The World is a Book

Writing about: Family Travel, kids, places, food…

Month: December 2018

Amazing Arnhem

December 31, 2018 / / 0 Comments

We had a house swap in Arnhem which is an hour or so west of Amsterdam. One great thing about house swapping is that we get to visit places that we wouldn’t have thought of or are not on the tourist track. We love Holland so were happy to try out a new area and this one did not let us down. Arnhem is delightful. It’s a very green city with lovely trees everywhere, parks, bike trails (naturally), and rivers. Plus there are some great museums and nature parks.

We spent a day at the huge Netherlands Open Air Museum. There are 40 or more houses/barns that have been brought in to show Dutch life through the centuries. We really learned a huge amount about farming and historical pieces that we weren’t aware of before. The weather was amazing that day too and perfect for wandering around or taking the trolley that trundled the perimeter of the park.

http://www.openairmuseum.nl/good-to-know/

Another day we went to the Royal Burgers’ zoo which is really top notch. It has loads of domes that create their own environment such as jungle or desert. It’s a full day to see it all.

https://www.burgerszoo.com/

We also loved the The Kröller-Müller Museum art museum which is located in the middle of a national park (De Hoge Veluwe National Park). Again, gorgeous weather and driving around the forest was incredible. I wish we had time to have walked (or you can rent bikes) there as the paths looked lovely. The art museum holds the second largest number of Van Gogh pieces in the world and has some lovely collections including Picasso, Seurat, Monet, and Mondriaan. There is an outdoor sculpture garden too that is the largest in Europe. A day wandering around this itself is needed.

https://krollermuller.nl/en/unique-in-every-season

Then we also visited the WWII museum which is extremely well done. The immersive areas with noise and flashing “bombs” are intense but memorable. Arnhem was the site of a big battle and subsequent movie so this museum remembers all of this. It was a good expansion after just coming from Dachau.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g188568-d3961555-Reviews-Arnhem_War_Museum-Arnhem_Gelderland_Province.html

We ran out of time and did not get to wander along the river and cafes in the downtown but that area looked great so I hope we get to go back.

Dachau — Somber Day

December 31, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Charlotte has been reading a lot about WWII and wanted to go to a camp and Ann Frank’s house. We were not able to fit in Amsterdam this trip (during previous visits I thought she was too young) so in our drive across country, we stopped to visit Dachau which is just west of Munich. I was apprehensive about how intense this was going to be as I remember being very upset as a teen when I lived in Germany and our high school visited a camp. We were unable to take the free tour in English as it was full (get there very early for this) so had the individual audio recordings which actually were just fine and we were able to move around on our own pace. It was intense and horrifying but the focus in the camp is not on macabre but on peace and not letting this ever happen again. There are limited photographs of horrors and lots of places for reflection with worship centers from multiple religions. It is very simply laid out and maintained and has a feeling of calm reflection within – at least that is what I found.  The kids were OK too. Quiet and reflective and I found we were walking holding hands or hooking arms together.

I did not take many photos here as it did not feel comfortable. There were the tourists doing selfies at the gates (why@#^$&???) but mostly people were similarly quiet.

I really recommend taking older children and teens here as we all need to remember.

We stayed about 10 minutes away in a lovely little town called Olching. Our hotel was amazing – Hotel Schiller – and the people very friendly. Great onsite Bavarian restaurant with top notch food. Really enjoyed staying here.

New Forest Fun

December 31, 2018 / / 0 Comments

I love serendipitous finds in our travels and the New Forest was one of these. We were looking for somewhere for a couple of weeks so I was browsing google maps and remembered a great book I had on my childhood shelves – Children of the New Forest. I also remembered it was very horsey and in fact there are XX New Forest ponies that wander freely around this large national park. The houses all need gates or cattle grids and fences to stop the ponies (and pigs, cows, deer) from wandering in and destroying gardens but it’s fun to lookout and see 4 or 5 ponies just walking up the lane next to the house or having to drive around them as they stand in the roads.

We found a lovely “cottage” (3 story) in the village of Burley. Within a 5 minute walk we had 3 pubs, a shop, small shops and some restaurants. The village shop was quite fancy with sushi/homemade pies and condiments, and a local butchery with sausages and pheasant/duck/chicken etc. all from the surroundings farms. Great to be able to eat local foods like that. We sampled the pub food and were not disappointed either.

New Forest Cottage Holidays

The preserve has so many walking paths that it would take a couple of years to explore them all. Everywhere we went there were parking lots and hiking trails heading off.

Burley was about 20 minutes to the beach as well so we explored this coast. Some gorgeous small towns to wander the beach and eat fish and chips on. We had more glorious weather which was a pleasant surprise in October.

And close for a day’s visit to Stonehenge.

We had a great surprise from my brother and his wife who popped over from Dubai for the weekend too. It was fun wandering around a cider festival complete with old engines and traveler caravans – and sampling local ciders – with them.

Ponies and walking in the woods were our big favorites here. Charlotte is ready to move there!

Salzburg

December 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments

We were driving from Slovenia to Holland and so decided to spend a couple of nights in Salzburg. It is a lovely city and quite compact in terms of walking to most places of interest but hotels are ridiculously expensive.

Our treat was to book a dinner and concert in the city’s castle one evening. Fortress Hohensalzburg is an 11th Century castle that watches over the city. We took a cable car up to it and the views were lovely.

h

This was a very old building and shopping area and we were told the oldest McDonald’s in the world (well the building is). Given prices in the city, we may have resorted to it if we had stayed longer!

There was a lovely Octoberfest market going on. Nice during the day but evening was a bit iffy (I’ve never seen so much public urination!)

Croatia Beach Time

December 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Everything is so close in Europe that it is easy to jump into another country for a short trip or even lunch! We traveled from our house swap in Slovenia to the Istrian Peninsula of Croatia and fell in love with the country. The drive was very easy and no wait at the border or any problems taking Darwin in and out (this is out of Schengen zone so passports needed).

We stayed in a town called Rovinj which is an old fishing port. The streets are narrow and cobbled and quite steep in places leading up to the lovely old church of St Euphemia. We walked up one sunset and were lucky to see a Croatian wedding taking place complete with local musicians and dancing.

The beaches are pebbled and quite uncomfortable to sit on (locals sensibly had yoga mats) but the water is incredibly clear and blue. Gorgeous scenery.

The food was also amazing with great seafood, local sausages, olive oils, truffles (my favorite) and dare I say the pizzas and pastas rivalled if not beat out Italy.

The port area is filled with outdoor restaurants for boat and people watching and there are many places to stay within walking distance (important as limited parking). There are lots of boat trips offered as well but we ran out of time to talk any. Prices were very good for them.

Certainly a wonderful spot to visit.

Kranjska Gora – Wow

December 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Kransjka Gora

Some worldschooling families recommended this small town high in the Slovenian Alps to us and I am so grateful. This is one of those places you can easily imagine living for longer in and I sure hope to get back soon.

It’s a small town nestled in mountains with turquoise rivers flowing through. There are walking and bike trails all over so you can tackle gentle strolls to highly skilled climbing.

We found loads of restaurants of all types with great food (lots of Italian/pizza). The town has many ski slopes that look to start right next to the hotels and shops but thankfully it was summer for our visit.

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