Our European Christmas

Since we knew that we wouldn't be with our families this year for the holidays, we thought that it would be a good excuse to do some more traveling. 

As some of you may know, we're kind of big fans of Rick Steves. He has an episode all about European cities to visit during the Christmas season. We took his advice, as usual, and visited 2 of his recommended destinations: Nürnberg, Germany and Prague, Czech Republic. 

We spent lots of time in the Christmas markets in both cities, picking through ornaments and enjoying the local traditional holiday treats. 

So many ornaments!!!

This is what "Frozen" looks like in Germany

Such a beautiful market square

I love visiting old walled cities

DB Train Museum

Yes, we went there everyday :-)

Walking up to the Nürnberg Castle to see the sunset

This was our diet for the 4 days we were in Germany. It's been confirmed that we both like sauerkraut!

Aside from exploring the city, we ventured out to the eastern area of Nürnberg to see the courtroom where the Nürnberg Trials took place after World War II. We also went to the southern area of Nürnberg and visited the Documentation Centre Nazi Party Rally Grounds (Dokuzentrum) which describes Hilter's rise to power. On the same grounds as the center is Zeppelin Field which was used for the Nazi Rally Grounds. It was pretty eerie see it and think about the events that took place there.

Dokuzentrum entrance

Congress Hall 

Zeppelin Field

Hilter and his friends once stood here

After a wonderful, busy 4 days in Nürnberg, we took a 3-hour bus to Prague. Neither of us really had great expectations for this new city, but by the end of our trip, we both decided that it's one of our top 3 European cities that we've been to!

The Christmas market in the old town square in Prague

The top tiers of these towers were our favorite! I think the design of Hogwarts was inspired by them ;-)

The view from our room in the morning

Entrance into the Prague Castle

The Charles Bridge

View of the Prague Castle from Charles Bridge

View of Prague from the castle

Trdelník!!!!

The ONLY picture of the both of us that isn't a selfie.  I'm very grateful for the man that took this photo!

Took a train ride to Kutná Hora on Christmas Day to see the Sedlec Ossuary 

Around 1400 the Sedlec Ossuary was built in the middle of a cemetery with an upper and lower section (underground). The upper section was for the chapel and the lower section was to be used to place contents of the graves (estimated to be 40-70,000 people) that were unearthed during the construction. In 1511 the task of organizing the bones was given to a monk and here's what it looks like today.

The chandelier in the center contains at least one of every bone in the human body

Last evening at the market buying some of our favorite gingerbread

Being away from our family this holiday season has given Case and I time to reflect and think about what Christmas means to us now, family, and our necessities of life. We are so grateful for the opportunities that we have been given during our time in Norway, but we both look forward to the next time we get to be with our family and friends (hopefully next Christmas!!!)!

We hope everyone had a very, merry Christmas and Happy New Year!