The River Cottage!

Night 1, dinner time.

Last weekend was a tough one, I’m not going to lie. It was a long weekend, and we worked hard and arrived home really tired… but I suspect if I tell you what we did, there will be no sympathy! Last weekend we hired and car, and went via Luxembourg (see the last post) to the French countryside in Burgundy. We stayed with a group of fantastic friends, in a 16th century stone cottage by a stream with only cheese, wine and fresh produce to each. The only thing we could find to do was to visit the local markets and see the variety of historical buildings and beautiful countryside. Like I said, rough weekend!

Viaduct in a little village, it was huge!

Now, seriously folks. Last weekend was fantastic. We drove to ‘the River Cottage’ in a tiny little village in Burgundy. A friend of ours hired the cottage for 3 weeks, and as she said, better to stay in one place and have her friends visit than spend her time trapsing around Europe. She is a very clever lady! We were certainly happy, despite the slightly longer trip than we anticipated the cottage was everything we had imagined and more. Not only was it a 16th century little stone cottage, but it had three floors, a very social kitchen and a nearby path that led along the river through the hills and through the countryside. It was an absolutely picturesque place, with all stone buildings, little churches, streams and meadows full of flowers and cows.

The only way to hike

It was in the middle of nowhere though. Really, nothing, no shop, no food, one old man and one tractor, thats it! So what did we do you might ask. Well, as if it needs to be said, we were in the middle of Burgundy, what else was there to do but drink wine, eat cheese and wander in the countryside. So that is what we did… I ate my first fresh artichoke, which was surprisingly filling and tasty to boot. We shared a bowl of snails, which apparently originated in the Burgundy region. We tried all manner of local wines, we were right next door to Champagne too, so the result of that is inevitable. In fact, we went hiking with a difference, we all took a glass of Champagne! Even the cows were impressed. The local wine and cheese was amazing. The French sure know how to eat, i’ll give them that!

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The owl on the cathedral in Dijon, you rub it for luck.

The owl on the cathedral in Dijon, you rub it for luck.

The only real problem with the whole weekend was that we had to leave! We were all very sad and we took it till the last moment we could but it was worth it. One of the nicest weekends yet!

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The one that got away, there were lots on the hiking trail.

Luxembourg from the cliffs, what a view!

So, again its been a little while. This is because we have been gallivanting off again, and this time to a place that is somehow more in the middle of nowhere than places in Aus! This blog is the first of two, being step number one, our trip to Luxembourg.

Wildbridge, they really look after wildlife in luxembourg!

The trip itself was not long, we decided as we wanted to go the country side France our best bet was to hire a car and drive, so we could stop off in Luxembourg. To be honest I didn’t even really know why I wanted to go there, I’d heard it was pretty and was maybe the smallest country in the world. Turns out it is in fact the worlds only remaining Grand Duchy and is (I think) 179 th out of 249 countries, so by no means the smallest. Anyway, I liked the idea, as it is in-between France, Germany and Belgium it had great potential to be full of cheese and beer! Turns out, it is actually. The country side is lovely, just like France, Germany and Belgium and the capital city is full of old buildings, big palaces and has a cool cliff system with caves in it dug by the Spaniards a long time ago!

This is is folks, a Croque Monsieur

The city is lovely, and we ate a croque monsieur, technically a French dish but what we found out is essentially a toasted cheese and ham sandwich! We also bought prosciutto, cut straight of the bone from a man drinking a beer in the sun. The town was full of markets and tourists but overall very pretty.

Anyway, the trip took 2 hours from Cologne and was definitely worth the stop and look around. But the whole country was smaller than Brisbane alone I am pretty sure!

Yep, it was a REALLY fancy building...

The farm, how could you not love it?

So, sorry Father for I have sinned, it has been too long since my last confession. I have been living without abandon, succumbing to my desires and just in general having a good time! To translate, my apologies kids, it has been a while and my only excuse is that I have been worn out from travelling all over the world. This blog will be familiar to many of you, for it is basically a list of all my favourite aussie things, interestingly the most of which are food/drinks. I spent a little over two weeks, travelled back to Aus, went to a wedding and visited all my peeps. You will note from the number of images of food next to Troy’s computer, that he stayed behind in Germany to guard the fort!

Why blisters you ask?

Is this the coolest wedding dress ever?

So, this blog is more a reflection.  I now have two homes, I love Aus for its meat pies and friendly people and I love Germany for its meat, cheese and friendly people! I loved my visit home, I attended a fantastic wedding and danced till my feet were sore (no literally, I had giant blisters and a grazed knee, I can only hint as to the awesome that we burned out on that dance floor!). It was a lovely wedding in the far North, married under a big fig tree with the party right next door. Fantastic, really, but any party with a lolly buffet is alright with me.

Best invention ever, enough said.

I also visited my friends and family in Aus. This in particular is why I love home, reason number 1. It was absolutely brilliant to see everyone. I am lucky to have to 3 greatest siblings and the best mum  and dad ever, but I also so many great friends that it really does make you feel good to visit home. Not only that but to see the sun, sit on a veranda, hear squawking parrots and visit new friends (just so you know, you are in the middle of a baby boom in Queensland).

yep, they are prawns on the barbie, and what a lovely beer, wingwalker pale ale.

The other thing is that you realise the little things that you didn’t know you missed. I enjoyed (more than I should probably admit) a meat pie, multiple fish and chip episodes, pale ales, mint leaves and rum balls, numerous flat whites, sushi, late breakfast at a cafe and came very close (but not close enough ) to empire sausage and mock chicken legs (only a Hetherington or close associate will know what these are!). These are things it had been over a year since I had eaten but I had thought about/planned eating for an embarrassingly long time before arriving home.

Potaroo from the Ipswich Nature Reserve, coolest tour guide yet!

There is however another side to this story. I had a fantastic trip , but, it also made me realise or maybe reflect that now I have two homes. Cologne is a lovely place to live, not only was Troy still ‘manning the fort’ making my arrival to home number 2 great, but when I arrived Cologne it was just lovely. It is just rolling into spring and is brisk but flowers everywhere. We have concerts and trips planned and it was great to see all our friends here too! So, who’s up for a visit?

My favourite things about…..

Australia       vs Germany

The people    vs The people

The beer       vs The beer

The food      vs   The food

The coffee   vs   The music

food for thought….

]]> http://troydo.com/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1360 1 http://troydo.com/blog/?p=1354 http://troydo.com/blog/?p=1354#comments Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:28:57 +0000 Troydo http://troydo.com/blog/?p=1354

Happy easter

Or Frohe Oster as the Germans say

So the easter bunny dropped me off a pressant this morning, a lovely pack of tasty goodies!

It even had a beer in it! A “Neumarkter Lammsbräu Blond”. This directly translates to Newmarket lambs brew Blonde Which is rather appropriate, here in Germany Easter is symbolised by lambs. There are lamb shaped cakes, lamb is actually for sale in the grocery store and all the restaurants sell lamb based stuff.

Feasta resistance!

The Lammsbräu was quite nice, not a belgian as i had assumed by the name, but instead a german style pilsner. It poured a clear golden with a huge bright white head. Aromas of grains and malt with a slight honey sweetness. This is also reflected in the taste, Mostly sweet but with a background bitterness that lingers in the mouth.

All in all quite a nice drop, and it went rather nicely with my eggplant dip and crackers!

TVR ... crazy as usual in every way...

When its a weirdly painted TVR…….

So i am batching, as most of you probably already konw cause you have probably seen her, Rehan is in Aus for a wedding, and as much as i would loved to have gone and seen everyone and goine to the wedding its hard to justify the flights and time off at the moment, so alas i am staying in cold Deutschland and eating chilli drinking beer and playing computer games… not all bad

So as i mentioned germany has become cold again…. it got us all excited with a week of 20-22 deg and now we are back down to -2 – 10 … in a week… bloody hell… there is even snow forecast for sunday, although i doubt it will happen…. maybe…

Unfortunately for you I have actually been rather lazy and don’t have too much to report on, but i have been enjoying myself, chilling out and generally being a bum  But i have had a few different beers lately and i have found a few old pictures on the camera that i may attempt to post over the next week or so… so stay tuned for some beer blogs and some “Ghost Posts” of times gone by

Well i am going back to gaming now, till next time!

Kranskja Gora, sleepy town in the valley

The view from our front door!

So, Slovenia. It is quite an amazing place. Last week we joined 3 friends and went for a trip to learn how to snowboard, in Slovenia! We travelled on Wednesday to Klagenfurt, on the edge of Austria, then caught a taxi to the next country, to Kranskja Gora in Slovenia. We spent three days snowboarding and taking in the sights and then after a lazy Sunday, back to Cologne.

So we arrived for our winter snow holiday and quite amazingly it was the sunniest, most beautiful day we have had all year. We set up in our apartment and then went for a wander about the town. It was a lovely little place, the best way to describe it is to say that it was too small for a Macdonalds. Had one of everything, except bars, it had many bars. We were across the road and behind a hotel from the ‘VOPA’, clearly a happening bar as every day, all day, approximately once every half hour every yelled ‘VO-PPAAAAAA’ at the top of their lungs. Through the whole night. Still, we had a beer there so can’t really complain.

Troy and I learnt to snowboard, or faceskid or bum plant, or all of the above really. Snowboarding is not so easy. Being that neither or us have trying skiing, and to be honest we are not real certain how to even walk on snow. Still, we booked lessons with a crazy Slovenian extreme sports man, and turned up on Thursday morning for our first lesson. Troy started immediately with the face planting and I took an average of 5 falls to even get on the lift (this is on the beginners hill even!). The first day snowboarding was certainly a challenge!

WHAT? The teeny little bit at the top is where you jump off?

To be honest the second day was not any easier, the second day however we were taken up the top of the highest beginners hill and basically stepped of the edge. We were trying very hard, but it really was a little alarming for me. Still, great fun and we are now officially snowboarders. The second day however, after spending most of the day falling over very hard and covering myself in bruises, we went to one of the most incredible sports I’ve ever seen. We had the luck of going to Kranksja Gora on the weekend of the Planica ski jumping championship. We saw people jump from the top of a tiny little platform, fling off the end of a jump and fly 220m through the air. Ski jumping is an insane sport, but it was a fantastic thing to see so many Slovenians getting crazy and cheering for some insane guys. Finished up the crazy day with dinner at a crazy restaurant, trout is the meal of the area and we tried the cusine. Plus, blueberry schnapps, which we really couldn’t pass up!

The cake. Cheese, poppy seeds, pastry, cream, how could it be bad.

The third was not what we expected, still another lovely day. So after another morning of bruising my butt and falling over, we tried to catch the bus to the next town. Dissapointingly, it seems with the crazy skijumping on, no busses in SLovenia work on a timetable, or seemingly at all. So we did not get the the promised lovely Bled, but we consold ourselves with a lovely cake in a coffee shop, the local Bled/Kranskja Gora cake is delicious, I can only describe it as a sweet lasagne, mmmmm.

All in all, we had a lovely trip and I can highly recommend both Slovenia and Kranskja Gora for a trip. Much fun, many bruises and blueberry schnapps!

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The local beverage... Cockta... cola with sprite I think....

FC Kölle!!!!!

So on SaturdayI was invited to a lads day at the football, how could I say no?!?!

It was a great day, we were standing down in the “Crazies Zone” where all the flag wavers and chanters and generally hardcore FC Koln fans were. The game was Koln Vs Leverkusen, I suppose the equivalent of Brisbane Vs The sunshine coast, Unfortunately Leverkusen played better on the day and won 2 – 0. That said the referee was absolutely biased to Leverkusen, and i think Koln should have gotten at least 1 goal had the ref picked up one of the dozen fouls made..

All in all a brilliant day where i learnt and sang  some classic chants like “Scheisse Leverkusen, Scheiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisse Leverkuuuuuuusen” and of course the The FC Koln Theme song, During which you must hold your Koln scarf above your head and then when it gets to the fast bit you whip it round like a crazy person.

Alaaf, happy clowns are pure karneval

The crowd, prepped in the Kolsch way, with kegs.

I am a little slow on posting, owing to making up for lost time at work and, though I don’t like to admit it, I needed a little Karneval recovery. Karneval requires commitment, so many people all over Cologne and so much going on. After the last post, we also had to deal with Karneval Monday. On Rose Monday as it is called, the entire of Cologne and it seems half of Germany also, goes to the city of Cologne to watch the parade.Everyone is in costume again, and everyone is happy and having a party! Some people bring picnics, most bring beer and some even bring entire schnitzel platters!.

Floats after floats after floats.

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The parade starts at 11, and goes right through to nearly 5! Floats after floats after floats, it goes on for a very long time. Every float is playing music, there are many marching bands, with instruments including the strange Cologne type instrument that is a hand held xylophone equivalent.

Yes, they are chocolates raining from the sky...

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We listened to the music and filled our pockets with flying chocolate projectiles. We then followed to crowd to a few of the local hangouts and danced all afternoon to crazy cologne karneval music all over again. Was a fantastic day but I think we both agree that we are glad Karneval is over for the year, it will take a year to recover for the one!

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The costumes, traditional, cute, odd and some just downright alarming.

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Seeing how the cards fall, Troys throws his card on the ground....

Getting ready for mayhem by making human sized cards.

Well, the picture says it all, this was me, at work, on Thursday. Cologne is a crazy place sometimes and this week is just about the peak of this. I must say, I like it. No-one in Cologne gets out of it, everybody goes a little silly and in general, everyone has a party. This week is the week before lent, so in true Cologne style everybody has gone a little silly partying hard so that they can make it through lent. Everyone dresses up, to full measures, and spends the week, starting at 11.11 on Thursday before Shrove Tuesday making parties. Thursday, with the institute and joined by Markus and Alexis we celebrated Wiebernachts fest in true style. We donned our ‘deck of cards’ costume and went to the ZMMK for the party. The party starts with ‘breakfast’. This means meat and bread and beer and champagne. We then play music and party a little before joining the rest of Cologne on Zulpicher street for the craziest costume party ever. The whole of Cologne is dressed up by this time pretty much, and everybody has been partying since 11.11 so it gets a little silly.

Us, getting a little silly, hmmm.

So, this is what we did on Thursday, and though you may tut tut, it doesn’t stop there for Karneval. The entire weekend, starting on Thursday, you can hear yells of ‘Alaaf’ the Kolsch and Cologne way of say yahoo and party all at once in karneval, there are random things you see throughout the streets, and should you dare the party, if you do not wear costume you clearly stand out.  I must say, there is something great about the freedom that goes with a whole city not taking themselves seriously just for bit. Friday night we had a social night at friends, and Saturday we donned the card again for an outing to the city. Wandering through the old city centre was a feast for the eyes. You could see everything, Napoleonic soldiers, and entire grid iron team, naughty nuns and monks, Pocahontas seemed popular. Many bumble bees and strawberries, cowboys, Indians, vikings, ghostbusters, Spartans, Romans, aerobics teams and just about anything you could imagine! You could buy cocktails on the street, and every town gate had at least one drum set making crazy dance parties in the street. Every bar was full to the brim and some so full that precipitation running down the walls inside. It was a rainy night, and yet still Cologne was just seething with ‘things’… So, wandering around, drinking cocktails into the little hours was extremely interesting. I have thought that today was a particularly quiet Sunday though, and we were no exception. Recovery day today, and see what we can get up to tomorrow

So I spose I better make this a good one! well what to say??? what to do??? I guess a recap of what we have been doing is in order to begin with…

Schloss drachenfels

Well lets see, the last blog post was about Australia day… wow that was a while ago… WHOOPS! well since then all residual heat has left the earth and Cologne has been plunged into nuclear winter… minus the snow… We have seen temperatures down to -22° with the average temperature sitting between -8° and -15°. But on the upside it has been beautiful and sunny, so you look out the window and since there is no snow only warm looking sun you get all excited until you step outside and instantly become a callipo… But we havnt had a single flake of snow, itzs been to cold and dry i think, dry as a…. hmm well suffice to say rather dry… and just to make a liar out of me, I have just looked out of the window and there is a bloody snow flurry, but its already stopped and there is not even enough to cover the ground lets see what happens… We have had a visit form Pat, Jodie and Nikki, more on that later, but apart from that we have just been a bit boring actually, living life, working and doing stuff. I have been bouldering a few times per week, we have been trying to do parkour and i have started fighter practice again.. but nothing particularly noteworthy…

Skipping stones on a frozen lake at dusk

As I mentioned, the most exciting thing in the last few weeks has been Pat, Jodie and Nikki visiting. It was great to see them, and I hope they had a good time while they were here. We conquered the Dom, we found their lock on the bridge, we wandered around the altstadt, we skipped stones on a frozen lake, we visited castle ruins and a medieval town, we even managed to squeeze in a museum as well! And all in -15 degree weather!!!!! Our biggest day out was the saturday, we took the train down to Konigswinter where we caught the cogtrain up to the top of the mountain and wandered around the castle ruins of Drachenfels, after which we wandered down to the 19th century fancy manor house and wandered around looking at the ridiculously lavish place. A funny piece of info about it is apparently it was a christian boys school in the 20th century and at the time they decided all of the naked lady renaissance art was too vulgar and painted over it, it was only fixed up and broght back to the original paint scheme a few years ago!

So what is coming up? well only the craziest time of the year!!  Karneval is coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Markus and Alexis will be coming down from Berlin to celebrate with us and it should be a rollicking good time! Now all we have to do is get our costumes made in time … !!  … so stay tuned!