Matty's Xmas and New Year visit

Dec-Jan 09

Matty enters Year 11 in 2009, so thought it would be great to have him over for Xmas and NY. Also, being a spring chicken he should be able to handle the cold!
We organised a brief trip to give him a taste of Europe, starting off with Milan in Italy. Matty was blown away at the Duomo, just in the sheer size and the history behind it. He also got to try our favorite Osteria in Milan with authentic Italian pastas and pizzas. We spent 3 days in Milan and then flew to Germany to spend Xmas with Joe's family. For us, Xmas is always about family. Whilst we were there, we visited Cologne Catheral, it wasn't as impressive as the last time we saw it, maybe because we've seen so many larger and more grand catherals. Xmas was a great time to catch up with Joe's aunts/uncles and cousins.
After Xmas we headed off to Brussels in Belgium. Matty was impressed with how the architecture, culture and language changes as we move through each country. After visiting all the touristy sites, we ate ourselves silly, trying their waffles, mussels, yummy frites, hot chocolate…

We then caught the Eurostar back to London to spend a few days to do the washing and prepare for our next trip. On New Years day, we hopped onto the Eurostar again and headed for Paris. You cannot visit Europe without stopping via Paris. We did the tour guide thing and showed Matty the Eiffel tower, Arc De Triomph, Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur, Lourve and the list goes on. We introduced Matty to French cuisine which he liked…
The temperature dropped down to -7 degrees one night when we went out to view the Eiffel tower … it was COLD! Bbbrrrr…. To Matty's delight it snowed in the morning, first time Matty saw snow!

It was such a delight to spend quality time with my little baby brother… he's grown up into a thoughtful, intelligent young man… what a proud sister I am!

Bremen Christmas Market - Germany

29-30 Nov 08

We went to Bremen to see and experience a true German Christmas market, and Bremen certainly did not disappoint.
Bremen home to the world famous Town Musicians ( a tale by the famous Brother Grimm) with most of it's attraction based around the Marktplatz (Market square) is dominated by the opulent façade of the city's Town Hall and the Roland statue, which are on the list of UNESCO World Heritage sites. This was the setting for the Christmas market, boasting over 100 stalls, selling everything from Glühwein (mulled wine), bratwursts, steak sandwiches, Christmas tree ornaments, ginger breads, teas, coffee's and everything else relating to Christmas.
With the majority of the stalls based around the Market Square, we didn't have to go very far to try out all the bratwurst, steak sandwiches and Glühwein our stomach could handle, and that was all we ate the whole weekend. We also visited the district of Schnoor, which is Bremen's oldest district, which is a maze of lanes lined with little 15th and 16th century houses. Most were converted to small shops selling to the tourists, things made locally, or gifts from Bremen.
Bremen was a nice suprise for us, we enjoyed it a lot more than we thought we would, mainly because of the atmosphere. the cold winter Christmas, keeping ourselves warm drinking mulled wine and eat German food.

As expected from German efficiency, getting in and out of the city to the airport was effortless, which rounded off a perfect trip.