Crap Christmas markets

I posted before that there were four things we wanted to see on our trip: Bruges, Ghent, Amsterdam and some Christmas markets.

After having achieved the first three, conversation returned often to which major market/town we should visit (I put some geographical limits - not Berlin/Vienna/Salzburg/and other 5 day journeys) we settled on visiting Strasbourg home of the oldest Christmas market followed by Freiburg. In between we would follow my Trover inspired itinerary through Alsace.

It turns out that every single town, city, village or random cluster of houses in the General Rhineland/Alsace area has a market at some point in the Christmas period. By the time we had even made it to Strasbourg we had visited at least three by accident. With very few exceptions, they all sell exactly the same thing and you could see it all and better by going to Birmingham. As Ali (also known as no. 1 Christmas fan in the world) nicely put it: I've had enough of crap Christmas markets.

It also became apparent after Strasburg that bigger was not going to be better. What Ali/we really wanted was to EXPERIENCE a perfect Christmas market - does one even exist?

Things distinctly took a turn for the better when  we left Strasbourg. We headed down the Alsace wine route which takes you the scenic way down from Strasbourg to Colmar. I really can't recommend it enough as a Christmas experience; every village and small town is decorated and the architecture is straight out of a postcard.

After a long day sightseeing, with everyone tired we headed for an aire near Kaisersberg with the intention of looking around the next day. As we approached it was clear something was on, and we were diverted well out of town to park in the local stadium. Now what? Do we go in and check it out? Wait until tomorrow? How tired are we? In the end we went in. It was a great decision.

Imagine a dark, cold night. You're in a medieval, Germanic town, castle on the hill, river winding through, wooden houses hunching over cobbled streets. Everything is tastefully, but brightly decorated for Christmas.

Big, but cheerful crowds, the smell of mulled wine, warm cider and sausages. Every shop and restaurant is open,

...complimenting the twenty or so market stalls located in the alleys around the church...

 ...each selling unique local? Produce.

Sound pretty good? Perfect Hollywood Christmas market? That was Kaisersberg.

Not all bad

There have been some tough times on the trip but over three weeks there have also been some truly memorable moments (even on the less easy days). I am very grateful.

Freshly baked Portuguese custard tarts from the Portuguese market in Strasbourg - best I've ever had!

Candied almonds from the Broglie market, again in Strasbourg

Every walk we had in la petite Suisse in Luxembourg

Pretty much everything about our stay in Schiedam; arriving and realising we would spend the night in view of the windmills, having breakfast looking at them and then walking around the quiet canals.

D having a very relaxed and long first swim.

The area of docks near where we were staying in Amsterdam (graffiti, submarine and repurposed factory)

The sound of D baby giggling at something random F was doing, then the delight in F's face.

G pushing her mini multicoloured trolley around the dodgy supermarket in Amsterdam.

The walk into Monschau and up to the castle.

Dancing around in the bus to Johnny be good.

D calming down and falling asleep to her favourite album instead of screaming the place down.

The geology of Durbuy.

The morning F&G decided they wanted to help with the washing up and proceeded to do all the drying (with a smile) for the next three days.

Our desperate search for a campsite along the river Moselle which forced us high into the hills above the river resulting in a superb view.

Saying YES to ice skating in Trier

Dancing on stage with G in Luxembourg

Stopping the bus so the kids could have some fun in the first snow of the year.

F&G befriending the boy in Bruges

Having fun in the skate park in Ghent.

The kids running around like crazy with all  bubbles Matt in Bruges.

Bus vrs cows in Luxembourg

Letting the kids play around in the pool until dark in Rastratt.

A lazy morning yesterday.

F&G getting waves and smiles from bus passengers because of our Christmas tree.

Ambling at night through the picture perfect village of Mittelbergheim.

Accidentally finding Ali the perfect Christmas market experience in Kaysersberg. Mission accomplished!!

Timing your requests

F&G have a special talent, quite likely shared by all children, of brilliantly choosing THE worst moment possible to ask for one more thing/food/snack/drink/attention/whatever. They exhibit this ability at least three or four times daily, but occasionally they totally outdo themselves by picking the worst moment, in the longest, most stressful of days.

Yesterday was a perfect example, if you can bear with me, I'll give you a quick summary:

We had an early and rather rushed start, we drove the last hour to Strasbourg and managed to squeeze in an Ikea visit for some meatballs/wifi/work/boxes/hooks, accompanied by the usual stress of paying and leaving. Not sure why we're always stressed when we leave Ikea considering how often we've been there on this trip, but we are. No matter how short a visit and how chilled things are over lunch. Perhaps we pick up the stress of the other shoppers?!?

Following Ikea we then spent a frustrating hour or so trying to manoeuvre the bus around Strasbourg looking for the most central place to park for the night. In the end we gave up and settled on the car park of the youth hostel on the edge of town. I'd expected the hostel to have good transport links into town so we could run in and enjoy the xmas market, but apparently not! So back in the bus and off we went into town to park near a tram stop.

I thought we'd negotiated the tram rather well, apart from going one stop too far, but it turned out I'd taken the slightly wrong line. While the results appeared innocuous (we walked back to the previous stop without issue), in fact it completely threw by mental orientation of the city for the rest of the night. I hate being lost/disorientated, and usually I have an extremely good grasp of where I am, even in new places. Particularly if I have access to maps on my phone - did I mention I'd blown my data usage for the month a couple of days ago? Oh yes! no maps unless I borrow Ali's phone.

So finally we're in Strasbourg, take a breath Ian. Lets go and have a look around and have some Christmas fun - many of you will know how much I like xmas.

We arrive at a bridge to enter the heart of the town and it seems like every policeman in France and a decent chunk of the army are on patrol or searching bags before letting you progress. As Ali put it; in some ways you feel safer with the army around you, but at the same time it's worrying that they're required. Turns out Xmas markets are a potential target for ISIS inspired plots this year and one was foiled with nine suspects arrested in Strasbourg over the last couple of days!

Security passed, into town we head, Strasbourg is a beautiful city, the cathedral is stunning and the little France area is fantastic. At Christmas they go ALL OUT! There are seven or eight markets, everywhere is decorated it's pretty impressive. If Ali and I were there as a couple we'd have had lovely time walking around, unfortunately we had company. F&G did nothing too out of the ordinary for them really (crazy scooting, zooming ahead, swinging scooters around their heads, refusing to scoot, wanting to scoot, wanting to be pulled, stopping randomly in front of us, cutting people up, handles needing adjusting, blocking entire streets, falling over doing tricks, etc...) it's just that this town was rammed full of people - stressful!!

Meanwhile D, due to an out of routine day had barely napped and missed her normal dinner. By fiveish, she'd had enough, and more importantly had had enough of the buggy. I spent what felt like the last hour in town carrying her, Ali's phone in hand trying to guide us back to the tram stop. Arghhhhh!!!!!

After some panicked checking and rechecking that we were catching the right tram, in the right direction, I finally realised what went wrong on our earlier tram journey and the disorientation started to lift at last. We got off, and having left everything late we went to buy dinner from the shops. Apart from a massive queue, and the kids trying to engage Ali and I in a discussion on the merits of buying some sweets, the worst that happened was being accused of shop lifting. I denied it and thankfully they didn't push it (not guilty by the way).

Time to go back to the bus! Take a call from the US, Then drive to the youth hostel, feed D set the bus up for dinner, cook dinner for F&G, then for us, eat, call London, clear up, convince kids to get in pyjamas/brush teeth/toilet, make bed for F&G and do the bedtime routine.

AT LAST I get myself ready for bed, get in b.....

Daaaaaad can I have a drink of water? Me too?

Scream just about bottled up, all that escapes is a very large sigh.

I get a cup fill it, hand it to G. I get it back, walk over to F and hand it over and in ssssssllllloooowww motion it drops to the floor spilling its contents everywhere!

The scream/roar/daddy tantrum was finally released...

Müllerthal (la petite Suisse)

Once our decision was made to stay in cooler climbs this late autumn, we figured that urban areas rather than the countryside would be the way forward (less mud, warm lunches, museums, scooting, etc...).

As it turns out, our first foray into the wilderness was absolutely fantastic. The weather (like all our trip so far) was appalling,  but even with rain coming down the Müllerthal area of Luxembourg is stunning!!!

For the geologically minded; the area is made up of a sandstone plateau which was a Jurassic sea bed. The sandstone was fractured during its uplift/compression, then wind, rain and rivers worked their magic.

The result are some extraordinary rock formations, cliffs and canyons.

Because of the area's beauty, it is fabulously maintained, there are hiking paths running across the entire region going up and down valleys, up to castles, and through caves and canyons.

We managed a beautiful 3-4km walk with the kids but coming back to do one or all of the Müllerthal trails is now on my bucket list. Considering they run to 110km this may have to wait a little while.

Failing successfully

In my mind failure and failing have unbelievably bad connotations in the English language. We must not fail! We need to succeed, achieve and win. In sports, in life, in school, in work.

Over the last few weeks/months I have seen D fail, fail, fail and fail again. Be it trying to touch, grab, eat, lick, feed, sit, roll, she has failed over and over again, but each time she improves.

In 5 months she's gone from a newborn who basically just fed and slept to a "real" person who laughs, communicates, rolls over, sits up (ish) and genuinely engages in family life.

Why is there no space for failure? Why is it not encouraged?

Soon she will learn to talk, crawl, walk, draw, run and climb. Of course like all babies she will need to persevere and show determination to get there (nice positive words), but really she will fail, and fail and fail again. Perhaps try, fail, try, fail, try, fail, try, succeed! would be a better description.

What would school/work/jobs/life be like if there was license to try and fail?

Many times in my life I have been paralysed into inaction through fear of failure or fear of embarrassment if I fail. Where did that come from? Society? Is it just me? Is it using English as a language? my parents? my siblings? My piers? When did it happen? School? Uni? Home? At this point in my life do these questions even matter?

Perhaps better questions would be:

Can I re-learn to fail?

Can I help my kids continue to fail successfully?

I like that: failing successfully

Personal recommendations

Trover is good but there's nothing that beats a personal recommendation.

I'd befriended the guy running our campsite in Durbuy, on our departure when hearing our general route he strongly recommended a slight detour to an area of Luxembourg known as la petite Suisse (the small Switzerland) which was not on our list. It's named such due to the twisting roads, impressive rock formations and pretty villages - sounded great!

We should really have taken the hint and gone straight there, it was only an hour's drive away due South. Instead we ploughed on westwards with my pre-planned Trover route.

We got to Dinant our next stop (had some impressive photos on Trover) but it felt all wrong. We turned around and decided to miss out our next planned stop, go straight to Luxembourg (city) before going to little Switzerland. The city of Luxembourg again looked pretty good on Trover, but was a real disappointment. The heart of the town looked like a big pedestrianised New Bond Street with matching populace - we lasted about three hours including a sit down lunch.

Time to finally follow the recommendation!!!

Unsurprisingly the moment we did, things started to work out, we found a cheap (8 euros per night) campsite in the heart of the area, with showers, washing facilities, play area, etc... 

It's always easier with hindsight of course, but Dinant had never felt right and in situations like this when luck/fate/whatever throws up an alternative I really need to pay attention.

Geology vrs medieval architecture

Our next Trover recommendation was Durbuis a medieval village/town in the Ardennes region. It's claim to fame is that it is apparently the smallest town on earth.

It's certainly very pretty...

...but what really appealed to me was the very clearly visible fold in the surrounding rocks called the Durbuis Anticline. 

I love the fact that right here you must have had huge mountain building forces at work, causing the entire crust of the earth to warp and bend.

Then through erosion over millenia the rocks were slowly revealed, a river scoured away at the weaker elements until you were left with steep cliffs all around and a solitary rocky mound by the river.

Man then comes along, still in ancient times by our standards, uses these strong rocks to build their homes, walls and of course a castle on the mound:

It's a great feeling when just by walking and looking around a place, the landscape seems to talk and reveal's its history. For me at least, the geology totally upstaged the town itself.

The Durbuis Anticline 

 (not the best light for a photo unfortunately)

Hallmark bullshit

I enjoy the process of travelling rather than the destination.

Ali calls it my hallmark (cheesy movie channel) bullshit. I stick by it.

I want to see beautiful places, experience new things, and meet interesting people but I don't have a tick-list of destinations I want to visit. I've found that often the best experiences happen on the spur of the moment in unheralded places.

Ali on the other hand would prefer a daily plan, which is likely to include, lunch spots, things to see and activities. As a result in our travels and in life too, Ali tends to drive the destination/activity, and I (assuming I like or don't mind it) will go along and enjoy the ride.

So far so good, in fact it's the relationship I've had with many friends as well. Why is this coming up as an issue between us now?

Well we're in freezing Northern Europe at the moment and our list of four key destinations (Bruges, Ghent, Amsterdam and xmas markets) have been done except the latter which don't start for another couple of weeks. So where to next?

Our roles in our relationship are also changing or at least, we're being more conscious of our roles, figuring which bits we like and don't like. Ali it seems has had enough of coming up with all the plans and would like greater input/direction from yours truly and whisper it: might want to just sit back and enjoy the ride once in a while.

This has come up between us before, and one of my digital solutions has been using the app Trover. It's a photogropher heavy recommendations app which allows users to recommend useful/tasty/pretty places that they come across in their travels. Yesterday with it's help we ended up in Monschau which was absolutely stunning:

After some research on Trover I've got a list of places that look interesting in the area so the plan as it stands is to potter our way through them over the coming days/weeks...

Hopefully a more balanced approach between us will allow us to both enjoy the ride.

Not all camper stops are created equal

Not all of our nighttime stops are equal, some towns are really set up for campers, and some (Antwerp) are really not.

In Ghent we stayed by an Olympic standard rowing lake. 

The next night we rested in the company of some rather luxurious looking floating palaces. 

 On another it's windmills alongside a canal (my personal favourite)

Schiedam is a really pretty place, just on the outskirts of Rotterdam. It really gave us the canal side experience we hoped from Amsterdam but in what was likely to be much calmer surroundings. 

My view while making tea in the morning. 

Out and about along the canals. 

Despite all that the kids highlight was to see a skip being picked up (shrug)

From Schiedam we then drove straight up to Amsterdam. We stayed in a very ugly, barren wasteland of an aire north of Amsterdam (forgot to take a photo it was so bad). On the plus side it's 10min walk away from a free (and regular) boat that takes you straight into town and it's in a quite funky, ex industrial/ship building area that is being re-colonised/gentrified.

The inside of this massive warehouse is now full of small pods where designers/artists work.

A few of the artists have been at work outside as well. 

The weather we had was appalling, so for our first day we decided on going to the highly recommended science museum - it was fantastic!!! Really set up for kids, pretty much everything is interactive, we had a great time.

Later we rather aimlessly wondered into the heart of Amsterdam, this proved rather uncomfortable as inevitably we found the red light district. Queue questions from the kids; why is that lady in just bra and pants? What is she doing? 

The one that had me really blushing was after this photo was taken (large Nutella seat was the attraction) while Ali was picking up a souvenir... 

...I turned my back for a second and next thing I know F&G have their noses glued to a lap dancing lounge window much to the merriment of the punters inside. 

We quickly hurried away for an early Wagamama dinner at the train station. 

Moment of Happiness

Today I had a moment of amazing happiness with our lives/travelling/the bus.

D was asleep, F&G were on our bed playing computer games happily and Ali and I were discussing where to go next.

It was cold, very wet and we'd been advised of no let up in the forecast for the next few days. Queue yet another change of plan.

After the chaotic day or two in Ghent, we'd decided to loosely follow a two week tour of the Netherlands mapped out in a book Ali had found. Now with the weather damp or snowy over the coming days and the weather map showing 18C in Italy we looked at each other and asked - why are we here? Where would we like to be? What is it that we really want to do around here? 

Bruges, Ghent, Amsterdam and xmas markets had always been on our must see list, everything else was open. So the new plan as of this morning is we're going to go to Amsterdam to spend a few days, then we're heading south.

The delight came from having such great flexibility in our lives, having Ali to share this adventure with who is equally happy to change course and a home on wheels which allows us to go anywhere, anytime.

Life being life, soon after my moment of zen we found a leak coming out of the footwell of the drivers cab. Our home on wheels had sprung a rusty leak just below the windscreen, I was soon scrapping away at the rust, painting some anti rust paint and applying sealant. I have now been fully brought back down to earth.

Ikea

Well, Ikea was a mixed bag

For some reason IKEAs in every country I've visited are incredibly hard to get in and out of, not sure why. The Ghent one was no exception, made worse by driving a 7 ton, 6.5m long runaround, in a foreign country. I managed to only shout at the kids to shut up twice on our very detoured way in, which I thought was pretty good.

Inside, when we saw the massed throngs of people, we quickly realised we'd picked the worst time to visit - the weekend!!!

Despite the crowds, we managed to get the kids into the play area straight away, had a good lunch and used the excellent wifi.

Other than a lot of queuing (which admittedly Ali did while I sat around waiting) we did really well, we got we needed and I even managed to make it to around 20m from the tills before saying "I really need to leave now".

After some hesitation we decided to spend one more night at our lakeside spot in Ghent rather than moving on.

Onwards to Ghent

Again with a quick bit of online research we found a free spot for the night on the banks of Ghent's rowing lake next door to a sports arena which apparently offered showers at a small fee - We can get clean!!!! 

With much of the day left to us, it only took about half hour to drive from Bruges, we headed into town by bus.

Ghent is a really great place! It's not quite as picture postcard as Bruges, but it really makes up for it by being way more lively, bustling and active. 

This is definitely a place I would like to come back to.  

Our nighttime spot worked out as well, a shower was 2.10 euros. And a short walk away there was built in entertainment for the kids in the form of a skatepark.

Not always easy in a bus

The strange thing about travelling with your home, is that alongside trying to enjoy sightseeing you're also doing regular chores and trying to fit in home improvements. Made worse by our bus being newly built and not road tested in the cold (nothing seems to be where you need it, when you need it)

Yesterday while walking around Ghent it all got too much for all of us, the kids were squabbling constantly (bored of walking around cities), the cobbles were making getting around really hard for the third day running, Ali was getting over a fever and D (and so we too) had no slept well.

After snapping at each other and the kids, Ali and I decided a change was needed. A better balance needed to be struck between our desire to see new places, the kids desire to be entertained and the bus' need to be cleaned, tidied and improved.

The solution?

Ikea

It has wifi so we can plan kiddy sightseeing activities at the places we want to visit.

Food is good and cheap.

The kids can have a play in the play area.

We can get some urgent things for our van.

What could go wrong? 

We're off at last

With the van finished (as finished as we had planned anyway) we set off at an ungodly hour for Dover.  After a smooth crossing we turned east and headed for Bruges. To our surprise, even at our steady 55mph we were there by early afternoon - with all due respect to northern French cities I have visited, this is by the far the prettiest, nearest place you can get to once you land in Calais.

With some quick research online we found an aire walking distance to town that we could stay at for a reasonable fee, which included elec, water, but no showers. After a brief settle in, we were off for a look around...

It really is a pretty place, but unbelievably full of tourists. 

According to the kids the best thing about Bruges was all bubbles Matt - they ran around like crazy.

The obligatory boat trip around the canals. 

Autumn colours were fantastic

All in all while stunning to look at, Bruges felt quite soulless to me, tourism has completely taken over at a cost to the city itself. It was nice to re-visit but I'm not sure I'll be hurrying back.

In our aire we couldn't miss one of our neighbours who had an amazing converted Mercedes truck. The family who designed, built and were now travelling in it were lovely. Our kids made friends, played on scooters and skateboards then came into our bus for a movie.

With friendship established, unfortunately that evening they headed off to continue their European adventures. Perhaps our paths will cross again in future...

For us, next stop Ghent

Conversation at the park

Today I had a conversation in the park with the mother of three year old twins that F&G befriended. We chatted fairly inconsequentially until it must have dawned on her that our kids should be in school. She enquired, and it lead to a conversation on schooling and our choices. 

I went on a bit.

No idea if she got much from our conversation, for me, as I spoke it gave me some perspective on how far we've come in the last year and a quarter. 

F has gone from struggling in social situations, to someone who like G makes a friend every time he visits a playground. New acquaintances are not restricted to the kids; both Ali and I seem to be striking up conversations here, there and everywhere...

The unschooling/self directed learning seems to have taken a real step forward. Not only do they appear eager to learn things (as long as it's not pushed on them) they seem to be jumping developmentally - F's drawings suddenly improved dramatically about 3 months ago (from stick men to full spread colour drawings), yesterday we told him the tube would take 2 minutes and he started counting the seconds, he comfortably went over a hundred which in my ear shot was the first time (it seems to have really clicked with him). 

It's going to be interesting to see how things continue to change for us going forwards. I can't wait...

Returning to the blog!

D's asleep, Ali's taken the kids out to dinner with her parents - assuming the baby keeps sleeping I have a scaresly believable couple of hours of quiet: Beer open, feet up and music on...

I checked and I haven't blogged since April!

So much has happened, part of me wants to go and diligently write it all up. Deep down I doubt it will happen so I'm going to limit myself to a very short summary:

Our daughter D was born in Sallanches as planned this summer. We are now five!!! 

We've bought ourselves a bus, which we are converting into a permanent/semi-permanent home.

Home sweet home

We're in the UK spending time with friends, family and working on the bus before heading off...

It's been a while

It's been some time since my last post. 

Lots has happened, just lost my blogging mojo.

Over the last few weeks the app has been a bit more visible on my phone, the thought "I should blog this" has popped into my mind more frequently, countering this has been the thought can I really be asked to carry on? Will anyone even read it? It's been so long how do I fill in the gaps?

I'm not sure the gaps will ever be filled in but I'm beginning again.

Solo hikes

As the winter started releasing its grip on the valley I've added hiking as an activity. This is likely to be my main form of exercise now that the snow is worsening at altitude and that I've cracked a rib trying to snowboard with F.

My first ones were on very snow covered ground. 

Even in the forest you're never far from a great view

But gradually the snow has been melting and clearing, making walking easier (and skiing worse)

Some of the buildings around Chamonix are lovely

Gradually spring is arriving to the bottom of the valley, even if the upper slopes are still snow covered.

Attractive couple I see on one of my circuits

At this altitude (around 1,300m) the snow is gone and in the sun it's shorts and T-shirt weather.

Chamonix is unbelievably set up for hiking, with trails running along the valley at various altitudes and zig zagging up the sides of the mountains from every village, let alone the ones that begin at the top of the various cable cars once the snow clears in summer. 

While you hike there's also some wildlife to see if you're lucky, on my last walk I startled a couple of deer and this slithery character crossed my path:

Old neighbourhood get together

It has been around 30yrs since we left la Haute Savoie to move to London and so my mum decided to arrange a get together of old friends at a local restaurant while we were in the area.

As we arrived we were enthusiastically approached by this very friendly grey cat. Descendant of Noe or Nina our old cats welcoming us back? He just walked right up and rubbed up against Gs legs.

Walking up the road to our old Hamlet with the beautiful Saleve in the background. 

What was previously known as the river Paice! I remember it being a little bigger. 

Our old house, it's changed a lot since we were there. 

The hamlet

My old bedroom window

After our little stroll, it was time for some lunch.

The restaurant was my favourite in the area when growing up, not only for the culinary experience, but because we were allowed to draw on the tables (paper table covers) to entertain ourselves. Apart from the missing table covers it was all very familiar.

The kids helped out serving the starters to everyone. 

Then we sat down...

 ...to the restaurant speciality of filet of perch with sauteed potatoes (delicious). 

...followed by the awesome cheese course...

...and finished with a Vasherin! 

The kids even helped and enjoyed clearing up. F enjoyed it so much he has decided to make us lunch tomorrow as well as do the washing up.

While I had been back to the area a few times in the past, this time felt more significant for some reason. Perhaps going to a familiar restaurant that had barely changed, perhaps being there with F&G or perhaps because I'm in France for such a long period now. Either way it was really special to go back and remember some really good times.

Snow day

We had a load of sticky powder overnight so the kids and I built a couple of snowpeople. F decided the smaller one was him and G claimed the taller one. This immediately caused an argument; F did not want to be smaller than his sister, the suggestion that G might be standing on rock calmed things down.

With Ali suffering another all day morning sickness bout, I kept the kids outside as much as possible and continued building. What started as sled ramp extension morphed into an igloo/slide - I'm quite proud of it.

The descent was clearly not scary enough for F so he decided he needed to go backwards...

By the next day after more snow, snowF had developed a somewhat Japanese posture...

...before losing his head around lunchtime and  collapsing fully in the afternoon.

To satisfy his sense of fairness F somehow convince G that snowG had to be taken down too. It was promptly massacred.