It’s a great place to shop for gifts.

Apparently, we’re supposed to have a sexy holiday this year. Mrs Claus has dinner for you!

There’s entertainment for the children, day or night.


What says Christmas more than egg rolls and calamari?

With warm wine — workday or not!

Anita’s favorite Christmas Market dessert: chi-chis from Jean Le Gaufre.

Some more decorations…

Oh, there was a bit of “the reason for the season” too.

And, to wrap it up, another video.

Happy New Year everybody! (P.S. It’s called the celebration of Saint Sylvestre here.)

The first trimmings I noticed were in a Luxembourg shopping mall, just outside the city. The sights began on the way down the escalator from the car park, and the theme was clear from the outset.

The Enchanted Circus included about a dozen scenes of mechanical animals and performers, mostly in the central courtyard of the mall.


Hopefully this video will help you appreciate the magic of the holidays in suburban Luxembourg.

After a trip around the circus, one is in the proper frame of mind to visit the hypermarket, Europe’s equivalent of Wal-Mart and Target.





Yes, there are some unusual options to dress up your home — including your bathroom (or “toilet” as we say here). Don’t you want to see Santa doing his business, as you do yours?

At about the same time, the good folks of Trier started building their Christmas Market. We’ve been going to Trier’s Christmas Market for years. Somehow, we missed the fact that Trier has a Mulled Wine Queen!



Just beyond the market, we found a delightful storefront of LEGO goodness!



We can’t wait to visit Luxembourg‘s Christmas Market, so keep watch for some more holiday spirit from the Bugle!

Not long after we moved, we spend a weekend with close friends in Galway, on the west coast of Ireland. For those that may have forgotten, Galway is even more wet that Dublin. During our visit, our hosts extolled the virtues of their jackets – the L.L. Bean Weather Channel 3-1 coat. This coat was created for the Weather Channel folks when they were out in the field. It seemed ideal for travel in Ireland (and in Europe). My mom was visiting Dublin not long after that, so I had her order one for me.

Some of you may remember the green jacket that makes me easy to find in a crowd. (As opposed to Will’s silly black outerwear, which he uses to slip away, unnoticed, into crowds of style-conscious European tourists.) Often, I would wear just the fleece layer, taking advantage of the versatile three-in-one nature of the jacket. On the right, you can see me sporting the green on a pleasant late-spring day in the Netherlands.

Many stops in Ireland, particularly in the West, required both layers.

In Lisbon, with little threat of rain, I could tuck away the hood.

I turned out to be wrong about Lisbon, and out came the hood.

It was a great day when I found gloves that matched!

I love my green coat. There is no other way to say it. After four years of hard wearing, however, it is starting to show its age a bit. I had thought to replace it last year, but the only coat L.L. Bean offered at the time was not as good. When I discovered that my beloved coat was discontinued, my theory was that the price of the jacket was keeping people out of the market, so they introduced a cheaper, but not as nice coat. But that would not do for me at all.

Luxembourg’s climate is more dry than Ireland’s, so I found myself wearing just the fleece layer more and more often. About a month ago, I realized I was really wearing out the fleece lining. While I wait patiently for L.L. Bean to realize the error of their ways and bring back my beloved coat, the important thing is to wear out all parts of the coat, evenly. So I needed to find a fleece to wear. A sacrificial fleece, you might say.

Enter Jack Wolfskin. We have come to realize that Jack Wolfskin is L.L. Bean, Lands End and The North Face all rolled into one, for Europe. It is dominant like Crayola crayons. Everyone wears Jack Wolfskin.

Will did an unscientific survey of his photos from the Gala Tour de France and he says, “Of visible logos on plain sportswear, about three-quarters were either the words ‘Jack Wolfskin’ or their distinctive wolf-paw.” So there you go.

Take a randomly-chosen person wearing sports outerwear in Luxembourg (or Germany or Belgium for that matter). Like the one on the right, for example.

Intrigued by the ubiquity of the brand, we stopped one of the several Jack Wolfskin shops in Luxembourg. I found a lovely fleece in a burgundy color — on sale! Now I feel a little uneasy without my green, but I certainly feel more local.

By mid-July, I had given up on L.L. Bean. I had moved on to other brands, including The North Face and Jack Wolfskin, resigning myself to purchasing one of their coats this fall. Not a bad fate, but frustrating — like trying a new email application. Nothing works like the old coat. The good coat!

Imagine my delight and joy when, researching this very blog post, I discovered a miracle — L.L. Bean has reintroduced my jacket! My only concern is that the “fleece” lining seems to be shiny, but I think I can learn to live with that. My beloved green is no longer an option, so I’ll have to choose among Periwinkle, Colonial Red or Coastal Blue.

As you, dear reader, will inevitably be seeing many, many photos of the jacket, I ask for your input. What color do you think would be best for the next four years of photos?

In the past, I was a Diet Coke gal, but then Coke Zero stole my heart.

Anyone that spends a day with me will realize that caffeine has a powerful effect on my system. In the US and Ireland, I tried to manage that by drinking caffeine-free Diet Coke as much as possible.

Then we moved to Luxembourg.

For those not as knowledgeable about the world of Coke, Diet Coke is not sold on the Continent. Instead, we get Coke Light. The formulations are different enough that while I can drink Coke Light, I do not enjoy it as much as Diet Coke — and Coke Zero blows them both out of the water. Slowly, over the last two years, I’ve been drinking less and less Coke Light “sans caféine” and more and more Coke Zero… with all the caffeine.

In a perfect world, Coke would produce a caffeine free version of Coke Zero. However, I learned during my correspondence with the Coca-Cola company that they wanted to build the Coke Zero brand before putting additional versions on the market. (Yes, I did write them. Yes, I did receive a personal response.)

Then, a miracle happened. In February, I was on a business trip in the Netherlands. I was discussing my soda habit with a colleague and I mentioned that one of my greatest desires was caffeine-free Coke Zero. I nearly fell off my chair when he replied, “Oh, they have that.”

Indeed they do. Since February 2010, France has been selling it. France was the first country in the world to get caffeine-free Coke Zero. The Netherlands got it in January 2011. When I learned all this, my heart raced — and I had to get to France!

On the first possible Saturday morning, I coaxed Will into the car and we drove to the closest chain grocery store across the border. As we walked through the store, I dared to dream. Would they have it? How much should I buy? We headed down the soda aisle and there is was, in all its black and gold glory.

I would have bought it all. Will convinced me to stop after 16 six-packs and 11 one-point-five liter bottles. The cart (and the car) were a joyous wonder of Zero.

The only aspect that took a small shine off the day was the prospect of shopping in France every three or four weeks, to resupply. But that wasn’t a big deal, with the border so close, and I was smiling all the way back to Luxembourg.

I’m happy to report that Coke Zero “sans caféine” is just as tasty as the regular. I’ve slowly titrated down from the caffeinated variety, as to not feel the effects of going cold turkey. I thought that life couldn’t get better.

I was wrong.

I was shopping at our local grocery store the very next weekend after our trip to France. Will needed some regular old Coke, with sugar and caffeine — because he is a (pudgy) rebel! As we rolled down the aisle, I could not believe what was on the shelf in front of me — Coke Zero “sans caféine” had arrived in Luxembourg!

It was a miracle! I would no longer have to drive to France to get my beverage of choice — it had come to me. Life could not be any better…

…unless I could convince them to start stocking Diet 7-up again!

But recently, we have been going to the Farmer’s Market at Place Guillaume. The market is open on Saturday mornings and we love getting some fresh produce, delicious apple juice for Will and cut flowers for me.

The prices are so reasonable, I’ve been going…. well… a little flower crazy.

Hence last week’s purchases:

This was taken five days post-purchase, so they aren’t at their very best. But aren’t they beautiful? Beautiful…. but deadly!

Our advancing ages have made both of us susceptible to the pollen from the lovely flowers. Apparently, our allergies cannot handle the continued, unrelenting exposure and even the various antihistamines we consume daily haven’t kept us from sneezing and headaches. Will was convinced for a couple days that I had a nefarious and complex plan to off him, except I was suffering as much (or more) than he.

I was forced to accept that four different kinds of cut flower at once is too much to have in our home. So this week, I had to do with only daffodils (or jonquils as they are known at the grocery store) and hyacinths.

While we are still running at a high pollen count, the level is tolerable. The joy and pleasure I get from the flowers easily offsets the small price to pay. As a Midwesterner, I’m thrilled to have spring flowers available… in March! I think we can say that Spring is just around the corner for Luxembourg.

Especially when the crocuses are popping up everywhere:

Today, it’s time to recognize the countless products that emulate American favorites. The much-beloved hamburger is a great place to start. We’ll leave the much-disputed history of the hamburger to other information dispensaries. Instead, Will agreed to buy, cook and eat a microwaveable hamburger produced in the British Isles.

Rustlers is the name, and the microwave is its range. From plastic packaging to hot and tasty in seconds, it claims.

Hey, look at that! Complaints are directed to Finglas, not far from our old home in Dublin. Turns out, the Kepak Group is an Irish success story. But there’s no need for journalistic disclosure: I learned this after the taste-tasting, and I never ran into an employee of Kepak around town. (There’s a good chance that I ate a Kepak product at some point, though.)

Back to the burger. I have nothing against convenience food. It usually meets my low expectations. And it’s usually convenient.

On a cold and foggy day in Luxembourg, any warm food would do. What did I hope for? Something like a McDonald’s Hamburger, without having to venture outside my cozy apartment. This looks big enough for dinner. And despite being sold in a Belgian supermarket, it says, “Quarter Pounder” rather than “113.4 Grammer.” So I’m clearly the target market.

I was pleasantly surprised by the packaging of the cheese, which reminded me of the American-style individual wrappings.

Fake grill lines? Check. Disturbing evidence of mass production? Check. Zap it!

Well, the conveyor-belt marks are gone. Color unchanged. Light grease. Good aroma.

At this point, I confronted the most difficult choice a convenience-food-reviewer faces: sauce or no sauce? On one hand, the packaging screamed, “NEW SAUCE!” On the other hand, sauces designed for the British and European markets can be, let’s say, odd. To an American palate, at least.

“Damn the consequences,” I thought. “I’m going for cultural immersion!”

The finished product:

Cut in half, the expert’s method to evaluate taste and mouth-feel.

In the suggested microwave time, it cooked to just the right temperature.

Taste? It was everything I expected.

• Pleasant enough.
• Slightly soggy bun, and too much bun. No surprise there.
• “Meaty” flavor, reminiscent of actual meat.
• Inoffensive cheese, nicely complementing the somewhat dry burger

The sauce made the whole burger taste a lot like a McDonald’s hamburger. It’s like Kepak took the ketchup, mustard, and sad little pickles from that burger, pureed them in massive quantities, and packaged them in the ubiquitous little plastic tubes that are infuriatingly difficult to open.

Overall, I’d say that my Rustlers burger Achieved Expectations. A modest merit award for you, little guy!

The next day, I enjoyed a more traditional hamburger at the Marine House. One-hundred percent Grade A beef of American origin. No soy additives, real garnish and condiments. Not really in the same league at all.

But I had to leave the house and talk to people in order to get it.

I’m going to guess that you chose option A: Anita goes to a wine tasting, not option B: Will is sick all weekend and jealous that Anita got to go to a wine tasting.

Indeed, I spent both Friday and Saturday night exploring the wonders of the Bordeaux and Aquitaine region with the Fédération des Vignerons Indépendants d’Aquitaine wine tasting. Our friends, Dick and Kristy* went to the event last year and raved about not only the awesome wine, but the reasonable prices.

I took the bus to the event after work on Friday, meeting Kristy and Dick. Since they had prior experience, they immediately informed me of the action plan. We needed to hit the great ones from last year first, before exploring. No wine was to be purchased on Friday night, as that was the tasting night. Wine would be purchased on Saturday. Since I was along for the ride, any strategy was a good one to me. So I grabbed my glass and followed along!

While I tried a lot of great wine and a few other items, I only purchased from two chateaus. (Will says it should be «chateaux» — what a snob.) I thought I would tell you a little bit each one and what I took home for the BBB&B wine cellar. Guests booking for 2011 may reserve any of the following bottles. (Supplies are limited!)

Chateau #1 is Chateau Haut-Chatain for their excellent Pomerol. Before moving to Luxembourg, I had never heard of Pomerol. It’s amazing – a simple blend of Merlot (90%) and Cabernet Sauvignon (10%).

[Ed. note: The name isn't from the blend, but the region. That's the way French wines are named.] [Author's note: Will, you're just sounding pompouser.]

We sampled the 2001 and the 2002. Both were terrific. Still, they were quite different. I was surprised to learn that they came from the exact same vines and have the exact same blend of grapes. Then I learned one of many of the evening’s fun facts: The summer of 2001 was much warmer than the summer of 2002, which gives the 2001 a more spicy taste (to me, at least).

Chateau #2 is Chateau de Bonhoste. This Chateau had a broader selection with three different Bordeaux that I fell in love with: the Bordeaux Rouge, the Bordeaux Superieur and the Bordeaux Superieur Cuvee Prestige. The Rouge was smooth and creamy, the Superieur a bit more spicy and the Prestige even more spicy and complex. The sellers were kind enough to speak English with me, so I learned the reasons for the differences. The Rouge is done in steel with juice and skins, but the skins don’t stay in for very long. The Superieur is also done in steel, but the skins stay with the juice much longer. The Prestige is done in oak, with the skins.

Basically, the more time with the skins, the more “spicy” the wine becomes – or at least that was what I got out of the conversation. Please feel free to tell me in the comments I got it completely wrong. Will, you may not “translate freely” from your silly Hachette guide.

With all this wine tasting, you need a snack. Does anything go better with wine than cheese? How about some duck? Not only was there a French cheese producer offering some of the most challenging and delicious cheeses, but there was also a French duck farm selling a multitude of items. While duck has never been my thing, this fell under the “when in Rome” category of life. Dick, Kristy and I split a duck sampler platter – two kinds of pate, duck sausage and the incomparable smoked duck breast. In fact, the smoked duck breast was so incredible that I purchased some for Will and me to share.

The cheese was incredible too. It was Ossau-Iraty which is far more special than I realized, as it is only one of two sheep cheeses that has been granted Appellation d’origine contrôlée status.

Personally, the goat cheese was a bit strong for me, but I loved the “vache et de brebis” – cow and sheep. I bought a chunk to bring home on Friday and more on Saturday.

Saturday night we were joined by two more friends, Pete and Kathy*, the owners of Sylvester. I enjoyed dragging Kathy to the two Chateaus that I was planning to purchase from. I needed a second opinion since my wingman Will was absent. Kathy agreed with my choices (and wasn’t nearly so supercilious). So I made the purchases. My biggest decision was how to decide between the two Pomerols. Both years were great – just different. Thankfully, I was spared the agony of a decision when the gentlemen from the Chateau suggested a split case – 3 bottles of 2001 and 3 bottles of 2002. Sold!

Since the wines from Chateau de Bonhoste were reasonably priced, I ended up with four cases: one Rouge, two Superieur and one Prestige.

Between my purchases — and Pete and Kathy’s — we needed a hand truck to get them to the car. Kristy and Dick chose to go back on Sunday and get their purchases, so we didn’t have to worry about room in the car on the way home.

This type of event is one of the many where Will and I would say “Oh, we should go….”, even mark our calendars … but then never leave the house. That’s the best part about friends: they drag you out to fun and enjoyable activities, which this was, in spades. I dare say that Will cannot wait for next year and I hope he is healthy and can join me…. although we will have to be careful to avoid over-buying!

* Names changed per the Bakker Privacy Protection Policy.

For those who haven’t been counting, we have lived in Luxembourg for just over a year and a half. In the last 20 months, we’ve created a home that we love and enjoy.

Except for the pantry.

Our pantry had, over the last several months, morphed into a nightmare. Returning from our US holiday, I knew that I could not just throw the new food in there — the whole thing needed to be cleaned and reorganized. Hello Ikea!

Unfortunately, I didn’t get a shot of the pantry before some items were removed. This is with about 30% pulled out already.

Like most organizing projects – it must get worse before it can get better.

Of course, we had to buy new stuff — from Ikea!

And we had to sort through every piece that was in there. Which was an excellent exercise, even it if did make us both want to cry.

We had an “Us Against the Pantry” attitude, so there was much less bickering than you’d expect.

In the end, we have an organized, clean and pretty pantry. It took nearly two days, but it was worth it.

Living in Luxembourg can’t be all wine and wonderful. Sometimes, you just have to be normal people… although I’m sure some of you would challenge me on just what “normal” means!

Can’t get enough pantry pics? There’s a little Flickr set for you!

It’s a special time of the year in Luxembourg – it is the fall wine season. Our preferred grocery store had issued a special flyer listing all the wines that would be available.

Will took his responsibilities seriously. Like a young boy with the Sears Wishbook, he sat down with the flyer, his Hachette guide and a fresh sharpie. His goal – find excellent wines at a reasonable price for us to sample.

There were several that he was excited about.

With the preparatory work complete, we headed off to the grocery. Will took the cart and started finding his wines, while I gathered our regular groceries. After a time, I rejoined Will. He has filled one paper box with six bottles of wine, our traditional way of bringing wine home. (We tend to avoid wine in plastic jugs.) He had several more bottles, so we needed a second box. Since he normally handles the wine duty, I was uncertain where to get the boxes. So we walked together to get a second box.

As we walked up to the area of the store with the wine cartons, the day turned from good to fantastic. The day became the day I will remember for a very long time. The day became…. the day I found the reusable wine shopping bag!

I had spied other shoppers for months with various reusable wine shopping bags. I had coveted, from a distance, their awesome compartments that keep wine (and olive oil) separate and safe. Oh, how I had wanted one!

It is unclear how long the bags had been available. Apparently, I had not effectively communicated my desire to my life-partner, as he was shocked and amused by my joy.

While I was gushing over my new bag, he was eyeing the wooden crates used to store and display most of the wine. He wanted a box – oh, how he wanted one of those boxes!

We continued strolling the aisles when we saw an empty wine crate, just sitting there – practically begging to become part of the Bakker storage system. Will asked the women working one of the wine tasting booths (yes, there were multiple wine tasting areas in the grocery store at 10:30 on a Saturday morning) if we could take it. She gave her blessing and off we went, with our very own crate!

And a second, smaller crate that Will grabbed at the last moment. But we needed both, since he found a bottle or two……

I think we are set for a winter of fine wine tasting. Plus, I now know where I can find the perfect Christmas gift for everyone. You too will love the reusable wine shopping bag – it’s the best thing ever!

By the way, this Sunday is Mantelsonndeg — also a remarkable shopping experience! Even if you aren’t in Luxembourg to get the full experience, you can still celebrate. The Bugle staff suggest the following family-friendly activities:

• Make an animal coat rack.
• Parents, check your closets to see if your child’s coat has a homicidal streak.
• Show the uppity Europeans how to roll really green with an up-cycled plastic coat.
• Begin a copycat coat-related crime-spree.
• Visit the Go Fug Yourself website, search for “coat” and laugh at the fashion choices of celebrities.
• Have a bit less snarky experience (but only a bit less) with Tom & Lorenzo.

Last weekend, Anita spied the McRib on a McDonald’s menu in Ingeldorf, Luxembourg.

“That’s interesting,” she said, “I remember reading that the McRib isn’t widely available in the US.”

“Me too,” I said, “But maybe I’m just thinking of that Simpsons episode.” And so the situation passed into our long list of Notable Oddities Here in Europe.

Serendipity had other plans, however. She waved her hands and lo, on Monday, the Wall Street Journal published an article on American fans of the McRib who track its ephemeral appearance across the nation. (It’s a pretty good read, as these things go.)

There are blog posts and fan sites devoted to the McRib, of course. (And some of them will burn your eyeballs, of course.) And this is 2010, so there’s a social network which maintains a McRib Locator. There’s quite a bit of information available on the McRib, easily accessed via google. I’m not sure how to feel about that.

Still, once Anita sent me the article, I knew that I had to return to Ingeldorf. For you, dear readers, I would find and eat a McRib.

Ingeldorf lies in a narrow part of the valley of the Sauer river, so the main commercial road, the railroad and the pedestrian paths run close together and in parallel. It’s not hard to find the McDonalds.

Pay no attention to the nutritional information.

Will, you have a training ride today. How can you miss it to be with a sandwich?

One angle is not enough.

German is such a beautiful language.

Like Krusty says, “I don’t mind the taste.”

That’s it for the Simpsons quotes. I find it hard to believe that there’s no transcript on the internet. My google-fu has failed me.

See? It really is made of pork. Says so right on the box!

I said, No looking at the nutritional information!

My view as I ate the McRib. On the left, the hills along the valley of the Sauer (or Sûre, if you’re French). On the right, the entrance to the Playland.

I’d hoped to end this post by promoting our B&B: “Stay with us and take an excursion to the only McDonalds that reliably offers McRib sandwiches!” But those of you in the US need only wait a few weeks before you have your own geographically unlimited source of McRibs. Yet — next spring, when you have that yearning for bumpy meat patties again, you’ll have to come here!

Did I write a mediocre Friday post?
That could be the case.

Am I relying on the inherently fascinating existence of the McRib to conceal my indolence?
It certainly looks that way.

Hey, folks, sometimes you write a post with the cliches you borrow, rather than the clever ideas you might want or wish to have at a later time.

When I see an ad for a one-day sale, I assume it’s little more than a scam to create false urgency.

Oh, there’s Black Friday, of course. (And Woot, I guess.) But even the post-holiday sales have been lackluster for years. The upcoming Labor Day sales seem more like an excuse for lazy advertising than a real chance to score a bargain.

“Not so, in Luxembourg,” I was told, by several Luxembourgers. “You must go to the Braderie on Monday. Stuff is really cheap. All the stores will have bargains.” All the stores? You mean that they cooperate and all have sales on the same day? “Yes,” they said, “It’s always the same. Go to the Ville-Haute.”

The Braderie isn’t such a bizarre idea. Say you’re a shopkeeper in the city center, selling nice women’s clothes and competing with the big box stores on the periphery. “I’ll have a sale,” you think. “I’ll put a bunch of my stock out on the sidewalk, at really good prices.”

But how to bring in the shoppers? In any given week, only a small proportion of Luxembourgers will walk past your shop. Advertising helps a little, but will people make a special trip just to see your overstock? Plus, this is Luxembourg — it will probably rain. Who would come then?

The answer: Everyone will come, if they know that every store in a walkable area will have a sale. Especially if the food shops serve inexpensive beer, champagne and sausages on the street. And if, on that day, you’re bound to encounter friends and family from all over the country, because they want high fashion and cheap food, too.

It’s just a matter of picking that day. And one day for that, in Luxembourg, is the second Monday of Schueberfouer. (It’s not the only one. There’s also New Coat Sunday.)

Fortunately, it wasn’t raining when I visited the shops of the city center this Monday. (If you’d like a multimedia experience, LesFrontaliers.lu has a video report in French.) There were thousands of people strolling among the tents on the streets. There were banks and charitable foundations and radio stations and newspaper publishers, giving away gewgaws and handing out brochures. There were lots of signs announcing markdowns of 60% and 80%. The big shops, like M&S, didn’t seem as committed to the idea, but hardly any stores appeared to be doing business as usual.

It’s a good thing, this Braderie. Sure, it’s materialistic and all that, but it’s the most civic-minded One-Day Sale I’ve ever seen.

I didn’t buy anything. I didn’t really need anything that was on sale, which was mostly women’s clothing and shoes anyway. I don’t think one goes to Braderie expecting to find something in particular, and I wasn’t in a browsing mood. But I don’t think the shopkeepers of the city center were depending on me, this Monday.

By the way, this tradition — which strongest in Lille, but also exists in Belgium and the Netherlands — is thought to originate centuries ago in the Middle Ages, naturellement.

Next, Will managed to connect Australia and some of south east Asia to the main section.

Some puzzle work escaped the all-seeing eye of the camera. As you can see, Europe, most of Asia and Africa came together too quickly for Will to grab a snapshot.

We must admit that the puzzle has some “cheats” because each piece has a number and an arrow pointing to a neighboring piece. We do believe that the oceans would be nearly impossible without these aids. Here is a view of the inside of the puzzle.

We were able to get most of the land masses connected, giving us what we briefly called “the Pac-Man world”:

At this point, the puzzleball was sturdy enough that we used the stand to hold it up.

Will’s own challenge was the Pacific Ocean. So while I finished the little bits here and there, Will filled out the Pacific.

And then it was time. We had the Pacific ready to attach to the rest of the puzzle.

We thought it would be easy! We were wrong.

We will spare you the 45 photos and 10 minutes of video. It was a lot more difficult than I expected to get it all in there. Finally, between the two of us, we got it together.

We love our puzzleball! It is really sturdy once you get it together. I appreciate having a globe in the house, as it give you a much different perspective of county/continent sizes. Most maps don’t do the southern hemisphere justice.

Hearty recommendations for the puzzleball from this house. Ravensburger had a ton of designs — not just globes. Perhaps you and your sweetie could have a Valentines day challenge!

At several social functions during our recent visit to the US, my spouse Will told a somewhat humorous story involving the shooting of a movie in the Wicklow Mountains of Ireland. I would like to address my remarks on those occasions.

In the course of his story, Will sometimes speculated that the movie being shot may have been Leap Year and cited evidence to support that guess. In most cases, I ridiculed this conjecture, claiming that the timing was impossible.

Recently, ads promoting Leap Year have appeared on local television. In response, I indulged my curiosity regarding the movie and its making.

I discovered that Will’s adventure in County Wicklow did, indeed correspond with some dates that filming occured in Ireland, generally. Thus, it is at least possible that Will’s hypothesis was correct.

I regret any impression of implausibility that I may have generated regarding that hypothesis. I also have deep regret for having deprived Will’s listeners of the pleasure of a story untainted by my commentary.

In all good faith,
Anita

As it often happens with these things, the actual purchase of the globe was constantly delayed. The globe store had limited hours; I didn’t like the colors that I saw; and so on. Globes are expensive so I wanted my globe to be perfect.

Christmas 2009 arrived and I had not yet gotten around to buying a globe. Will was fed up with my antics and decided to take matters into his own hands. He reached into the interweb and, once again, found something to hold me until I find that perfect globe.

So I am now the proud owner of a Ravensburger Puzzleball. What he didn’t know was I had nearly bought the same thing a few weeks earlier! I saw it in a store in Luxembourg, but they only had the Puzzleball in German or French — and English names is one of my (many) requirements.

We opened it last night and started it. We had fun looking at the pieces, testing our geographic knowledge. (We don’t know much about islands and oceans.) We also found:

Chicago

Luxembourg (Look carefully!)

Ireland (and some of the British Isles)

I envisioned a quiet evening after work that would end with a nice little globe. I’ll admit that I didn’t realize how time-consuming the Puzzleball may turn out to be. There is a lot of ocean out there, kids.

We plan to keep you informed of our progress. I managed most of South America last night, but now we need to tackle the ocean around Antarctica before we can go any farther. Personally, I can’t wait to get to Russia as it will cover a lot of ground!

(Insert obligatory “I can see Russia from my house” joke here.)

Subject Name: Will Bakker

Date and Time: 6 Dec 2009, 13:08

Conditions: Subject did not fast, but had a St Nicholas’s Day breakfast of a “bonhomme” and citrus fruit. Also, he consumed two cups of coffee within three hours of the test.

Preparation Step 1: Fresh bottle of Bovril was opened for this test. Contents had slightly higher viscosity than dark maple syrup. Color was surprisingly dark brown, near black. Scent was mild, more beefy than yeasty.

Preparation Step 2: Filtered tap water boiled in standard kitchen kettle. Two teaspoons of Bovril pseudo-liquid moved into Test Mug. Each teaspoon measure of the Bovril pseudo-liquid was very difficult to pour into the Test Mug. Technician used all reasonable force and ultimately failed to accurately measure the amount of Bovril transferred to the Test Mug.

Preparation Step 3: Boiling water poured upon the gelatinous blobs of Bovril which clung to the sides and bottom of the Test Mug. Given its earlier intransigence, it dissolved relatively easily.

Preparation Step 4: The Test Mug and its contents were left to cool for five minutes. Used teaspoon placed in cleansing apparatus. Safety check completed: All Bovril pseudo-liquid confined to cleansing apparatus, Test Mug, and original container.

Observations at time of preparation: Contents of Test Mug now thin and very dark brown, with a bit more gray color than a cup of beef broth of similar depth. Scent changed significantly by addition of boiling water. Now, quite yeasty and very little beef odor. Subject mentions that it recalls the smell of the Guinness brewery of St James Gate. Test Mug appears unaffected by contents: no observations of melting, fizzing, or other alteration. Subject appears greatly affected, presenting facial expressions of hesitation and disgust.

>> END PAGE 1

Although Trier’s market is just 30 years old, and sometimes described as small, we were impressed. If you can’t be there in person, you can enjoy the market online, with a special Christmas-market-video-game (a Weihnachtsmarktspiel), or a page of promotional media. If you need to distract the kids, there’s a coloring book, too! (It’s a little weak, but do those little rugrats really deserve better?)

By contrast, Dresden’s Christmas market is now 575 years old. (Dresden is 680km away, about 6.5 hours by car. Maybe we’ll go next year.)


By Friday, Luxembourg City’s market was underway. It’s not as large or as well-decorated as Trier’s market, but we look forward to returning regularly.

At both markets, Will found glühwein (also known as hot red wine, or mulled wine). It was typically sold in decorative mugs, which could be returned for a deposit, or kept as souvenirs. We found the best mugs in each market, and we’re quite happy to share them with you:

Please note the lovely crest on the toe of the Luxembourgish boot.

You can look forward to more photos in the near future, and maybe some deep thoughts about the mix of secular and religious during the European holiday season. In the meantime, we present to you a brief video of the gigantic Christmas carousel pyramid in Trier.

To the landlord who aspires to competence:

Every building contains hundreds of minor errors, invisible faults, and premature wear spots. These details are the devils that threaten your investment, the principal capital itself.

Some of your residents will bring important problems to your attention, conditions which will cost you hundreds of thousands of euros/dollars/pounds in the future.

Furthermore, the most consequential problems appear to be petty as renter’s complaints. An unsealed shower which makes a tiny puddle, or a loose screw holding a soap dish, may be early predictors of a full and unscheduled renovation of the flat downstairs.

Some of your renters are just annoying. But some are noticing things that matter — to you. Things that the builder hid from you, that your inspector thought you didn’t want to hear about, that your maintenance staff doesn’t have time to notice.

The chances that this complaint is the one that really matters means that it’s foolish to dismiss it.

And this fact has nothing to do with the goodwill you could generate by being responsive. You’ll lose money, in the long-term, from unplanned capital expenses, not from a plan for slightly higher maintenance costs.

But it is so much more than that: We’re talking about an officially celebrated holiday in Luxembourg: Mantelsonndeg — roughly translated, “Coat Sunday”. (If you know that translation to be mistaken, please comment!)

Traditionally, Luxembourgers from the countryside would come to the urban areas just before All Soul’s Day («Toussaint» in French, Nov. 1 on your calendar), to buy winter clothes. They expected to wear their new clothes on All Soul’s Day, for visits to the cemetery and Mass. In 2007, the retailers of Luxembourg revived the tradition by opening their stores on the last Sunday of October. Voila, an annual fete is born!

As you know, stores are rarely open on Sundays here, so an opportunity to shop on the sabbath is cause enough for celebration. I haven’t seen many Halloween decorations, so I speculate that Coat Sunday also serves as a (minor) celebration of the changing seasons. I can imagine the nostalgia of elderly Luxembourgers:

I remember running through dry leaves of town, feeling a chilly breeze with the sweet scent of fireplace wood. In my day, of course, we walked into town, ten miles it was, and we were happy to have a coat at all. Why, for the Mantelsonndeg of ’52, all I got was a new pair of socks!

Okay, that’s a bit silly. Let’s talk about our plans for the weekend.

We have nice winter coats; what we need is more furniture! So our special shopping trip this weekend will be Anita’s first visit to Troc, a chain of stores selling (and buying) second-hand goods. Of course, we’ll also make the weekly trip to Cora to stock up on wine and cheese.

The past several weeks were plenty exciting for Anita and Will to last until Christmas, so Mantelsonndeg will be thrilling enough. Hopefully, we Luxembourgers won’t need a winter coat just to venture out on Sunday afternoon!

Today, we want to share her discovery on that day: the mostest wine glass ever. A goblet of manifestly Brobdingnagian proportions.

Pictured below, from left to right: the new glass, a standard 750ml wine bottle, and one of our old wine glasses.

The old wine glass holds, at full capacity, 450ml — well short of 16oz. The new glass holds much more than that. How much? We have a video to demonstrate the prodigious proportions of our new glassware.

That’s a full wine bottle, folks. Seven hundred and fifty milliliters, not a drop less. Yet another benefit of visiting the BBB&B: generous helpings.

Thanks to Neurowaxx for the music in the video above.

Anita and I sent a significant portion of our “together time” eating dinner and marveling at the Kissy Puppy. When we retreated to each of our designated corners of the apartment, I decided to follow up.

Note from the Staff: We recommend clicking on the images in this post, in order to fully appreciate the genius of American soda-pop advertising in the European market.

I followed the link advertised on the label, to find a record-setting website. The "www.coca-cola.lu" website easily set the record for “404 Message that Wasted the Largest Quantity of Will’s Time” by leading me to watch an anthropomorphised webpage dance around and then say, “I ran away for the summer” (as I loosely translate it). Furthermore, the webpage/human hybrid’s blog, which he/it so heartily recommends? It’s not worth the electricity required to render it on one’s screen.

But I was relieved to find something else to pass the time, when I noticed the website’s address: http://www.coca-cola.lu/threeway.php

I was intrigued, curious even, and I decided to try the tabs on the upper-right corner of the website to learn more about the constituents of this “threeway.php”. If you’d like to be whip-sawed, mentally, by the astoundingly cynical relativism of contemporary advertising, you should try it too!

First, get a dose of mega-corporation-approved feminism by clicking on the “Coke light” tab and then watching the commercial that features kicky and beautiful young women misbehaving, in a fashion that was probably described in a meeting as “fun like Drew Barrymore but as bankable as Jennifer Garner.”

If all those strong women make you uncomfortable, you can return to standard-issue 21st-Century male chauvinism by clicking on the “Coke Zero” tab. You’ll be greeted by a solicitous female body with her inconveniently-needy head and face covered for your pleasure. Gentlemen, say hello to the burqa, Coca-Cola style!

If you attempt to find a viable ideological alternative by clicking on the “Menu” tab to the left, you’re likely to find a broken link. I was disappointed that there was no follow-through to the comely bikini’d lady offering “Coke Mania”, which I still envision as a scene from Scarface. I never did find the promised “Happy Games” from the original label, nor the “Happiness Factory” (which I found improbable from the start).

Needless to say, this vitriol is unfair. I’m really just angry that I can’t learn more about the Kissy Puppy.