Better Late Than Never! Part Two - (since no German translation) Teil Zwei

A cute picture of Mathis and my Parents to preface.  

Breakfast was always a struggle to find from the location of our hotel, but on Thursday morning I knew it wouldn’t matter. I’d been talking about eating döner kebaps (delicious Turkish fast food and probably my favorite thing about traveling in Europe) to my Dad as soon he’d step foot onto European soil, and the plan was made to buy them at the Berlin train station and eat them for lunch from our reserved first class seats on the train to Rheda-Wiedenbrück. Taxis were taken, a Whopper from Burger King was randomly eaten by my brother, platforms were found, döner was bought, our train arrived. 

But where was our train car? I had purchased first class reservations solely so we would definitely have a seat, but both of the first class and a few second class cars were missing. Just not there. With the whole of Germany traveling the day before Christmas Eve, the cars were so full that my brother squeezed onto the first step of the entrance before the doors barely missed shutting on his backpack. After riding a few stops with nothing to keep us from falling but the other bodies pushed against ours, the four of us made it into a hallway and settled in for the rest of the 3 hours. A very busy hallway, I might add. Sometimes the train would rock to the right and we would find ourselves looking through the window straight down to the ditch below. Sometimes the train would rock to the left and we would find our bottoms against the windows of the lucky passengers with seats. And sometimes an extra large woman with an extra large backpack, unfathomable in size and girth, would wedge herself skillfully between the wall and my dad, standing in the hands-up-you’re-being-robbed pose while being squished from face to shins against the window.

a little cramped...

It’s ok! It’s fine! I just have to keep telling myself I had the best döner kebap probably ever in Vienna. I’ll get over my lack of wonderful döner. Standing up on the train for over 3 hours is not the party of the life time, but there are worse things. For example, that cold döner situation. Man. I’m still bitter.

Somehow we made it to Gütersloh, and thankfully Sandra forced Christof to come pick us up there, instead of us having to ride one more train. From then on the weekend went more smoothly than I could have hoped for.

See, the boys are good for something.

Except for the couple or more times that we got a car stuck in snow, with different combinations of 2, 3, or even 4 Bridges’ shoving away. Man, that was a lot of snow. 

Oh, and the time my parents overslept like teenagers, and Christof had to go check on them. But honestly, both of those times were even fun! 

On Christmas Eve we decorated the tree and explored Wiedenbrück, which my family found especially beautiful. 

Widenbrück on Christmas Eve

Any free second throughout their time here was spent playing with Mathis, of course. and Kara too.

Taylor entertaining everybody

Germany has their big Christmas celebration on the 24th, so we headed to Martha and Bernd’s and had a typical German dinner with pork that I always love and sauerkraut that I actually liked. Beer and wine were drunk, songs were sung, stories were told that seemed to be understood in both English and German, and presents were opened. I got way too many gifts than I should have, the best of which being a trip to either Croatia or Belgium/Netherlands! Taylor slept in the basement while he was here, and my parents hotel was in walking distance, which proved convenient when we were so tired from celebrating! 

Mom, Julia, and Tom

Bernd and Ben

Marko, Taylor, and Christof singing

Oh Tannenbaum!

Sandra opening an Octopus from America!

It was our turn on Christmas Day, and after a walk in the woods that was more like trekking through over two feet of snow, the Bridges family opened our smalls gifts to each other and began work on my favorite part of Christmas, cooking the Lowcountry Boil. Thank goodness I got a can of Old Bay as one of my christmas presents! 

Probably my favorite picture of the whole trip.

Items were modified according to what we could find the day before in the grocery store, but all in all with the good reviews and when not a scrape was left on the table (except for on the brown paper in the middle that everyone was excited to learn was for throwing your shrimp shells), we’d found a dish that can be enjoyed across countries. Thank goodness for the power of computers, because with mine we got to talk to Grandé and Monkpa on Christmas Day! We ended the evening with the only way we know how, watching Christmas Vacation in German with English subtitles. Just as hilarious as ever.


The 26th was Explore the Castle and Rheda day, as well as Fancy German Dinner day. 

The square in Rheda

Everyone at the Ratskeller! Thank you, Grandé,
for such a wonderful meal!

Both were excellent. My family couldn’t stop commenting about feeling like they were in a postcard, with the half-timbered houses and huge snowflakes falling. They also couldn’t stop worrying about their flight which had to leave in under 48 hours. For my dad’s birthday the next day, we headed to the nearby town of Münster, which I always really enjoy seeing and which has a very rich history. The treaty to end the 30 Year War was signed in their courthouse in 1648! I bought snow boots, Taylor found German soccer jerseys, and the car got stuck in the snow just one more time, to grow on! 

When we got back to the house, cakes were set up on the table and the entire family was on the way over to celebrate my dad’s birthday! After two invigorating rounds of “Happy Birthday”, we ate cake and I think my dad did have a happy birthday. 

Happy Birzday zu You!

They spoiled my dad!

The next morning at 5am my family got a final glance into the real Germany as we drove on the German Autobahn to the Düsseldorf Airport. Just like in a race car. (only joking, Sandra!) The roads were luckily free from ice and my family got to the airport early. As we said goodbye, it was hard to be too sad, half from being so tired in the early hours but half because we had such a wonderful time. I couldn’t have asked for anything more from the trip and while I might forget what we ate, some historical dates that we learned, or how to properly shove a stuck car out of snow, I could never forget how much their time in Germany meant to me. I am so thankful I have the type of family that is not only accepting of their wandering daughter and sister, but that would also fly across the Atlantic to come visit her. You are the best.

To many, many more travels together, right Taylor and Dad?!