tis the season

Tis the season to send tout le monde ('everyone') our warmest Christmas greetings.  Especially since we didn't do it last year.  Christmas was just too busy to blog.

This is our 5th northern hemisphere christmas and we are learning more about Christmas traditions in Luxembourg, such as how children get presents twice (firstly on St Nicholas day and then at Christmas) and that 'Silent Night' should only be sung on Christmas eve.  Not before.  

For St Nicholas day on Dec 6, the boulangeries sell a 'man' made out of sweet dough, about the size of an adult hand.  This is the 'good man', or that is the best translation I could be given.  And now the supermarkets are full of fois gras, turkeys, pressed meat turrines, expensive champagne, stollen, chestnuts and cakes like swiss rolls....the list goes on. 

Interestingly, cards are not a big tradition, with my Luxembourgish friends explaining how they used to put them on the fridge (clearly they did not receive many - and now many of us don't worry about them).  I should also note at this point that most Luxembourgish households have a tiny fridge that you would laugh at because they don't really cook.  I found it a huge challenge this year trying to buy cards that featured an actual 'christmas' scene. 

Christmas here is usually celebrated on Christmas eve with a large dinner served around 9pm.   We will stick to our own habits, and are looking forward to some excellent company, provided by Mukiwa and Micaela who are presently in Europe on their way to Africa next month. 
We have only seen a little snow thus far, and it is more likely to rain next week than snow.  But we do hope to enjoy more of the Christmas markets, some of our favourite French cheese, and a wonderful Christmas Day dinner cooked by our friends John and Clare! 

Leuven

Last week we decided to spend a day in Leuven, Belgium. 

Years ago I used to work near a cafe called Leuven in Featherston Street, which specialised in beer and Mussels (neither of which I fancied, but my workmates did).  Little did I know that Leuven is the home of Stella Artois which is a huge belgian beer producer, and as in the rest of Belgium, shell fish is essential to the diet. 

But more importantly, Leuven is a very old university town, with 500 years of challenging minds to its credit.

We wandered around a delightful UNESCO site called a Beguinnage where all the buildings were constructed of brick.  This was a place where women of 'good character' could live independently without taking vows (to become nuns). It was a charming residential village inside gated walls, and included a convent and church of course.

It does seem that we have a very important criteria for whether a town is enjoyable - does it have good coffee?   Well Leuven ticked the box with belgian chocolates thrown in for free.  Moreover, we realised that if we just bought a packet of the coffee beans freshly roasted on the premise, we would get a free expresso each...why did we not learn that before we paid for coffees?!

The old market boasts no less than 42 "cafes" on one huge square (I mean rectangle).  This student town has a huge night-life and enough bicycles to rival any self-respecting town in the Netherlands.

And finally, every town should have a man hitting a bell....well in Belgium anyway!

lovely Leiden

Someone suggested that our blog has had a stroke.  Actually it has just been lacking any good photos to post or good stories to tell. You know how life can be. It has been a very long grey winter from our window adn I can hardly remember what summer is like.

Remember that cold spell in Europe in early February?  Seems weeks ago now.  We had the good fortune to spend a weekend in Leiden, in the Netherlands.  Well I should say that I had the good fortune, because Phil had the 'pleasure' of supervising students at a math competition. 

Firstly, for those that think you can whisk around Europe very quickly on fast trains, well you can, but not in Luxembourg, Belgium or the Netherlands.  We took 4 trains and 7 hours to get from Luxembourg to Leiden.  A journey which would take about 4.5 hours in the car.  At least the train is kind of relaxing, and we all got to see the frozen sea near Rotterdam - very impressive.  Leiden is about 15 minutes on the train north of The Hague.

Leiden is a lovely town just off the tourist trail with a good number of 17th century buildings.  And it is especially picturesque when the many canals which wind through the town are frozen solid.  One realises that every dutch person must own a cycle AND a pair of ice skates.   They also seem particularly fond of eating small fishy things, cheese and chocolate sprinkes.  If we hadn't been travelling by train I would have bought a huge bunch of tulips from the markets.

For almost 500 years Leiden has revolved around its university, with some 20,000 students currently, which makes it a lively and interesting place.  Apparently when William of Orange liberated the town from the Spanish in 1575, he offered them no taxes or a university.  They made a good decision and like all university towns there are cheap eats (relatively), cheap haircuts and good museums.  

While watching a documentary recently we learnt that The University of Leiden is famous for the Leyden jar, a capacitor made from a glass jar, invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek in 1746. (The start of electricity as we know it).
I got to wander around museums for a day and was quite pleased with myself that I managed to avoid stepping in front of a cyclist, not the easiest feat in the Netherlands for a dedicated walker.  Really, there are ALOT of bikes.  Leiden lies in one of the most densely inhabited parts of Europe, but somehow seemed very livable.  I think I like Holland.

the long white cloud

We haven't spent much time in NZ over the last few years, so with the opportunity to visit we decided to check out a few of our old favourite places, and a couple of new ones, as well as our favourite people!   So in no particular order, here is our photo report (you can guess where they are):

It is easy to get so familiar with the place you are living, that you start to take it for granted.  For us, being in NZ was about appreciating all of what makes it special.  When we meet new people, a common response is 'oh NZ is so beautiful', and I think yes, but so are other parts of the world.  I think I needed to see alot of NZ to remember just how lovely it is - stunning in fact.

We were impressed by the following items in particular: very friendly people including one elderly gentleman that invited us over for a cuppa; outstanding coffee EVERYWHERE probably due to the impressive array of local bean roasters; a wonderful variety of fresh fish and very fresh food in general (in spite of local complaints about prices); cheese; and the ability to go to places without lots of other people being there and park for free at the beach. We were also pleased to use two new motorways in Auckland which were needed about 20 years ago.  

A real highlight was going to the Middle East Cafe in Wellesley St, Ak, to happily find that nothing has changed (except the price and a few less camel posters) and the owner told us that it was still the same management since about 1986.  We also visited our favourite Vietnamese-Thai restaurant, K-Sing, in Petone, which was now minus the plastic flowers and plus some extra chili - all good!  Can't wait for next time!  

For all of you still living under the long white cloud - you are definitely on to a good thing.

Emaischen

You are probably (or not) wondering what happens in a tiny place like Luxembourg. Well I've just been looking at some photos we took a few weeks ago. Early on the 25th April (well we thought 10am was early for Luxembourg) we walked into town to find it packed full of people! Very strange for this hour on a public holiday.  And no, nothing to do with Anzac day. Instead it was Emaischen.

We have been told that this is one of the few uniquely Luxembourgish traditions, and it involves small clay bird whistles. Lots of them. Old ones and new ones, for sale. You may wonder as we did why so many people were pushing and pressing to buy these clay birds, but apparently they are collectable. And everyone had the day off work to celebrate, well, bird whistles I guess!

new ones

old ones

these ones look like chickens

more new ones

 
And a festive occasion in Luxembourg would not be complete without beer and sausages, even at 10am (Personally I prefer to stick to eating muesli for breakfast). And there was even an organ grinder - with a stuffed monkey!

So that is something new we learnt about Luxembourg this year. Fortunately for us, we could celebrate Anzac day with a bunch of other kiwis in the park. (For once, the Aussies were definitely outnumbered).

There are alot of public holidays in May/June due to catholic church traditions; we've just had Ascension day and Whit Monday is coming up. And then the Duke's Birthday is on June 23, which of course isn't really his b'day, but just the annual Luxembourg day celebrations and fireworks. So we get to finish the school year on a festive note!