We hope that everyone had a happy and safe New Year's Eve and that God blesses you all in this coming year. New Year's Eve is called "Silvester" here in Germany, and what an event it is! We spent "Silvester" with Fi's friend, Adele, from her German class, Adele's husband, Romain, and her friends from France. Most of the French guests also spoke English but we had fun trying to understand one another and use a lot of "sign language" to communicate. We were treated to a traditional 5 course French meal, beginning with Foie Gras and Gelee, followed by Duck and Potato Gratin and Green Beans, and finished with a cheese course (wonderful cheeses from France!)
One of the highlights of the evening was watching the fireworks from the top floor of Adele's apartment- it is so hard to describe in words what we saw but basically we had a bird's eye view of hundreds of homes around Stuttgart letting off fireworks in every direction. Unlike most places, the city does not put on the fireworks, but the people do. About a week before New Years, suddenly fireworks go on sale everwhere, even the corner grocery store. At midnight, every one goes wild with an amazinly vast display of pyrotechnics shooting up from every nook and cranny in the city. The fireworks "display" went on for about 20 minutes, it was incredible. And these were decent fireworks too-some pretty amazing stuff, but the sheer volume in 360 degress around us was the best part. No fires, but there were plenty of fireworks bouncing off buildings, roofs, and trees. The amount of empty launcers, rockets, and casings littering the streets the next day ws equally impressive. However, in good Teutonic precision, most of it was all swept up by midday. But, there is still a big black smudge on the outside of one of our secoond story windows and some burnt rockets I the roof courtesy of some neighbiorhood punks... I am already starting a firworks saving for next year. I will not be watching from the window for 2010!
All the best for this coming year, Zev and Fi xoxoxo
No comments:
Post a Comment