Europe Christmas/New Year 2025
Friday December 18-19
My first trip without Jeri was to visit Evan, Jess and the grandkids in Luxembourg. Elyse and Marshal decided to come with me on this trip. They actually flew on American Airlines through Dallas. I booked a United flight through Chicago. We both arrived in Frankfurt about a half hour apart. I arrived into Terminal 1, and American flies into Terminal 2, so it took us awhile to connect, but we finally met at the Marriott across the street from the airport.
We quickly got train tickets to Heidelberg, where we planned to meet Evan, Jess and the kids the next day. We were able to drop our bags at Hotel Zum Ritter St George. It is a beautiful, old world style hotel. Check in is not until 3PM, so we headed out to explore the town. We found a cute little cafe, Moro, where we got some coffee mocha drinks. That helped to keep us awake! We did find a really good Lebanese restaurant for lunch called Sahara. Elyse needed some good food, and this was perfect. After a couple of hours walking around inspecting the Christmas Market booths, we headed back to the hotel to check in.
After a much needed map I knocked on Elyse and Marshal’s door to go out for the evening. They didn’t answer, so I went out to explore the nightime Christmas markets. It was very crowded, but I had my new DJI Osmo Nano, which I attached to my chest. I could record without anyone noticing!!
I walked around for about an hour and then decided to get something to eat. I texted Elyse, but no response, so I found a restaurant called Skookenloch. It was a really old restaurant which used to be the meeting place for all the university fraternities. Lots of history and pictures. Since I was by myself, the waitress sat me at a table with an older gentleman. After I was seated, Elyse texted me and they were able to come and join me for dinner.
We were later joined at our table by another couple, Henning and Mariam. They were really nice, and we ended up running into them 2 more times during our stay. During our dinner, we were entertained by what they call a traveler. He goes from town to town doing construction jobs for free, and asks for contributions to support his travels.
Saturday December 20 -
I woke at 4:30 am this morning. Jetlagged! I made coffee in the room and jumped on my computer to watch the final episode of Survivor. Around 5 o’clock I heard a soft knock on my door. It was Marshal with a banana and yogurt. for me. We finished watching Survivor and then put on the season 28 finale of South Park. Marshal went back to his room to check on Elyse and once she was up and ready we killed some time in the lobby, waiting for the cafes and bakeries to open at 9. We found a really good bakery and cafe called Cafe Gundel.. Marshal & I ordered what was basically bacon and eggs. The bacon turned out to be some salty version of prosciutto. Terrible! I did like the apple turnover though. .
Evan, Jess and the kids arrived around 2 o’ clock. They are staying at Hotel Am Schloss, which is about 3 minutes from our place. Elyse’s friend Nicholas Marcantel came from Berlin to meet us today. We explored the markets and Nicholas said he knew the best place in all of Germany for schnitzel, Weinstube Schnitzelbank. It opened at 5, and we got there around 4:45. Good thing, as the place is small and the line quickly got really long. Nicholas was right. The food was amazing, and such large portions!!
Sunday December 21
Today we planned to attend a Bach recital at one of the churches. Elyse had a flyer that said it started at 11.AM. We got to the church a bit early. It was really cold outside, so I wore my gloves into the church. As I entered, there was a marble structure that I decided to lean against. Jess tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hey, your hand is in the holy water” I didn’t realize that I had been leaning into the holy water because I had my gloves on. Another Canfield oops inside a Catholic church!!
We waited for the Bach performance, and soon discovered that we were actually sitting through mass. I had seated myself toward the back of the church for just this possibility, so it was easy for me to slip out the back. The rest of the crew was seated closer to the organ, so they weren’t so discreet sneaking out.
Our next stop was the castle. Evan & Marshal walked up the steep path, while the rest of us took the funicular. The castle is still pretty intact and was really impressive. Afterwards, we headed down to the ice-skating rink. The girls decided to do some shopping and the boys found a place for lunch, Restaurant Papi, where we enjoyed some good Italian cuisine. For dinner we went to SignorPizza Heidelberg, and to finish off the evening we took all the kids to the Mohr bar to enjoy some Futbol. Nothing like exposing them to the real world! Sounds like we did nothing but eat, but there was lots of walking and exploring in between.
Monday December 22
We got up early in order to get back to Luxembourg at a reasonable time. We planned to stop in Bernkastel-Kues on the way back. Jeri loved this little town, and I planned on spreading some of her ashes in the vineyard on the hillside overlooking the town. Evan, Elyse and Marshal accompanied me as we walked about halfway up the path leading to the restaurant at the top of the hill. It was very emotional for me as I released her ashes into the wind.
That night we got Indian takeout from the New Delhi restaurant around the corner from Evan and Jess house. It was delicious!!
So far, I have been able to recount each day, as I wrote about the previous days while still in Europe. Unfortunately, I am writing this as I sit back home, so I will try to remember as best as I can the many things we did during our stay. First off, the Christmas Markets in Luxembourg. I honestly think they were better than the ones in Heidelberg. The food selection, the crafts booths, and the activities for the kids were much better in Luxembourg. There was the ice-skating rink in the park, the Place d’Armes market, the Place d’ Paris market, the market at Place de la Constitution with the Ferris Wheel and the Place Guillaume 11 market with the huge advent calendar and kids slide.
Elyse and Marshal were able to stay in one of Jess’s friend apartment, as she was on vacation and offered it for use. That worked out great as they had their own space to get ready in the morning and rest up at night. We did quite a bit of walking around town pretty much every day. One of the days all of us, except Marshal (he was not feeling well) decided to find the location of the photo I took of Jeri in 1984, when we visited here. We knew the general location, because I had taken a picture of a bridge with a very distinctive rock outcropping. We assumed that the picture with Jeri was probably taken from that same location. Sure enough, as we were standing at the top of an overlook, we realized that was where I had taken the bridge picture, and just below was a stairway that led down to a path under the railroad bridge. I had taken that picture of my beautiful, pregnant 30 year old bride on that stairway. Unfortunately, that stairway had been blocked off due to homeless activity in that area, so we couldn’t re-create the photo
Let’s talk food. Jess and Evan were incredible with their hospitality. Jess was baking non-stop and we all enjoyed her many varieties of cookies, especially the peanut butter with Hershey kisses!! I can’t forget to mention her breakfast crepes! Evan, the master chef that he is kept us fed with his delicious Raclette, which we had twice. He also cooked some ramen noodles, with loads of vegetables, and the creme de la creme, duck confit for Christmas dinner. There was also the obligatory pizza night! We definitely did not go hungry!
We attended a Christmas Eve party at Joey and Claire’s house. Jude learned how to gamble when the guys started playing the card game Golf.
Christmas morning was the usual chaos. Lot of gifts, lots of pictures and lots of the kids wrestling and playing with Goldie. Jude got his Switch 2 gaming console, and we didn’t hear a peep from him the rest of the day, as he played FIFA 26 by himself and with Marshal. Fiona and Lila helped me put together the puzzle I brought for them, which was a picture of Jeri with the 3 kids at the train station when she came in May 2024 to babysit. Today, Evan, Elyse and I spread some of Jeri’s ashes into one of Evan’s garden boxes. She will be there to help the flowers grow.
After Christmas, Elyse and Marshal took a train to Paris for a couple of days. While they were gone, the rest of the crew went to a forest area out past Niederanven where we could enjoy the solitude and give Goldie a chance to run wild. Little did we know that there was some sort of dog club gathering, because the area was packed. Fortunately it appeared to be just finishing up, as we had the path all to ourselves. The sun was shining, and the skies were clear. What a beautiful day.
Evan, Blaine and Marshal decided to drive to the town of Verdun, which was the site of the Battle of Verdun (1916). It is widely considered one of the bloodiest and longest battles in history, especially in World War I, characterized by extreme casualties (around 700,000 total for French and German forces) and a devastating "meat grinder" of attrition. We were listening to a podcast as we drove through the area and it was eerie as it described the fog and cold, which was exactly what we were experiencing that day. Also, as we passed a sign for one of the forests, the podcast mentioned that same forest. Strange! We toured the museum, which just so happened to be free that day!!
The girls had a nice shopping day while we were off exploring our WW1 site.
Jess had bought tickets to the Cirque du Lux circus. Elyse and Marshal didn’t want to go. They sure missed a great show. The acts were incredible. I got really nervous a few times as I thought a couple of the acrobats were going to fall from a really high platform. Luckily, they didn’t. Filming was not allowed, so I didn’t get any good video or photos.
New Years Eve we were invited to a party at Patrick and Stephanie’s house. What a beautiful home! It even had its own elevator, which I would probably use more often than the stairs as this was a four-story house! Magnus and Megan were there as well, and we met a new couple, Elizabeth and Mark. It turns out that Mark is a special prosecutor in Luxembourg, and they had just busted a money laundering scheme the day before. It was very interesting conversation that evening. Elizabeth is a dentist, so I know where I will go if I need any dental work in Luxembourg.
It could not have been a better way to spend the first big holiday season without my soulmate Jeri. I missed having her physical presence, but she was there in our hearts and minds. Having family all together was such a wonderful experience. Thank you to Evan & Jess and Marshal and Elyse and even those crazy grandkids!! I love you guys!!
