Once upon a time in KyLuxembourg!

Where on earth is Luxembourg you might ask and up until recently, we'd be right up there asking with you; however after this week's visit it's difficult to see why it's not bombarded with tourists. Put simply, it is AMAZING and has nestled its way into our hearts and into my top three and Brad's top five.

What a place - it's easy to see why people say it's the place where fairy tales are made. The whole wee country is magical! Despite being Europe's third smallest country (56km wide and 87km long to be precise) the country has a lot to offer!

Before I get pulled into further Luxembourg Tourist Brochure speak, I'll start off with Friday evening when we left London. Despite us leaving work a little early we only just made our ferry, with Brad contributing very little to the conversation during the two hour journey to Dover. Only once we were through customs did he breathe a sigh of relief!

Once again we'd packed a wee picnic and we stuffed our faces, whilst drawing curious stares from everyone as we snorted away with laughter - most of which occured after I leaned over to sniff some moisturiser and Brad smashed my hand into my face causing invigorating body lotion to go right up my nasal passages! You can take the boy out of Morrinsville...

By now Brad's a pro and he navigated his away across France, Belgium and into Luxembourg with the aid of a five disc Pop CDN containing hits from the 90s. Absolutely hilarious and singing at the top of our lungs also had the added benefit of keeping us all awake, as with St Patrick's Day celebrations taking place the night before, none of us were exactly feeling fresh. Not to worry as by 2.30am we were safe and sound at our cosy wee hotel/ hostel right in the heart of L-bourg!

Our rooms were lovely, but better yet breakfast was included (and what a breakfast!) so after an absolute feast of fresh bread, cheeses and cold meats, we rolled our way outside for a look around. We crossed over one of Luxembourg's most famous sites, a huge old bridge, frolicked amongst daffodils in the valley, and even had a few poo stick races!

We then stumbled across a gem of an old market selling antiques, including war medals and even a Nazi brooch! This was closely followed by a food market, in which he decided to have a sit down and stuff our face with beautiful European cakes – each one looked like a work of art. After we’d recouped our energy levels we hit the cobbled streets once again, eager to soak up the sites.

Luxembourg City is listed as a Unesco World Heritage site and we spent hours exploring its beautiful valleys, old buildings and fortresses hidden in the rocks – it defies belief and is beyond breathtaking. We really got so some amazing things and words just simply can’t do it justice – you could wander aimlessly for weeks and still be overwhelmed. We also saw a cute wee beaver swimming down the river – not quite world heritage, but it drew a few squeals of delight all the same.

Naturally after our big hike we were in need of some sustenance and after stumbling across a wee Irish bar on a canal, we couldn’t help but go on inside for a cheeky cider and a few too many bowls of fries, before hitting the road again in exploration.

We got back to our hotel around 7ish after stopping to stock up on wine for the year. Luxembourg and France is very good for wine, not to mention beyond cheap, so every time we do a road trip we always come back with more than a few bottles.

After a few minutes rest, we hit the road again, this time in search of a delicious restaurant to provide us with food to satisfy all – no mean feat when you consider we were all craving something different. After an hour’s stroll in the cold spring air, we stumbled across a gem, only to find out they couldn’t squeeze us in. Not to worry as after strolling around for another half hour we returned to find our table ready and waiting. The food was beyond delicious and we scoffed it down like utter scavengers, reaching across to each others’ plates and then back again, which drew a few stares from the locals, who were far more demure! We eventually reached our limit and got back to the hotel at around midnight – utterly stuffed, but already dreaming of the delicious breakfast we knew was awaiting us.

The next day we hit the road at 10am en route to visit the rest of Luxembourg, which given the size of the place, is easily done in a day! Philly has prepared an itinerary for us and our first stop was Etternach, an ancient old town of Abbeys and more delicious cakes, éclairs and Brad’s favourite – a cream horn (haha). Rolling on to Vianden, which we had read to be ‘straight out of a fairytale’, we were met with a gothic castle, towering on a hill overlooking a small river town in the valley below. Needless to say the car had pulled over to the side of the road and we were taking photos within seconds. We decided to head into the castle and spent an hour or so exploring the endless nooks and crannies, before heading back into the town for more picture postcard moments.

Our next and final stop in Luxembourg was Clervaux, which is an ancient market town, adorned by a huge abbey – albeit a tad creepy one. After navigating Augustus (the car) up a tiny, twisting road in which side plummeted off a cliff, we arrived at our destination – the Clervaux Abbey. We waltzed on inside and had a good old geeze around, before we left in fits of laughter after Kalem got too close to a statue and set off the alarm, much to the shock of people praying in the abbey. Of course as it’s dead silent, laughing was the worst thing you can do, so all we could do was flee, trying desperately to hold in the guffaws until we were well out of earshot.

Our drive back to Calais flew by and before we knew it, we were narrowly missing our ferry yet again and were once again, the very last people on the boat! Too much to see, so little time!

It was another perfect weekend, which saw us drive our way through five different countries – that’s the glory of Europe really. You can drive and simply cross an invisible line, only to be met with an entirely different culture and language when you stop at the service station.

Next trip, Brussels in two weeks time, so until then – Au revoir mon famille!

xx

You couldn’t Copenhagen

Well our first visit to Scandinavia didn’t disappoint and we had a lovely weekend in Copenhagen with Morgan, Brett, Philly, Nat, Kayla and Jess. We love this fleeting weekend trips and it’s now second nature to jet off to a completely different country for the weekend and we barely think twice about how lucky we are, although we’re trying not to take it for granted as we know that when we are back in New Zealand, it’ll be back to weekend visits to Hamilton, rather than Europe!

We set off on Friday night out of Heathrow and after a disgusting dinner at TGI Fridays (a truly tragic chain of deep fried American food) we were excitedly sitting in our seats as we lifted out of London with Scandinavian Air, on to the blonder pastures of Copenhagen, Denmark. After a quick flight, in which I spent the entire time sleeping with my mouth embarrassingly wide open (why does it always do that!?), while Brad and the girls chattered away excitedly, e touched down at around 11pm and navigated our way to the city centre using the metro – a much nicer experience than the London Underground and operated entirely by computer interestingly enough.

Our hostel wasn’t the nicest, but it’s nice central location and breakfast of meat, cheese and biscuits, saw us putting a positive spin on Hotel Jorgesen, so off we set Saturday morning, ready to experience everything Copenhagen had to offer. The weather smiled on us that weekend and while it was freezing, 0 degrees and all that jazz, it was also sunny and we spent the weekend oohing and aahing as we felt our Vitamin D levels rise.

Our first stop was the beautiful Botanic Gardens, followed by the Royal Gardens, which is home to the monarchy of Denmark. The gardens were home to plenty of x-rated statues, as well as opportunities for the boys to torment the girls by pushing them out onto lakes and fountains which had iced over! We spent the entire day wandering through the beautiful city centre and around the canals, followed by a harbour side walk to the home of the famous Little Mermaid statue.

For those of you that don’t know, Copenhagen was home to Hans Christian Andersen who wrote many of the famous fairytales, including the Little Mermaid, the Emperor’s New Clothes, the Tin Soldier and my favourite, the Ugly Duckling! As the Little Mermaid was based in Copenhagen, there is a famous statue of her in the harbor (which is one of the most photographed statues in the world did you know!) so not to be outdone, we walked out to her and got our token photographs as well. She was quite small which lead some of the others to coin her ‘the world’s most overrated statue’, but I think she was quite pretty- but that might just be due to my love of the Disney film!

After a long day’s wandering, we had built up quite an appetite and apart from stopping for Danish pastries and cake at this beautiful little boutique down a cute little alley, we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Don’t feel sorry for us though, as we did have a good couple of cakes, pastries and scones each! By overwhelming consensus, we made our way back to the famous canal, via the old Denmark military barracks, to stuff our faces with all things Danish! On recommendation we all ordered the traditional Danish open sandwiches, alongside a local beer. The open sandwiches weren’t anything to write home about and like all things European, they were nice enough, but just a little bit odd!

After our Danish feast we hopped along to the next bar where we had another drink, before leaving to wander back to our hostel. We had decided to hit an ice bar that night, which is exactly as it sounds – an entire bar made from ice, complete with glasses, and as we had to book in we were on a tight schedule. After picking up a few supplies from the supermarket, namely chips, chocolate and beer, we had a quick few drinks at home before setting off in search of icier pastures! The ice bar was absolutely fantastic and a real experience – they provide huge ponchos and mittens and you can generally only stay in for half an hour on account of the cold. We managed a good hour and a half before we had to leave. We toughed it out for as long as possible as we were getting free drinks – the Danish bartender took quite a liking to our Jess, which was great for the rest of us as we reaped the benefits. I don’t think Jess was too upset though as she was rather sad to leave, but alas, the cold got to us eventually and we sadly said goodbye. Like its Nordic sister Iceland, Denmark seems to love its hot dogs as well so our trip home was via one of the thousand hot dog stands you see littered around the streets.

Natalie and Morgan weren’t too fussed on the ice bar experience as they had done something similar in Stockholm, so they stayed at the hostel while we iced about. We were all planning on going out afterwards, but we had such an epic night at the ice bar we were all funned out afterwards, so they hit the town solo, while Brad and I had a good old fashioned sleepover with Philly, Jess and Kayla. After a restful night’s sleep, or so we thought, we awoke to the glares of the girls who were exhausted after the extreme lack of sleep on account of Brad’s snores. It seems I’m immune to it after all these years!

Sunday saw us donning our exploring hats once again and hitting the streets, via Tivoli Gardens – an old-fashioned theme park right in the city centre. Imagine our devastation when we learned it was closed until April, which is when they deem the tourist season to start. To top it all off we couldn’t go on a harbour tour either given the canals were frozen over. Not to worry though as we ended up stumbling across a huge Lego store (Denmark is the home of Lego don’t you know) and feeling as if we were five years old again as we all pushed and shoved our way in front of each other to get the good Lego pieces. If that wasn’t exciting enough, we then stumbled across a Willy Wonka style candy store, which sold every type of candy you could imagine – including Burger King Onion Rings flavour chips, which are disgusting by the way.

It was here that the girls and the boys split up, with Brad and Brett opting for the Irish pub to watch the Man United game which had just started, while the girls went in search for food, stumbling across a buffet restaurant with food slightly below par, but our focus was quantity rather than quality!

Our last few hours were spent wandering through the city centre, eating hot dog after hot dog, and navigating our way back to the airport using Copenhagen’s dream metro system (I swear, it’s as exciting as a ride at Rainbow’s End!). Whilst we waited for our plane, we decided to have a competition in which we all have to plan a weekend away for some time this year, the only criteria being that you cannot take any leave, meaning our already jam-packed travel schedule just got busier. Luxembourg, Brussels, Dublin, Liechtenstein, Reims, Lake Como, Verona, Genoa, Innsbruck, Krakow, Lisbon, Oslo, Greece, Turkey, Stockholm, Latvia, Ljubljana, Lake Bled, Helsinki, Tallinn, Venice and of course, 101 weekends away still in the pipeline. Basically we’re booked up until September – I hope you don’t have any plans for winter, as there’s going to be a lot of blog action to come!

Love to all and missing you each and every day.

Us

xxxx