When it is all said and done, this is what nostalgia will look like. An evening out in Nuremberg on a beautiful summer’s day.
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Imperial Invasion
At the Imperial Castle, in the lower gardens – I have no ideal what this is…. Red Bull is doing something in town this weekend, perhaps this Cos play has something to do with it.
Breakfast
I am officially on the threshold of packing vs clean up. This mining the last bit of shopping with a s quick stop for breakfast at our favourite cafe La Violetta.
Best Views
Today, I think is the last shopping trip I will be making. Just a few small things we still need to bring home. I say small because there simply aren’t too many things we need and there is no room in the suitcases. I am already starting to miss this town. It is had to […]
Arb’Aventure Videos
The two young ladies are taking the zip line at the end of the challenging obstacle course adventure, or as they see it, Hunger Games obstacle course.
More Rouen Videos
Here are two more videos from the Sound and Light Show at the Rouen Cathedral. Simply amazing.
Rouen Cathedral Organs
While visiting some of these splendid structures, on a number of occasions, we were treated to the sound of roaring organs. Rouen Cathedral was also a nice treat. Someone was taking the organs for a spin and they sounded mighty.
First Time
Wow that has not happened on the blog before – we exceeded the bandwidth usage. The blog went through 10GB of bandwidth in 25 days – nice work people, keep it up.
Landing
According to the flight tracker, the eagle has landed. Welcome to Edmonton?!
Flight
According to flight tracker ICE693 is half way over to Edmonton currently somewhere over the Great White North.
Check in
Boarding passes in hand, family is off through security scan. That is a lot of electronic fruit they need to pull out.
Coming Home
I think these smiles say it all, or they are just posing for the camera. In Frankfurt at the airport just waiting to get bows all wrapped up and set off.
Touchdown
The lag gauge has arrived – all of these 12 suitcases came with me in a car with room for maybe two or there more. Now they are waiting for the family to help me push them to departures.
The Art of Packing
This is how you get 12 suitcases and 2 bows into a car with room to spare. That is one very loaded car!! The drive should be fun..
11th Hour
We are at T – 15 hours before we pack the car and the family takes the train for the trip to Frankfurt. Family from Poland stops by for a quick visit to say hello! We send the kids off to town in the early afternoon to visit at least one museum, and to have as much […]
Sound and Light – Video
The Rouen Cathedral Sound and Light show was great in pictures. Here are a couple of videos and a couple of more coming in next week since Vimeo account limits what can be uploaded. It looked far more spectacular in the video – enjoy it.
Insanity Continues
This again will be filled under “Christ what were we thinking” category which is the predominant theme of ours when we go out to eat. After a wonderful dinner at the Golden Horn we rolled out of the restaurant, and rolled down the hill from the castle side, across the main square and to 4D our favourite […]
Farewell Dinner
Tonight we are seeing Volker and Kasia for the last time on this trip. It is largely because of them that we are here, it is because of them that this trip has been such an amazing journey and it if was not for their help with everything we would most likely speak a bit […]
La Violetta
This is our favourite go to coffee shop. Always busy always good and always relaxing.
Around Nuremberg
It is Saturday today which means it is our last chance to go to the shops and buy anything we still might need. Our goal for today was to get some suitcases and a poster tube. We did not find a suitcase we liked, we forgot about the poster tube but we bought a few […]
Travel Update
We are slowly coming to the end of this great adventure and while we are not quite thinking about home yet, here is an updated map of places we have visited. Hopefully tomorrow, I will get a chance to catch up on the blog – so stay tuned! The map in detail
Home at Last
After a busy and eventful day we are finally home, a bit later than we thought and tired but home at last!
St. Bavo’s Cathedral
The building is based upon the Chapel of St. John the Baptist, a primarily wooden construction; it was consecrated in 942 by Transmarus, Bishop of Tournai and Noyon. Traces of this original structure are evident in the cathedral’s crypt. The chapel was subsequently expanded in the Romanesque style in 1038. Some traces of this phase […]
Ghent
Ghent started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Leie and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of northern Europe with some 60,000 people in 1300 AD, 70,000 in 1400 growing to 175,000 Shortly after 1500 AD. Today it is a busy city with a port […]
Van Landschoot
After the visit at the museum, we spent almost an hour chatting with the grand-daughter of Maurice Van Landschoot and his son Gilbert who not only own but run the museum. Van Landschoot Family tree traces back over 1000 years. They were predominantly masons and timber traders. They were employed to provide their expertise […]
Canadian Polish WWII Museum
We stumbled upon this place literally by accident. While staying in Bruges at the B&B on one of the maps I saw a little logo of this place. It seemed very odd and rather surprising that there would be a museum dedicated specifically to both Canadian and Polish Soldiers for WWII efforts. This is a […]
One More Road Trip
Today we are setting off from Bruges to Nuremberg. On the way home there are a couple of stops we want to make to see some interesting things. We are going to be getting home late but with nothing to do tomorrow, no one really cares.
Off To Ghent
Our stay at the B&B has ended, we are going to be stopping in two cities for a quick visit on the way to Nuremberg. After packing the car which took about 25 min we settled in and off we went to see a WWII museum and then to Ghent.
Jumping for Joy
While we were tying to get the car packed the kids were enjoying themselves on the trampoline – I think they are happy that we are finally going home. Except we are not, as we still have some stops planned on the way home.
Main Square
The Markt (“Market Square”) of Bruges is located in the heart of the city and covers an area of about 1 hectare. Some historical highlights around the square include the 12th-century belfry and the Provincial Court (originally the Waterhall, which in 1787 was demolished and replaced by a classicist building that from 1850 served as […]
Horse and Carriage
Instad of taking a boat tour today, we decided for something more elegant and private – a horse drawn carriage. We have not done this yet on this trip so we though it would be a great opportunity to see a bit of the city from a different perspective. The tour is about 35 min […]
St. Walburga Church
The St. Walburga Church is a 17th-century Roman-Catholic church in Bruges built by the Jesuits in a Baroque style. It is now a parish church and contains many valuable art objects. In 1596 the Jesuits first built a chapel. Soon after they started building a church with a college, a convent, a chapel and garden. […]
Best Friends
After a brief encounter in Colmar France Anna ran into one of her favourite new friends here in Bruges, Belgium. Hello Sara Pacini, nice to see you again.
Bruges Canals
Often Bruges and Amsterdam and Bamberg and Colmar are referred to as the Venice of the North. In fact I think that any city in Europe that has canals can and tries to make this claim. Bruges I think is the cleanest and the nicest of them all. There are a lot of shops and […]
On Bruges
Bruges is a relatively small city of about 120 thousand people, double that if you include the metropolitan area. It is very beautiful and pristine. It’s a vibrant and alive and obsessively clean and not as busy and commercial as Brussels, a perfect place to get a good taste of Belgium. Very few traces of human […]
Saint Magdalene’s Church
This is not an ordinary church. In fact a lot of churches in Belgium it seems, as well as The Netherlands are used for things other than praying. St. Magdalen’s is turned into an art exhibit entitled An Experiment on Space, Man and Religion. The graves of the future dead were quite interesting.
When in Bruges
Belgium is humid. When in Bruges it is easy to channel Monika Geller, which is what Anna is demonstrating here!
Welcome to Belgium
After spending a few hours in Amiens, we set off for Belgium. We are going to be staying in Bruges close to the old town to reduce our travel time and to maximize our time in the city. Our fist impression of Belgium is very positive. It appears that most highways in Belgium are lit at night, […]
Around Amiens
The first known settlement is Samarobriva (“Somme bridge”), the central settlement of the Ambiani, one of the principal tribes of Gaul. The town was given the name Ambianum by the Romans, meaning settlement of the Ambiani people. The town has been much fought over, being attacked by barbarian tribes, and later by the Normans. In […]
Amiens Cathedral
Amiens Cathedral is situated on a ridge overlooking the River Somme in Amiens and it is the 19th largest church in the world. Medieval cathedral builders were trying to maximize the internal dimensions in order to reach for the heavens and bring in more light. In that regard, the Amiens cathedral is the tallest complete […]
Road Trip – Bruges
While I am trying to catch up on all the updates, we are off to Bruges for two nights. It is not a long drive and we are going to be stoping in Amiens on the way there.
Farewell Omonville
Today we are saying goodbye to our fantastic little cottage in Omonville. Despite the weather, we had absolutely fabulous time here. I would say one of the best stays on this trip. Don’t get fooled by this picture, it rained 30 min later, exactly when we were checking out…
Heaven in a Jar
This habit we picked up in Paris 3 years ago. I can’t put my tiger on it but this is the best yogurt we found and it is only sold in France and it comes in a glass jar. Absolutely delightful – so we gorged ourselves on it.
Crêpes
For a treat, after climbing some trees and stopping to smell the hydrangeas we drove back to Dieppe to have crepes, exactly at the same spot where we had them on the first day. A couple stops at a chocolate shop and a bakery too were on the agenda. Crepes are great but nothing beats […]
Dieppe War Cemetery
Tomorrow is the 72nd anniversary of the Dieppe Raid of 1942. Dieppe is dressed up and down with Canadian flags – it looks very heartwarming. The Canadian War Cemetery located 5km from Dieppe is unique in that it was created by the occupying Germans, as the Allied raid was a disaster and many dead were […]
Horticulture
Continuing with our fun theme for the day after Tree Top Adventure we set off for Hydrangea Gardens. The gardens which are about 2ha in size claim to have the largest collection of hydrangeas from around the world, with hundreds of flowers and millions of blooms. I am not sure if this qualified as fun […]
Arb’Aventure
This morning the kids asked what we are doing today? Having fun was the reply and fun we were going to have. In the old days you could either climb a tree or you did not, today they made that into a sport, which I think is a lot more fun. First stop for today is a Tree […]
Chapel of Our Lady of Salvation
Behind the bunkers and the radar ruins left from WWII is this lovely chapel which can be seen from the city. Perched hight up on the top of the cliff and originally built in the eleventh century as the story goes, by Count Baldwin, this chapel was rebuilt in the thirteenth century. It takes the […]
Cape Fagnet
Cape Fagnet is the highest point of the Alabaster Coast, it offers a breathtaking panorama of the sea, the cliffs, the harbor and the town of Fecamp. It peaks at 105 m and was once called the “Slam Fécamp.” It is currently occupied by a navy radar installation. Cape Fagnet was part of the German Atlantic […]
Fecamp
About 20 min drive from Etretat is the fishing town of Fecamp. During WWII Fecamp was part of Atlantic Wall fortification project run by Nazis. It was the third best fortified city in Normandy in WWII which was held by the Germans until 1944. Fecamp is an ancient fishing village and it shows signs of habitation dating […]
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