Bavarian Christmas Breakfast

On the final week before Christmas, Gwendolyn was treated to a special glimpse into traditional Bavarian culture.

Stefan organized a traditional Bavarian breakfast...

...complete with Weisswurst (white sausage), Weissbier (white beer), sweet mustard and huge baskets of Brezeln (large Bavarian pretzels).

That's right - beer for breakfast! Historically, these sausages were made only early in the morning, with herbs but no preservatives. Because they could quickly go bad, the rule was you had to eat them by noon. And of course in Bavaria, you can't eat sausage without drinking beer. Hence the beer-and-sausage breakfast.

All of Haus 11 was invited to the feast.

After the gluttonous meal (we seem to have a lot of those!), the party moved outside, where Stefan taught John the art of whip-snapping, apparently a traditional Bavarian pastime.

We were then encouraged to try out a snuff-injecting machine, handmade by Stefan's father. The peer-pressure was too great for David to resist. Oh, and as if the snuff-machine doesn't make you look silly enough, you also had to wear the pointy hat while using it.

Gwen Wren was a little skeptical of the authenticity of this Bavarian custom. Luckily, Stefan assured her she was exempt from the "traditional" snuff-machine practice.