feasting on Prague

Last weekend Phil had a course to attend in the famed city of Prague, which even Hitler thought worthy of saving from Nazi bombs, so I decided it was the perfect opportunity for me to check it out.

Many people talk about the Charles bridge and the view. But to me, Prague is all about the buildings; it is a lesson in 100o years of architecture as the styles change from Romanesque to Gothic, Renaissaince, Baroque to Roccoco. Grand churches (lots of churches and synagogues), public buildings, housing. Seeing all these styles juxtaposed against each other is like a five course feast of design and masonry. It speaks of grand ideas and the bold people that executed them. And beyond the engineering developments, it reflects beliefs and attitudes about what was appropriate and what was beauty - from the simple Romanesque, to the hard and austere Gothic to the lavishly ornate Baroque.

While it was a delight to savour the city, the almost inescapable throng of tourists who were trying to do the same left a somewhat bitter taste. At times it was almost comical to see the herds of people wandering the streets, following the point of an unopened umbrella, and crowding the pavements to hear a few facts that I read in a guide book. The streets are of course cobbled, and most show signs of a million footsteps, and require very sensible footwear to negotiate the ups and downs. But in other places, new cobbles were being laid, ironically to please the tourists and ensure their sore feet.

Sunday 21 March was the equinox, or the day when the times between sunrise and sunset are equal. So there was a spring market set up in the main square, with trees festooned in silk blossoms and streamers, and hand painted egg shells for sale amongst other things. They do like to find excuses to celebrate things in this part of the world. We had been told that Prague was cheap, but that depends on your point of reference. In comparison with Western Europe it is cheap, but so is NZ.

chocolate in bruges

While half of Europe headed to the slopes last week, we decided to drive to western Belgium for a look see. Driving on the highways in Belgium is fun because up until they joined the EU, Belgians did not sit drivers tests. You can imagine. Especially at high speed.

We went to Gent first, a lovely town replete with 7th century abbeys, a 9th century castle, old markets and canals. The sun shone for a change and it was lovely for wandering. There is a university here, and the large student age population makes the town vibrant even in winter. Visiting the castle and seeing yet another trove of armour, weapons and gruesome instruments of torture made us more keenly aware of the long and bloody history of Europe. I wonder what folk from the 7th century would think of the EU?

After Gent we headed further west to Bruges - the scene of the crime - well at least it was in the movie called 'In Bruges'. Historical Bruges is classified as a UNESCO world heritage site for being the oldest intact medieval town. It also has canals, a huge belfry, but no castle. The canals froze over while we were there so it must have been cold. There is alot of flemish art here, but we decided to save most of it for another visit when we are more in the mood.

Phil's highlight of Bruges was a tiny coffee shop called Brazilia, which sold freshly roasted coffee, brewed almost perfectly, and not much else.

On the way home we decided to visit the fields of Flanders, around Ieper, where so, so many died in the Great War. There are many, many cemeteries in the region, but we found two dedicated to Australian and NZ forces - Butte and Polygon Wood. We both were (suprisingly) very moved, to see the grave stones for NZ soldiers who fought, and died, in a battle on the other side of the world. We also visited the British cemetary Tyne Cot where they had letters written by soldiers, wives, and the telegrams sent to next of kin.

On a more upbeat note, I'll finish with the sweet stuff - the chocolate! In addition to its boutique beer, Belgium is reknown for its chocolate and Bruges has ALOT of chocolate shops. I won't go as far as saying that it is the most I have ever seen, because we also saw alot of chocolate shops in Argentina (eg. Bariloche and St Martin de los Andes). I read somehwere that Belgians have an annual average rate of chocolate consumption of more than 7kg per person. Isn't that close to Australia and NZ?

I've noticed that like many things, food tastes different in different places. Chocolate included.
Like any composite product, the quality of the ingredients count, so the type of cocoa bean and sugar make chocolate taste different.

We grew up liking NZ chocolate of course (ie. Cadburys). We were shocked to discover in PNG that Australian cadburys is not the same as NZ because they add emulsifiers to slow down the speed of melting. In south America, they use sugar made from sugar beets instead of sugar cane so the texture and flavour are distinct (Argentinians loved their chocolate but we did not). If you have tasted north american chocolate (aka Hersheys) you will know the flavour is different again. Belgian chocolatiers tend to use criollo and trinitario cocoa beans (apparently rare) to produce a flavour that is less better and more complex. After sampling the wares of at least 6 different chocolate shops in Bruges, Phil has decided that he prefers swiss chocolate (Lindt), but I am now sold on the belgian variety.

six month mark

Anyone who has moved countries knows that reaching the first six months is a milestone of sorts. It's the period with the most stress in terms of finding out how everything works, where everything is, what you can buy (and what you can't), what you can do, and who you can do it with.

Well, once again we have reached that six month mark, and thinking back, we are certainly alot more relaxed about living in Lux. We can now navigate around alot of town without the need of the GPS; we understand when the checkout assistant is asking if we want to convert our reward points into a cheque; I can communicate simple things in french such as " a quarter kilo of cheese please" or " I would like two holes" (in Phil's new belt!); we have figured out which brand of yoghurt we prefer (amongst a number of other things); we are familiar with snow, ice, slush, winter tyres and the need for anti-freeze in the window-wash; we know that 130km/hr is not fast on the highway; It's much nicer to walk in snow than in wind and rain; and we know one word of Luxembourgish - "Moien" which means 'good-day'.

Now that six months is up, the government department will hopefully finish processing our drivers license applications. We can also start thinking about what to do in the summer (although that is hard to imagine given that it is snowing outside).

One last interesting fact about Luxembourg - did you know that it has the biggest (in terms of turnover) petrol station in western Europe? (Of course you didn't, although a few of you won't be surprised). The taxes on petrol here are lower than in neighbouring countries, so alot of truckies and travellers, and people living just over the border, choose to fill up here. Having said that, the price of 95 octane petrol is still 1.10Euro!

the big freeze

A week ago I was telling people in the southern hemisphere that while it was freezing, it wasn't actually snowing in Luxembourg. I spoke too soon! The city is covered in the icy cold white stuff that is perfect for making snow balls. With little wind, we went for some lovely long walks in the weekend to enjoy a different kind of beauty - verging on monochromatic - and blending nicely with Phil's hair!

The ponds are frozen, even with the fountains still running, and it amazes me that the birds can still find food. In fact, with few leaves anywhere, winter is turning out to be the best yet for bird watching. We've also been studying up on our snowflake forms, and can report that we have alot of dendrites - aren't they lovely!

white out

We just had our first white Christmas - well almost. Does the weekend before count? In our books it was near enough.

We woke at 5am on the 19th Dec to find 2cm of snow around our apartment; As we headed across Belgium toward the coast it became alot heavier. Driving in the snow (and ice!) without AWD and good tyres, is, shall we say, a tad stressful. It was also cold, as our car registered a low of minus 13 C outside. We met chaos in Calais (below), with mountains of backed up traffic in an eerie sea of white and grey. But after a mere four hour delay, while we waited for the tunnel to re-open, we made it to England.

Christmas week for us was a lovely time of catching up with old friends and family, meeting new people, Phil making funky snowmen, a few more hairy moments driving through snow on the M4, being 'iced in' in Holt, Whiltshire, which seemed to avoid the snow in surrounding parts, and long walks with Uncle's dogs in the country side where moats and even the mud was frozen.

Christmas day was a reprieve as the sun shone through to melt the ice on the driveway and we had a grand time eating roast turkey and trimmings including heaps of roast parsnips from Farmer John across the lane. Need I mention my fondness of parsnips?

Boxing day included a fun game of boules on the village green and Morris dancers, which (as I realised last night while watching Black-Adder re-runs) is a very old tradition from coal mining days. For the uninitiated this means dancers with bells on: men dancing impressively with big sticks and hankies hanging out of their pockets, women dancing more graciously while waving their hankies, all with lots of good music.

The last leg of our break included the obligatory sight-seeing in London. Highlights were the Tower of London, big blingy diamonds, the incredible mosaics in St Paul's Cathedral, enjoying a host of amazing paintings at the Courtald and National Galleries, and John Harrison's revolutionary marine chronometers at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich . The richness of history, culture and art was almost overwhelming at times.

Suffocating is a word that came to me often in London - people everywhere, and at times unbearably so. Imagine a huge crowd four people deep trying to look at Van Gogh's Sunflowers, or a 45minute queue to get into the latest exhibition on dinosaurs at the natural history museum... (we had to queue just to get into the museum!). Fortunately, Phil was only interested in looking at rocks and crystals, of which there were many. We hope to go back when the crowds aren't quite as thick - after all, we actually do want to look at those sunflowers!

Happy new year from us!