Glühwein

If you've even traveled to Germany and experienced this country's fantastic Christmas markets (bucket list!), then you've heard of Glühwein.

My mom's first Gluhwein:)

What is Glühwein?
Glühwein is mulled wine.  Mulled wine is an alcoholic drink hot beverage that is traditionally drunk in Central Europe during the advent season, often at Christmas markets.(Wikipedia)
Basically, it tastes like a hot cider wine.

The following is entirely my own opinion about Glühwein.  Everyone has different tastes, but the following are my own suggestions and ways to make Glühweinn at home.

I have been in Germany for almost 4 years now.  I have sampled a variety of Glühwein at Christmas markets in the Rhein area.  I have found that I really do not care for the red wine Glühwein at all!  I usually have one sip and then pour it out or give it to someone else in our group to finish.  I don't know why I keep trying the red Glühwein-maybe I think that one time I'll actually like it.
I like red and white wine, so why not the red Glühwein.  I don't know.  I find it very dry and super pungent. 
I, however, LOVE the white Glühwein. 
I've tried making it a few times at home, and have found that pinot grigio is the best white wine (to my taste) for making Glühwein at home. 
I always make it on Christmas night, when we have guests over for dinner and games.  To make it super easy on myself, as the hostess, I make the Glühwein in my crockpot.  This way it stays piping hot all through the evening. 
This past Christmas was when I discovered the pinot grigeo secret:)
To make the Glühwein-you'll need one bottle of wine and the Glühwein tea bags.  I bought mine at the local grocery market "Rewe".  It's with all the teas and coffee and comes in these little packs.  There are five in a pack.  I think I paid less than 3 euro for a pack.

The directions tell you to mix about one tea bag for 3/4 bottle of wine.

It all depends on  your taste.  If you like your Glühwein to be more 'cidery' (yes, I just made up that adjective), then you could add a second tea bag to the wine.  I suggest using one Glühwein tea bag and then adding a second, after you have tasted your first batch. 
Mine ended up perfect, my best batch yet, when I used an entire bottle of pinot grigio and one Glühweintea bag.  I kept it on medium in the crockpot all evening after Christmas dinner and people just went in and out of the kitchen and ladled the drink into their mugs.  This worked out perfectly.

You can make it extra festive by using your Christmas market Gluhwein mugs

Dinner, Games, and Glühwein made for a fun filled evening.


Enjoy and please drink responsibly.

Metz France-Ice Sculptures 2017

Metz France! OO La la!

I recently went to Metz and fell in love with the area.  I took my mom to the cathedral there (you can read my post on the Cathedral here) and Christmas markets.  While walking around, we stumbled across the ice sculptures. 

We returned with my kids, the following week and walked into a (very) cold Disney wonder land.

(We went last year to the ice sculptures, which were in Belgium.  The theme last year was Star Wars-2015).  So, we knew how to prepare for the cold and what to expect.  Each year the sculpture theme changes and the location rotates throughout Europe.

This year the theme was Disney.

Maleficent

You could take your picture in Cinderella's coach.

Beauty and the Beast

I can almost hear her saying "mirror mirror on the wall.."

The dome is 1400 sqm filled with about 600 tons of ice that many talented ice sculptors formed into some of our favorite Disney characters.  This year, there was 33 sculptures-including an ice slide. 

The ice slide is great and because the dome is kept at -6C, there is no condensation at all so your toosh doesn’t get wet.  While my kids were enjoying the slide MANY times, my mom and I enjoyed a nice hot cup of hot chocolate and Gluhwein (2 Euro/each). 

We loved it and it was a great way to spend half of a day, walking around the surrounding Christmas markets and enjoying the ice sculptures.

Things to know:

Where:  Metz, France (about 1 hr. 15 minutes from Spangdahlem)

Website:  http://www.tourisme-metz.com/en/events/metz-feerie-de-glace_-s.html#.WGjtSIWcFPY

Dress:  Hats and gloves are a MUST!  My kids wear their snowsuits/pants and long johns as well.  This year we weren’t freezing, but last we froze b/c we did not know how extremely cold it would be in the dome.

-Open daily from 10am to 8pm 
-Prices:  Adults-  are 12 euro each, kids (4-11) are 8 euro each, kids under 3 are free        
-Parking:  Parking Republique is the closest, but it's only about a 10 min. walk from the cathedral.                                   
                                                                                                         

-Go during the week to avoid the crowds

The Vatican Museum and Kids?

The Vatican for kids? YES!!!!

When I was planning our trip to Rome for my 5 and 7 year old, I contemplated how easy (or lack there of) it would be for us to go to the Vatican and actually enjoy ourselves. I did lots of research, asking around, and planning. This is what we came up with and it went great! 

First, I went to the Vatican Museum and Sistine Chapel official website:  Here
We purchased our tickets online in advance. We chose the beat the queue tickets and I decided to splurge on the optional kids audio guide. I’m so glad I did! 
The tickets were as follows: 
Full price ticket: Euro 16,00. Reduced ticket: Euro 8,00. Every ticket reserved online has a reservation fee of Euro 4,00. 
Audio guide (optional): Euro 7,00. 
Audio guide for children between 6 and 12 years old (optional): Euro 5,00. 

We chose these tickets because we wanted to go through the museum on our own time and not be weighed down by being with a tour group. I chose not to buy the tickets from a 3rd party site because of my suspicion on authenticity and legitimacy, plus I didn’t see the children’s package offered on other sites. 
The extra planning that we did, booking online, paying for the beat the queue tickets and for the children’s package (map and audio guide) worked out great and we were so glad we did all that planning. 

When we arrived at the Vatican museum we were able to walk straight in, past about a 3 hour waiting line of tourists. It was such a great feeling to walk past everyone and know that my kids wouldn’t be complaining about waiting for such a long time and we never felt like we were wasting our entire day in a line.I had printed up the vouchers prior to our arrival, showed the print outs to the guards and went straight in.

Vatican Security Entrance

The entrance is similar to an airport security point. 

You can only take in a certain size bag (a little larger than a purse, but smaller than a backpack) and women mustn’t wear sleeveless shirts or shorts or short skirts. 
This was what the website stated, but a saw a couple women with sleeveless shirts on. You have to go through a metal detector and a guard goes through your bag. No biggie.