Trajectories

Christmas morning in the Baker/Bates household. Because Santa Claus comes on December 6 in Hungary, Baby Jesus brings the presents on Christmas morning. I am not making this up. I guess because he is so small, he can fit into tight spaces like through keyholes, under doors, and between iron bars. If you think about it, this makes way more sense than believing that an obese octogenarian somehow manages to squeeze through the chimney. Baby Jesus has size and divine intervention on his side.

Next Up: Innsbruck, Austria. We took an overnight train from Budapest to Munich, Germany, where we then rented a car and drove about 2 hours south to a small village near Innsbruck. Innsbruck is a well known ski town, although the closest thing to exercise that we got was walking from our car to our bed and breakfast. Here was our view from the front. Please ignore the trash cans in this photo. If I had mustered the energy I would have Photoshoped this out of the picture to give you the impression that Innsbruck was a magical fairyland void of all trash. But I was too lazy.

Here's the front of our bed and breakfast. And my lovely mother. The place is run by a woman who's great-great-great-great grandfather built the place back in the 16th Century when peasants from all over Austria came here to get away from the stress of farming and blacksmithing. Okay, I may not have my facts straight on that one, but what I do know is that they had the best breakfasts ever. I really wish that I could wake up every morning and step out into my kitchen to see a table set with rolls, fresh butter from the cow outside and marmalade made from last fall's fruit harvest.

Picturesque Town Shot #1. The small town where we actually stayed was called Absam, and like most small towns around Austria and Germany, the townsfolk here made sure that their village was at an optimal cuteness and quaintness factor so that tourists would be able to take photos like this. Thank you, Absam.

Chris getting ready to nail his 95 theses to this church door.

This is my dad, right after he discovered the glorious experience of dusting the foam of his cappuccino with sugar. Just look at the satisfaction on his face. No more shall his frothy delicacies be absent of those sweet crystals.

Our first evening in Innsbruck, we went downtown and were pleased to discover that their Christmas market was still going on. Most markets close Christmas Eve. We enjoyed the sights and sounds and the hot mulled wine.

One of my favorite experiences from the trip happened at this Christmas market. As we were standing at a table drinking our wine, we realized that live music was being played somewhere. We looked up to discover that we were surrounded by musicians playing in the balconies of the buildings above us. It was so magical and beautiful. The music bounced off the walls and floated among the crowd of people. Everyone was mesmerized and we all just stood there as the musicians enchanted us.

No evening in Austria could be complete without a pile of meat. We orderded the "family" special which probably required the sacrifice of at least two pigs, a turkey and a chicken. Sorry, my vegetarian friends, but never has a pile of meat tasted so good.