October- Barb and Don's visit and Bath

In October, Meade's parents, Barb and Don, came to visit for a couple weeks. Don traveled up to Edinburgh to visit a cousin, while we all went to Bath for the weekend. With its grand terraces, lofty townhouses of honey-colored stone, and one of the world's finest Roman spas, it is no hard to see why the whole city has been named a World Heritage Site by Unesco. We did an abbreviated tour of the baths (not the most captivating thing for 4 year olds, but they did great) and walked to the Circus, a magnificent circle of 30 houses. We stayed in a loft of a family's farmhouse (pictured) and enjoyed the best farmhouse bread and honey we have had since being in England.

On our way home, we stopped at Stonehenge for a brief walk around and also visited a Wild Animal Park.

For the rest of their visit, we mainly spent time at home with the grandparents thoroughly enjoying Linnea and Aaron.

Snow!

It has been freezing cold here for the last several days and finally snowed a bit (about 2 inches) last night. We had a snow day today and looks like another tomorrow. We went sledding on a hill a short walk from our house with the neighbor girls. Lots of fun.

Legoland

We had always told the kids that we would go to Legoland when mommy gets a job in England. So, after my first week of work at a local hospital, we finally went. It was the last weekend that they were open until next spring, frigid temperatures and 1/3 the price- perfect for us.

Halloween

For Halloween, Aaron dressed up as a pirate and Linnea as a witch. Meade, Aaron and Linnea's school has a Halloween event, which is called "Boot to Boot." The kids play organized games led by older children in the gym followed by trick or treating from "boot to boot" in the parking lot. As you may know, in England, the trunk of the car is called the "boot." Why I really don't know. It is an extremely efficient way for kids to get loads of candy in a very short time period, that is for sure. Linnea and Aaron loved it!

Licensed to practice!!!

After 14 months of frustration and waiting, I was finally awarded "full registration with a license to practice" by the General Medical Council in late October. The reasons for the tremendous delay were both my fault (not understanding the system) and (mainly) their fault in doing a very poor job of directing me down the correct pathways. The system for registering doctors here is a nightmare of a bureaucracy; the people in it do not even understand it.

Croatia

Meade's Aunt Lynn came to visit from California in mid-October, which coincided with the kids’ and Meade’s mid-term break. For this holiday, we decided on Croatia, a country that we did not know very much about apart from the war there in the early 90s and having heard from others that it is a spectacular place. Turns out this is an understatement.

We stayed in an apartment in Cavtat, a small town across the bay from Dubrovnik, which was a great place to stay, as it was out of the hustle of Dubrovnik and its cruise ships, and the ladies who run the apartment transported us to/from the airport, picked us up in town when needed, arranged a rental car, brought us treats like pickled sardines and home-made olives, gave us tourist advice, and generally made us feel like home. It was up a hill about ½ mile from the beach overlooking a pool and the entire Adriatic coast. As it was easy to get around by bus and our hosts, we did not need a car, which was also great.

Highlights of the trip include:

Swimming in the Adriatic. While a bit chilly, the water is crystal clear and is bluer than any water we have ever seen. Apparently, seen from space, it is the bluest place on earth.

A day trip to Dubrovnik by boat. Dubrovnik is known as “the jewel of the Adriatic” (Lord Byron) and “paradise on Earth” (Bernard Shaw). Approaching this grand old city from the water was extraordinary. As you can see from the photo (first photo), it is an impressive sight-- the city is surrounded by ancient city walls that look out onto the endless shimmer of the Adriatic Sea. We walked all around the city walls in (for October) scorching heat, followed by a reward of ice cream for the hot and tired kids. We enjoyed a meal of mussels, risotto, and calamari (standard fare there) in a scenic plaza on marble streets surrounded by baroque buildings and local farmers selling grapa, olives, and fruit and veggies.

A day trip to Montenegro. Having no intention of visiting another country during our visit, or knowing much about it, we rented a car for a day and drove south to Montenegro. The drive there along the coast was spectacular and eerie, passing through war-torn and deserted villages as well as those still thriving. Once in Montenegro, things changed quite bit from Croatia. Being a member of the EU (Croatia is still not), and not having suffered the destruction during the war, Montenegro’s economy has been much stronger in the last 20 years, has more tourism, and is generally more frenetic. Felt a bit like Latin America. Armed with nothing but a hand-drawn map (that was not to scale) courtesy of our hosts and periodic torrential downpours, we really had no idea what we were getting into or where we were going. However, 10hours later we returned home having had one of the best drives of our lives. For part of the day we drove along a huge fiorded bay (Kotor Bay – largest fiord in Europe outside Scandinavia) with 3000 ft mountains rising straight from the sea. One of our stops included Kotor, a world heritage UNESCO city that like Dubrovnik, is walled and has nothing but stone streets and buildings, but unlike Dubrovnik is still a bit “ruined” and is sandwiched between this huge green bay and a steep mountain. Just above the city is a fortress accessed via a stone path built in the 13^th century that we ascended to give us views reminiscent of Princess Louisa Inlet in B.C. Another stop was Budva, another walled city, which is near to the “Montenegro Riviera” so while another spectacular walled city, was over-run with tourists. We watched the sunset over the Adriatic sipping a bit of wine while the kids played on the beach and we got ravaged by Balkan mosquitoes.

A day trip via boat to the Elafiti Islands. From just below our apartment, we boarded a 20 passenger wooden boat and spent 10 hours cruising north past Dubrovnik to a small chain of islands, three of which we visited. The day was sunny and warm, there was all you can eat fresh fish, and it was great to spend several house at sea. If mainland Croatia is two decades behind the rest of Europe, these islands belong to another century. Extraordinarily picturesque, unspoiled by money and tourism, and (like the rest of Croatia) villages that sit at the waters’ edge. Needless to say, a sailor’s heaven.

Food and Cafes. The food in Croatia, while not its best facet, suited us perfectly. Either large portions of meat (lamb, veal, pork or beef) cooked over a fire in rich sauces, or large portions of seafood (sardines, calamari, mussels, shrimp, and local fish). We often bought food from a local market or fishermen and cooked at home or ate in one of the fabulous cafes. The cafes are run by local families, have reasonable and fabulous food, coffee and wine, and most sit in either stunning plazas or right on the water’s edge where you are likely to see a portion of your meal swimming by directly below you.

First Day of School!

This week, Aaron and Linnea began school at ACS Egham, Meade's school. They are in the pre-K program. They had an orientation yesterday and a half day today. Both of their teachers are American (so Aaron will probably lose his English accent!) and very good. There are only nine children total in their class. They had a fantastic time today and very excited to be going to "Dada's school."

Camping in France

At the end of July, we headed down to France to camp for two and a half weeks. Our ultimate destination was Lyon, which is in southeastern France. Meade’s good friend from college, Bertrand, who is French, happens to be living in England with his family just 20 minutes from us. So, we spend time with him, his wife Yvonne and their 2 kids, Lu, age 3 and Etienne, age 6. They invited us to stay with them at Yvonne’s parents’ home in Lyon during their time there this summer.

We took the car ferry over the channel to Calais and from there went on to a campsite near Arras, which is in northern France. Campsites in France are quite different from what we are accustomed to in the U.S. It is common for the amenities to include a swimming pool (sometimes both indoor and outdoor), a games room, a restaurant and bar, and often, you guessed it, a bouncy house! Linnea and Aaron were quite pleased to discover that the first campsite had all of these.

Next, we went down to the Champagne region and in route visited the prosperous town of Epernay, the self-proclaimed capitale du Chamapge. We toured the Mercier Champagne House, which is the most popular brand of champage in France. The kids loved the cellar tour via train; we enjoyed learning about the production of champagne. We did not realize what a long and complex process it is, no wonder it is so expensive! We camped further south near the town of Langres. Langres is is an interesting place with its six towers and seven fortified gates. From there, we headed down into the province of Burgundy, where we spent the majority of our time. With its vineyards, rolling hills, and quaint villages, Burgundy is a gorgeous place. We visited the capital of Burgundy, Dijon, a beautiful city filled with lots of culture and history. We somehow did not get to try any of their famous mustard. We camped a couple nights at a lakeside campsite with a water slide, swimming pool and lots of sunshine. Aaron was quite daring and was the first to brave the huge water slide. Next we went down to Palinges, and camped at a lovely little site in which the owner treats every visitor as his own personal guest. Aaron and Linnea befriended two little Dutch boys in the campsite adjacent to ours, (who spoke no English and played with Aaron ad Linnea endlessly). However, the rain (which previously was just an intermittent visitor, mainly at night), thundered in and showed no signs of leaving soon, so we decided to head down to Lyon one day early and meet up with our friends, Bertrand and Yvonne and their family.

Yvonne’s family lives outside of Lyon in a big, country house with a huge garden and swimming pool. Yvonne's sister (who lives in the Dominican Republic) and her children were there as well, along with various other relatives that would pop in and out. Most of the family spoke some English, or at least Spanish, so we were all able to communicate fairly well. We set up camp in the backyard, as the house was pretty full, and we had grown to quite like our little tent home. Other inhabitants of the back garden included a couple of chickens, a kitten, a dog, a duck and a goose (why not?).

I would say that the main themes of our time there were relaxation, fellowship and food and drink. I have never eaten so well for so many days. Lunch and dinner were both two hour plus affairs, consumed under a big old tree adorned with white lights. The kids would eat a fairly leisurely lunch with us and then play as we continued on, and they were always asleep by the time wee sat down for dinner at 9pm or later.

Our meals generally involved: pre-meal- pastis (anise-flavored liqueur which is meant to stimulate the appetite), then wine (chosen specifically for the meal) and an aperitif (I love that word) followed by the main course and then salad. Next, they would pass around a platter of cheese (both soft and hard) along with baguette. Sometimes, instead of the platter, we enjoyed fromage frais with cream and sugar on top. Fromage frais is a very young cheese with a similar consistency to yogurt which they would buy from a dairy farm down the road. But that wasn't dessert, which generally consisted of dark chocolate or occasionally ice cream with liqueur on top, along with coffee. For me, it was exactly as I had always imagined French people eat, but possibly better. And, nope, they are not overweight......

A couple pounds heavier ourselves, we left Lyon to return to Palinges for a few more days of swimming in the lake, playing at the playground and trying to continue consuming as much good cheese, wine, baguettes, salami, and chocolate croissants as possible before returning to England. On the ferry back to Dover, Linnea and Aaron actually turned down baguette (which used to be a treat). I think they were ready to go home.