Frohe Weihnachten von Familie Smith

Merry Christmas from the Smiths! We'd like to share our Christmas card with you.

We're currently enjoying a visit from parents Smith. We've been exploring our region and will celebrate Christmas at home before heading out for about 1 week of traveling in eastern Germany and Prague for New Year. If you don't hear from us before the New Year, then we wish you a "Guten Rutsch!"

Getting into the holiday spirit

I've had the Christmas carols going for awhile, but now with little over a week to go it is starting to feel like Christmas. For my birthday Joe bought us a Christmas tree. We decided to go with a potted one that can hopefully be our Christmas tree again next year.

It's not much to look at, but we went to the Christmas market in Tübingen today and got a few ornaments, and I wrapped the presents. We bought a tiny pinecone ornament (hardly visible) from the glass blower at the University; his wife makes them. I've gotten to know him this fall as he has made a few custom pieces for my lab work. Maybe the best part of this tree is the angel Joe made out of the foil wrapping of my favorite German beer, Tannen Zäpfle ("pine cone" in dialect). We had to practice with a few bottles, but it was fun to get rid of the beer!

We had a Christmas party with my lab group last night at the boss' house. A good time was had by all, lubricated by our favorite drinks like "Feuerzangenbowle" (rum-soaked cones of sugar lit on fire that drip carmelized yummy stuff into hot wine). We also had an adventurous train ride back home. I realized we have been in Germany too long, because I start to say things like "He is so late again" when referring to the train. The train is gendered male in German, by the way.

One more week of work/school and we're off to eastern Germany and Czech Republic. Parents Smith arrive on Tuesday from Alaska, and we are looking forward to some family time, exploring new areas and a break from our routines.

Earliest sunset! ...and other astronomical events

OK!  Today was the earliest sunset of the year, for our latitude.  So now we can start gaining light in the evening.

This is not to be confused with the winter solstice (21Dec12), which has the shortest total daylight of the year, and just happens to coincide with The End Of The World! a.k.a. the new year of the Mayan calendar.  Coincidence?  Not really, as the Mayan calendar is astronomically based, and the winter solstice marks the beginning of their calendar year, and this year the date rolls from 12.19.19.17.19 to 13.0.0.0.0  Despite using a base 20 number system, at least the new year's day on the Mayan calendar makes more sense than the cobbled together European based calendars (Julian & Gregorian).

Oh, and for our latitude, we have to wait until our new year's day to get past the latest sunrise.

Alright, it has been snowing here.  Apparently only once about every decade is there a white Christmas in this part of Germany.  If the current trend holds, this will be that year.  And to tie this back to astronomical events:  The sun is at such a low angle (currently <18.5 degrees above horizon at solar noon) and above the horizon for such a short time (currently 8hrs:22min), it doesn't seem like it will melt too soon.  ...and since I spend a few days this past summer making the calculations, I can tell you that the current daily clear sky solar energy delivered to a 1sq.meter horizontal surface is 1.4kWh (...or about the same heat energy released as one hour of  the big burner on the stove top set to medium-high, ...but distributed over 10sq.ft), and this energy is only 1/6 of the summer solstice amount. However it is cloudy every day, and the snow reflects most of that energy, we aren't even getting much solar heating to melt our snow.

OK.  In a practical terms this means, the snow and ice are piling up but not melting, and this makes for a difficult commute by bike.  Consequently I am using the train much more frequently than normally.  And so is Betsy; she bought a month pass.  Thank goodness for the trains when the weather is not fit for biking --and that is saying something, when it comes from me.

Thanksgiving, Birthdays, and Winter

...well it has been a month since the last update.
First I must say that it get harder each time I become a student again.  I would have thought that after already earning a master's degree and taking classes at University of Alaska and Colorado for fun, I should have this student gig down.
But I do have one thing down --procrastination!  I have a homework assignment due tomorrow.  I am halfway done, but wanted to do something else for a little while, like write this blog.
...so Betsy had two Thanksgivings this year.  The real one with the Swanners in Minnesota (while on a business trip to America), and then the Ex-pats Thanksgiving in Tübingen.  I only had one, but it was great to have pumpkin pie and turkey.

Hot on the heals of Thanksgiving were our birthdays.  Betsy got me a great present --rain gear!  ...she actually gave it to me a little early, because it rained an inch per day for the 3 days prior to my actual birthday.  And on the 1st of December we went to Esslingen for the Medieval Christmas Market.  All the fun of a typical Christmas market, but with Renaissance-fair costumes.

Betsy drinking Glühwein with Merle & Nina at the Esslinger Mittelaltermarkt & Weihnachtsmarkt

On Betsy's birthday she was skiing in the Alps with her lab group.
This week we got a 3' tall Christmas tree.  And now we are on the look-out for decorations.  We didn't find any at the Tübingen Chocolate market last night, but we did buy some expensive chocolates.

Tübingen ChocolART festival

And what I really wanted to tell people about is that we are now signed up for bi-weekly beer delivery.  I think this is the type of service that only exists in Germany.  We can place our order by phone or internet, and on our appointed day the delivery man drops off our requests of Bbeer and other drinks (mineral waters or fruit-juices), even if we are not home!  Can you imagine how American teenagers would react to such an opportunity?

Veteren's Day

I wanted to get this blog out to all those that celebrate Veteran's Day / Armistice Day / Remembrance Day in the US and Europe.  In Germany it called "Volkstrauertag" which is "people's mourning day", but it isn't celebrated, and usually it does not occur on 11 November.
In the Great War, Germany suffered over 7 million military casualties.  And 11 November 1918 is when Germany surrendered.  Nearly all, if not all, villages have memorials for the war dead from the Great War and World War II.  In our village the memorial is at the catholic cemetery, and on Friday some people were cleaning it up.

Ersten Schneefall

This morning's view

If you haven't guessed by looking at the pictures, we just had our seasons first snowfall ("ersten Schneefall").  The storm lasted all Saturday, and brought about an inch of rain.  However by Sunday morning there was about 4 inches of snow on our deck, with which I made a snow man.
 This might be more snow than we got all of last year.

And early this morning we switched to Standard time, so we had an extra hour to get used to the transition to winter.  And to that end, Betsy put on some Christmas music.

Long Bike Rides

Because I am now busy with classes, I don't think I will be making any long bike rides soon.  So this is a quick and (very quantitative) review of my late summer bike rides.
I wrote about riding up the Neckar River (Yellow path on map) on 2^nd of September; it was 210km (130miles) and took 9.5hrs to get there and back.

Map of long bike rides, this map shows the entire width of the state of Baden-Württemberg

I also rode to Strasbourg, France and back.  This is the pink path.  That was a very grueling ride and took all day (12hrs) and was 220km (140miles) long.

Strasbourg

I attempted to get to Ulm, but didn’t make it.  This is the light blue path.  I got caught in one of the largest storms of the summer, and took a train back to Tübingen.  I was out for most of the day and went around 140km (90miles).

Danube River

Schloss Sigmaringen

My longest ride of the fall was a loop through Sigmaringen and Rottweil.  This is the orange path.  It was 240km (150miles) and took 13hrs.  There was frost when I started.  By mid-day I was on the Danube River bike path, and it is beautiful, and I stopped about every 2km to take pictures.

Recently I have ridden to Stuttgart and back.  This is the dark blue path.  While not as long, at only 125km (78miles), I have been able to ride it in about 5hrs.  Which I think is fairly good for self-supported trail/path riding.

I think the longs bike rides are finished this year.  Next spring Betsy & I are looking forward to biking through Holland to see the tulips.