The Old and the Restless

Margot invited us for dinner and made a delicious crown roast of pork with a sourdough, dried fruit stuffing. I think it would be good in the Christmas turkey. On the Fine Cooking website that each serving is supposed to be 1220 calories. I guess we won't have appetizers before Christmas dinner. Would we have to miss dessert? Trying to get the three cousins together started calmly enough. A little excitement here. I made a remark about the bare feet. Beginning to lose control... A final collapse Joshua recited a song and poem he learned at school. Ella joined in. "Go in Peace" (And he went)

Travelling by train from Cologne to Basel and then to Neuchatel we were surprised to see snow in Switzerland. However, when we arrived in Neuchatel, the only snow was on the distant mountains. The Eiger, the Mönch and the Jungfrau were out in all their glory. The white in the foreground are the greenhouses behind Bryn and Hervé's house. Not snow. Alicia goes to the local Kindergarten.  The hours are strange. Most days it's morning only. On one day it is morning and afternoon but lunch is from 11:45 until 1:45. One afternoon we made muffins. For Halloween, Alicia was a cat. Brandon was a monster. I don't think the mask was very comfortable. The pumpkin Bryn carved. In their town of Wavre, Halloween was to be on Friday November 2nd from 6 to 8 pm. I don't think all the Swiss quite understand Halloween. In the bags I found that someone had given the children a handful of shelled almonds. I guess they were supplies f...

For this trip, go to the Blog.... Still Old and Restless. - Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

On their way to Florida, Bryn, Hervé, Brandon and Alicia stopped in Toronto and were able to celebrate Thanksgiving with us (even though Bryn did not know it was Thanksgiving). Unfortunately, their flight on Saturday was delayed 12 hours. Paul picked them up at 2:30 AM on Sunday. We went back to bed at 5:00 AM. On Thanksgiving Monday, Alicia dressed up for the visitors. Wearing an apron over her pretty dress, Alicia helped me make the stuffing for the turkey. Ella and Alicia are trying to find clothes to fit the dolls that I still have. It's not an easy match. Bryn and Brandon helped Joshua with the toy they had brought for him. It seemed complicated. Tom enjoyed his new truck. Tom even wanted his truck beside him at the dinner table. It's good that we had dinner at 5:00 pm because Bryn began to look a little tired afterwards. Ella liked the games that Alicia has on Hervé's iPad. The cousins, ages 3, 4, 5, 6 and... 11. They would not...

It's hard to get 3 kids to pose for a picture. The birthday boy left the picture. Catching them at the playground is easier. They're flying! Eventually 3 candles were found for the firetruck birthday cake.

I'm experimenting with another blog to use while traveling because it seems to be easier with the iPad. Check it out at http://stilloldandrestless.wordpress.com In the meantime Here are some photos from last weekend. Cyclon is the annual weekend of riding that the Toronto Bicycle Network has every year on the August long weekend. This year we stayed at Trent University in Peterborough. The area is VERY hilly. On the first day two people had to return after the first hill. Many people ran out of water. Paul was navigating and delivering water in the sag wagon that day. The temperature of 30 degrees with the humidity made it a tiring ride. The above photo is from the second day. I led the ride but Paul had the difficult job of sweeping the ride. A stop at the lift locks, the largest hydraulic locks in the world... made of non-reinforced concrete. The end of the day.

At the end of our trip, we took a train from Epernay to Paris and then the TGV (Fast) train to Neuchatel. Zucco welcomed Paul and expected a walk. Brandon and his friend, Sophie, were making a book bag for library class. When it's hot, you need a drink. On one day, the temperature reached 31 degrees. Hervé and Alicia are in the pool... a good thing to do when you don't have air conditioning. Brandon's swim club had a competition  Between races. Brandon was first in the three races in his age group. We were expecting him to get a medal, (and so was he) but unbeknownst to everyone, the club had decided not to award a medal to those in Brandon's category of "pre-competition". While waiting for the marks to be tallied, visitors could use the pool. Alicia did six lengths of the olympic- size pool on her back with Bryn following her all the way.  Bryn rides Billy, a paint, two to three times a week. On Saturday night there was a "Kermesse" at the ...

There were a lot of rolling hills today. Thankfully, when there was wind as we went up a hill, it was behind us. A French cemetery of people who died in World War I, had crosses and plaques to commemorate the fallen. We realized, looking at the names, that the plaques were for Muslim soldiers, probably from Algeria. Sometimes the plaques were backed by a cross because a Muslim was commemorated on one side and a Christian on the other side. Paul's summary of the third week of cycling up the Marne to Epernay: This was a new area of France for us - one that is historically and geographically interesting. The Marne is a main tributary of the Seine and was the site of great fighting in WW I between the French and German troops while the Commonwealth troops fought the Germans north of Paris along the Somme. The Marne valley is a broad valley with gently mounting sides perfect for growing the varieties of grape to make champagne. Of course, sleeping on a barge meant that every night w...