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.

Pisa, Berlin & Paris

After Joe went back to London to work, my parents and I continued our mini Europe tour. We caught the train from Florence to Pisa. Seeing as Joe and I recently went to Pisa (May08) I still remembered my way around. Our friends recommended a great restaurant, excellent Italian food at local prices! The pizza came out piping hot, and pasta was so tasty! My parents were very pleased! We had gelato on our way back to the hotel, and it was a wonderful time, spending quality time with my parents in the middle of Italy!

The following morning, we went to see the leaning tower and the surroundings, then jumped on a plane to Berlin. My parents were amazed how quickly we can hop from one country to the next! Berlin is so different from the towns in Italy, a lot more modern, most buildings were ruined from WW2. My dad enjoyed reading about the war at the Reichstag, and what’s left of the Berlin wall. Checkpoint Charlie was another spot, it made you realise this all happened not so long ago. A visit to the German city is not complete without trying out all the wurst aka as sausages! Our favourite is the curry wurst (it’s just a sausage sprinkled with curry powder and a delicious tomato based sauce).After a gruelling week of walking and sightseeing we headed back to London for a rest, and also see the sights of London. It happened to be a lovely day! (very odd) we visited tower of London, Borough Markets and walked along the South bank. My parents enjoyed the entertainment along the south bank and the relaxed atmosphere.Sunday morning, we jumped onto the Eurostar, and in 2 hours and 20mins found ourselves in the middle of Paris. One of my dad’s friend who he hasn’t seen for 34 years met us and took us to Versaille, residence of King Louis 15^th (I think).. We also did all the touristy stuff, highlight was the night tour. It really is the most romantic city in the world! After 4 days in Paris, we headed back to London, and completed last minute shopping and prepared for my parents departure. Although a short Europe trip, we packed in a lot!

Family time with twisted ending

weekend in Dusseldorf 21-24th September posted by LP

We knew after almost 5 months here, Joe and I will be craving for some family contact, so we in July we booked tickets to visit Joe’s uncle’s family in Dusseldorf, Germany. We’ve been to visit them twice during our prior European trip, so have done most of the touristy things already. We wanted to spend time with the family and relax, and that we did. We arrived around 9.30pm on Friday night, stayed up and chatted with the family. The boys (Hoang and Nhan) have grown so much and are so tall!!! I don’t remember the house being so spacious, but I guess living in a small unit in London, it is very big comparative!

Saturday morning, we went out for breakfast and being the glorious day it was Joe, his uncle and the boys played a game of tennis, whilst Joe’s aunt and I watched and chatted. After the match, we dropped into our favourite ice-cream store and I waited eagerly for my Eidbere (strawberry) ice cream, it was still as good as I remembered it!!

We all then packed into Joe’s uncle brand new car (he just picked it up the day before we arrived) and drove to Venlo, a Netherland town on the border of Germany, it was only 35km away!! We spent the afternoon there, and then headed back to Germany. After dinner, the boys performed on the piano and cello, they are both so talented! Hoang plays so much better than me!! His sight reading is fantastic, and Nhan is brilliant on the cello as well… I had to get and play the 1 song I could remember from memory… I do miss my piano.. I think I will buy a keyboard to play whilst I am in London.

Sunday was relaxing, the highlight was when the boys, Joe and I took cycled to the ice-cream store again, the bike lanes are next to the pedestrian’s and quite wide, so you can safely cycle. The streets were lined with rows of maple trees with leaves the colour of bright yellow, red and green… as we cycled along the street, the sunrays warmed our skin, and as the leaves fall from the gentle wind it was breathtaking..

Our trip was coming to an end, but we weren’t as sad as we knew we are only an hour flight away. We prepared to leave and whilst on the way to the airport, through miscommunication, we were going to the wrong airport and had to travel another 70km to get to the right one in 35mins… well Joe uncle tried his best (and driving us at 150km/h) we thought we’d just made it before check in closed, but the staff would not check us in. Trying to negotiate with them is impossible, and we accepted defeat and tried to find another flight without success. We then booked the first flight out on Monday morning and went straight into work. Anyone who knows me would know I hate things not going to plan, so I was a nervous wreck. The good thing was we got to spend another night with Joe’s family!