg seemed like a perfect fairy tale town. With a soft layer of fresh snow on the ground the locals seemed to be enjoying the Christmas lights and markets almost as much as we were.

After two days of wandering the streets, staying up far too late and hanging out in Heidelberg we headed south to Tübingen where we did pretty much the same.

But in Tübingen, bum sliding was also involved. This time, we tried plastic bags filled with snow while the locals with real sleds looked on with pity. Compared to our attempts just on jackets, this method was really fast. But added speed made it virtually uncontrollable and by the bottom of the hill, the plastic bags had usually ripped open caking us in snow. Add a few rolls in there before we'd stop and there was snow...everywhere. 

On route to Poland, we swung by Prague to compare Christmas markets and mulled wine.

And then did the same in Krakow the following morning.

Jeff's first white Christmas with my Polish family was a blur of divine food, relatives, hot chocolate in our favourite cafe, skiing right in town, markets and a tense wait for the birth of our niece or nephew back home.

The New Year was rung in with family friends on the snowy top of a hill in the Gorce mountain range.

During the few days we spent with them, we tried exploring in the nearby national park, but knee deep snow prevented us from going very far. So bum sliding it was, this time on a flying saucer type sled which was by far the most successful method.

During the couple of days we'd spent in Gorce, we'd seen horses pulling sleds on the road in front of the house. I'd always dreamed of dashing through the snow on a one horse open sleigh and on the first day of this year, my dream came true thanks to our friends.

With one week left of our trip, we returned to Germany to visit friends, soak up just a touch of history and enjoy our last days of a white winter.

Home, it turns out, would greet us with a flood that Brisbane was never supposed to have.

The river in Frankfurt had also busted it's banks that day

So that's finally it - the whole grand 3.5 month adventure. I must confess I've actually enjoyed blogging more since we've been back than on the road and so I plan to post new updates even when our next travels take us much, much closer to home. And as always, we're dreaming of the next adventure.