Glückliches Neues Jahr! Bonne Année! Happy New Year!

Just a few days after Christmas, Herm and I made our way to Gatwick Airport for a flight out to Munich.

This was my second time visiting the city and I have to say that I am a fan. Last time I was in Munich was in 2010 with Bronwyn, whom I was living with at the time in Logroño, Spain.



Bronwyn and I visiting Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau Royal Castles outside the city in 2010.

We arrived and went straight to our AirBnb apartment. It was perfect accommodation, good location and cheap. Upon our arrival we were welcomed by marzipan on the pillows and various informative brochures on the city. 

We spent our time touring all over the city. Doing the usual touristy stuff, eating some great food and tasting some amazing German beer.





Augustiner Weißbier

Nürnberger Rostbratwurst

Lowengarten, an amazing German restaurant close to our apartment.

For New Years, our friend Max, a native Bavarian, invited us to a New Year's party with friends of his in the city.

The party was a blast. As midnight neared we went outside to a nearby park (where the annual Oktoberfest celebrations take place). The tradition in Munich is to set off fireworks and so Max bought Herm and I a ton of them to set off in the park. It was a bit sketchy as there were groups of people every 10 feet setting off fireworks... despite the apparent danger, it was an awesome sight!














On New Year's Day we picked up our rental car and set out on the autobahn.

Not knowing what specific car we had reserved we were pretty psyched to find out it was a Mini Cooper. 

For those who don't know, the autobahn is the German motorway that has virtually no speed limit... 

We drove west, crossing into France, to Strasbourg. We stayed in an apart-hotel for 3 nights making various day trips. 

On the first day we checked out Strasbourg for the morning and in the afternoon we drove down to the town of Colmar. 

Herm and I in Strasbourg.

Eating tarte flambee, typical of Alsace,
and vin chaud in Colmar.

On our way back to Strasbourg we had a craving for fondue (yes, neither French nor German....) and so we found some in Obernai, France. 

The next day we drove to Freiburg, where Herm's grandparents are from.

Herm eating some Curry Wurst in front of Freiburg's Cathedral. 

Stopping in St. Peter, a small town Herm remembered visiting as a kid. 

We also made the time to drive around the Black Forest and the Canadian in me was quite excited to see some snow. 

Wurstsalat, a typical dish of southern Germany. Unfortunately I would not recommend it... 

We drove back to Munich the day before our flight back to London. On our way we stopped in Karlsruhe to visit our friend Andy who had been living in Madrid not too long ago. He showed us around the city and his university campus.

Since we had an insanely early flight we decided to stay close to the airport. We ended up going all out on a luxury hotel right at the airport. 

The television even greeted me... :-)

Herm and I in the Black Forest

(Photo courtesy of Herm's skills)

Happy (Belated) New Years!

(Throughout our trip we sent a few postcards to our good friend Reca, take a look at a blog post of hers about receiving them! Quite funny...)

A British Christmas in 2012

On December 20th I was off to have a British Christmas! An unusual holiday away from the family I attempted to bring some of the Kennell family traditions to London.

Herm making 3D snowflakes! 

Not actually an annual tradition but something I had made my students do in school...naturally Hermann suffered the same fate. 

Stringing popcorn!

Homemade egg nog!

It being a staple at Christmas and virtually impossible to find in London, we made it ourselves, a first for both of us. 

Trip to Brighton!

Ok so maybe not a Christmas tradition... but a nice weekend trip over the holiday. 

Not the best weather...but of course very British. 

Christmas Tree decorating!

And the final product, presents and all.

Herm made Calzones for Christmas dinner!

Christmas baking!

Mince meat pie

Christmas cookies

Happy (Belated) Holidays!

Last bits of 2012...

After a brief (ok...rather long) hiatus I return with some updates! Much has happened over the past few months including some travel, celebrations, work and a bunch of Ultimate.

Starting where I left off...the week after returning from CFC I was off to London to visit Herm for the first time.

Herm's new home in Finsbury Park! 

(Top floor)

Herm and I at Tower Bridge














I returned to Madrid on the Monday evening and Herm wasn't far behind as he arrived in Madrid only a day later for an upcoming tournament.

Thanks to a long weekend the Quijotes were able to organise a day tournament for local teams, Ultimate Frisbee in Madrid.

Post-game salutation

It's no high-5 in Spain...kisses are customary!

(Photo credits to fellow Dulcinea, Vanessa)

That weekend was Chiripones, a  beach hat tournament in Huelva organised by Fribillanas, the Andalusian team based in Sevilla.

Q+D at Chiripones
(Photo credit to Frisbillanas)











It was a great weekend spent on the beach. The tournament had a tribal theme and so my team was called the Zulus (pictured right).

(Photo cred to Zulu teammate, Alvaro)

I was honoured to be given the team's "talisman" for being a team player (pictured left).

(Photo cred to Ruthie)

Post-tournament, Herm returned to London and the following weekend the Quijotes celebrated the autumn finals of our in-house league.

Unfortunately my team lost both semis and finals...but was a great time and I was proud to win top offensive and defensive player!

(Liga photo credit to Vanessa)

In the evening I was host to the team's Christmas party.

I prepared for the party with some decorations (left), food was contributed by everyone (below),...

...and a good time (not pictured) was had by all! 

My apartment on the other hand took a bit of a hit and the neighbours weren't too happy. 

Max helping me clean and enjoying some leftover jamon...






The week after I finished work for the holiday season!

Eat Fruit Cabrones!

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to go to a high level Ultimate tournament in the Canary Islands. It was my third time visiting the Canaries and second tournament in the islands. My first visit to the Canaries was while I was studying in Spain and it was more of a touristic visit to the island of Lanzarote with my friend Marina.

Marina and I in Lanzarote

December 2009

The Canaries are gorgeous, a fact especially recognized by Germans and Brits as they frequent the islands for vacation.


My second visit to the islands was to Las Palmas on Gran Canaria for a hat tournament last February.
 







My team at Las Palmas hat tournament (TIBU)
February 2012





The Las Palmas tournament being one of my favourites to date, I was keen to return to the islands for more Ultimate. This third time I was returning to the island of Lanzarote, the fourth largest island. The island's surface is volcanic thanks to Timanfaya, the island's active volcano that is the backdrop to almost any picture taken on the island.

The tournament is called Coman Fruta Cabrones (CFC), which means Eat Fruit You Bastards (still have no idea what the reason is for the name...). The tournament is organized by Mubidisk in a town called Tías, this year was the tournament's 10th anniversary and so what is usually a three day tournament was converted into a four day tournament to celebrate its anniversary on the last day.

Feliz cumple Mubi!








Herm arrived in Madrid the Tuesday before and, along with quite a large Quijotes contingent, we flew to Lanzarote on Wednesday evening. The tournament started on Friday and ended with a day of celebration on Sunday.

Quijotes in attendance; Amán, José, Herm, Bertrand, Justin, Danilo, Ruthie and I
(Photo credit to teammate, Ruthie)

I was playing with Herm's team, Gorila Anaranjado, or Orange Gorilla. Leading up to the tournament Herm, as well as most other teams, had a tough time recruiting and holding on to players. The tournament being four days made it difficult for a lot of people to take the time. Luckily this made it possible for me to join! Having a somewhat relaxed schedule also helped...

Gorila Anaranjado!

Herm, Michiel, Jon, Jakob, Danilo, me, Yvonne and Ruthie. (Not pictured: Ulla)

(Photo credit to teammate, Danilo.)

The Gorillas were quite an international team; 3 Dutch, 1 American, 1 Canadian/American, 1 Canadian, 1 German, 1 Dominican, 1 Argentine/German/...Mexican (?) haha...

Pools were made up of 4 teams. There were 3 games each day, 3 pool games on Thursday to determine upper and lower pools, 3 upper/lower pool games on Friday and quarters, semis and finals on Saturday. The games lasted 45 minutes or until 13 points was reached. After losing some and winning some, and playing a bunch of games to universe point, we finished 8th out of 16 teams. 

Quijotes watching the final, Tropical in hand.

(Photo credit to Discovering Canarii)

 

It was an great tournament as I had the opportunity to play with and against some of Europe's top players.




The tournament fee included accommodation in apartments just a short walk from the beach fields, fruit on the fields, breakfasts and dinners. For lunch there was pasta and cake available to buy at the field tents. The dinners were great, Thursday evening was a chickpea stew and potatoes with mojo picón, a delicious sauce typical of the Canaries.

 Herm enjoying the chickpea stew!

Friday night was a huge dinner at a really posh restaurant up in the mountains.
Saturday night was paella on the beach as well as the fruit-themed costume party.

Gorila Anaranjado as grapes and a strawberry.
Photo credit to teammate, Jon (a fellow Canadian!)

On Sunday a 'surprise' was organized by Mubidisk for the tournament's 10 year anniversary. Word had got around over weekend but they officially informed us on Saturday night that they had chartered a boat for the day.

We're on a boat!
Proper etiquette was of course to wear white...
(Photo credit to José)

A few Quijotes and the boat in the background.

Other highlights of the weekend include...

• The islands' cerveza, Tropical, a nice break from Madrid's, Mahou.
• Refreshing swim in the ocean. 
• Need to wear white? No problem, hotel bed sheets will do.
• Ron miel, another island specialty.

Only downside was a serious case of the Monday's I had when returning to work... Still have sand all over the floor of my room and my mobile has not yet figured out it has left the Canaries...