My World of Travel and Food

Wednesday, 18 January 2017

Hoar Frost

This is the most spendid winter sight. When we arrived at Signeville on 28 December the whole area was set with hoar frost. I'd never seen this before.

My morning run was a spectacle. It is like the best of every world. The white crisp look of snow without the hassle. Absoltuely breathtaking. I was rather in awe.

Tuesday, 17 January 2017

We were busy telling her on the plane to Frankfurt the delights of being a Kiwi when travelling. The Kiwi passport is the best. It just is. And we are very lucky indeed to have an item most would do unknown things to get. As a birth right.

On arrival our boring blabbing on was proven! They do a passport check exiting the plane these days in Frankfurt and previously we'd been waved through as soon as they see the cover. This time was no exception. They stop everyone else and have a good old squizz and for us not even a second glance. How lucky are we.

Final day in Dubai

Nguyet was back after being away in Vietnam for 2 months. She did not know Katya was here. She arrived with a load of food to cook for us. A special thing her and her family had spent 6 hours on in Vietnam. It was sticky rice with a sort of egg filling which had been steamed in banana leaf and she sliced and fried. Well anything fried is good. Can't say it tasted particularly Vietnamese as such and we couldn't eat much of it (I hid the rest in the fridge until she was gone and threw it out, a bit too oily) but what a treasure she is. So lovely and sweet and kind. It was perfect timing for her to meet Katya. A great final day memory.

And while Katya was shaving off items from her overweight bag and trying to fold everything in teeny tiny parcels in order to squeeze everything back in (note to future self, if you come with too much you're gonna leave with too much. Guaranteed!). It was so cute and funny. Anyway I digress, while she was doing that and Andy was fixing her bag because the lock broke, I cooked a vege dinner.

We had 3 Christmas crackers left. They had stuff in them too. A cork screw, a little box thing (not sure) and a teeny weeny tape measure.

Crap photos but entree of watermelon, feta, lemon and mint salad. Main of cauliflower done too may ways to remember.

Dessert (no photo) was candied chestnuts which we made on return and lemon ice cream. Very delicious indeed.

Back to Signeville then Dubai

And back to our little pad for 3 nights before heading to Frankfurt airport.

We arrived to see the hoar frost gone and a dusting of snow. 3 days earlier and the snow was heavier and our neighbour said 2 days prior it was impossible to get in our out of our little steep road due to ice. Good timing, that would have been a bummer!

I've posted these before but this is what we arrived back to. I know, not much but I was excited anyway.

We had picked up a couple of things in Colmar for dinner and I headed off for a much needed run after getting a load of washing on.

Andy lit the fire, we cooked up our dinner and settled into a lovely relaxing candle and fire lit cosy night. Pretty exhausted in honesty. My nose and lip and head and knees and big toe were still very sore from the fall. Katya's knee was doing OK but still a bit sore. Andy's got a dodgy ankle. We ate a lot of butter and croissant and cake (did I mention I love cake??) and rich food but we had a really amazing time.

Katya was incredible company. More than I could have imagined. She's an astonishly awesome individual and we were lucky to have this time together.

We headed back to Frankfurt airport early on the 12th Jan to find enroute our flight had been delayed and we decided to do a side trip which took far too long and we only just made it to check in on time! That would have been rather embarassing, the first ever check in we miss is with our neice!

Back to the apartment at 0215am. Trip done, and what an incredible one it was.

Colmar, France

Still in the Alsace, Colmar is the largest of the wine route towns and the most touristed (usually). It gets particularly busy during the Christmas market season which ends just before Christmas. The place gets absolutely packed but with good reason as it is transformed from a beautiful Alsacian town to a Christmas fairyland. But today that season had ended (thankfully) and we could wander in peace. I didn't take many photos. Not due to the lack of beauty of the place, just that we'd done our dash by this point. Kindof wanted to get back to Siggie!

Eguisheim, France

Just before leaving the bed and breakfast madame asked us where we were headed. We said Colmar. She said go to Eguisheim. It's her favourite. So we did. As it turns out Andy and I had been before but it was not in the snow. A perfect specimin of an Alsacian half timbered town. Nobody around. A cold, quiet, snowy morning. Beautiful.

Yeap that wall is not quite straight you get that in these old buildings!

Mulhouse, Alsace France

I had once again booked a bed and breakfast in Mulhouse, this one was Peonia at home

It is about 10 minutes walk from the centre, just over the bridge in a vast and stunning villa.

This is the one place in the trip I didn't check out the layout of room and went with a 2 bedroom 'family room'. Thinking if it is really small it's only for one night. As it happened we were the only guests. They gave us our own rooms and it's a good thing. The family room was small. Well Katya's little bedroom was and the shared bathroom TINY. Whew.

As it turned out this is a sensational place (as long as you're not in the family room with anything other than a baby or toddler). As I said, we had a shared lounge for the 3 of us exclusively which we did not have time to use. The breakfast was downstairs in the living area/kitchen complete with grand piano and objects of art. Art was everywhere.

Mulhouse is in the centre of the Alsace region. More German ruled than French over the ages, it's hard to remember one is in France except for the language and signs. The food is Germanic, the buildings are Germanic and it just has a German feel. I love the Alsace region. Some of the best rieslings and pinot gris in the world come from this part of France and the towns are picture perfect gorgeous.

We went out into the snow for a wander through dark deserted Mulhouse before dinner. When I say it was deserted I mean it. Sunday night in Mulhouse in January. Nobody. But it was very beautiful, all lit and snowy. We found a good (and rather busy) casual restaurant. Had a decent tarte flambe each and dossed down in our lovely bnb.

These people are monied. And generous. The hostess who I did not know the name of was incredible. Her cooking beyond reproach. The sheer generosity of the breakfast the next morning utterly gobsmacking.

Home made jams, cakes and panetone. The standout for me was the pinot noir jam. Complete with pips. Unreal. I am going to make some when I stumble across some pinot noir grapes in France sometime which I will. They sell that stuff there. I was managing to eat cake. And tarte flambe the night before. Two of my favourites. Whew!