Tag Archives: Neuhaus chocolates

Champagne Bucket trips, former Soviet Union, Lithuania

The Vilnius Series… Traveling from Frankfurt to Vilnius and first impressions… (part two)

On June 18th, it was finally time to be on our way to Vilnius. Bill took Charlie and Noyzi to the Hundepension. I made a video of that… It’s kind of cute, because the dogs were pretty excited to be going. Noyzi is especially delighted whenever he gets a chance to ride in the car. Charlie doesn’t like getting in the car, but he does seem to enjoy the Hundepension, and being looked after by Natascha.

Just a couple of minutes of street dog cuteness.

Once the dogs were taken care of, I did the usual Wednesday chores and packed a couple of bags. Then, at about 1:00 PM, a friendly cabbie came to fetch us for our ride to Frankfurt Airport. We were sitting in the back of the cab, and I got a comment from one of my older sister’s friends. It was someone she knew when she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Morocco… a Moroccan guy I think still has a crush on her.

I guess the cabbie overheard me say “Morocco”, because he asked us if we spoke Spanish. It so happens, Bill and I both studied Spanish for years, but neither of us speak it very well at all. I know… I know… typical Americans. 🙄 Anyway, the cab driver said he was from Morocco. He spoke Spanish, French, German, Arabic, and Berber… We were able to communicate with him using our rudimentary German skills. The guy was very cordial and seemed quite pleased when Bill gave him a nice tip and a five star review. As we say in Armenia, “Apres!”

Check in at the Lufthansa business class desk was a breeze. No one was in line, so we walked right up and dropped off our bags. Then, after a super quick trip through security, we headed to the crowded business class Lufthansa lounge, where there were few seats to be had, other than stools at a table at the back of the room. I took the opportunity to take obnoxious selfies.

About 90 minutes later, we went to our gate. The flight was almost full, although no one was sitting in the row in front of us. That was nice. No one reclined in my lap! I got a kick out of the flight attendant’s glasses. They were round and green, with wide, quirky frames, and they really suited her. She had the kind of face and haircut that looked good with those glasses. If I’d been wearing them, I would look like I’d dropped in from outer space, or something. She was very nice to us, and kept us refreshed during the whole 100 minute flight. I took a few photos, but got caught in a reflection or two…

Lufthansa offered us some food, which wasn’t too terrible. On the flight over, Bill and I both had ham and asparagus. I don’t remember what the other choice was, but the ham and asparagus weren’t too bad. As airline food goes, Lufthansa usually does alright. They even gave us Neuhaus Belgian chocolates at the end! Fancy! Years ago, I used to sell Neuhaus chocolates. They are excellent, and in fact, Bill often order them on special occasions.

We landed in Vilnius at about 6:15 PM or so. Vilnius is an hour ahead of Frankfurt. Our bags appeared very quickly, and soon we were in a cab, speeding toward Lithuania’s lovely capital city. I couldn’t have asked for a nicer flight. Way to go, Lufthansa!

Once we got to the Grand Hotel Vilnius, Bill tipped the driver, who was shocked by his largesse. We learned on this trip that tipping is not much of a thing in Lithuania. The locals do definitely appreciate tips, but they aren’t necessarily expected. I find that a very refreshing attitude.

A doorman took our bags, and we headed to the reception desk, where a lovely young woman found our reservation and asked me for my Hilton Honors number. Remember in the previous post, I wrote that the reservation was under my name, because booking directly with the hotel would be more expensive because of the flights. I am a Hilton Honors member, but I don’t think I’ve ever used my number for anything. When we stay in Hilton properties, Bill usually does the booking, because his job has led him to do a lot of business with Hilton.

I wasn’t expecting to use the number, either, since I booked through Expedia. I had read that Hilton doesn’t take the number for third party bookings. Nevertheless, she asked for the number, and I couldn’t find it. I had one ad from Hilton in my email, and my member number wasn’t on it. And Bill couldn’t use his, because the reservation wasn’t booked under his name. She advised us to drop it off later, if we found it, then gave us glasses of sparkling wine as she showed us to our deluxe room with a balcony…

Nice view!

It was a bit chilly when we arrived, and we were a little tired, so we decided to head down to the bar area for a drink and a light dinner. We shared a bottle of white wine from South Africa, and Bill had a tuna salad, while I had salmon soup. The hotel has a restaurant called Telegrafas, which supposedly gets high marks. We didn’t eat dinner in the restaurant, mainly because I didn’t like the chairs. We did eat breakfast in there a couple of days. I wouldn’t call it a particularly special looking restaurant, although they do have a cool glass covered view of the city’s old wall in the floor.

The bread was warm and served with truffle butter. They were nice enough to bring me a plain butter, since I don’t like truffles.
Bill’s tuna salad.
I liked the salmon soup. I should eat more salmon.
They have a little cafe where you can get coffee and little desserts. There’s also a jewelry store which looked like it sold diamonds.

Once we were finished with dinner, we decided to go to bed. It was still pretty light out at about 10:00 PM. But then, after all of these years in Europe, I’ve gotten pretty used to long summer nights, even though technically, it was still late spring until the solstice, which happened on my birthday!

The cathedral from our balcony, taken with my fancy Canon camera…

More in the next post!

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Hessen, markets

A stroll around the Wiesbaden Christmas Market, 2023…

It was bitterly cold yesterday, but we had sunshine. As we were having leftovers for lunch, I grabbed a beer from the refrigerator. Bill said, “Well, I guess we’ll go to the Christmas market next week.”

“You want to go to the Christmas market?” I asked.

“Well… yeah, but it can wait.” Bill said.

“We can go to the Christmas market.” I reassured him.

Bill just kind of looked at me as he handed me food.

“Are you just upset because I’m having a beer for lunch?” I asked.

“No…” Bill said.

“Do you want to go to the Christmas market, or not?” I demanded.

“Yes, I WOULD like to get out of the house.” Bill conceded.

“Then fucking say so!” I said. “We have plenty of time to go to the market if that’s what you want to do. No need to be a wishy washy people pleaser.”

Bill laughed, because what else is he going to do when faced with logic and profanity from his wife? I try to encourage him to make his needs known, and yesterday, his needs included going to the Christmas market. So that’s what we did. He doesn’t mind when I cuss, either. That’s why we’re still married after 21 years.

The Christmas market was very busy yesterday, and parking was somewhat scarce. We lucked into finding a spot without too much lurking, but not everyone was that blessed with good parking karma. I got some photos, but we weren’t really in the mood for shopping or Gluhwein. It was so busy that people were repeatedly bumping into each other. Consequently, we didn’t stay that long…

Below, are some photos from our short visit to the Christmas market in Wiesbaden.

For once, it’s cold enough for ice skating.

After about 45 minutes or so, we were good and chilled, so we came back home, fed Noyzi, and I started the very first fire of the 2023-24 winter season. Then, Bill made me a delicious cup of Neuhaus dark hot chocolate. That stuff is the absolute bomb. It’s probably the best hot chocolate I’ve ever had, and I have had some really good hot chocolate in my day. It’s very rich and not cheap, so it’s not very often that I indulge… Yesterday was a very good day for it, though. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out. Later, we made a video for Bill’s daughter, who is expecting her fourth baby, and is about to celebrate her 30th birthday.

If you have the means, Neuhaus is wonderful hot chocolate…
So cozy!
Yesterday’s Advent calendar find.

Bill has to get his stitches from his recent dental implant surgery removed today. Then, he will wait a few months, and the dentist will deliver a brand new fake tooth. Having been through that process myself, I can state that it’s pretty amazing to see a new “tooth” that looks better than your old one, and feels very natural.

All in all, we had a good weekend, and a nice Sunday. Today, it’s supposed to snow again. I expect there will be new things to wrap and put under the tree, too. So, I hope you have a good Monday… Now I will close this post and write something less cheerful for my main blog. 😉

Ciao!

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chocolate, Hessen, holidays

Christmas time is here… AGAIN!

I can hardly believe it, but we are in the midst of the holiday season once again. It seems like every year, time flies a little bit faster. We got home from Armenia two weeks ago, and I’m already in the throes of buying and wrapping gifts. I put the trees up last week, and yesterday, we started our Advent calendar.

I usually buy a chocolate calendar and one with booze or beer. But this year, the high-end Belgian chocolatier, Neuhaus (which was founded by a Swiss guy), offered an Advent calendar for couples. Every day, you get two chocolates instead of one. Bill and I are big fans of Neuhaus. I actually used to sell it when I worked for a chocolatier in Williamsburg, Virginia, back in the mid 1990s. I remember being shocked that it was $35 a pound in 1994. Neuhaus chocolate is still expensive, but because I live in Germany, it’s pretty easy to get it, and they make buying it pretty tempting. If you join their mailing list, you can get freebies.

Bill opens the first door… This is a genius concept! More Advent calendar makers should do this!

I try not to order from Neuhaus very often, because I sure don’t need the calories. But Christmas kind of makes me nutty, so I figure I might as well order something that goes with nuttiness… Last night, we opened the first door. Bill used the flashlight to find it, because we don’t have the best lighting in our house.

Every once in awhile, a chocolate splurge is good for the soul.

Our annual Advent market is also going on today. It starts at 2:00 PM and runs until 11:00 PM. I remember we arrived here in 2018, just in time for the Advent market, which is just one night. We didn’t go that year. I think we were overwhelmed with moving into the new house and decorating for the holidays, as well as getting over the trauma of moving out of the terrible living situation we were in at the time.

Bill and I have already decided on where our next trips will be… That is, we did two more champagne bucket drawings. If everything works out, we’ll go to Spain and Iceland in 2024. And maybe we’ll go somewhere else exotic and interesting. Maybe we’ll go to Georgia. I definitely need to do a proper trip there. Of course, nothing is engraved in stone until Bill has the time off and I start paying for plane tickets. But Spain is a place Bill wants to visit again, mainly because I think he wants us to move there. And I have been dying to see Iceland. We’ll see what happens.

This morning, Noyzi was begging for tastes of our breakfast. He sure has come a long way since 2020. He’s attached to us, and no longer so terrified and shy. Now, he’s a charmer. I hope in 2024, we’ll find him a friend to play with– preferably one who likes to snuggle. I’ve been missing Arran lately, mainly because he loved to snuggle. This is the time of year for that.

Noyzi sure is an adorable little rascal. He’s always so polite when he begs. We want another dog, but we’ll be hard pressed to find one as well behaved as Noyzi is. I’ll always love hounds, but I have to admit, a street dog with herding proclivities is also a very good choice. He’s certainly less trouble and more trustworthy than most of our beagles have been!

I’ve been having a lot of dreams about Armenia, lately. That trip really affected me a lot. I hope we can go back and see more of everything. Yerevan may not be a very beautiful city– at least not right now– but the big hearted people and their beautiful souls more than make up for the Soviet architecture. And they really have come a long way. <3

Well… that about does it for today. I don’t know if we’ll venture out to the Christmas markets. The weather is kind of cold and gloomy, and I’m expecting at least one more package that will need to be wrapped. On the other hand, Wiesbaden is pretty, especially when it’s lit up for the holidays. So we’ll see.

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chocolate, holidays

My online shopping life… or, the pandemic has made us learn new things.

It’s hard to believe that just a year ago, Bill and I were preparing to journey to France to see our friends Audra and Cyril and celebrate Christmas with them and their family. This year, we don’t go anywhere. I’m serious. I haven’t left our neighborhood in over two months. It’s getting old.

But I’m trying to keep my spirits up. The other day, I ordered chocolates from Neuhaus. I was a victim of Facebook advertising, which kept showing me pictures of Belgian chocolate. Then I remembered that once upon a time, when I was still a working woman, I actually used to sell Neuhaus chocolates.

I worked at a place called Henry Street Chocolatier, which was located in Williamsburg, Virginia. They sold high end chocolates from Neuhaus and Joseph Schmidt, a now defunct confectioner out of San Francisco, California that specialized in making chocolate truffles. They also had locally produced pastries and coffee by First Colony, an outfit out of Norfolk, Virginia. I think First Colony as I knew it went out of business, but they also used to sell coffee to The Trellis, a restaurant where I worked a few years later. It looks like First Colony was sold, so the brand still exists, but it’s not the same people running it.

I ended up buying a shitload of chocolates. I bought a 500g ballotin of Neuhaus truffles, a 500g ballotin of regular chocolates, and a wine tasting chocolate set. Neuhaus also has champagne and coffee tasting sets– those are chocolates specifically selected to be tasted with wine, champagne, and coffee. Wine is not included in the sets, but you do get a nifty booklet in several languages.

I also bought wines from Georgia, Croatia, and Hungary, but they haven’t arrived yet.

Friday night, Bill and I discussed my desire to buy an electric guitar. I showed him the one I wanted, which is quite pricey. I ended up ordering one of those yesterday as my own Christmas present. I tried to get it through its manufacturer’s Web site, but the sale wouldn’t go through. Like, it wouldn’t even attempt to go through at all. So I found the guitar I wanted on another site and did successfully order it. I don’t think the charge has been processed yet. Hopefully, it will go through. Sometimes the credit card companies are very cautious when you live in Europe and have an American billing address. If it actually gets to me, I’ll post a picture of it.

I have about half the cash needed to pay for the guitar waiting in a savings account I usually use for traveling. We aren’t doing any of that, so it makes perfect sense to just get the guitar I want. It will give me incentive to keep practicing. Not that I need incentive. I made some real progress with my guitar playing yesterday, finally managing to awkwardly play several difficult chords in the same shape. No, they aren’t perfect, but a few months ago, I couldn’t even attempt them. Now, if I’m very careful, I can actually make them ring out somewhat. Anyway, Bill is going to buy me an amp, and once he’s learned a bit more on his guitar, he’ll probably buy one he likes, too.

We also ordered sushi from Tam’s Kitchen. It was a cold, rainy night, and didn’t really seem like sushi weather, but I was dying for some. And here in Breckenheim, we happen to have a really great sushi guy who does deliveries. I think he’s actually a caterer. I don’t think he has a restaurant, per se. But you can order sushi and it will be super fresh and delicious. So that’s what we did Friday night. I think Tam is actually from Vietnam, but he sure has a way with raw fish.

Way too much chocolate!
Wine is not included…
The BEST sushi…
We should have ordered more.
Bill tastes the Neuhaus chocolates with some wine. He’s practicing for when we try the actual wine tasting chocolate set.

Last night, I watched the memorial service done for my cousin, Karen, who died a couple of weeks ago. She was the third family member I’ve lost since mid October. I learned some new things about my cousin, who was eighteen years older than I am. We weren’t very close, but she was very much beloved by her family and our extended family. Watching the video made me miss being at home somewhat, although I think during this pandemic, I’d rather be in Germany.

And Noyzi and Arran are doing fine. Noyzi is particularly adorable these days. He has a new habit of silently showing up, ghostlike, when it’s time to eat. I slip him a little snack from the table, which is probably not a great thing to do… but he’s so sweet and basically well-behaved that my heart melts a bit.

He’ll let me hug him, but he’s still afraid of Bill. He also loves snow. We had some the other day, and he had a blast.
Arran adores Bill.

I suspect today will be more of the same stuff. It’s cold and wet, and Germany is still locked down. Oh, I guess they call it Lockdown Lite, since stores are still open, and it’s been extended until January 10th. But there’s nothing to do anyway, and the weather is icky. So we’ll stay home, listen to music, and buy stuff online. 2020 has mostly sucked… but in some ways, it’s been kind of awesome. I miss traveling, but it’s also been nice to find new ways to occupy my time and spend money. And we are grateful we still have the money to spend. Maybe it will help some people stay in business.

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