Sunday 6 March 2011 Going down to breakfast each morning has been a great way to start the day: the room is tastefully decorated, we've had good company, and we've really enjoyed the soothing classical music (in stark contrast to the 'worst of the 80s' that we were subjected to in Vianden). This morning, our hostess Annemie suggested that since we like walking, we might like the short hike (7km each way) to the nearby mediaeval village of Damme. This is where the ships to Brugge used to enter the canal system before the sea channel (the Zwin) silted up. Most of the walk is along the big canal (the former Reie River) - straight (apart from one tiny bend) and flat - certainly an easy one! Once out of Brugge/Bruges, the path is local traffic ... read more

Thursday 3 March 2011 John was very boring today and worked until about 2.30pm when Ali 'dragged him out' for a last wander around Vianden. We sauntered along the river and around the few streets, climbed up to the belfry for some more great views over the town, found (finally) the little cloister behind the Trinitarian Church (a monastery was founded here in 1248), and stopped for afternoon tea (which turned into pre-dinner drinks!) at the very cool "Cafe Ancien Cinema". The cafe has a film and music theme going on (e.g. the menu-covers are reproductions of old LP album-covers), with jazz/soul music playing and, hand-written on a huge blackboard was an excerpt from a conversation between James Bond and Felix Leiter about making Martinis (from Casino Royale???). It was a bit of a gem among ... read more

Tuesday 1 March 2011 Today was a day of castles! We spent three hours exploring Vianden castle in the morning. As we mentioned last time, the restoration of the castle is ongoing and they've done a pretty good job thus far (there was a pretty serious concrete pour going on while we were there). By the look of the 3D models on display, there was an awful lot of the castle missing by the time they started restoring. It's not been an easy task by the look of it - the castle has had many incarnations, and it looks like they've had to make some difficult decisions. For example, the chimney of one of the kitchens could not be fully restored because they also wanted to restore a bedroom from a different era which was located ... read more

Saturday 26 February We spent the morning grazing on very French food: Pims jaffa cakes (eat your heart out Robert and Maxine!), caramel tarts, baguette with ham & salad, baguette with raspberry and rhubarb jam (delicious, you should try it, if you haven't), berry tart and apple and rhubard tart - all with coffees! What a lazy morning, but hey, it was Saturday! As this was our last day in Paris, we decided to just wander around some areas that we haven't previously seen. We started off just down Rue Saint-Denis in another of the Passages that we like to explore: Passage du Grand Cerf. Then, being lazy-bones, we caught the Metro to the Palais Garnier-Opéra. After looking at the outside we decided to head inside - however, 30 seconds in the queue was too much ... read more

Thursday 24 February Finally! John managed to get up and go to the boulangerie for breakfast supplies: Croissant, Soleil de Abrigot (yummy apricot pastry) and Pain au Chocolat. This was followed (not long after) by a slab of pate (bloc de foie gras) and beers for 'elevenses'. John caught up on a bit of 'work' work in the morning so we didn't get out and about until 2:30. We were keen to revisit our 'old stomping ground' - an area called The Marais, where we stayed last time we were in Paris. We wandered the streets, soaking up the atmosphere and checking out lots of very cool historic buildings and the like. It seemed busier than last time and there were noticebly more US and English visitors. One of the famous streets in the area is ... read more