Strasbourg et la Suisse

Merry Christmas everyone!

We decided to get away for a few days before Christmas, and Laura found some cheap flights to Basel. It's a city in the north of Switzerland and is a stone's throw from France. Because of its proximity, and because I hadn't yet been to France, we did a day trip to Strasbourg:
La cathédrale de Strasbourg. In la place de la cathédrale were some fantastic Christmas markets, you'll find some photos on Laura's flickr.

Laura in "Petite France". You might be a little confused as to why a French city has a place called "Petite France". Well the short story is that Strasbourg is so close to Germany, it actually has historically been a German city. This part of the city is architecturally quite French, hence the name.

We then spent a day in Basel, before heading to Luzern/Lucerne. Here's a picture of the chapel bridge; apparently it's the most photographed monument in Switzerland.

After a day exploring Luzern, we headed up Mt. Rigi. The weather above the cloud layer was fantastic, but down in the valleys it was very dark and dull. Here's me on a toboggan. Not being familiar with snow at all, Laura and I hired one and decided to ride it down the toboggan track. Despite the four year old chidren screaming down it at ridiculous speeds, we approached with great trepidation. And it was in fact rather scary. As you can see, there's no steering as such, so a change in direction if effected by a combination of leaning and dragging your feet. This is all good fun except for the unfenced drop-offs on the outside of a few of the corners... But what a view huh?

Big rocks, Ponies and Deer.

Just thought I'd get that one out of the way. It's um... what's its name... Stonehedge? Standhenge? Something like that. Anyway, it's some rocks; we took some photos. It was pretty cool, but I couldn't feel any archaic, druidic power emanating through the cosmos or anything.

We made the trip out there because we decided to go and check out the New Forest. It's a really nice spot, not unlike Margaret River except for the lack of wine and the presence of ponies like this one:
Not to be outdone by Laura and her pony, I made friends with this deer:
(ok, ok, it was at a wildlife park, and it was probably just looking for food)

Well as the title says, so the post has been.
N.

Borough Markets

Yesterday we went on an outing to Borough Markets in Southwark which is a huge food market selling heaps of fresh produce. We went to the BBC Good Food show last weekend and this was a million times better, plus it was free!

They sell all sorts of fruit and veg, cheese, olives, cakes, meat, seafood and heaps of other things. There's also lots of stalls selling burgers, roast meats, toasted cheese sandwiches (see below), soup, mulled wine and just about everything you could think of. It was really busy and obviously quite a huge tourist attraction as i heard a number of different accents although mostly American.

These toasted cheese sandwiches smelled amazing and the cheese was being shaved off giants wheels of cheese. Yum!

Also, who knew brussel sprouts grew like this?! How cool.

It was SO cold yesterday so Nate got a hot cup of spiced New Forest cider. It was quite delicious and we also picked up a visitors booklet for the New Forest as we're off there next weekend. So I'd say we'll be visiting the cidery.

I spotted this paella that i wanted for lunch.

Here's what it looked like on my plate. A bit on the pricey side at 7 pounds but hey this is London and we were at a touristy spot. At least it was tasty.

And Nathanael decided on the roast pork roll with cooked red onions, capsicum and tzatziki. Also tasty.

We then walked along the Thames up to Southbank to check out the Christmas markets. The wind along the river felt as though it was coming in direct from the arctic, so i couldn't really resist a pic of this optimistic ice cream van. It must have been 5 degrees. Even English people aren't that crazy!

Nate's first snowman!!

Yes it has snowed again in merry old London town. Hooray!! When I got up, it had just started, so we went for a walk on a mission to build a snowman. On the way I made my first snowball, thus:


As snowman construction was being completed, the snow flakes got BIG, well, bigger. Think 20 and 50 cent pieces.
And here's our snowman, which is my first one ever. No jokes about size please: as you can see above snow wasn't exactly thick on the ground.

Southwater

Nate and I went down to Southwater (where i lived as a kid) in West Sussex, to catch up with some family friends. It was Guy Fawkes weekend, so the boys went to get some fireworks at the local shop. Lucky for them it was quite late in the day so the fireworks were buy one get TWO free! Here's a picture of Mark with the "Alien Invasion" which was the highlight of our fireworks show. Two fuses and 48 shots!

Here's a very excited Nathanael with the rockets that nearly killed us all.


Our fireworks display in action.

It was remembrance Sunday so we went into Horsham to watch the parade and the ceremony at the Cenotaph. Here's a pic of Nate, Claire and Mark and Cato (with their medals). Oh yeah and it was freezing.

On Sunday night we went around to Mike and Linda's place for Sunday dinner. I mentioned that I'd been looking for banoffee pie so Claire kindly made one for us, so i ended up having two desserts as Linda had made an apple crumble too!

Mike and Linda now live in the house next door to where we used to live so that's quite funny. The picture of me and Mark is with a rock in the front garden that used to seem like a giant boulder to us. Obviously it's not so massive now. haha!

Here's a pic of us all. Linda, Maria, Mario, Harry, Mark, Claire, Me, Michael and Nate (and Ziggy the dog too)


And here's a picture of Maria and Mario's little boy Harry. He's just too cute! And he loved the camera flash so he was an easy subject. haha.

Visit to Macclesfield

Ok, very slow as per usual but a few weeks ago Nathanael, my cousin Richard and I went up to visit my Uncle and Aunt in Macclesfield (it's about 20 miles from Manchester). We also caught up with my cousin Becky and her family(pictured below). Her partner Ben, baby Molly and the mischievous little Louie who although looking a bit pissed off in this photo is actually one of the loveliest little boys you'll meet. In all fairness he was asked to pose for a photo when he was busy playing. haha. It was great to see them as i haven't seen Becky since i was a kid and I've never met the rest of her family.

Molly :)

Louie posing for photos happily. I think he has a promising modelling career ahead:P

My uncle and Aunt had just had an extension built and the builders had offered to pay for an extension warming party (which is a fantastic idea!). So we had stacks of platters arrive and i managed to completely stuff myself as i usually do when a buffet is involved. Apart from the food another highlight would have to be this amazing fridge. It makes coffee! Brilliant! I'm pretty sure that Nate's parents will want one.

Here's a pic of my cousin Richard, my Aunt Pam and my Uncle Terry (who is my Mum's brother if you were wondering).

On Sunday Terry and Pam took us to check out a local National Trust building called Little Moreton Hall. I'm not sure if you can see from the picture here but the whole building is buckling from the weight of the top floor. Inside the house all of the floors are on serious angles and it's quite weird. And there's a ghost on the top floor too. Spooky! After that we went back home for a cup of tea and more cake and then we went out for a Sunday lunch at a lovely pub. All in all a great weekend, minus the ridiculously long train ride home stopping at every single station!

Nate's first snow. In October!

Here's a photo of the house across the road with snow on the roof. And it's not even winter yet! Bring on a white Christmas!!And a car across the street too.


I know, I know, it's not much snow, but hey, it's the first snow I've ever seen in real life, so give me a break, huh?

Flying with Phil

Last weekend, Laura and I journeyed to Oxford. Why? I hear you ask. Well, one of my old school 'chums' has a share in a plane-owning syndicate. A couple of weeks ago he offered to take us for a day out to the Isle of Wight. He did, and here's some photos of our grand day out.

Phil and I with the Robin 400. What a cute little plane huh?

An aerial view of Oxford.
(I'm pretty sure that's Christ Church near the bottom of the pic, just right of the wing.)

The girls in the backseat, Laura and Philippa

This is an action shot of me flying.

Phil and I coming back from our paddle in the ocean.

A view looking out over Bembridge Airfield.

Look! It's Laura!

As you can see, visibility was a little bit on the poor side at times.

The needles.

The day after, Phil and Philippa showed us around a few more of Oxford's colleges (I may post about that later) to wrap up what was a fantastic weekend.

London's Parks

We've been pretty lucky with the weather for the last two weekends (i won't mention this weekend!) so we've made an effort to go out and visit some of the parks and gardens mentioned in the guidebooks. Here's a pic of Nate at Hampstead Heath. It's a huge park that's actually quite near us but proved almost impossible to get to due to rail closures. haha. People go out here to fly kites, ride bikes, picnic and apparently they even swim in some of the ponds there. Those crazy English people! It's on a hill so you can see the city skyline through the haze:)

We also went to check out the speakers' corner in Hyde Park which was described on the timeout website as "Crackpots talking nonsense". There were probably about 8 speakers in different locations and plenty of people hanging around to 'debate' what they had to say.

There was even someone giving out free hugs if you wanted one (which quite a few people did).

We then walked through Hyde Park to Kensington Gardens. I'm not sure which one we're officially in here but this is a pic of some crazy man swimming in the lake. The water was freezing and not to mention filthy! We saw someone letting their child go in there too.

Here's a picture of Nathanael at the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain. Which is kind of a big circular water feature with flowing water. It's actually quite cool. The sign says that you're not allowed in it, but there was at least 30 children and a number of adults paddling in the (freezing) water.

And here's a picture of me with the Peter Pan statue. Hooray for Peter Pan:)

The Globe- well, the new one anyway.

Last Wednesday I fulfilled one of my great dreams; seeing a Shakespearean play in a Shakespearean theatre. Shakespeare's Globe, as it is called, is a faithful reconstruction of the Bard's own playhouse, not on its original location, but certainly very, very close. We even got to experience the authentic pit experience; the five pound 'groundling' tickets are standing room only, but represent fantastic value.

Unfortunately we thought we shouldn't take a camera, because it is theatre and all and because of that there's no photos. Worse than that though, before the show started everyone but us was taking photos, meaning we were kicking ourselves for not bringing at least Laura's little point-and-shoot. However, in an effort to entertain you our dear readers (if anyone is still reading) I have shamelessly plagiarised a promotional image for the play and pasted it here.


Needless to say it was a super production with a python-esque French doctor, a Basil Fawlty-like Ford and a very jolly Falstaff. Good times all round :-)

South Bank

So in an attempt to do some sight seeing without spending too much money we went to check out a food festival in South Bank on the weekend. The weather was really quite good so we wanted to make sure we made the most of it because clearly it's not going to last! Anyway we went for a wander along South Bank with about a million other people. Checked out the food, the street performers and the MASSIVE line for the London eye. And no we didn't go on the London eye. Do you know how much that thing costs! So we have to wait till we're a bit richer before we can go for a spin. You can get a private capsule for 400 pounds if you're really keen. haha.

We had some lunch on South Bank which was quite nice with the sun out. It wasn't really that warm though. I was still wearing a jumper. I'm not looking forward to winter at all:/

There was heaps of street performers and this one was a bit freaky. If you go to my Flickr photos you can see how scared this little kid looks on the right hand side. He was freaking out completely, yet his little brother in the pram was quite happy to watch. haha

Anyway here's the pics of South Bank