Culture... And nature

Trip to Munich
So I have been talking about our stay in Munich for a couple of weeks now... And we are in Munich, but not in the city centre. We're actually staying in a village (really, a suburb) called Planegg, which I just love (the name and the village). The next "village" across is called Graefelfing, which sounds to me like an ancient elfin name. Surely, there's a character by that name in LOTR*??

Anyway, it's about 25 minutes into Munich by train and we've been pretty slack about getting ourselves into town... But as foreshadowed in my last post, there was a €1 euro museum day on Sunday, which was not to be missed!! Full disclosure - we actually went into Munich on both Saturday and Sunday of the past weekend.

Saturday was just nuts in the city. There are about 1.3 million people living in Munich (compared to 4 mill in Melbourne) and they were ALL in Munich's city centre on Saturday. Shopping, walking, visiting beer halls, hanging out in the sun... The place was packed!! We had no real purpose, except to track down a laundry bag for Phil, so we spent much of the day wandering fairly aimlessly.

Amongst all the shoppers, there were musicians dotted around the city - one guy was playing a full sized piano - accordionists and the now-ubiquitous silver sprayed statues. There was also a very strange performance, apparently advertising for an Easter egg hunt. It comprised a bunch of teens in rabbit masks dancing around like a kind of like a really disorganised flash mob:



Culture or Modern Museums of Munich

On Sunday, we hit the town with purpose! At 2.30pm, granted, but with purpose!! Most things are closed on Sundays - retail stores, supermarkets - it's like Melbourne in the late-80s! But not the museums. Our goal was to take advantage of two museums' €1 euro entry. So we went first to the very new and shiny Museum Brandhorst - a modern art museum and then to the Pinakothek der Moderne. The Brandhorst didn't allow photography indoors, but it was very nice inside - all natural wood and light. They had a dark pop art exhibition with lots of Andy Warhol and others. Here's the building from the outside:



Then we headed to the Pinakothek der Moderne, where photography is allowed, so I took some pics. They had awesome stuff - a couple of floors devoted to design and architecture, a huge middle floor for modern art (ie painting and sculpture) and a top level for jewellery. I loved some of the designs:



This was part of the computer exhibition - ancient laptop, anyone?



I really want this plate so I can fill it with soup and watch the hippo swim!!


This was part of the jewellery design collection - it's actually soap on a rope!



This took up a whole room and just looked cool... not entirely sure what it was.

Just as we were leaving the second museum, we passed a woman outside the gallery, walking her two adorable dogs. She passed by us in her wheelchair... and I noticed that one of the dogs also had his back legs in a wheelchair of his own. I was instantly moved. Despite the day spent amongst priceless art works, this momentary glimpse touched my humanity the most.

[Just to lighten the now-serious mood, I don't think the hippo bowl was priceless... but they had Picasso and sh$t...]

Nature

Today we decided to wander down to Pasing - a suburb about half way to the city centre which is a bit of a hub and has a shopping arcade. It's a beautiful walk along the river and through a couple of parks. It was really quite windy this morning, but forecast for 13 degrees, so we weren't too worried. The first quarter hour was pretty windy but ok.

And then as we started to walk along the river, we noticed a lot of debris - branches littering the paths. The river was running so fast, the ducks were body surfing... it was adorable! A couple of smaller trees on the banks of the river had fallen or snapped. I spotted this in a tree and thought - haha, the wind is so strong it's lifted someone's tennis racquet right out of their house and mangled it in a tree:




Then about two hundred metres down the path, I heard Phil say 'oh Shiiitt' and I turned and saw this:



Oh shit, indeed

We saw more and more uprooted trees and struggled to keep upright, so we eventually pulled the plug on the river walk and headed onto the main road which felt a bit safer, although I was genuinely fearful of flying patio furniture!

We made it to Pasing, but had to admit defeat for the trip home and take the bus, which was probably a good idea because it was pelting with rain, half the streets were closed and we heard near-constant sirens on the way home... The rest of the week is not looking much better with snow - yes, snow - forecast for the next few days.

Phil's birthday or Footloose

Speaking of the rest of the week, it's Phil's birthday on Friday. This Friday. As in Good Friday. It's actually the trifecta this year because it's not only Phil's birthday and Good Friday but it's also the first night of Passover!

And because we're in Bavaria - the ultra conservative, Catholic part of Germany, NOTHING is open. Nada. And, to add insult to injury, dancing is banned on Good Friday in Bavaria. In 2015. Seriously, dancing is banned. We're literally** living inside the plot of Footloose.

So the options for birthday celebrations outside the house are looking sparse... There is a Dark Easter death metal music festival on over Easter, but sadly (a) it's on Sunday and (b) we just listened to a few of the death metal bands on YouTube and couldn't get past the first 14 seconds. So it's looking like we might need to accept our fate, buy a bottle of champers and rent some movies on iTunes***.

But not all is lost, we are headed back to the Rattlesnake with Niko, Phil's stepbrother tomorrow night to see a British country rock guitarist (Albert Lee for those who are following) - should be really awesome!! And we've got a brunch with both stepbrothers and friends on Sunday morning. Good times :)




* Or Lord of the Rings to those not in the know...
**not literally
***definitely NOT illegally download the entire series of Better Call Saul...

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Location:Josef-Danzer-Straße,Planegg,Germany

Unjust enrichment

Happy Monday

Happy Monday to all my Aussies.



Here in Munich, it's still Sunday morning... although it turns out daylight savings starts today, so when I woke up at 8.57am - a small triumph in itself - it was actually 9.57am... but it's all good. Our plans today are to head to the city centre and take advantage of the museums that offer €1 entry on a Sunday. But first to what's been going on:

Working bee #2 or Just Enrichment

We're still living it up in a fairly sedate fashion here in Munich. When I say living it up, I mean less hitting the town every night and more being spoiled rotten by our gracious hosts, Klaus and Cornelia.

Each morning I have woken up to a breakfast of freshly cut fruit, yoghurt and muesli and coffee... And when I say woken up, I mean whenever my dreams decide to release me from unconscious bliss. Some days it's 9am, some days it's a little later.* But before you make a miniature likening of me to stick pins into, let me tell you about some more working bees....

As I mentioned in my last post, I am keen for some opportunities to volunteer. It turns out that staying with Klaus & Cornelia is a virtual guarantee of chances to help out. As I mentioned in my last post, we pitched in on a working bee at the Waldorf school that Klaus has been volunteering with. But reading back over the last post, I think I dramatically understated his involvement - Klaus has basically been coordinating the building/ fit out of the school for at least the last 2 years and doing a stack of the work himself. He likes to help out. So much so, that we had our next opportunity inn the following days!!

Their next door neighbour's garden was looking a bit drab and another friend wanted to plant a cherry tree in the back garden, so Klaus organised a trailer; one and a half tonnes (yup, tonnes) of high grade composted soil and we were off. I case you're wondering what one and a half tonnes of soil looks like here is a pic with about a tonne left...




Phil and I (ok mostly Phil) stood in the trailer and shovelled out about one and a quarter tonnes, one bucket load at a time and Klaus and Cornelia spread it out over the ground to create a rich topsoil for new grass seeds to thrive in. For our efforts, we were rewarded with an awesome Bavarian lunch of wiessewurst (a particularly yummy white German sausage), giant bretzels and home made potato salad. Phil is keeping on with the veggie-ism, even in the face of the best sausages on the planet, so we had quite a hilarious job of surreptitiously swapping sausages to my plate and my potato salad to his without the lovely neighbour who cooked it for us noticing**. That my friends, was just enrichment. I worked pretty hard shovelling dirt and was rewarded with sausages from heaven.


A visually appealing rendition of weissewurst (although missing the potato salad). German food is delicious, but not super photogenic!

The following day was cherry tree planting day. I was excused, but Phil and Klaus headed off early to dig a hole & pop in a tree. It turned out to be a much bigger job than originally thought because the ground into which the hole was dug was all nice soft earth for the first 10cm and then a hellscape of earth so heavily compacted that it resembled concrete. Phil and Klaus spent about 4 or 5 hours wrangling with this tree, after which they stayed on for spaghetti lunch, which seemed (a) pretty fair; and (b) the standard reward for gardening work done for a friend or neighbour in Munich.

The Unjust Enrichment

However, it got better. The tree planting was carried out for their friends, Bruno and Gaby, who own the coolest bar in Munich - the Rattlesnake saloon***. It serves awesome german beer, giant ribs, steak and burgers (with a veggie burrito available for those in the know) and also has live music - mostly in the rock, blues, rockabilly genres.

Phil's stepbrother Niko has worked at the Rattlesnake for years and we have been there before - I even blogged about it on our last trip to Munich - http://warung-ocha.blogspot.de/2012_01_01_archive.html. It is just cool as hell - decorated with rattlesnake skins and US licence plates and the walls are lined with a miniature railway track for a toy-sized train that actually runs from the bar to the stage, so you can send a shot of tequila to the band and make a song request at the same time!!!

As a thanks for the gardening work, Bruno invited the whole family to come to the Rattlesnake for dinner - and drinks - on him. Given that I have been looking forward to a night at the Rattlesnake for oh, say about the last 3 years, I was pretty excited. It only took us a day to get ourselves into action and we spent Thursday night at the Rattlesnake, eating a plate of ribs that looked something like this.


The ribs to end all ribs

To go with the ribs to end all ribs, we were drinking the Rattlesnake's own Pale Ale called "Fucking Rock & Roll Pale Ale" - how rock is that? We had an amazing Blues Band - the Buddy Whittington Band - playing a mix of their own music and some covers - Johnny Cash fans would've loved it. PLUS their bass guitarist is basically German Bill Murray!!



Do you not see the Bill Murray resemblance?? And also the reason for the Monday meme above??? Technically speaking, the bassist is not German - but calling him the American Bill Murray doesn't really work.

Having done none of the work myself, I felt a teeny bit guilty for accepting such an awesome reward for no work, but hey, these are the things that happen during travels, so I'll make the most of it...

What's next??
Next up - as I mentioned above, we're heading into Munich today to check out a couple of museums.

Our awesome friend Joelle is coming to join us sometime in the next week and we're mere days from my lovely's Phil's 37th birthday... Still need to put some thought into marking the bday... will let you know what we come up with.

There are some day trips we can do from Munich, including Nuremberg and Augsberg, so we'll keep you posted.

----------------

* okay, so it's never actually been 9am... not even today when it should have been 9am, but wasn't... sob...
** I'm not sure some of that the older generation of Germans think vegetarianism applies to sausages...
***Having not actually been to other bars in Munich, it's a big call, but I totally stand by it.

The birds and the bees

Well, specifically the swans and (working) bee, but more on that later on...

Lazy days in Munich
We are coming up to almost two weeks in Munich and have settled into a delightfully relaxed pace of life here. There have been lots of long walks in the surrounding forests:

I have to confess, I've spent a lot of our time walking in the forest looking for bunnies - doesn't this look just like a Disney forest that should be full of bunnies?? So far, no dice...

Ahhh - peaceful by the water... about two minutes after this pic a big, black dog bounded into the water chasing a tennis ball and proceeded to leap out and shake himself all over Phil and I... I absolutely loved it, of course. Phil was slightly more perturbed.

Some Barvarian Tradition
Despite now having spent several weeks in Germany, I realised that I had not yet set foot in a pub - a truly disgraceful oversight. So to remedy that, we headed to the local Biergarten - the Forsthaus Kasten in case you're ever in the area - they also have an amazing hunter's style restaurant with wild boar and venison stew - yummmm.

It was a little quiet given it's just clicked over to Spring and still a little chilly in the late afternoon.

Just a little bit empty... Makes one feel like a bit of a lush being the only person in the pub!

But we got over it...

The birds aka Swan Lake
One of the more memorable walks was along the Isar river from Munich zoo to the city centre. It's about a 6km walk, which Phil spruiked by promising "f&cktons of swans" along the river. And I do love a swan... So along we went, and it more than delivered. Look at all the swans!!

And they were curious swans too - this one got a little too close for comfort... I said "hello pretty swan" and it was all "I'm coming to eat you!!" - aargghhh:

It was more menacing that it looks - just trust me on this one!!

As you can (sorta) see, it was a gorgeous day. The first really sunny day of our time in Munich -16 degrees - and it was a pleasure to bask in. Notwithstanding, I was a bit surprised to see people out sunbaking on the shore.

Even more surprised to find quite a few German pensioners sunbaking nude on the shore!! Cmon people, it's 16 degrees, I really don't think it's lets-get-our-kit-off-asap weather!! I have no photos of the nudists - shame, huh? But here are some of the sunbathing folk and the beautiful river:

It was my ideal kind of walk - heaps of people out walking their dogs (at 11am on a Wednesday - doesn't anybody work??), gorgeous, albeit slightly over-enthused swans and beautiful scenery.

We had intended to walk into the city centre and go to museum of modern art because it's free on Wednesday, but whilst we made it into town, we spent so long walking around the gorgeous city centre, we didn't make it... Ah well, maybe next Wednesday!

The bee aka Building a School

The working "bee" portion of this post was our day of volunteering yesterday. I've mentioned previously that one of my goals for this trip is to eschew goals - try and live a little more in the moment.

However, there are some underpinning aims, including volunteering when the opportunity arises. So when Phil's dad, Klaus told us that he's been working (as a volunteer) on construction projects at a new-ish Rudolf Steiner school for quite a while now, I offered our services at the working bee held on Saturday.

It will not shock you to know that I possess no secret talent for construction work. But I have done a bunch of house renos over the years, and I really enjoy doing it from time to time. So come Saturday morning, Phil and I got all kitted up in borrowed clothes from Klaus and got stuck into a day of sanding and refurbishing some furniture for the kindergarten and the canteen:

Phil hard at work...

It was a really fun day, and we - together with a group of volunteer parents - were quite productive! A fence was built and all the kinder kids will have good-as-new desks on Monday.

Of course, there's always a few volunteer parents who don't 100% get with the program. Especially the couple who thought it was a good idea to bring their toddlers to a construction site and then let them run around carrying adult sized shovels, pointed at their faces, on their unstable little legs. The safety lawyer in me spent some tense moments thinking "no, no, no, no, no..." but it was all good in the end.

The school itself is truly incredible - all the classroom interiors are fitted out with handmade timber including desks, chairs, bag racks - there is not a plastic desk or chair in sight! They have kitchens built by the volunteers in many of the classrooms and the site also includes housing for multiple generations of families.

These are definitely a lucky bunch of kids... just shows what dedication can achieve. Plus I got to have some fun with the power sander...

What's next?
With all of this intense winding down, we've allowed ourselves to get a bit vague about our upcoming plans...

We are keen to get on some bikes and take advantage of the great weather and longer rides in the area. Since I survived cross-country skiing, this should be a breeze!

Plus, it's Phil's birthday in just over a week, so there's some planning to be done... Since I can't decide what to plan, go to the blog site to vote on Phil's birthday celebrations...

Snow derby

I suggested in my last post that we wanted to do something a bit adventurous and out of our comfort zone and that there had been some suggestion of cross country skiing... Which would be right out of my comfort zone since I have never been skiing in my life. Phil has skied and snowboarded quite a bit but I've somehow managed to avoid going... well, ever.

So today in the spirit of trying new things, we got up early this morning and drove to a small town in the Alps* called Langrisse which has areas for cross country skiing and some impressive downhill skiing areas including a slalom course which was once used for the World Cup championships.

On arrival, the scenery was just breathtaking. Blinding white snow as far as you could see, glistening in the sun. Completely clear blue skies. Dozens of people racing down the mountains on skis and snowboards. Even a few dogs that people had brought with them to the snow running around and looking adorable, if not a tad confused.






Soooo... hands up who reckons I would be pretty crap at my very first attempt at cross country skiing??? Wellll, shame on you with your hands up. I was (very surprisingly) quite coordinated for someone who has literally never strapped on a pair of skis in her life!!

Okay, we did just sign up for a two hour beginner lesson, so we were not quite conquering the mountain. And I did fall over flat on my back (just the once) from a static standing position - I'm still not sure how I managed that. But all in all, we spent a couple of solid hours skiing around a fairly icy field, expertly not colliding with other, much better skiers and not looking too much like a couple of clueless Australians in the process!

I'll be honest with you, I was nervous. I'm usually a bit intimidated to try something new that is in any way physically demanding, or is in any way adrenaline fuelled. (And yes, that does include the waterslides at the Bali Waterbom park, just in case you were wondering).

It occurred to me this morning that the last time I was really nervous about an athletic challenge**, I fell off my bike and broke my elbow... I was actually thinking on the way to the mountain that I would be less nervous about writing an impromptu haiku and reading it in front of a thousand people than I was about our beginner lesson!

I tried to psych myself up by thinking about all the hours I've spent on cross trainers at the gym over the last 10 years - SURELY I must have picked up something?!?
Turns out there was nothing to worry about. Our ski instructor, Andreas immediately won over my trust when he told us to follow him to the practice field in his silver Ford Fiesta***. And he lived up to expectations by showing us the basics but still giving us plenty of time to try it out ourselves.

And cross country skiing (beginner level at least) is pretty much just walking with skis on for the most part and if you go a bit faster, it feels a bit like ice skating - maybe rollerblading - which I haven't done in forever, but really enjoy.

After a couple of hours of learning the technique and then gliding along some tracks laid out in the snow, I was feeling fairly triumphant and exhausted and ready for a reward...







Mmmm... Strudel.

So, I absolutely loved it, although I can already tell that I am going to be VERY sore tomorrow!!


*I've always wanted to say that I went skiing in the Alps!! Does a beginner lesson count - actually I'm not really asking... yes, yes, it does.

**in the Murray to Moyne 48 hour cycling challenge back in 09

***ok, so mine was a silver Ford Festiva (cf Fiesta), AND I no longer have it, but I felt a strong kinship nonetheless.


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Weddings, parties, anything

This post comes to you from Munich, Germany! We* drove up from Hamburg after almost a week of family celebrations including a wedding and a 50th birthday.

The wedding and 50th birthday were both to celebrate Phil's cousin, Stefan, who was getting married to a lovely woman called... Steffy. Yup - Steffy & Stefan. To add to the eeriness, just today, taking a walk through our new (to us) Munich neighbourhood, we came across this in someone's front yard:



Can you see the names on the hearts at the top?? Bizarro... it had kids toys attached to it, so maybe someone has named their twins Steffi & Stefan? My working theory is that it's Germany's version of Shazza and Gazza...

So back to Stefan's wedding. I was looking forward to reporting all the different traditions in a German wedding, but it was pretty similar to an Australian cocktail reception - champagne and canapés, lots of beautifully decorated tables and a massive cake. Actually, there were about 20 cakes which was pretty awesome (for 200 guests, so not totally crazy). Also someone did bring an adorable German pointer puppy, which frankly there should be more of at weddings... I should also mention that it was held in a castle!

It was a very romantic wedding - there were lots of photos of the couple in heart shaped frames on the tables and they made cute, whimsical postcards of their love story as centrepieces:




It was great to meet a side of Phil's family that I haven't met before - uncles, cousins, second cousins, etc. There are a lot of Herrmanns!!

Actually there are a lot of Herrmanns in Germany full stop - Herrmann street, Herrmann bakery, today at the supermarket, my checkout chick's name badge was Herrmann! My favourite rendition of the Herrmann name - though slightly misspelled - was on Matzah at the supermarket in Hamburg (just imagine saying "Herrmann" with a broad New York accent and you're pretty much there!!)




The 50th birthday was really an extension of the wedding celebration, but for a smaller group of friends and family. The romantic theme continued - check out the napkins:






Travelling often presents unusual situations - in this case it was being dropped off and picked up at the party by Phil's dad, Klaus!! I seriously felt like a 14 year old, but in a good way :)

We spent the week being hosted by Phil's (90 yo) grandmother together with his sister Monika, our 3 yo nephew Jasper and Phil's dad, making it a pretty full house! When awake, 3 year olds don't run out of energy - did you guys know that??

Jasper is both very sweet & entertaining though - he loves making crazy suggestions followed by asking quite sincerely, "good idea"? As in "Auntie Sus, let's go and hunt pink rhinos in the lounge room and be tigers together, good idea?" Side note: I now do amazing tiger impressions.

On Monday night, Monika and Jasper headed home to Australia and we headed to Munich to spend the next little while with Klaus and his wife Cornelia via the gorgeous medieval village of Quedlingburg in East Germany. I'd like to say we stopped for the history, but it was mostly about the cheesecake!!







So far, Munich has stumped up some lovely sunny weather and a bug which is currently causing Phil to cough up a lung!

We have no concrete plans for the next few weeks - so it's probably time for a poll. I'll have to think up some possible options. Cross country skiing has been mentioned - I am slightly terrified. Maybe time for some lunges in preparation??

If you want to pull the puppet strings, feel free to make some poll suggestions in the comments!!




*When I say "we", Klaus heroically drove us NINE freaking hours from Hamburg to Munich!!!

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Day tripping

So the results of the poll are in - by a small margin, "get off your lazy backsides" and head to both Gouda and Delft was the narrow winner... However, (and this is a learning experience in using polls), by the time the poll closed, we only had one full day left in Rotterdam!! Bad planning on my part - true, but consistent with the go-with-the-flow theme of this trip... Anyway, I make the rules here, so there!

Taken together, the poll results overwhelmingly voted for at least one day trip, sooo... we spent our last day in Rotterdam heading out of town to...





Delft!! See what i did there - almost gotcha! Turns out Delft had plenty of Gouda for sale, so in some (very) small way, we got to experience a bit of Delft and a bit of Gouda!

Turns out Delft is only a 12 minute train trip from Rotterdam Central station - so we walked for 45 minutes to the Central Station and then hopped on a train to Delft for a couple of hours of wandering aimlessly. I was hoping for a cute little, traditional Dutch town to meander through - and Delft delivered. Rotterdam was all but destroyed in WWII so there's not much of that Dutch village feel there. But Deflt had it in spades - houses on the main canal built in 1505, Johan Vermeer's house, ancient bridges and cobblestones... see for yourself:


















There was an Old Church and a New Church (both really old) and an impressive looking City Hall. It was also oddly deserted.... the main shopping strip had a reasonable crowd, but there rest of the canals/ streets in the middle of town were completely empty - which was a bit weird. It was as if there is some secret rule that no-one may visit Delft on a Wednesday... but no-one told us! Still it was handy for taking photos. It actually reminded me of Utrecht, where I spent a few months studying years ago.

We are now in Hamburg to attend Phil's cousin's wedding and 50th birthday party - which is tonight! I'll let you know how a German wedding goes...


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The rain in Rotterdam

This is a pretty misleading title - the rain in Rotterdam - because for the most part we have been treated to some pretty stunningly good winter weather so far!

We've now spent 5 days in Rotterdam and today is the first day we've decided to stay in because it's been pretty much non-stop pissing down with rain since the moment I opened my eyes (ie 9.40) til now (ie lunchtime). Our little loft apartment is actually the perfect place to spend a quiet morning - the bed and couch are comfy for reading/ blogging/ watching TV* and the four skylights keep the place flooded with light, even on the dreariest day.

But let's not dwell on the rain. Our last few days have been spent wandering the city on foot in (mostly) glorious sunshine and temperatures of around 8 degrees. Turns out, Rotterdam is a pretty cool city. Wiki tells me that Rotterdam has a population of about 600,000, which is certainly not a small town, but not a big city either. From what I've seen, I'd say it's definitely punching above its weight.

I mentioned in an earlier post that we had selected Rotterdam based on 4 criteria - not too far (from Hamburg), easy to navigate, not too cold and not too pricey. Not too far was a big tick before we'd even arrived (5 hours by train from Hamburg). The others required some investigation, but I think I can now confirm that we're good on all fronts.

For late Feb/ early March, the weather has been as good as you could hope for. The city is actually also Europe's largest port, so yeah, there's a lot of water here, which means some icy winds blowing across the city, But even then, it's been comfortable to walk in all day, especially with the sun shining down.

It's been incredibly easy to navigate, partly because the streets are made for walking - there are zebra crossings absolutely everywhere. There is also great public transport which is very easy and convenient, with conductors - remember those? - on every tram so you can buy a ticket onboard. It's not super cheap, but seems decent value for the service (3 euro for a one way trip).

But it's also easy to navigate because the Dutch are just so freaking nice! Yesterday, we went to the movies, and asked the attendant if she spoke English, apologising that we didn't speak Dutch. She gave us a huge smile and said "I'll do my best" and then spoke to us in perfect English, of course, because it's the Netherlands and pretty much everyone does that. She could've been a dick about it - but wasn't, and that's pretty much been my experience of almost every person I meet in the Netherlands every time I visit.

As for the pricey aspect - it's still western Europe. The Netherlands has adopted the Euro, against which the AUD is not especially thriving. But I am currently drinking a bottle of Dutch winterbier which 8.5% (hey, it's lunchtime), which comes in a six pack for under $8. And it's delicious! I say f--- you, Australia, as I drink my delicious 1 euro bottle of beer-wine!!

So what is there to do in Rotterdam? The Guardian has rather presciently published an article today - "Top ten alternative city breaks in Europe" focusing on great value city break, and of course, Rotterdam is on the list. How close are our finger to the pulse, people?? If you're interested, you can find the article here http://gu.com/p/467ye/sbl. The article focuses on Rotterdam's architectural credentials, which are impressive. It's a very design-looking city - from beautiful modern bridges to epic glass skyscrapers, even the train station is a masterpiece, it's a cool city to just wander around. There are some amazing museums (apparently - I'm not anti museum, but it has to be one I'm dying to see to spend a day on it, particularly on a 10 month trip) and awesome markets (more below).

So far we've spent some of our time walking around our own, very local neighbourhood. On Saturday, we hit the weekly market at Afrikaanderwijk, which looked a lot like a smaller Dandenong market. Full of locals with shopping trolleys and incredible bargains like 4 avocados for a euro and whole smoked mackerel for 2.50 euro**. It felt like a super local market and was great to see what regular people get up to on the weekend here.

We've also checked out a couple of other markets - the very hipster Fenix food factory farmers market, run by 7 businesses selling coffee, cheese, artisanal cold meats (they even have their own cold room), brewery (with 20 local beers on tap!), juice// fruit shop and bakery, cider producer, potato merchant (with frites, of coures) and more. You can sign up for a brunch or lunch plate that has a sampling of each item and it was definitely a hip place to be (judging by the proliferation of beards and oversized glasses on the hipster customers). Anyway, because I have no sense of irony, I loved it with abandon. If you're ever visiting it's in a huge warehouse in Katendrecht, which also has a great coffee shop (Paul's posse - selling coffee, not soft drugs) and loads of other cafes/ restaurant. We've already been twice and I want to go back again for a final beer before we leave!!

We also visited the new Markthal, which is a huge, indoor foodie market in a giant dome that opened a few months ago. It was insanely packed on Saturday, which I guess, is not surprising. It was a lot like the foodie section of Vic Market without any of the other fresh produce. So kind of pricey, but worth a look for the architecture of the place and surrounding buildings alone. Hey, they sold meat in paper cones, I was impressed!!

We also stumbled in our random wanderings in what looked like the centre of cool in Rotterdam - the Witte de Withstraat. Basically, a street filled with cool bars, upmarket hamburger joints (including the home of the best hamburger in all of the Netherlands 2015) and design stores/ art galleries. It's down the road from the museum district (and beautiful museum park) and also houses Rotterdam's self-proclaimed coolest hostel, King Kong (it does look awesome - but seriously I'd rather have my own private loft for half the cost!) We had lunch at a place called Warung Mini specialising in Indonesian food and I had a pretty awesome chicken soup for $6 - highly recommended.

So the weather has finally dried up a little, and it may be time to venture outside for the first time today... I have noted the results of the poll- at this stage, "get off your lazy backsides and go to both" Gouda and Delft is in the lead. Although, due to the rain, we really only have one full day left in the Netherlands, so it's up to the weather report tomorrow. Whichever looks warmer/ drier between Gouda and Delft wins! I'll let you know how we go.

Some pics for your amusement below:

A repurposed warehouse in Katendrecht:




Artisanal bakery at Fenix Food Factory Farmers Market



The Erasmus Bridge



Beautiful museum park



The impressive Markthal



Happy travellers!!



* Despite our host proclaiming that we have "more than 200 channels on the sattelite", we have managed to get 3 - BBC and... nothing else in English! We do have an internet connection that more than makes up for it though...

** Can you tell I can't find the euro symbol on my ipad??

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Strijensestraat,Rotterdam,The Netherlands

The GOMP

There is something strange that happens to all of us when we travel, but not the same thing... What I mean by this is we all have a reaction to travel and it's not always super predictable. Some people become more relaxed and less organised, others go into super planning mode; some suddenly become prepared to try a food they've never heard of, others are more comfortable in the KFC zone.

I absolutely love to travel - I can't recall a trip I didn't like (save, perhaps for a couple of road trips around country Victoria in my youth - Benalla, I'm talking to you!!) I think one of the reasons I love it is because it forces me to slow down and focus on one thing at a time - where does the train depart from? How do we buy a ticket? How do I say "one coffee please" in Dutch. It's almost a bit meditative...

And I love travel despite the fact that I ALWAYS get sick at some point, that I ALWAYS have a bad reaction to drinking new water, that I ALWAYS loathe the actual travel part of travel (I get so stressed on the trip to the airport, it's almost comical - these days I just take my passport out of my bag and stare at it for the whole trip!!).

Something strange also happens to Phil when we travel. If you read my last travel blog that I kept in 2011, you will be familiar with the concept of Phil's sometime travel persona, the GOMP - or Grumpy Old Man Phil (see what I did there). The GOMP pops out from time to time, almost as if by magic, to decree something truly curmudgeonly. Phil absolutely delights in this persona (he has told me many times that he can't wait to actually BE old, so he can fully embrace the grumpy old man inside).

I have learned to embrace the GOMP aspect of travel, partly because the GOMP is hilarious, but mostly because the GOMP is part grumpy old man, part superhero who stops me from falling into ditches and being run over by trams when I'm not looking...

Anyway, I am moved to share the GOMP moments with you from time to time to share the hilarity, and so I don't have to suffer alone. So here's a super quick catch up of GOMP moments so far:

- Instructing me not to put a (whole, uneaten) apple in my handbag at the train station because "you'll just get apple juice all over your bag" (huh??? has this ever happened to anyone, ever???)

- Then, when I did finally eat the apple, holding a magazine under my chin so "the juice doesn't squirt everywhere" (yup, like a grandpa)

- Upon my offering an earbud on the train to listen to something upbeat, recoiling in abject horror because the "music is too loud - turn it down, you'll hurt your ears". (It was almost like being at the Classic cinema with all the oldies!!**)

Yesterday's nugget was telling me that I could only spend €4 at the supermarket for dinner because we blew the budget on pancakes for lunch!! When I pointed out that we bought lunch using the remnants of his salary packaging card, which sits outside the budget, GOMP says "no, you have €4."

I spent €22...

It's gonna be an interesting year!!

** that one is just for you, Lee.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad