London Winter, Christmas & New Years 2012/13

Backtracking a bit, as we’re coming into winter this year, I realise we never blogged about last winter, Christmas, and New Years.

I have to say we were a little apprehensive about UK winter. I found however that it wasn’t so much the brutality of the winter, but rather the duration – it just seemed to keep on going! I think we even had snow in May. To be fair though, it was apparently an unusually long winter. Meanwhile, back in NZ, friends and family were basking in the warmest summer in 40 years, and cruelly sending pictures of sunny beaches our way.

That said, it was fun to have actual snow, and a real Christmas-y feel. Erika, Kylie and I went ice skating at Somerset House as well. It was beautiful, with lots of cool lighting, the beautiful old building behind, mulled wine and chocolate brownies to warm us up, and a ginormous Christmas tree. My second ice skating experience ever, and I even managed to stay upright, but only just!

Before Christmas, we got together as a group to have our own Christmas celebration and secret santa exchange.

Unlike most of London, we didn’t leave the city for Christmas or New Years. We spent an incredibly relaxed Christmas with French and Norwegian friends and Emeline and Håvard. We made Norweigan gingerbread biscuits, named ‘Pepperkaker' - they were a little darker than the British-style gingerbread, and had a kind of peppering taste - which we then iced - which then iced; we went for a walk around the neighbourhood; and we ate copious amounts of delicious food. 

For New Years, we got together as a group and went to a local bar, where we had quite a bit of wine and danced into the wee hours.

In January, we were treated to a proper snow. It was great fun to us newbies to start with. We went to the local park, and used some real estate signs lying about as toboggans to slide down the hill, much to the amusement of the families. We made a snowman out the back of our flat, had numerous snowball fights, and went exploring in the local cemetery, which had turned into a veritable winter wonderland. After a while though, I got a little fed up of struggling not to fall over on my way to and from the station, and trying to stay warm in our chilly flat.

Amsterdam February 2013

In early February, we arrived into a frosty Amsterdam for a few days of sightseeing. We enjoyed wandering or biking along the canals, stopping off at a cafes or coffee shops to warm up. I always find the Dutch architecture interesting to look at, with their unique step-like facades, and incredibly skinny buildings.

This was Kylie’s first taste of the Netherlands, and taste we did, enjoying cheese, ham, bread, and stroopwafels (round thin wafer-type waffles filled with syrup, particularly delectable when rested on the top of a hot drink so that the syrup starts to become gooey). A local delicacy which we enjoyed less was pickled herring on bread.

 

At times we found it a little hard to find some tasty and authentic restaurants, as the centre of the city seemed to be dominated by tourist-trap type restaurants, including, oddly, a number of Argentinean steakhouse restaurants.

Our hotel was near to the Vondelpark, a lovely park full of people walking, jogging, and of course, biking. One day we took a picnic of ham, cheese and bread there but sitting still chilled us through and we headed straight for a coffee in the nearby café.

The Van Gogh museum was being renovated at the time, but we enjoyed visiting the Rijksmuseum with impressive works by famous Dutch artists Vermeer, Rembrandt, as well as some Van Gogh.

On our last day we trekked across town in the snow on our bicycles to a great little market, on the hunt for delicious goodies to take back to the flatmates. My toes felt like they were about to freeze and drop off however, so we didn’t hang around long!

Bath and Bristol beginning of December 2012

Sorry for the long break. Over the next few weeks we will try and bring our blog up to date; starting with our visit to Bath and Bristol to see the Bath Christmas Markets.

We took a few days off for a long weekend and took the train to Bristol. We were looking forward to escaping the bustle of London and going to our first winter xmas market.

Our first day was spent wandering around Bristol fairly aimlessly stumbling across the Bristol Cathedral, which was founded in 1140, 1140! It amazes me how far back the history here goes and how well preserved and accessible it is.

Bristol Cathedral

After that we got a bit lost trying to find the suspension bridge and ended up in Brandon Hill Park, which is home to Cabot tower that offers great views over the city.

Further on we found Clifton suspension bridge, which hovers over the river Avon.

Clifton suspension bridge

We headed back to town and popped into Brew Dog, which is a great Scotland-based brewery that offers American style beer packed with speciality malts and hops. So far my favourite UK-based brewery.

The next day we headed for Bath and the famous Christmas Markets.

Going to Bath is like stepping back in time. The Romans established the city itself sometime in 60 AD. The city sits on top of natural hot springs, hence the name.

Once we arrived we quickly learned that Bath being such a huge tourist attraction was just as busy as London. We sat down for tea and cake at ‘the Mad Hatters tea party’ café.

We entered the markets only to find that there were so many people you couldn’t stop and look at things as the current of people dragged you along. We managed to get some mulled wine and after 20 minutes or so decided it wasn’t worth it and set of to explore the rest of the city.

We came back early the next day to see the Roman bathhouse before the tour buses arrived. The facilities were amazing, main pool, spa, plunge pool, steam room and sauna.

Amazing sculptures and awe-inspiring architecture all built around 300 AD. They have done an amazing job at excavating the site and restoring it to its former glory. Earlier on in the year (2012) they found a hoard of around 30,000 silver Roman coins.

Roman spa in Bath

Bath Abbey

For the rest of the day we wandered around town and visited the circus and the royal crescent both amazing buildings built during the 1700s.

After walking around all day in the cold we were freezing so I decided to warm myself up by hiking up the hill behind the station for some dusk shots.

 

Royal Cresent

View over Bath

A jaunt across the channel to Belgium, August 2012

A little while after settling into our new flat in London, we popped across the channel to Belgium. 

The Eurostar was fantastic – so easy and relaxing, and we were in Brussels in around 2 hours. As well as visiting this great little country, I also wanted to visit my host family who I stayed with for a year in 2003. 

We spent a few days in Brussels, where I tried to act as guide and show Kylie the sights, sounds, and especially, tastes of the city.

Highlights of Brussels for us included the Tintin museum, the royal palace, la grand place (Brussels’ central square), the great architecture around the city, and the Cantillon Brewery.

This brewery was really interesting and also had the advantage of being close to the gare du nord (from where you take the eurostar). They don’t offer brewery tours as such; instead you’re given some key info, and a detailed pamphlet, and you can wander around the brewery at your leisure. This is an old family brewery which makes a selection of lambic beers. Lambic beer is produced by  spontaneous fermentation; it is exposed to wild yeasts and bacteria in the air. The attic of the brewery therefore has slats which can be opened or closed depending on the weather, temperature, and its possible effects on the beer.  Included in the price of admission (6 euros) is a welcome glass of beer. Highly recommend visiting this brewery for an unique insight into traditional brewing methods, and the beer is tasty too.

Spontaneous fermentation

It was good to use my rusty French, although a little frustrating at things I kept forgetting.

Next stop was Louvain-la-Neuve, and the lovely Kreit family. Louvain-la-Neuve, or LLN to the locals, was built relatively recently – around 40 years ago. The story goes that both French-speaking Belgians (Walloons) and Dutch-speaking Belgians (Flemish) once attended the Catholic University of Leuven/Louvain together – in the Flemish region of the country. Disagreements between the two groups led to the Walloons creating their own version of Leuven/Louvain, hence ‘Louvain-la-Neuve’ (‘the new Louvain’), and their own university as well.

During my time in LLN in 2003 it was very noticeably a student town, and it felt quite deserted in the summer months. In 2012 however a lot had changed. There is now a brand new shopping complex. More people, families especially, have been moving to the town, and there was a lot of life in the town, although the middle of summer (which had previously felt deserted as the students went home or in search of summer work elsewhere). 

In LLN we stayed with my host parents Véronique and Jean-François, and managed to see host sisters Marguerite and Evelyne, as well as recent addition to family, Evelyne’s daughter Lily. It was great to catch up with them all – although my host parents visited NZ a few years ago, I hadn’t seen the others for 9 years!

la famille Kreit

From LLN we headed back to Brussels, where we met up with Monique, a friend from NZ who was living in Brussels at the time. Monique kindly let us stay in her studio in Brussels, took us to the reputedly best ‘friterie’ (fries shop) in the city (Antoine’s), and gave us some local tips.

Royal Palace

We took some day trips to Leuven and Ghent in the Flemish region, enjoying the great architecture, and local tastes.