Today we are trying a different bread recipe made with a fresh yeast starter. Evelina is helping with the baking today and getting her hands really dirty.
Tag Archives: 2014
Christmas Concert
Strathcona band was preforming a Christmas Concert today at the church downtown. We have been to the junior high Christmas concert, but the high school kids are in a league of their own. They are more refined and mature and quite sophisticated in their sound. They played one very modern piece which was our favourite. […]
Real Snow
Today we have our first taste of what is coming and will be here for the next 6 months – snow and frost and lots of both. Luckily it did not get too cold quite yet but we all know it is coming. Until it all melts it will be white and pretty and clean […]
Frosty Morning
Today we woke up in a frozen world. It has been quite humid and overnight we had a bit of frost. It is absolutely beautiful outside, but cold.
Snow Snow Snow
It is snowing! At around 5pm today the skies opened up and it started coming down like crazy. Huge wet snow flakes everywhere. Only Evelina was happy with this turn of events, we all just looked in disbelief! I am sure this snow is not going to stick around around for long, but we all […]
14 Pizza Dinner
You will have to take my word for it, even though the pictures don’t show it, there really were 14 pizza on the dinner menu tonight – each different than the last. Twelve of them were consumed on site and two went home with us. There was also bread pudding. There was a lot of […]
Home Time
It is finally time to make the landing post and say goodbye to Iceland. I have been home for a couple of weeks now buried in work. Not the business work but house work. There is a seemingly endless list of house chores that need doing, some due to what appears to be plain neglect, some […]
Masters Class
I finally got around to getting these uploaded, converted and here they are for you to enjoy. While at Villa Medici, this was the Masters of Piano graduating class, with formalities of the evening being done, everyone was a lot more relaxed and the music they got out of that wooden box with strings and […]
To Frankfurt
First part of this journey home is done, that is getting on the right train with 3 suitcases and 2 bags. Next milestone will be to get off the train and switch airport terminals in Frankfurt. For now I have two solid hours to relax and do nothing.
Farewell Nuremberg
Here we go, the last drive on a beautiful summer morning – off to the train station.
This is Monza
Monza is an integral part of F1. It is one of the first 7 tracks that hosted the F1 championship in 1950. Since then 64 F1 races were run in Italy and all but one were held at Monza. Monza together with Monaco, Silverstone in England, and Spa in Belgium are four of the original tracks still used today […]
Home Alone
It is 10:30pm. The owner of the villa is staying in the private part of this complex behind a big iron gate, in a huge manicured private garden in a smaller private villa more suitable for a family. Alexandro the caretaker and Fiona the lady who makes breakfast sleeps next to the kitchen which is […]
Monza Walkabout
After last night it was slow going this morning but a race day awaits. Karen, Carlos and myself are going to carpool since they know where the good parking is but don’t feel like driving their little Lancia on the twisty Italian roads. We were informed that to have a chance of finding decent parking we […]
House Of Music
Villa Medici has a different look and feel to it in a daylight. Last night I just wanted to get to bed, today I had a chance to walk around this place, in its endless maze of hallways and rooms that lead to even more hallways and rooms. This place is truly huge and on […]
Qualifying
After some noisy Porsches trashing around the track it was time for F1 qualifying. The crowd cheers, for Ferrari of course, and to improve the odds and feel better, for any previous Ferrari driver, in which case Masa got a lot of cheers. On the way back to the car Red Bull is giving away […]
Finally Here
This is Villa Medici. I stood and drove around this place for 25 min and parked at least on 3 of the 4 available corners trying to figure out how to get into this place. Apparently there huge brown door had a large metal knocker that you bang, then the doors open and you are […]
Welcome to Switzerland
I do not think I had more than 10km of road in Switzerland that was not: 1. under construction 2. blocked by someone very important hogging the left lane going below the speed limit 3. passport control 4. traffic
Getting to Italy
I only made one quick stop in Switzerland to admire the sunset over Alps. It was also the only place when it was not working so it kind of worked out.
Homeless
Today, as of 11:34 am we are officially homeless in Nuremberg. The apartment keys have been returned, furniture moved out, cleaned and locked up. Goodbye Emilientstrasse 7 – we loved it there!
And Then
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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!
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