Heiligen Abend/Holy Night = Christmas Eve

So the LDS Church here has taken on a German tradition of going to church on Christmas Eve (we just don't do that in the States, oh well :) and it was good. It was a Christmas concert of sorts.

Then some friends of mine invited me and the missionaries over for Christmas Eve.

Here is the 'set up' - isn't it pretty?











Here are my friends, Ingeborg and Hans. Hans has their Christmas present in his hand - an Alaskan Ulu.

The Elders had to leave, per rules, so I left as well. My Mom always talked about Midnight Mass when I was growing up and sometimes we'd watch parts of it (from the Vatican) on T.V. So I decided I wanted to do a Midnight Mass of sorts, via the Protestant Berlin Cathedral ;)

I stood out and waited in line and then was let in at 11:00.

I am SO happy I went!

I've seen (and the blog has pix of the cathedral from earlier posts) the cathedral before, but it was just so pretty that night.

I liked being with all the people, singing Christmas hymns...it was just a really good time.

I am grateful I could go....

The roof...

Beautful work!

The altar...

The Nativity scene. There is one of those Herrnhutte stars again....

Then I decided I wanted to see what it was like from 'up above'.

Here is this old sign: Entrance for ...Diplomats, members of Parliament...and other high government officials...

Don't you feel intimidated? ;)

W II - anytime you see that it means 'Wilhelm the Second', i.e. last German emperor and the guy whom the world blames for starting the First World War - in the end, he lost it all!

This is the view just off to the right of the Imperial seating area....

Fancy... I honestly liked being down lower 'with the people' though. The view was honestly better below...

Loverly time, I was really glad I got to go!

Berlin 'Downtown' does Christmas

So does this look familiar?

Yes, it's the Brandenburg Gate IN BERLIN and there is the Christmas tree just on the other side of it...

My favorite!

This was new this year. The 'Chabad' movement (one of their rabbis was killed in Mumbai about a month ago) of Berlin put up a Menorah. Good times....

Close-up! I love it!!

This is Unter den Linden - the 'main' street in the 'old' city of Berlin. I love how they do these lights on the trees...it looks so cool!

Looking back at the Brandenburg Gate.

This was another Christmas market at Gendarmenmarkt, but you had to pay 1 Euro to get in! And well...I'm cheap! ;) So....

This is 'Alexanderplatz', i.e. 'most modern' of what the DDR could offer. I'm grateful because they were open later than other Weihnachtsmarkte - I got another skewer with chocolate-covered strawberries. Most would say I'm an addict, but...don't judge me ;) until you've tasted them!

Charlottenburg Schloss (castle) Weihnachtsmarkt

Ok, here is Schloss Charlottenburg. Wikipedia: Charlottenburg Palace (German: Schloss Charlottenburg) is the largest palace in Berlin[1] and the only building in the city dating back to the time of the Hohenzollern family.[2] It is located in the Charlottenburg district of the Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf area.
The palace was built at the end of the 17th century and was greatly expanded during the 18th century. It includes much exotic internal decoration in baroque and rococo styles. A large formal garden surrounded by woodland was constructed behind the palace. In the grounds of the palace various buildings were erected, including a belvedere, a mausoleum, a theatre and a pavilion. During the Second World War the palace was badly damaged but has since been reconstructed. The palace, its gardens and the buildings in the grounds are major visitor attractions.

The Christmas huts full of Christmas goodies, i.e. jewelry, sweetened/roasted almonds, fruit cake, sausages/dried meats, cheeses, things to eat, etc.

Yummy times....I had a skewer with chocolate-covered strawberries on it.

Berliners talk about these as coming from the Erzgebirge region of Saxony. They call them 'pyramids'. This is a MEGA-pyramid. Usually they are smaller, fit on a coffee table, you light candles underneat the 'blades' up top and then it spins the 'characters in the middle/bottom' around. Cool thing, I like it....

The Russians were also in town, along with other huts filled with Polish candy and foods.

I had Ukrainian Bortscht (as they spelled it). It was good, but a lot less 'red-beety' than I imagined.

The Schloss, the pyramid, the people and the huts = fun times. I enjoyed this Christmas market....

Au revoir, Schloss Charlottenburg!

Danke schoen!

Potsdam Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas Market)

So once again this is Potsdam. Potsdam is to Berlin as Versailles is to Paris. It's where all the kings and queens of Prussia lived, built their palaces, etc.

This is the Brandenburg Gate IN Potsdam - I'm emphasizing the IN Potsdam, because there is a Brandenburg Gate (it points/leads to the city of Brandenburg) IN BERLIN that is the FAMOUS one....





The beginning of the Christmas market....













Most Christmas markets in Berlin/area of, include some kind of ice skating option. NO SNOW here, but let's go iceskating! ;)











Brandenburg Gate....

My mom says this was her favorite pic. I like it too...

Inside the blue 'tree'....

This is Brandenbuger Street - all the food and Gluhwein (mulled wine) huts. I had an 'traditional Alsace' thin 'pizza' - twas good, so it twas...

I saw these stars before, but I didn't realize what they were until I went to Dresden. A lady there explained that back in the day a Protestant 'sect' (Germans call ANY religion that is not Catholic or Protestant a 'sect'; that's just my opinion - even 'Methodists' are spoken of as a sect...hilarious!) escaped Czech area and came to Saxony. They made these stars and now they are all over....

They remind me of the 'star' that Jor-el puts Cal-el into on his journey to Earth ;)

London School Trip in December

So I had to go back to London to present a 'paper' at a symposium (my first 'real' presenting at a conference!). As I was walking around I saw...

Even though my sister would say that I am a Trekkie, I would say I am not one - I just enjoy Star Trek every now and then.

'To go where no one has gone before...' I can just hear Patrick Stewart saying it ;)

This is where my hotel was. The Conference peeps put me up here. I remember when I accidentally found this little area 2 years ago. It looks just like the 'Who will buy this wonderful morning?' area in 'Oliver!' the movie.

.

I lived by Sadler's Wells theatre when I lived in London, however I never went there. I was looking forward to seeing 'Edward Scissorhands'. It caught me by surprise because it's 'dancing'...there was only three times the dancers yelled 'hoorah!' during the performance, other than that = no dialogue.

I was really enjoying it - you can really 'say' A LOT with dance. I was very impressed and becoming 'converted' to thinking dance was cool, until 'this one scene'. I am tired of that in movies and plays! Everything is fine until 'that one inappropriate scene' and then it just ruins it for me! Anyway...can't recommend it, however, I am thinking I might have to go see a ballet before I die - the power of dance to 'tell' a story is more than I thought.

So I found this and thought it was a nice street sign to take a pic of, but right then a mom/dad/2 kids/one kid in stroller walked by and the dad was smoking a joint! Hmm...











So I saw this guy just sleeping and I decided I wanted to take a pic of him before he woke up....













Very life-like, no? This guy's 'head' is just sitting there in the British Museum! It was a new 'piece' and I thought it was very interesting...










This was a musical about the Warsaw Jewish ghetto during WWII. I thought it was good...the music was good...the story was good....I liked it.



















This is the Christmas tree in Trafalgar Square. Every year Norway sends a Christmas tree over to London to thank the Brits for their help during WWII.













So...'Carousel'....I can 100% NOT recommend this show. It was sad, depressing and yeah....I didn't like it. Maybe the movie would have been better, but I can say 'save your money, peeps!'















On the flight back I had to take a photo of this! About a year or so ago I was looking at the emergency instructions on the back of the seat in front of me. I was interested in the 3 red 'no' circles in the lower left corner.









Just in case you couldn't see it. NO, high heels! NO, jewelry! NO glasses! And NO....what is that?.....NO.....dentures?





;)





SO REMEMBER EVERYBODY, if you're about to crash into a ball of flames, take your dentures out! I never would've thought of that! ;)

Winter Wonder...Berlin ;)

So I got back from my trip to London in November and I was going to sleep when the room seemed a lot 'brighter' than it normally would be. I opened my balcony door and there you have it! We were engulfed in a snow storm!

It was so thick you couldn't even see the Funkturm....

























And then the aftermath....'it's beginning to look a lot like Weihnachten, everywhere you go...' ;)

The sun 'erased' the middle of the Funkturm - I thought that was interesting....