Happy 2011 from Germany

We had a great time celebrating New Yea'rs Eve together in Germany besides being nearly killed by the insane Stuttgarters and their professional-grade fireworks.  There is no official fireworks display, which means that everyone meets up in the main town square and lights off their own at midnight.  It was a terrifying experience and we had to dodge wild fireworks that were surrounding us on all four sides.  We read an article reporting something like 10 deaths across Germany related to fireworks.

Thought we might not make it to the new year in one piece.

Trying to have fun despite fearing for his life.

Just when we thought our backs were safely hidden up against the Ubahn, people stated lighting fireworks off of the Ubahn escalator.

Chaos breeds more chaos.  Two people decide it is a great time to fight in the middle of the fireworks war.  They were Americans by the way.

On the walk home, this is what the streets looked like.  We also saw a guy get tackled against a wall by police for firing what appeared to be a gun up in the air.

More of the aftermath.

Before we went out to see the fireworks at midnight we made fondue for dinner and then melted lead so that we could read our fortunes for the new year.  Apparently this is a New Year's Eve tradition here and we had fun trying to determine what our lead shapes told us about our futures. 

This is the biggest pretzel we have had while living in Germany.  Giant pretzels are also a New Year's tradition.

We managed to find Oreos and marshmellows...very American of the Germans.

The lead poisoning supplies.

First you breathe in all of the lead fumes while it melts over candles.

This is the before it starts melting.

Once it liquefies...

You dump it into a bowl of water and then analyze the shape it forms.

I swear he has more pants than just these pants.

We decided that mine looked like an owl, which meant that I am to expect a favorable development this year.  And we decided that his was a broom, which meant that he is to expect a small conflict or argument in the new year.