A week of Kiwis and Amsterdam

The week that has just passed has been very busy and very good. We saw a different set of Kiwis everyday and as has always happened this year, whenever we have been around kiwis the weather is always good. Monday we were visited by Lyn and Neil Laurensen and Neil's Brother David who is based in New York. Lyn and Neil have a friend who lives in Banbury so they could catch up with her and then join us for lunch. We were pleased to be able to turn on the sun and have lunch outside at the barn beside the pond. It is a very pretty setting. Lunch was very simple - fresh slabs of ham and a yummy bean, feta and pesto salad with fresh beans from the garden. It is a recipe I have just found and is delicious. Tuesday evening we had John and Barbara Hill stay en route to see an Uncle in Cambridge. They have had a busy stint working for over a month without out a break, so we're so excited to get away finally. we had a gorgeous meal at an Indian restaurant in Banbury which serves such gorgeous tasting and beautifully presented Indian food. Wednesday Kate and David Mountfort caught the train up from London where they have been staying with their daughter Anna. We had lunch at Knightcote then took them for a drive to see some local sights finisheing with a beer at the Saxon Mill in Warwick. It is a pub which was an old water mill and is located right on the river. The water wheel that used to grind the wheat is still turning. It is quite impressive to see. Thursday evening we joined Our new friends Kate and David (another lot) at the Butchers Arms to celebrate David's birthday. The Butchers Arms is our favourite restaurant and has been owned by a Portugese family for 40 years. The staff are so friendly, professional and well dressed and the food sublime. Friday we had to ourselves so caught up with chores and Saturday Alissa Baker came across from Oxford. She has been based there nursing but has a new posting to St Thomas' in London. We showed her some of our favourite Cotswolds villages and had lunch at a lovely cafe at Bourton on the Water, which sits on the Windrush river. This river is one of the 4 rivers that contribute to the source of the Thames. To recover from all those visitors we visited Amsterdam. It is such a busy city, filled with so many bicycles and bars and restaurants. We stayed very close to one of the Main squares which has food of every cuisine possible. Apparently you can eat out every night for five and a half years and not repeat a restaurant. Our favourite meal was Argentean steaks. They were jucy and full of flavour and the nearest thing to a decent NZ steak. We loved our visit to the The Van Gogh museum which houses a major collection of his work and letters. His Brother was an art dealer and was bequeathed all Vincent's art. His brother died very young also and it was his wife and nephew who were responsible for the exhibition. The museum has art collections also of all the artists who had the most influence over Vincent. The Rik Museum also houses a fantastic collection of Dutch artists from the 1600's. They were such remarkable painters. Being new to drawing myself I was in awe of their skills with shadow and light. We next toured Coster Diamonds, and this was the family responsible for cutting the Kohinoor Diamond which is in HRH's crown. It is the largest diamond in the world and weighs 186 carats. It is about the size of a duck egg. They have a replica of the crown there and the diamond is surely very spectacular. The diamond has just been repolished by Costers and in doing so it lost 7 carats. Imagine a one carat diamond ring and times it by seven - that is a lot of diamond. We took a tour up to The Hague, Delft and Madurodam. Loved The Hague, it is well presented with many fine buildings. It hosts embassies from all over the world and has the royal palace, international court of justice which is where the war crimes are tried, plus headquarters of the United Nations. Delft is, of course, the pottery we all know that comes from Holland, but most of us probably only see the replica stuff. This factory we visited is one of three privately owned producers of Royal Delft pottery and it is quite lovely. The bowl I fancied was 555.00 euros, so decided it was probably too big to pack!! Madurodam is otherwise known as miniature Holland. It was established in 1952 as a memorial to a war hero and resistance fighter George Maduro who died at Dachau concentration camp in 1945. The replica models are on a as scale of 1:25 and the greenery and gardens are tended daily to keep them to scale also. They display the history of Holland and how it has grown and has used water both as a friend and foe. 20 per cent of Holland is built on reclaimed land and most of the land is 10 feet below sea level. The good old windmill and pumps have been used to get rid of the water. We spent a day in the south at Floriade which is a horticultural show that Holland hosts every ten years. This was located about a three hour bus ride from Amsterdam and was a good way to see the country side. Very flat, green and lots of water!! The Floriade site covered 66 hectares and showcased gardens native to 22 countries plus new innovations in plants. The inspirational garden themes were focused on Eco friendly and were designed to be domestic, public and commercial. (Spaces created for business meetings, team talks and staff recreation). Luckily there was a cable car that took you from one side of the venue to the other and you could decide what took your fancy. One afternoon we enjoyed a canal trip which toured many of the canals in the city. They certainly make the city pretty. We did the expected tour of the Red Light District. This also makes the city very interesting. All the girls are 'on display' behind glass doors and there is a real mix of looks, sizes, shapes, degree of clothing - from a little to almost nothing - and strutting and flaunting. There was standing room only in this area of the city. We really loved the city. It is so interesting and full of live and found the Dutch people very friendly.

Austria Trip

Our latest trip to Europe took us to Salzburg where we were joined by Debbie and Paul Clarke. They were continuing on from New York, so in fine form when we met up. We flew in the afternoon before them and had arranged to meet them the next morning after breakfast. They were driving from Vienna. We checked into our Hotel then took off for our usual explore of local sights. Just as we walked out of the Hotel and were about to cross the road we heard this familiar gorgeous call from Deborah. Their timing was perfect as they just caught us and it was wonderful to see them a whole day early.

We strolled over the river - the city is dissected by the river and has an old and modern quarter. It is so so picture perfect pretty and we were seeing it at its best in the early evening sun. We strolled along a huge evening market enjoying the gorgeous warmth, chatting so furiously that we hardly noticed anything at the market.

We drove south the next day exploring villages along the way and taking in the scenery. Geographically it is amazing in that it is valleys which rise into huge mountains. There is no rolling hills in between, just these steep high sides. Flying over it was amazing to see too. It is so groomed and the fields and alpine pastures look like they have been hand mown. The ski fields are grass slopes with trees dotted everywhere which is so different from our rock based ski fields.

We visited a Medieval castle built impossibly on a rocky hillside. How they got the materials up there is defying let alone the construction of it.

We spent that evening at a village called St Johann, which was not a very big drive from Salzburg but we were ready for happy hour and thought it silly to waste time driving when we could be drinking. Debs and Paul had carried a supply of Mills Reef Chardonnay all the way from NZ. The hotel was called Gasthof Silbergasser. It looked like you would imagine a large Swiss Ski Chalet and the entire outside was covered in hanging baskets dripping with geraniums in flower. St Johann is the largest of the ski villages and we explored a very striking Church, the Pongauer Dom, which you could see for quite a distance as you approached the village. It was unusual in that it had twin steeples at the front. We found a fabulous restaurant for dinner and had the freshest salad I have eaten out in a long time.

Early the next morning we walked up the road to the ski fields then found a cafe for coffee and croissant. The people are very friendly. Our drive took us past Liechtensteinklamm, ( can you believe the spelling) a beautiful canyon that was created about 3000 years ago by melting glaciers. Parts of the rock walls are so close together that you can only glimpse the sky through a small crack. We walked the 45 minute return journey and were pleased to have done it early as it was very very busy being the last of the summer holidays. Our destination that eveining was Passau. A very pretty little village in Germany. It sits on the confluence of three rivers, the Danbue, the Ilz and the Inn. The river was lined with tourist boats, both with and without accommodation. It was just like you see in the cruise brochures.

Our Hotel was right on the edge of the river and you could see the old fortifications of the ancient city calls and remaining towers peeking out amongst the tree lines banks. The houses were the cutest boxes a bit like Noddy books.

We visited St Stephens cathedral in the square the next day. This is a baroque speciality and is decorated with such detail it makes your head spin. It also has the largest organ in the world with 17,000 pipes. We managed to her it playing at midday. The music was a bit drab, I think we would have preferred a bit of light jazz or even something we could recognise. However we must not be disrespectful.

We then wound our way back and forwards over the Austrian and German border to get to the Village of Braunau am Inn which is famous because this is where Adolf Hitler was born. I am not sure if they ar proud of that or not. We had a delicious gelato there. I am pleased to say the weather for the whole stay was superb. Temperatures of 35+.

Our last evening. We stayed at Freilassing, very close to the airport as we had an earlish flight. Our last meal was quite funny in that we each decided to order for each other in secret. The menu was in pure German so a little tricky to ascertain just what your were ordering. The lovely young waitress understood what we were doing and was happy to accommodate this silly notion. Luckily there was not too many disasters and she guided us where necessary. Paul ordered for me and I had a mixed grill, but he also wanted to add another dish which she advised against. Turns out it was a cheese toasty!! Good combination.

We have had a continuation of a lovely NZ top up of guests since then. Lyn and Neil Laurensen and. Neil's brother David who is based in New York visited us for lunch on Monday. We provided a splendid day weather wise - in fact whenever we get together with other Kiwis the sun shines - and it was so lovely to see them. We sent them off with a list of must see Antique centres and sights. Monday evening we had the Hills stay over en route to see an Uncle in Cambridge. We took them to Voujon, a most gorgeous Indian restaurant in Banbury.

Tomorrow we are being visited by Kate and David Mountfort and then during the weekend we have Alissa Baker to stay. She is over here nursing, so we are so looking forward to hearing all their news.

That is the update now fully updated except photos. So glad to catch us with myself. I will post some gorgeous recipes next time.

Glad to hear the sun is shining finally and the blossoms starting to pop. We are home in about 8 weeks so that will fly by.

The cook and the gardener

John Birthday Dinner

Thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes to John for his birthday. He is officially a pensioner and has great delight in checking his bank account every second Tuesday to hear the balance has increased by the pension deposit. It puts a real smile on his face!!!

Barbara Hills birthday was 6 days later so John Hill and I arranged a surprise meal for them at a restaurant that had been recommended. It was called Loves, that being the surname of the owners and we chose the tasting menu at the chefs table which was located in the kitchen.

The food was absolutely delicious and the chef was very good at personally explaining some of his techniques. He had a passion for flavour and understood the chemistry of cooking so was really able to maximise flavour from his cooking methods. We had about 7 courses in all, and although they seemed quite small, we came out positively hurting. His wife Claire was in charge of front of house and had a superb knowledge and appreciation of wine. She poured me the most beautiful French white that equalled my favourite Chardonnay. I am tasting it still as I write this. John and Barbara were very impressed by our surprise.

Veronica, one of our lovely neighbours here gave John Jamie Oliver's British cookbook and he had made a couple of delicious recipes from it. Lucky me!!

We have had a couple of dinner parties here for local folk which have been good fun. It is really lovely to do something normal like that, and we're invited to a barbecue one afternoon by a lovely couple Colin and Anita who live in the village here. It was such a gorgeous day and we whiled away the afternoon sitting under the umbrella enjoying the warmth of the day, good wine - and plenty of it - and lots of laughs. The afternoon terminated about 8.00 pm!!!

The weather has become more settled and slightly warmer so not only are the people recovering, so are the gardens. We have been very busy in between all the social stuff and the property is looking quite lovely.

Susie has had me draw up plans of each garden and label the plants so she can learn the botanical names herself and be able to identify some plans also. It has been a bit of a process and I have had to go into garden centres with fists full of examples of greenery to help get some things identified. They have giant lonicera shrubs here that I have never seen before.

We had a busy weekend in late August with her entire family staying for the Bank Holiday weekend. (I thought bank holidays were fictitious things on the monopoly board). It was her eldest sons birthday so everyone came to celebrate and like all families enjoy the rare occurrence of all being together at once.

Susie is doing a refurbish and change around in her London home so we have had a delivery of spare furniture to store and find new homes for here.
It necessitated a major clean out of one of her storage sheds which was full of beds, bases, ten years of spiders, cobwebs and rat droppings. It was a good job to complete and we were having a bonfire in her paddock so could burn all the stuff that has been chewed or damaged. John was in his element being a pyromaniac.

I am still enjoying my Zumba classes. Our instructor is keen to get a n class going in the nearby Village of Warmington. They had there annual fete last Sunday so she asked us Knightcote girls if we would do a demonstration at the fete. It went very well and a few spectators joined in impromtually, so I guess that means she will manage new class. The fete was such fun and we treated ourselves to the best pimms I have ever tasted afterwards. They had a table in the hall displaying the usual fruits, veges, flowers apple pies etc, and the funniest table was the misshapen vegetable collection. You can just imagine the "Jake the Peg" style carrots etc. We did giggle - especially aft the pimms!!
I have been trying to convince Moira, another neighbour, that she would love Zumba, and she lives right next door to the hall so only has to go through her hedge to get there. She has said absolutely not until she came along on Sunday to watch us and was supposed to be in charge of looking after the handbags on the sideline. Well the moment the music started she just could not help herself and is a total convert.
John managed to find another painting he liked of a scene in Hastings so had to purchase it.

So for those of you who have not made it to a Zumba class yet, try it. It is such a fun way to exercise.

Will sign out for now - look forward to some comments from you

Sue and John

Location:Birmingham

Olympic Village and Hay on Wye

Sorry for the lapse in posts, but we have had a few technical hitches with adding pictures again is sorry but it is words without pictures again.

We had a busy Friday on the last weekend of the main Olympics by spending a day in around the village and stadium. We were unable to get tickets, which was a problem for most people. It would be the only criticism of the entire operation. The tickets were only available on line and because of the volume of demand the website just crashed all the time. It was very frustrating.

However it was great to see the setup and one store had cleverly build a viewing platform so you could get an elevated view of the stadium and village. The shopping centre nearby had been opened since September last year so was quite established and the collection of merchandise was lovely.
We met a young French assistant in the Armani store who was 6'7" so had to get a photo of him making John look like a squirt.

We had lunch at another Jamie Oliver Italian restaurant. They are so so good and sat next to two sports reporters from a newspaper in Brazil. I suggested that we use their ID to get access into the stadium whilst they were having lunch, but they thought there would be a problem with the photo ID part!! They were having a great time, but I think after a month away were looking forward to getting back to their families.

The volunteers, of which there was about 70,000 were absolutely fantastic and apart from the athletes themselves were undoubtedly the stars of the show. The we're easily identified in hot pink and were cheerful, helpful and welcoming. Can you imagine all that from a Pom.

We also went to Hyde Park in the city as there was some free events there and they also had an arena of giant screens where you could watch events taking place.

Upon our return home that afternoon we packed up and drove up to the Welsh border to join John and Barbara Hill. They invited us to stay with them in a cottage owned by Kim, their boss. The cottage is located at a cute village called Hay-on-Wye and sits amid potato and wheat fields. It is on the banks of the River Wye so had delicious views from cute chintzed curtained windows. As you drive in you are in Wales, but by the time you reach the cottage you are back in England, How confusing for paying Rates.

The River is very pretty and quite busy with canoeists, swimmers and people enjoying picnics. Luckily for us too the weather was perfect and warm.

The Village of Hay is renown for secondhand book shops of which there are several and they host a famous annual book fair. We found one shop that specialises in children's books and has wonderful collections of original edition Noddy, TinTin, Enid Blyton, Rupert Bear etc etc, all in beautiful condition. You could totally loose yourself with childhood memories.

We took a drive on the Sunday further into Wales to Powis Castle. This castle is unique as it was built as a home for royals and not for the purposes of defence. As always it is located on the highest hill giving spectacular views. The gardens are very famous and stunning and very photographed. They are cared for to perfection giving the most gorgeous displays of both plant combination and colour. They are famous for their terracing which measures 150m from top to bottom and are some of the finest surviving examples of baroque garden architecture in Britain. The yew hedges have survived over 300 years of clipping.
It is certainly gardening on a grand scale. We met a young kiwi guy who was revisiting the castle and used to live in one of the connected cottages whilst playing rugby for a Welsh team. He took a great photo of the four of us and I will post this when I can sort out the problems.
We came home thoroughly refreshed after having such a lovely break away.

Love and bugs to you all Sue and John