One of the challenges of living in Berlin and working in Munich is that the holidays often don’t match up, especially around school holidays. Winter break is the worst, as it is often starting the last week in January/1st week in February while Munich barely gets back to work until the 2nd (or even 3rd) week of January. In the past, I used to drop in a few days while the family was off for ski week. But then enter COVID…

As the office instituted a mask mandate at the desk until end of February, it was a no brainer to work from home. And so this year, home for the week was a lovely little village in the Austrian Alps, Reith im Alpbachtal. With the whole week there, I decided to do a bit more due diligence in the area. Surprisingly, the little town center had a lot more to offer than I expected. First, two doors down was a cheese/dairy manufacturer (which also had a 24 hours vending machine for all your midnight lactose cravings). Then there was the bakery which even opens at 6.30am on Sundays (that’s commitment). There were a few restaurants which we didn’t have a chance to try as we were quite tired/or busy at the end of the day. But the highlight was Cafe Konditorei Thaler. Every day the locals would gather from 10am to have a beer, glüwein or coffe and enjoy freshly made krapfen or doughnuts. Forget Krispy Creme, these delights are carefully crafted before your eyes. First the dough is raised (maybe steamed, not sure) before being dropped into the hot oil, flipped to brown both sides, and then removed. A minute later, they are prepared with your filling of choice (Teo loved the cherry, Kai was a fan of the vanilla, while I loved them all including the apricot) and then topped with the relevant sugar (granulated, powder, or cinnamon sugar). To me they are the GOAT.

But I guess I am digressing from the actual focus of the holiday — skiing. We decided on the first day to explore a new area (Skiwelt). While it started at bit ominously (the lady selling the lifts told us lifts were down due to high wind), it was a great first day with the sun coming to join. We ended up skiing the rest of the trip at our regular mountain area Ski Juwel. While Chika took charge of getting the boys to ski school during the middle of the week, I thoroughly enjoyed my alpine home office — which had a killer Italian coffee machine to boot. I managed to join the last day of skiing in time to see Teo and Kai win 1st and 2nd place in their races and have some good family runs to end out the trip.

I could get used to this kind of lifestyle of working around the world. The question is where to next?

We all started together on the first leg to Frankfurt, after which Chika peeled off to take care of some business meetings. Kai, Teo, and I arrived successfully into Philadelphia, with the first of many, many, many great meals. The next day we went to go meet the extended crew for some outdoor activities — the weather was great.

To augment all the fun with some education, I took the boys down to Philadelphia to Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell (and of course some Dim Sum) where we got to catch up with Allan Kyle (wish we had more time to spend together).

Thursday Chika arrived (just in time for some amazing steaks). Friday we needed to get our PCR tests and then the kickoff for big event with Friday night services and a dinner where we got to catch up with Goldman’s.

The next day the big show was on. Sydney was a magnificent Batmitzvah and William did amazing job in operations. I will not comment on my own performance, but was happy that camera’s were not allowed.

As amazing as the day was, the evening was beyond expectations. A rockstart party from every dimension. Venue, decorations, food, drinks, music, entertainment and more. Everyone just had an amazing time.

So we had a final meal with the family for Sunday brunch, and then headed back to prepare for our trip to the Dominican Republic (and for me and Chika to escape for a quick sushi meal in Yardely — quite good surprise!)

At 6am, our transport was there to take us to the airport. Amazingly, we managed to fill 4 bags to the max and barely made it onto the plane… But after all the hurdles and challenges we had finally made it. It was pure bliss just waling around in December with t-shirt and shorts. But, at our destination there was plenty more — in fact too much. They abilty to eat and drink non-stop (room service, mini-bar, pool bar, multiple restaurants, bars, coffee shops, etc.) was overwhelming. Even when we ventured into Santo Domingo, the food was too delicious and overproportioned. Luckily, we did some small hiking into caves to burn a few of those calories.

In the end, the best was having such a special time for the boys to spend quality time Grandmom and Pop Pop. That was the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

We were still navigating holidays in COVID circumstances and had originally planned to keep it small with a landing day in Munich followed by some Austrian explanations. Then came the text from Chika — a Google Map url somewhere towards the North Western areas of Germany. I was in Munich, Chika and they boys were in Berlin, so we decided to meet in Frankfurt. Off we went to Hiedelburg, home of the oldest University in Germany (1386) and the Hiedelburg Castle. We visited both (hiking up to the Castle and then lunching a the student canteen after our original mountain top terrace was closed until evening). We spent the evening in Rüdesheim am Rhein, famous for Riesling wines which we enjoyed along with a lovely whole duck stuffed with figs and dates (not to mention their famous flaming coffee). The next morning, we strolled through the old town and took a gondola ride to rise above the morning fog.

Afterwards we drove up the Rhine river to spot the many castles along the way, with a short stop off for bobsled riding before reaching Koblenz (which has an amazingly large number of ice cream spots for such a small old town, and the one which we tried — eGeLoSIa Laden — was extremely good). We rode the gondola up to the fort for a beautiful view of the city, but then needed to move on to catch our dinner reservations (and shopping) in Dusseldorf.

The next morning we needed to head back to Berlin, but decided the day should bring something to the table and settled on stopping for lunch in Hannover. While expectations were somewhat low for this commercial/EXPO town, we did discover a very nice area around the opera (who knew) and had a 5 star meal at MARY´s Restaurant where our children managed to survive for almost 2 hours.

Was too short and too lovely a trip, so will need to head back again in the near future.

It was the last date for tickets to go on sale for the final weeks of the exhibition, and even with troublesome website that kept crashing for 30 minutes Chika kept on and managed to get us tickets for this Sunday.

It was an amazing show even for the kids (Chika had a great idea to show the boys a video background about Kusama so they understood more about the unique background of the artist.) The interactive nature of her art and the intensity of the visuals is unparalleld. Definitely the best exhibition since moving to Germany and easily a top 5 in my lifetime.

No, this not a WWII thriller. However, there was a lurking enemy of a different sort — fear of COVID. Not only was the disease a threat to phyiscal health, but the uncertainty of where it was, and who was carrying it, and how it was transmitted also created a mental fatigue as well.

We debated the pros and cons of travelling, and of leaving Germany. Finally, a stroke of luck/serindipity was delivered — some of the kids classmates were travelling in Croatia, which was one of the destinations we had in mind. Within a short while, we had booked a few nights in the center of Rovinj and started off via Munich.

We had some rain on the way out which threw off our schedule. We decided that instead of rushing a visit to Bled in Slovenia we would opt for some quality schnitzel in Austria. Chika found a great place, Postwirt’s where had a fantastic meal and some random stares from Austrian types who didn’t appreciate our mask wearing.

Back on the road, the weather had cleared. Some small delays at the border, but nothing exceptional. Our biggest concern would be that for one reason or another we wouldn’t be allowed to cross (especially since none of us had EU passports, only residence permits), but no issues arose. We finally made it into Rovinj — a lovely old-town right on the Adriatic coast. It seemed that our hotel was not accessible by car, so we needed to park fairly far away and drag all our gear across the city. And then up 3 flights of stairs to our flat. But it was a great little duplex with great views over the harbor. And air conditioning (not a usual fare in our German lives). We quickly changed and met our friends for some delicious mediteranean dining, al fresco of course. Overall, food was a great highlight of Rovinj, especially the visit to the winery estate hotel Meneghetti. I have to say, this was one of the highlights of the trip — such great ambience and a super fun meal and wine tasting.

After Rovinj, I felt the need to decompress and chill by the pool (which we didn’t really have in Rovinj, although we could easily walk around the corner and jump straight into the Adriatic.) We opted for a Radisson Group resort in Pula. We had a nice apartment with the beach straight in front of us, and swimming pools (salt water!) to our left and right. It was a nice place to explore, with activities like tennis courts, musical shows, swimming classes, etc. But mainly we just relaxed and enjoyed the pool and the sun — every day was perfect weather.

Finally it was time to start the journey back. I had some business colleagues in Ljubljana, Slovenia who invited us so we set our course. We made plans to visit the limestone caves on the way and almost missed them. We had run into an issue at a small mountain border crossing due to our lack of EU passports. We needed to backtrack to a larger crossing (keeping our fingers crossed that we would be allowed back) which had a longer queue, but we evenutally made it and even got to make it on the tour of the limestone caves (which was excellent). We checked in at the Interncontinental — a nice 5 star experience — especially the breakfast on the top floor in the morning.

Our hosts Daniel and Klavdija were amazing. Ice cream for the boys (and us too), tour through the town, illusion musuem, and lastly a dinner at the castle fort in the center of the city. Even that wasn’t enough, so we met again at their offices in the BTC for some go-kart racing.

All good things must come to a end (or at least a pause), so we needed to make our way back to Germany (which we did without issue). But now I am so ready to start planning our next visit back to Slovenia and Croatia.

So due to a technical glitch where I couldn’t manage to sync all my photos from my phone to my PC, this posting is even later than my typically belated ones. But with a bit of extra time these days at home with the Corona Lockdown, I finally dove in and got this done (whew!).

It seems like forever ago, but I still feel that I am carrying a few extra pounds from the trip. Being the holiday season with no real responsibilities or things to be done aside from entertaining the boys, we ate a lot. We had a lot of cooks in the kitchen (or the grill) whipping up everything from steaks to pancakes, meatballs, soups, and even fondue. Even when we did leave the house, we continued to eat: amazing Mexican at Condessa, Tom’s Dim Sum (2x), Prime Rib at Longwood Gardens, Reading Terminal, Annie’s Pretzels, YangMing (it was takeout, which means we ordered more than was physically possible for any humans to eat), and that was all before getting to New York City. It was great to have time to spend with the family, keeping up with important traditions like lighting the Channukah Candles and going to see the latest Star Wars on Christmas Day while creating new ones — I think fondue will definitely be part of our holiday rituals now.

NYC with the boys was as full on as ever, even with my parents over to help. Chika and I did manage to get out for a night to have some great sushi, drinks, and even dessert at Momofuku’s (interesting, but overrated). Probably the biggest moment of adventure on the trip was when we boarded the plane and found other people were sitting in our seats. After 10 minutes of anxious wondering, we finally got the word that the whole family had been upgraded to business class!!! Kids now think this is the way it should always be. I should only hope our luck continues for 2020!