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ßlessed Christmas everyone! Happy holidays... :)

A memorable Christmas 2008 (also my longest trip so far)


Pris invited me a few months back to join the Tews family for Christmas this year and I thought that'd be really cool since this is my first Christmas away from family and to join another family celebrating it would be a good idea.

finally seeing Pris after 1.5yrs!

Like how Pris mentioned on her blog, we go back a long way in NTU days where we were in the same DG.. went on exchange together.. knew Stephan at the same time.. witnessed how they got together, and eventually witnessed their wedding! :D

Day 1 London - Stuttgart
First thing to stress is... feels really good to have someone pick me up from the airport, thanks to Pris and Stephan! My first ever since I came to Europe! No hassle of figuring out how to get to hotel, where's the train, etc.. :)
Had a chinese meal at their fav Asian restaurant and then walked around the lovely Stuttgart Christmas Market (100 times better than the Waterloo one!), had some Nutella crepe, tried the Ghluwein (hot herbal red wine).

 


 


At night, chef Priscilla prepared tiger prawn noodles for moi (feel the love) which I *hee* shamelessly requested for it on her blog sometime back. It was yummilicious.... mmmm...

 


Day 2 Stuttgart (Christmas eve)
Slept in a bit late before having yet another homecooked lunch, mushroom & chicken soup before heading to their church Gospel Forum for Christmas eve church service. First time attending a German service and of course needed the translator.

glass of champagne each after service

Headed to their parents' place and met Anita (mother Tews), Werner (father Tews) and of coz Sabrina! The traditional Tews Christmas eve dinner is called Racklett (spelling error?) which is like a Jap Teppanyaki thingy but in the swiss style. I think I ate the least even tho I was so full at the end. Collected our christmas presents under the Christmas tree *woohoo

 

With the Tews family

The Tews family is sooo nice and uber hospitable :D and one thing I really appreciate was them trying to speak English instead of German, esp the parents coz English is not their mother tongue. If not, either Sabrina, Stephan or Pris will try to translate to me in English haha

Played their usual card game till past midnight. Pretty fun actually! (Reminds me of CNY back home where my family always plays the same card game.)

 


Day 3 Day out to Ludwigsburg (Christmas Day)
Sumptous breakfast at their parents' place. (Love it that every meal, the table setting is like that of a restaurant's. They bother to pay attention to such things unlike us!)
Stephan drove us to neighboring Ludwigsburg and we visited the Schloss Ludwigsburg, aka Ludwigsburg Palace (http://www.schloss-ludwigsburg.de/en/267924.html)
Dinner back at their parents, a meal supposedly not so "rich" as previous dinner, and the one to come the next night.


 

castle grounds

dinner with plenty of salad

Day 4 Day out to Neuschwanstein in Bavaria


This is one place which I really want to go in Germany! You might not know the name but this is THE Disneyland inspired castle so it has a magical feeling esp now when there's snow. Ahh romantic! Unfortunately tickets were sold out for the tour (it was packed with tourists) so after a long 3h drive, we walked up the mountain for about 30min in the freezing cold (we couldn't feel our toes thereafter!) and walked a bit on the castle grounds, took some photos and walked down before it turned dark. Overall, very beautiful and fairytale-like. Love it.

 

Yet another sumptous dinner. omg I am eating so much!


Day 5 Heidelberg
This is one lovely small city near Stuttgart. Pris drove us this time round.. and at 170km/h! It was like "wahhh" initially but then I guess it is v common for them lah. This place reminds me so much of Lucern in Switzerland. Very pretty :) and very COLD.
 

streets along the river in Heidelberg

lunch at a German restaurant; notice we both have the same top?!

Day 6 Stuttgart - London
Time to go back to London after a memorable 5 days here in Germany. Hope to see both Pris and Steph in London real soon!

Pictures time!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012557&l=d703f&id=1094966172

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