I hope you had the time of your life...

9 December 2011

It's over. For months we had looked forward to our trip. Wondering how things would turn out. Whether we would see all the things we hoped to see. Whether we would be able to do all the things we wanted to do.

We didn't. There was so much more that we could have done. There was so much more that we could have seen. Yet we did way more than we ever hoped for. And we saw way more than we ever dreamed of. I think the best possible way to put it would be the words of Greenday's song Good Riddance:

"So take the photographs, and still frames in your mind
Hang it on a shelf in good health and good time
Tattoos of memories and dead skin on trial
For what it's worth it was worth all the while

It's something unpredictable, but in the end it's right.
I hope you had the time of your life."

This we did. And because of various factors, despite our best attempts of taking photographs for everyone to see, many of the photographs will remain in our minds. And in our hearts.

So, thinking about the two weeks, we thought a summary might be fun:

• Best Food
• Wesmè: The Waffle in Heidelberg, and the Pepperkaker biscuits in Norway
• Frances: The Waffle in Heidelberg, the Niel breakfast in Tromso and the smörgasbord in Sweden. The only thing missing from the breakfast was Niel, but Tertius did quite a good impersonation of him when he made us put our phones away! 
• Nicole: smörgasbord in Sweden, Panini's in Paris
• Tertius: Toasted Panini breads, Pretzels, smörgasbord in Sweden

• Worst Food
• Wesmè: TV Dinner in Sweden - we could not find an open restaurant, so had to settle for this.
  
• Frances: the rice pudding, which the packaging had us believe was something similar to melksnysels,
• Nicole: bacon hotdog in Sweden
• Tertius: oven dinner in Sweden (chicken with potato cubes in some excuse for a sauce.  Siffels!!!)

• Best Drink
• Wesmè: Hot Chocolate - just about everywhere
  
• Frances: The hot chocolate under the Eiffel on our family picnic, Dr Pepper cooldrink, the Ruß'n at the Hofbräuhaus.
• Nicole: Hofbräuhaus original beer in Munich, Merlot from Spain on Lufthansa airlines
• Tertius: The original Hofbräuhaus beer in the big 1 liter glass (cool refreshing beer and a workout all in one) and the Spanish Merlot Nicole and I enjoyed. Mmmmmm...

• Worst Drink
  
• Wesmè:  The single sip of the Glühwein in Germany
  
• Frances: Glühwein and Eggnog in Germany. Why they have to give you 80% pure alcohol only they will know.
• Nicole: Eggnog in Heidelberg
• Tertius: Tony's house (London) complementry coffee (big mug small with sachet of coffee - even an extra one didn't help - YUK!!)

• Best Accommodation
• Wesmè:  The house in Tromso
  
• Frances: The house in Tromso and the hotel on our last night at the Paris airport.
• Nicole: The house in Tromso
• Tertius: The house in Tromso - hands down!

• Worst Accommodation
• Wesmè:  London
  
• Frances: The Appi Hotel in Paris for having the most stairs and smallest bathrooms on the entire trip. I felt like a giant hippo!!
• Nicole: The bed and walking space around it in London
• Tertius: Appi hotel with the smallest shower ... in the world 

• Worst Moment
• Wesmè:  Having to come home
  
• Frances: literally being pushed out of the way by Germans in Munich and realising what an idiot I was for not going to London after school when I saw Camden...
• Nicole: dragging, pulling and lifting luggage up stairs and into trains/busses
• Tertius: getting searched at London airport (probably shouldn't complain - I had most of my clothes on an NO rubber glove was involved )

• Funniest Moment
• Wesmè:  Tertius trying to load the luggage into the car in Tromso, but slipping on the ice so much that he could not move the luggage in the boot.
  
• Frances: Tertius' odd little "Hello" that he used to greet every official, waiter, hotel owner and pretty girl he came across. Tertius' French. Nicole's impersonations of Orlando and Mr Bean.
• Nicole: At the Yotel - toilet flushed so loud that it could wake up people back in Africa, Frances lying on the top bunk bed and almost tipping over, mom pulling the red lever setting off some kind of alarm. In Tromso - Tertius sliding on ice as he tries to load our bags into the car.
• Tertius: while smoking and trying to be funny in front of my sisters in the car, I slipped and fell pretty hard on the ice. Mom knocking people with her HUGE bag without her even knowing it. Nicole's mr Bean impressions (hello every body). Frances, who was always asleep in the back of the car, and the top bunk folding away (closing) as she was rolling on it.

• Best Moment
• Wesmè: The entire trip
  
• Frances: There were so many, it's hard to say. The moment when we all jumped out of the car and stared up at the Northern Lights definitely has to be at the top of the list. But how do you choose a best moment when you made a snow angel, danced in the falling snow, shopped in Camden, basked in the ambience of top designers in Harvey Nichols and Harrods, had a white Christmas, discovered the "I'm a lumberjack" song, danced to the RHCP LIVE, took a family photo in front of the Eiffel Tower with the camera poised awkwardly on a backpack, saw polar bears, wolverines, leopards and wolves. I might not have taken a lot of photos, but I have a lifetime worth of memories I can bore my grandkids with when I am 80 and senile!
• Nicole: discovering the Northern Lights by ourselves, family photos by the Eiffel Tower, our white Christmas, seeing polar bears play in snow like children
• Tertius: driving in snow and ice conditions with screams coming from all sides to stop and seeing our first Northern Lights, seeing the Eiffel Tower for the first time, and the BMW museum (petrol head moment with all the racing engines and racing cars)

 

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
And the dreams
That you've dreamed of
Dreams really do come true

It's a long way to the top...

8 December 2011

This is it. Our last day. *humph*

We do this so often. We promise ourselves that we would take it easy. No rushing. No last minute sprints to catch flights. We plan things carefully. And then.....

So we started off well. Managed to get ourselves to the airport first, checked the bags in even. Now all we needed to do was get ourselves from Terminal 1 to Teminal 2, where we could store our hand luggage, as well as get the train in to Paris. Storing the luggage was the easy one. The train, the one thing that we have actually done before - no go. After some struggle, some grumpy (what else?) frenchman reluctantly explained that all the trains were stopped because of some accident on the line. A bus or taxi it had to be. It took a while to find a bus, but eventually we were on our way for our picnic under the Eiffel tower.

It was drizzling slightly, but we decided to go up into the Eiffel Tower this time. It just feels so very wrong to not do it. I'm glad we did. It remains and engineering marvel, and to see Paris from its summit is spectacular.

And then, one of the four lifts broke down, which seemed to prevent any of the other lifts to continue doing its thing. We were stuck at the top of the Eiffel Tower. Oops.

We eventually managed to get down with enough time to spare to have our picnic. Paninis, waffles and hot chocolate/coffee. And so we sat on a park bench, quietly looking up at this huge giant, remembering the fantastic experiences we have had over the last two weeks. But also looking forward to seeing our loved ones again.

We figured that a taxi back to the airport would just be the easiest. We did not quite take peak hour traffic into account, so this took a bit longer than expected. But we still had lots of time to spare, so needed to just go back to terminal 2, pick up our hand baggage, and take the shuttle to terminal 1. And then..... A bombscare. We were stuck in terminal 2, waiting for them to clear whatever needed to be cleared. It was as if we were meant to stay.

I could see that the children were not quite sure how to feel about our leaving. They were anticipating how the pets would react, whether the men would do something special at the airport. But they would also have loved to stay a while longer. To go back to Tromso, perhaps, for just a little while longer.

And then, the long flight home started...

I was lost in France...

7 Deecember 2011

This is bordering on the ridiculous now. More shopping! There always seems to be something we want to go back for.

Today, the plan is to get to Vezelay, a hilltop town in France. And we have all the confidence in the world that we will get there quite easily. You see, we have GPS co-ordinates, and we have TomTom. So, very blaze, we set about telling TomTom where he needed to take us. He refused. You see, TomTom had not quite bothered to tell us that he was only programmed for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. He did not seem to think that, seeing we are giving him a lift to Paris, that, just perhaps, he needed to be sure he was in possession of some.... Well..... French maps, maybe? We remained calm and polite, and used him to get us as near as possible to the french border, stopped at a petrol station, and in our very best matric German, managed to find a french map. By now it was lunchtime, and once we figured just how far we would need to drive with paper-based navigational assistance, we took a vote. It was fairly unanimous. Paris it is.

Impressions of Germany:

Frances:
Highs: Red Hot Chili Peppers and German Beer, Christmas Markets
Lows: Everything else

Nicole:
Highs: Red Hot Chili Pepper concert, Hofbräuhaus
Lows: Turkish people

Tertius:
Highs: The houses in the smaller towns. Hofbräuhaus, German food, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Autobahn!
Lows: Expected a bit more from the cities. Dirt and lack of politeness and friendliness.

It would have been nice for the children to see a hilltop town, and looking at our map, I tried to pick a town that was close to the good road we were on, close to mountains, and seemed to have cultural attractions, or a castle or two. Saverne looked like a good choice, so we took the offramp, and, by sheer coincidence, found its main attraction, Rohan castle. And as luck would have it, the main street through the centre of the old town was right next to the castle. It was not a true hilltop town, but it was still beautiful, with beautiful old buildings lining the cobblestoned street. They clearly do the siesta thing, because all the shops seemed closed, but by the time we got to the end of the street, and turned around to to walk back, they had all woken up, and opened their shops.

We were hoping for any restaurant or cafe with wifi. We ended up having a late lunch at a patisserie. Besides - isn't that just the right place to be eating something exquisite in France? Our quiche was excellent. And Tertius thoroughly enjoyed his chicken pie. Saverne did not disappoint. No internet connection though, so we continued westward.

We decided to try Reims next. Being 130km from Paris, we would try to either find wifi, or beds there. We were rather relieved to have missed the Christmas market in Reims historical city centre, but found a McDonalds, which always means free wifi.

One of things Nicole really wanted to do in Paris, was to have a picnic under the Eiffel Tower. French loaf and Champagne. We never got to do this when we were there almost two weeks ago. We decided that this should be the way we should end off our trip. So we would drive to a hotel that I found near the airport, and spend a few more hours in Paris before our return flights tomorrow.

We spent the best part of today on the road. We got lost. We found our way again. We had no idea where we would sleep. We ended finding somewhere to sleep. We saw little french villages. We saw french cities. We had no idea what road signs were trying to tell us. At times we had very little idea where we actually were. We loved it!

Overhead, the moon is beaming

6 December 2011

My children love road trips. I find them a wonderful way to experience the real life in a country. Provided that they are broken down in sizable chunks. This was meant to be our only roadtrip. It was now our third.

We picked up our Renault Scenic near our hotel. It came with our trusted travel buddy, TomTom. So after packing up the car, we first stopped at Karlplatz for some quick shopping, and then went on to the BMW museum.

I opted to sit out at the museum (and yes, pride did have something to do with it), and so I found a quiet spot with free wifi, while the children walked through the museum. Judging by the photo's, it is quite an impressive museum. Tertius particularly loved the racing section, but when I suggested that he should try to get a job there, he was disgusted. If it meant having to live in München? No thanks!

Next stop, Heidelberg. We could not get out of München fast enough. And it also meant that Tertius got to drive on the autobahn. He loved it! And even though he tried hard, he still got overtaken regularly. The Germans definitely like their fast cars. Even when we drove into heavy rain, and at times heavy snow, they did not seem to slow down much.

TomTom was very helpful in getting us to our hotel in Heidelberg. Pity he did not have the same abilities in finding parking, but we eventually managed, and were soon on our way to the Christmas market. In fact, there were about three, according the hotel receptionist.

We are seriously considering opening a store that sells European stuff. There are just so many cool things in the shops here. And we simply love the way that Christmas is clearly such a special tradition. It was great to walk through the streets of Heidelberg's old town, browsing through the odd shop, watching people enjoy the markets, drinking eggnog, eating half-a-meter wurst, the temporary merry-go-round providing thrills for young and old.

After some shopping, we took a detour past the old bridge for a view of Heidelberg's castle, and back to our hotel. For the first time I enjoyed Germany. Like the Italians, they managed to get the lighting and atmosphere in the historical part of town just right, and wandering around at night was just so very pleasant.

I'm not quite sure how we intend to remain under our allowed weight for our return flights. It might be a challenge.

Standing in line to see the show tonight...

5 December 2011

We're on the move again. Our original plans did not include München, but when we stumbled upon a Red Hot Chili Pepper concert there, we decided to take the detour. I don't really consider myself a huge fan, but the children are huge fans, and I do think that the bassist is exceptional, and as I enjoy watching live performances, I figured this would be a treat.

Sweden impressions:

Frances:
Highs: Polar Bears, Smörgåsbord, Snow
Lows: leaving

Nicole:
Highs: Orsa bear park, Swedish countryside
Lows: No restaurants open in Mora at night.

Tertius:
Highs: Polar bears (fondly referred to as icelantic bears), thick snow
Lows: microwave dinner

Planes, trains, stairs. That is pretty much the drill every time we travel from one place to the next. But when you want to experience the good in life, best you be prepared to experience some discomfort as well. Besides, we are now becoming rather good at dragging increasingly heavy luggage around.

We had a fair amount of time to kill before the concert, so took a walk to Karlplatz, and on to Marienplatz. Karlplatz puts up an ice rink in winter, with stalls that sells glühwein and pretzels. The glühwein is served in ceramic mugs, for which you pay a deposit. And so you are free to set off down the shopping street, glühwein and all.

Christmas time is often a good time to visit any country. It's during the festive season when you see the best of their traditions. The shopping street from Karlplatz to Marienplatz was no exception. The street was lined with stalls selling minature furniture and decorations, waffels and pretzels. People stood clustered around glühwein stalls, chatting excitedly. A true happy season.

Marienplatz has the huge Neues Rathaus overlooking Christmas shoppers. It's impressive clock was built in 1908 and consists of 32 lifesized figures that do their dance every day at 11am.
The Altes Rathaus is an equally beautiful building.

From Marienplatz we went past the Müller bäckerei, into Orlandostraße, and of course into the famous Hofbräuhaus. The Hofbräuhaus is quite an impressive bierhalle, despite the fact that it has clearly become extremely commercial. Many German families have permanently reserved tables, with their personal beer mugs locked away in special shelves. When Nicole asked a regular (that closely resembled Einstein), why his mug has a lid on it, his response was "So you don't spit in it!"

We did the obvious. A liter of beer each, and German sausages and roast pork. (but under intense interrogation, I will confess that I only had half a liter). Frances' boss happened to be in town, and joined us for a while. It was good to have someone who could understand the waitresses, and his German friend was able to answer (some of) our inquisitive questions.

Our intentions were to leave in good time to be sure that we had sufficient time to negotiate queues at the concert. We did, but still ended up standing in line for about an hour and a half. The cute Finnish girls in front of us were equally frustrated at all the people that seemed to disregard the queue, and when Tertius went off to investigate,they were quick to follow up on 'Cool Hair's progress. This has been an object of either amusement or adoration in just about every country we have been now. Especially in Scandinavia, where people would stare blatantly at Tertius' hair.

The concert was exceptional. Unlike many bands who use props, pyrotechnics, or other aids to make their concerts spectacular, the Peppers give a spectacular concert simply by the way they deliver the music they clearly love playing. Flea, the bassist, is a true virtuoso. He gets his nickname because of the way he jumps. A bass guitar is not the lightest of instruments, yet he manages to jump, pulling his feet up, repeatedly. Frequently. And when they re-entered the stage for their encore, he walked the width of the stage on his hands. I guess it is only fitting that the band should revolve largely around this bassist. You certainly hear more bass riffs than lead guitar riffs.

The train ride back to our hotel was fascinating. Imagine hundreds of RHCP fans, still high on the music left in their heads, all trying to get the first train back home. Or to the local pub, perhaps. We tried to hold onto each other, to be sure we all got onto the same train. We didn't. You really should just stand still, and let the crowd carry you onto the train. You get squeezed as they try and enter through the doors, and if you are lucky, you get popped out on the inside of the train. Frances wasn't, and got popped out back onto the platform. But by now we are all seasoned travellers, and so all we did was to wait for her on the other end.

It's official. My children are not city children. They loved the things we did in München, but they hated München. Actually, we all wanted to go back to Tromso.

More than a feeling..

4 December 2011

When I started planning this trip, there were three things I hoped to see. In order of importance, these were:
1) Aurora Borealis
2) Polar bears
3) Snow. I wanted to be surrounded by white.

I figured that the last one would be a simple one. When we left Tromso, we came close, but not entirely. But I was also happy to have seen the most unlikely one.

The Orsa bear park is about 30 minutes drive from Mora. It's near the ski centre, which, of course, means altitude. The closer we got to the bear park, the whiter everything turned outside. I was being surrounded by white! It was beautiful!

Winter means that brown bears hibernate. Fortunately, polar bears don't hibernate. The bear park is also home to some snow leopards, wolves, wolverines and lynx. The enclosures are huge, which means that you do quite a bit of walking. We went past the lynx first, but he had just been fed, so was not interested in talking to us. We continued quietly past the sleeping brown bears, and onto the polar bear enclosures. Nothing in sight.
And then we saw them, playing near a pond. These massive creatures are like little kids. They were playing and rolling in the snow. Pretending to fight. What I wouldn't have done to be able to walk up to one and give it a huge bear hug!

The wolverines were very inquisitive. If we turned our backs on them, they would sneak up, sizing us up, only to scatter off out of sight when we turned around. They are a lot cuter than I am sure they prefer to be.

And as for the leopards. One was sitting right next to the wall of a lookout hut, looking up at the window, as if it knew that there was most probably something very edible on the other side. The snow leopard just paced up and down slowly. Authoritively.

By now it was snowing quite heavily, and we had to zip up our jackets quite thoroughly as we made our way back to the exit. This time, as we passed the lynx enclosure, he was up and about. He was convinced that we were the bearers of more food, and paced impatiently, growling at us for not providing food, while his partner peeped at us from behind some snow-covered grass.

The wolf enclosure is the last one as you leave the park, and they were also keeping their eyes on our every move.

We really do prefer the outdoor or country type stuff to what the big city has to offer. Seeing these beautiful predators today was an exceptional treat. I'm very pleased we could see them in snow! It would just have been so wrong to have seen a polar bear in anything but snow.

We stopped in Mora for "varm smörgås". You cannot be in Sweden, and not eat smörgåsbord, afterall. It was really good. We now understood how they used the tubes of flavoured cheese that we saw in the supermarket.

And so, with my list all ticked off, we were on the road again. We needed to get back to Oslo. Nicole took over as navigator and DJ, finding the most amazing radio stations with the greatest rock music, including some great golden oldies. A sign perhaps of what was yet to come? Either way, I enjoyed taking a back seat, letting the young ones find their way through this beautiful country.

I'm happy that my children have seen so much already. And I'm happy that they have become inhabitants of the world. I'm happy that they will be able to find their way through the world, with no boundaries. I'm happy that they will find their way through life.

Should I stay or should I go...

3 December 2011

I remember, as a little girl, how I used to love Christmas. I remember how I used to love looking at the Christmas trees in the windows of the houses, as you drove past them. Is it just me, or have people stopped doing this?

Norwegians maintain their traditions. On the first Saturday of December they put up their Christmas decorations. You don't really see trees in their windows, but in virtually every house, they have 7 candles (or lights that look like candles) in the window, and in most houses, they have a huge star (with a light inside). Norway can be seen as a cold country, but in fact, it's extremely warm. They do not hide behind curtains or blinds. In stead, their beautifully decorated windows allow clear sight into their warm houses. It's almost as if they willingly invite anyone who pass by, to experience the warmth and love inside their homes. As if they have nothing to hide, but lots to give.

We were on the early flight to Oslo. We didn't want to go, but knew that there was a lot more experiences still to come.

Tromso impressions:

Frances:
Highs: Northern Lights, snow, Scandinavian designs, our white Christmas
Lows: leaving

Nicole:
Highs: Northern Lights, snow, friendly Norwegians, our white Christmas, Tromso
Lows: Not being able to play with Huskies

Tertius:
Highs: Northern Lights, snow, rediculously pretty girls, driving in the snow, pelting sisters with snow, Tromso
Lows: driving in the snow (scary!), leaving

In Oslo, we collected our car in heavy snowfall, and set off to the city centre. We wanted to see the Viking Ship Museum. It was an easy drive past the rather impressive opera house near the harbour.

The Viking Ship Museum houses about 3 viking ships, as well as many artefacts that were discovered in some viking graves. These all contained the most beautiful carvings and gave some fascinating insights into viking life.

Our next stop was a 350km drive away. We were heading for Orsa, Sweden, where they have a bear park. Polar bears! I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how best to get to Orsa. From Stockholm, it would have been an easy 3 hour train ride. From Oslo, it was a bit more difficult. The countryside between Oslo and Orsa seemed remote, and driving along a lesser remote route meant a huge detour. We had no idea what the roads would be like, or whether they would even be drivable, because of snow, perhaps. Our zoo trip in Tromso gave us a lot more confidence though, so we set off fairly happily. The roads were great, and with our Volvo V50, Tertius was in his seventh heaven (it may have been the tenth, by now!) And the scenery was just beautiful. Well, the bit we could see before dark, that is. The song "I'm a lumberjack.." popped into our minds frequently, with the well-built road lined with pine trees and lakes. Beautiful red farmhouses with decorated windows reminded us that there would be a warm haven to escape to, should we need it.

I'm very proud of Tertius. He has taken to driving on the wrong side of the road, in sometimes rather scary conditions, like an absolute pro. We arrived in Mora safe and sound, and settled into our accommodation, with our rather weird landlord telling us about him being a ghost hunter, and something about the 14th month. He at least assured us that there were no ghosts in our room.

We were now in Sweden. Things were very similar to Norway. Houses were still welcoming us with open windows. Beautiful!