Dave & Jess in Hamburg

Dave and Jess came to Hamburg for a Thanksgiving visit. Continental now has a direct flight from Newark to Hamburg, which they took advantage of. They were looking pretty chipper when they got of the plane, we must say:






Jess is now making these AWESOME handbags. Nat got one as an early Christmas gift.






The big event was, of course, Thanksgiving dinner. We got an 11 lb bird from Geflügel Krohn around the corner from our flat. It was extremely fresh. We made a big pot of soup from it, which we ate for the next couple of days.








The weather took a turn for the worse just before they arrived. It was cold and rainy or snowy pretty much the whole time. Didn't matter - we had nice, long visits inside around the table. Even played a game or two of Set...which was...um...really fun with two jet-lagged people at 10:30 pm. (That was actually mean from us - we're sorry. It really is a good game).

We did make a few trips out and about. Got the Christmas market in Hamburg, which was a hit, with mold wine an all (oops - mulled wine). Also did some shopping in the Schanzenviertel and took a day trip to Lüneburg:



Dave was prepared for cold weather with his Biscuit hat:


On Saturday night we decided to splurge and go to Cafe Vienna, one of the best restaurants in Hamburg. It's a little place just around the corner from us in a residential area. There is no sign out front and the 8 tables in the tiny room get filled quickly. A little too quickly for us. Though we were there when they opened at 7 pm, the place was already full. Go figure. Upon advice from the bartender, who thought it might be 30-60 minute wait, we decided to stick it out at the bar. Turned out to be a 2-hour wait instead.





We enjoyed the meal nonetheless. It was excellent. A four-star experience all the way. Waiting for the table reminded all of us of the Seinfeld episode where they are waiting in a Chinese restaurant, which we promptly watched after returning home.

Dave got this cool drawing from the bartender at Cafe Vienna:




All in all we had a super-great-fantastic time. Had been looking forward to their visit for a long time and it turned out to be just a lot of fun. Hope you guys come back soon. Miss you already!

Jim & Nat