And New Year’s in Vienna

After our Christmas in London, we all packed up and on the 27th headed to Vienna where we stayed until the 1st. Vienna is a charming, beautiful city. It was cold of course, although no snow. And their Christmas markets were still up which was a treat. We had two Airbnb’s within a 10 minute walk of each other, just slightly outside of the city center. 

In a nutshell, here’s what we did:

• Explored the city center
• Walked around the Hofburg Palace
• Enjoyed warming up with hot chocolate and treats in little cafes
• Visited the Haus der Musik, an interactive sound museum. The highlight was a room where you could actually conduct an orchestra. The kids loved this.
• Went to mass at the beautiful Kirche St. Peter
• Caught a bit of the opera (Hansel & Gretel) which was being projected on a big screen outside the Opera house
• Ice skating near city hall
• Ring tour via the city tram
• And for NYE, Julie and family made an amazing dinner and later that night at midnight when the kids were already asleep, we enjoyed one of the best fireworks shows from our apartment window.

We really enjoyed ourselves although Elaine gave us a run for our money when it came to sleep. For about 3 nights in a row, she woke around 1am and was up for a good 2-3 hours. We eventually decided that she was probably over stimulated with all of the activities with her cousins and sister around. Of course it took us a couple of extremely sleep deprived nights to figure this out before we made any changes.

But all in all we still had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed Vienna.

Christmas in London

This year we decided to stay in London for Christmas and we were grateful to have my parents, my sister and her family and John’s mom and Michael join us.

Leading up to Christmas we got to enjoy a bit of the Christmas season here in London. It started with Josephine’s birthday at the end of November when we took her to the toy floor at Harrods to pick out a birthday gift. The store was already decorated for Christmas which gave it all a festive feel.

Then I took a day off of a work in early December and took Josephine to Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. She rode a few rides, we had sausage sandwiches and walked around a bit. It’s basically a giant fairground with a European Christmas market feel to it.

And we of course couldn’t let Christmas go by without a visit to Santa. We went back to Fulham Palace and on the day we went, it was even snowing! Both girls had no desire to sit on his lap of course and could barely get near him enough for a picture. They would sit next to Santa only if Mom and Dad were in it too!

Then before we knew it, my parents arrived followed shortly after by Aunt Bobbie and Uncle Andy who spent a weekend in London. I took that Friday off of work and Aunt Bobbie, my mom and I got dressed up and went and had proper English tea at The Savoy. This is something I had been wanting to try for a while and with my mom and my aunt being here, it was a perfect opportunity. The room was decorated for Christmas, we had a glass of champagne, a number of tea sandwiches with of course tea followed by some really lovely desserts. I absolutely loved this experience. It was just perfect.

We checked out the South Bank and the Christmas market near the South Bank center which is all along the river. The market was small but it was an area of London we hadn’t explored so much yet so that was fun.

And then shortly before Christmas Julie and John and family arrived. One of the evenings before Christmas our group split and Julie, my mom, me and the girls all went to Christmas at Kew while the boys and Linda went to a Fulham football match.

Christmas at Kew is Kew Gardens decorated with lots of Christmas lights. There’s a designated path you follow throughout the gardens that’s about a mile long. With little ones, that mile started to feel a bit long towards the end but we made it through and I’m glad we did it.

Then of course there was all the Christmas festivities and excitement with Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Santa visited and it seemed all the girls were good this year.

We really enjoyed spending Christmas at our home in London this year and it was all the more special having so much family with us. Another Christmas to remember!

New York, New York

Kristine and I were overdue for a girls weekend and chose NY as it truly is the best halfway point for me coming from London and her from San Francisco. So back in October we met on a Thursday and had a fabulous weekend in NY. In a nutshell we had rooftop drinks, randomly ran into a friend from SF (Sean Madison!), met up with our longtime friend Christian who lives there now, saw the 9/11 Memorial, did some shopping, got massages, had numerous drinks, walked through Washington Sq Park, ate pizza, took lunch to Central Park and had a blast in one of my all time favorite cities! And the bonus at the end was that I also got to see our friends from Paris, Jacalyn, Rio and their two cuties, who are living in NY. The last time I was there was with Nate in November 2010 and I hope it’s not that long before I go again. And of course a big thank you to Nate who stayed home with our girls while I got to go gallivanting around NY with one of my best friends!

France with Friends

Part 2 of our summer holiday found us going back to France. Louis and Keelin and family first came to London to spend a few days with us here and then we all headed to Nantes where our friends Jen and Nicolas were getting married in Nicolas’ home town.

We got to explore the main part of Nantes, have an amazing and authentic French dinner at Nicolas’ parents’ house and then enjoy the wedding kid free. Jen and Nicolas were so kind to arrange a babysitter for us so that we could relax and enjoy at least a few hours of the wedding. Congrats Jen and Nicolas!!

The next morning we were off with Louis and Keelin to St. Remy. We flew into Marseille and drove to an amazing villa in St. Remy where we then met up with Kristine and Aaron and family. This villa was quite massive to accommodate all of us so comfortably, complete with a swimming pool and tennis court. The kids had a blast with so much space to run around.

Over the course of the week we spent a day in the Rhone wine region, visiting Louis’ new favorite winery, Domaine de Marcoux, followed by a lovely lunch in the town of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. We drove into Avignon, visited the market and had lunch there. We relaxed at the villa, explored the cute little town of St. Remy and overall just enjoyed time with friends. The kids had a blast all together and with so much open space around the villa, they were free to roam and play without too much worry. We of course ate lots of cheese and baguettes and enjoyed French wine.

It was such a fun time...we swore we must do this again!!

San Sebastian

I will just preface this post with saying that I know that I’m way overdue. Especially being that it covers our summer holiday in September and we just finished Christmas. Life has been busy!

The time had finally come for part 1 of our summer holiday! We have always enjoyed taking vacation in September when the crowds are smaller and it’s cheaper but the weather is still good. And since this is the last year we can do this before Josephine starts school, we figured we’d take advantage one last time. The first week of September we were off to San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. It’s a place that we’ve talked about going ever since we moved to Europe plus it has been quite a while since we’ve been to Spain. So the perfect spot!

We flew into Bilbao and an hour drive later we were in San Sebastian. We kicked off our trip with a pinxtos tour (it’s the Basque region’s version of tapas). It had been recommended and was so worth it as we tried many different pinxtos including ones I know I wouldn’t have tried on my own. There was an amazing gambas one and even a few good ones with anchovies and we enjoyed them all with the typical wine, txakoli. We learned quite a bit and had amazing pinxtos from a variety of pinxto bars. A great way to start our week.

San Sebastian is ideal as it’s on the water with a big sandy beach but also has a cute little town with of course amazing food. The weather was better than expected so we spent a couple of days just down at the beach. It was Elaine’s first time putting her toes in the water and she loved the little waves! Josephine had a blast as well playing in the sand and chasing the waves.

We took a day to go explore Mount Igueldo. You take a funicular up the mountain and at the top you get amazing views of San Sebastian. There’s also a cute and old little amusement park at the top. We took a small boat ride that took you around the very edge of the mountain….amazing views indeed.

And on our other days we took time to just explore the city, and of course eat lots of pinxtos. It’s a great set up for those with kids because you essentially walk into a place (they are everywhere), pick out what you want at the bar, enjoy your selection with perhaps a beer or glass of wine and then you could be off to the next spot. We found it to really work well when you have kids that have only so much “sitting” time in them.

And that’s our trip in a nutshell. It was exactly what we were looking for...relaxing, beach, sun, food, wine, old town. We would absolutely go back!