Bye bye Malaga

We woke at 5:45 to walk the kids to the taxi stand on their way to the airport to Rome. All were tired, so hopefully, they can check into their hotel and have a long afternoon nap. We returned to the apartment and slowly packed, had tea and orange juice. When we moved into the apartment, I spied a Braun juicer and then had bought two 5 kilo bags of juicing oranges for 1€ each, and we had all enjoyed big glasses of French juice each morning.

At 7:30, we headed out into the still dark streets and had a lovely 30 minute walk to the train station, as the sun slowly came up. A lovely time of day to appreciate a very beautiful city.

Note how all the marble streets are clean and shiny. They are washed each night. For pushing the buggy or for Sal or Trin trying to navigate, it's way easier than the cobblestone streets that are so common in many of the other Spanish (or French) cities.

And finally the sunrise.

Off to Córdoba!

Malaga

We flew from Manchester to Malaga on Saturday morning after a lovely 60th celebration for our brother-in-law Mel. Stefan and Salvador met us at the airport and escorted us back by train. Malaga was warm, with a bit of wind. We have spent our time here with the kids, playing at the beach, walking to the parks and playing baseball in the square near their apt.

Babe Ruth look out!

HOME RUN!!!

On Sunday evening, we all went to a fabulous flamenco performance. The theatre was packed and Stefan and Hannah had arranged a boxed seat at the front for themselves and the boys. Trin watched the whole show, clapping and being delighted by the castanets, the dresses, the fast foot work and the music. Sal lost interest after 20 minutes, so watched a video on the ipad. Both boys were so well behaved and we were impressed that they were welcomed and not charged for a seat. Such a difference in acceptance of children here.

Les and I visited the Picasso museum. He was born around the corner from here and christened at the Church of Santiago, just a five minute walk away. We also visited the Museo Carmen Thyssen, which is a wonderful small museum of Spanish art from the last 160 years or so. Good interpretation and a good price. Love the seniors rates and I was delighted that they asked for ID ;-)

Today we had chocolate and churros with Stefan and Trin, while Hannah and Sal recovered from a bug, both feeling rather poorly. We later went to the cathedral

 and took note of the Spanish gold and silver:

Tomorrow we are off to Córdoba for the day and then to Madrid for three nights before returning to Montpellier. It's lovely to be in a very bright and sunny place.

Mind blowing coincidence

Les and I had a great afternoon, visiting the Pilkington Glass Museum, which also had as a special exhibit, a history of Les' school, Cowley School. Les' school.  Sarah Cowley, who left six scores and her home and money in her will, died 300 years ago. There were old school pictures to look at and bits and bobs of history to learn. For instance it was a Cowley school boy who was the sound engineer on the first talkie: Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer". Anyway, after an hour, I said to Les that I was now going to the main museum to learn about the history of St. Helen's town and glass production.  He joined me about 15 minutes later and was almost shaking.

So here's what happened.

As Les was pouring over the photos, an old guy with his two grandchildren (8 & 10) stood next to him to also look at the photos. And here's how the conversation went:

Old Man, to his grandchildren: see if you can find a Foster in the pictures.

Les: I'm Foster

Old Man: peering closely: Foster (then with eyes wide) Les Foster!!!

Les: yes and......

Old Man: I'm Ray Travies

And this was the same Ray that had been in the wedding party at Les' wedding in 1968, and that he hadn't seen since 1970!

Really, what are the chances?

So we'll spend some time with him on our return trip here in June.

We also watched some glass blowing. Fascinating. 

Toilets and traveling

What is it about public toilets when traveling? Today we have travelled by train from Montpellier, France to St. Helen's, England. In the brand new Montpellier train station, the fee was .50€ and the wash basin had cold water. On the train to Paris, lovely and fast (295kph), there was no toilet paper. In the Gare de Nord, while we waited for the Eurostar, the loos were white and sparkling, everything worked, including dryers, but there was no hot water. On the Eurostar train, one loo had toilet paper, but no soap or water and the one across the hall had soap and water but the dryer was broken. And then the one in The Rocket, the London pub where we had dinner, the latch on the door was broken, but everything else worked. But the Virgin train from London to Warrington Bank Quay had it all!! The three walls surrounding the toilet, were photograph walls of a balloon against a blue sky, a few clouds over a sea of red poppies. TP, hot water and the dryer worked and soooo clean!!

Funny how those things that affect daily functions are so noticeable when you spend a day "on the rails".

We're here now in St. Helen's and Mel was blown over when we walked in the door at 11pm, saying "Hiya, happy birthday". I love it when surprises work.

Our trip to Spain!

Our hosts last week, Eddie and Irene, in the small village of Arthez-de-Béarn, are most gracious and generous. We arrived on Sunday afternoon and our trip on Monday was to Hendaye, right in the south west of France, and the city where Noëlle and I started our camino in 2007. But in 2007, we didn't see this beach, as our route took us across to Irun, Spain.

This is the view looking toards Spain in the distance.

And looking the other way, the two rocks in the water are called "the twins".

We then took a little ferry boat, the size we have in the inner harbour in Victoria, with about 6 other people, over to Hondarribia, where we had coffee, walked around and saw the local Parador, and then had lunch. In our walk around, we saw a friend of Les'

Interior courtyard of the Parador and below is the interior of the hotel itself, with stairs up to the rooms. A lovely place, but one we clearly couldn't afford, although apparently they offer seniors' rates.

Irene and I started off with a creamed spinach with parmesan cheese which tasted sooooogood.

And you know you're in Spain when you get your wine in a juice glass and not a wine glass. I went on to have cod, as I love fish. Irene thought she had ordered pork spareribs as we saw customers at other tables, just lapping it up. Well, apparently what she ordered, we think, were pig's knuckles and she couldn't find any meat at all under the sauce. So, since I had two pieces of fish under the tomato suace, I gave her one. And, of course, Les had my chips.

On Tuesday, we went for a long walk around a lake and Wednesday, more walking in the countryside just outside their front door, and then a trip to Lescar and a few other small villages, all of which seemed deserted. Lescar has a beautiful church, with a beautiful mosaic floor that is opened to the public on some occasions, somewhat like the cathedral in Sienna. Anyway, the workman were there, no access allowed, so the website is as close as we got to looking at the church; http://hodie-scolastica.tumblr.com/post/82199048726/the-cathedral-of-lescar

On the drive home on Thursday we stopped for a break just east of Toulouse where a rest area, with gift shop, restaurant, and interpretation centre have been set up beside the Canal Midi. It was fun to see some of the boats and barges tied up for the winter. On the drive home, we realized that we were close to the Mediterranean when we started feeling warmer and saw more of the stone pine tree, also known as the umbrella pine. They are quite distinctive and there are some fabulous ones in Montpellier.  http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_pine

Our next foray from Montpellier will be to Spain later this week to visit with Stefan and Hannah and also spend a couple of days in Madrid.

À bientôt....

A trip to southwestern France

It sounds warm doesn't it? But actually with the wonderful view of the snowy Pyrenees, the cold comes with it.

But then, the sky is blue and the sun is out and by the time a 3pm snack is served, we are able to eat outside.

And just to show off the camera that comes on this ipad, I took the photos below as Les was driving 120kmp on the highway. I was just trying to capture how much snow there was on the ground as soon as we were west of Toulouse.

This snow appeared as soon as we were west of Toulouse. More on our trip on the next post.

Rainy day activities

It's not that it's raining, but it's cold and windy. As you know by now, our 'go to' on a rainy day is the Tram to the Ikea, Darty and Decathlon mall. It's a great way to put in a day and explore the sales, even though we don't buy anything.....at least nothing that we need ;-) So yesterday was another cold day. I suggested a couple of things and Les suggested a bike ride. I grimaced and reminded him of the wind and how unpleasant I thought it would be. So then I looked at the Midi Libre and remembered that the Sud de France Open Tennis was on, so we caught the Tram, which fortunately goes from our front door directly to the very modern and warm venue. First up was a doubles match: NZ vs UK. Very interesting and exciting, but only about 150 people in a place that would hold over 7,000. Mind you, this was the first game and was at noon. Next up at 2 was Belgium vs. Finland singles. It was great and so much faster. And then at 4:30, France vs Germany. By this time, people had left work early, kids were out of school and there were perhaps 1500+ people watching and I daresay all of them were French, as anytime the German made an error to give up a point, the whold crowd cheered. I felt badly for the poor German guy........but he did win.

So, by 7pm the next singles game was about to begin and Les and I had square bums, and had survived on our morning croissant, a crêpe and an ice cream bar, so we decided to head out and catch some of the people at the pub night in town. The first Thursday of the month, the BCA (British Commonwealth Assn, we think) meets at a pub. Every time we've gone, we've met a few more faces as people come back to their homes in Montpellier or return from holiday. One woman announced that she is selling her house and it has 3 or 4 apts in it.....3 floors on a 1,000 sq. ft floorplate. Anyone interested???

By the time we got home, I was more than ready to heat up the leek quiche and settle for a book. And this morning, the sun was shining and the boulangerie had received a new load of seasoned wood for their ovens, so we had warm croissants, to go with our jam from the market and our vitamins......

Oh no! Not food again. February 1

I just had to share my birthday dinner with you all. Les took me out to L'Idée Saveur. We had enjoyed lunch there a few weeks ago and decided (well, I did) that I wanted to go there for dinner. Earlier in the afternoon I had enjoyed my book club discussion of Alice Munro's "Lives of Girls and Women"....yea Canada! and then about 6:30 we left the apartment on the Tram to take in the Lumière celebration in the Beaux Arts area. It was cold, it was a bit windy and the celebration was in the small square. Not really much. Some music, a guy on a tight rope between two trees and lots of people hugging glasses of hot wine, coffee, soup........anyting to keep warm. We bumped into two of the students in my class and received birthday kisses. And then we headed to the restaurant, so we were quite hungry by the time we arrived at 8.

Immediately we ordered glasses of champagne, and a small glass of mascerated olives and figs with crostini was set down in front of us.  We ordered, enjoyed this amusée bouche and anticipated a marvelous meal. The restaurant holds only 20 people and the hostess/server gives everyone, including us, a greeting as if we are family. Very nice. So we had both ordered the Capaccio de noix Saint Jacques, so we knew we were both getting scallops. As the hostess came with the two smallish soup cups on saucers, she murmured something about "how had we enjoyed the amusée bouche". I said we had enjoyed it. But here in front of us was something warm and delightful and foamy and not at all what we expected. But we enjoyed it and it was so yummy that I forgot to take a picture.

Well, so much for me nailing the verb endings. Sometimes to my ear the passé composé sounds like the futur simple, and in fact, the foamy concoction was the amusée bouche.

The Capaccio, what we had ordered, arrived and was marvelous!!

There are at least two very large scallops, perhaps three, thinly sliced, in a lemon/lime mixture, with tiny bits of mango, daikon, tomato and celery. Baby spinach on top and graced with lemongrass. The bread on the left is a sesame seed bread tasting much like a cross between a quickbread and a yeast bread. Excellent! I may be trying this one at home.

Next up, with a small bottle of voignier was the cod and haddock for me and the mixed grill for Les.

The cod was sitting on a sea of cream with mashed haddock (I think) and small mussels all round. A trio of seafood. So good that I had to eat slowly to savour all the flavours.

Hardly a mixed grill I know, and that was certainly not the name on the menu. But there is grilled lamb, grilled beef and inside the phyllo pastry is shredded pork. Surrounded by eggplant, zucchini, polenta and carrot. Les appeared, at one point, to be moaning with pleasure.

I couldn't fit in dessert, which would be a surprise to everyone who knows me as I usually pace myself towards the sweet. Anyway, Les ordered the cheese plate:

Hi favourite was the middle one, the Sainte-Maure de Touraine, a chèvre cheese from the Loire. I'm sure we'll have to be looking for this one next week in our favourite cheese shops. Yes, we have faves.

And this morning I woke up to a birthday treat, with advice to look back on my last 66 years and ahead to the next 33, with help from Buddha and some chocolate books and shoes.........and I'm sure I can find some bubbly ;-)

What a say to start the day! January 28th 2015

Just a few minutes before I stepped out the door to walk to class, I glanced out the window and whoa! It was a glorious sunrise and a glorious walk into town. Hope your day is as wonderful.