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 […]
The train came a bit late which always causes unnecessary stress. But I did manage to push my belongings across the terminals and even squeezed in a quick espresso too. All my language is checked in: 22.9 kg, 23.1kg and 12.5kg for the carry on – one less thing to deal with. It is almost […]
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.
As it turns out the easiest place to ding parking in Switzerland is on a highway. 11 km into Switzerland I am stuck in a highway to nowhere. In 45 min I moved almost 1km. This should be fun. You know when this is going to be bad when people abandon their cars and go […]
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 […]
After my day out at Monza, I got back to the Villa Medici for the piano concert which I was invited to by Maestro Kanno. Together with a number of other guests and the owner of this fabulous place we watched 4 young musicians show off their polished skills after a week of teaching and a […]
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 […]
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 […]
I ended driving to Monza. Found FREE parking by the Ingresso Biassano, read 300 m from the main gate. F1 qualifying is starting in 50 min. This is the view then from where I am sitting! It is 29C and on metal bleachers it feels like a frying pan! Awesome.
So after circling around the building for about 25 min I managed to find the big brown door to get to where I am staying, Villa Medici. This is a 4000 sq m musical villa. There are over 60 pianos here in this house. I have a piano in my room too, it is bigger […]
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 […]
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
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.
I am setting off to Monza for F1. The Temple of Speed awaits..
Well the wheels are on. Now for a test drive and a bill and hopefully I can get on with it.
This is what happens to ZR rated tires on the Autobahn. I think our highest speed was around the 230km/h mark and in the last 16 months there was only one time when we did not go over warp speed which is 200. Before setting out for Monza I stopped to check tire pressure which […]
Today at 8am I was set to go to Monza. Yesterday at 6:30 pm while driving home I thought the breaks were feeling funny. Since a lot of the drive there is through the Alps I decided to get them checked out this morning. As we speak the back brakes are getting replaced hopefully I […]
After a lot of waiting, a lot of talking and a bit of planning this is finally happening. I am going to Monza to see F1 race this coming weekend. I am not sure what to expect, except for a lot of noise and testosterone around and a sea of red and yellow flags supporting […]
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.
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.
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.
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 […]
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.
Here are two more videos from the Sound and Light Show at the Rouen Cathedral. Simply amazing.
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.
Boarding passes in hand, family is off through security scan. That is a lot of electronic fruit they need to pull out.
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 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.
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..
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 […]
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.
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 […]
This is our favourite go to coffee shop. Always busy always good and always relaxing.
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 […]
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 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 […]
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 […]
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.
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 […]
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. […]
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.
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 […]
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 […]
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.
Belgium is humid. When in Bruges it is easy to channel Monika Geller, which is what Anna is demonstrating here!
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, […]
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 […]
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.
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…
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.
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