Christmas Day at Creswick

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Benalla, Burrumbeet and Ballarat

For those who are aware of my complete lack of facility with card games, you might be interested to know that I was invited to a bridge party. The photo below perhaps explains this curiosity. My brother Ross and Christine have a tradition of a Christmas get-together with their Emu Bridge Road neighbours.

On our way back from the cousins’ reunion, we stopped in to see my brother John and Joy at their pub at Burrumbeet. Despite a power outage, Joy produced one of her usual famous lunches.

As kids, we used to sail on Lake Burrumbeet on the few occasions that our usual venue of Lake Wendouree in Ballarat was dry. For those who may not recall, this involved a particularly nerve-racking drive along the Avenue of Honour with the Arafura Cadet tied to the roof racks on the EH Premier. It is only recently that both lakes are again full of water after so many years of being quite dry.

Dad suggested that we drop by the Grammar school on our way through Ballarat. I had not been back since I left 40 years ago. A very pleasant lady gave us a comprehensive tour of the facilities, much evolved from my days there. It was interesting to realise how much Dad had contributed to the school during the days of the controversial amalgamation with the sister school. The evidence of my contributions were the several buildings on which I had worked as a brickie’s labourer during school holidays.

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Cousins Reunion

Back in Australia for two weeks to spend Christmas with the family. Following on from the tradition set by Dad and Uncle Jack, a cousins reunion was organised in Bendigo.

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Kings Cup

I was in Phuket in December for the Kings Cup. I have been coming to this event almost since it began in 1987. Initially I was competing on Buzzard and Big Buzzard, but very gradually my role morphed into the organisation side of things. Now I work flat out for three days before the event and then when the racing starts, I do cameo appearances on different boats each day of the six day regatta.

Here we are measuring sails in the air-conditioned ballroom of the Kata Beach Resort, a principal sponsor of the event. They also provide a very comfortable room with a delightful view over the swimming pools out over Kata Bay, which I normally couldn't afford.

At one of the (many) parties, we had an unofficial reunion of the Buzzard crew, with some of us being in the original lineup. Same stories, but the faces were looking a bit older if not necessarily wiser.

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Bologna

Ingrid and Pucci had arranged some time ago for us to spend a non-work and non-boat weekend together. So, straight after school on Friday afternoon we set off for the six hour drive down to Bologna. Ingrid, being exhausted from work, was asleep almost before we hit the autobahn. It is actually not a boring trip. The first hour is getting to the Austrian border, then an hour across Austria which is all mountains and Alps. Even without the signs, you know when you cross the border into Italy, as everyone’s driving style changes from cruise to sport mode. The three hours from the Brenner Pass to Verona is all downhill along the Adige valley and quite fascinating Alpine scenery. The last hour across the flat Po delta was rendered quite interesting by an incredibly thick fog. Here you witness a huge variety of driving styles, from pedestrian to lunatic.

The first task on Saturday morning was to find the best cappuccino in Bologna. Pucci took us to the Gran Café in Via Altabelle in the centre of the old part of the city where we had a truly excellent coffee in a very genuine looking old café.

It was fun being a full-on tourist in a place where I had lived for 8 years, albeit 20 years ago. Aldo and Pucci found it to be an interesting novelty as well. If you are able to blinker out the modern day accoutrements of McDonalds, power lines and traffic it is very easy to be enveloped by the medieval atmosphere of the city centre.

We visited one of my favourite haunts, the Santo Stefano basilica, also known as le Sette Chiese (as it is a complex of seven churches, although I have only ever been able to find four or five of them.)

On Sunday, we went out into the country for a traditional long Romagna lunch of deep fried flat bread, piadina with salami, prosciutto, pickled greens and squacquerone, a very soft cheese produced in the Romagna part of the Appenines. As usual, it was gorgeous and we all overate.  So, bloated, we set off back up the autostrada home to Munich wanting never to see food again.

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Schrannenhalle

Sunday was one of those perfect, clear, very crisp Autumn days. So, being Lohhof out-of-towners we decided on a day out in the big city. We had seen the long wrought iron and glass structure just off the Viktualienmarkt and had heard that it had been renovated. The Schrannenhalle was originally a corn exchange and was 430m long. The 100m plus bit that remains has been restored and now offers somewhat upmarket culinary treats. Ingrid soon found the Champagne Bar and I found the best coffee in Munich (which may not necessarily be saying much!) The Michelin-starred restaurant in the market was packed, so we had some delightful pasta at one of our favourite cafes, Baricentro in Sebastiansplatz.

The air was so clear. Except for the near zero temperature, it seemed as if we were back in Perth on one of those days when you look out beyond Rottnest from Leighton Beach and the sea appears to curve away until it runs into Madagascar.

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Aschaffenburg

On the way home from Belgium, we took the opportunity to put another couple of blue dots on our Castles of Bavaria poster by staying overnight in Aschaffenburg in northern Bavaria. The next morning we visited the Johannisburg Palace and the Pompeiianum on the banks the Main River.

In the Palace museum we found the world’s largest collection of cork architectural models. These amazing intricately carved reproductions of the ruins of Rome were created by the court confectioner and his son in the 1790’s.

Later in the morning we ventured out of town to the Schoenbusch Palace. We wandered around the English style gardens and, being back in Germany, had lunch at the biergarten.

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Brussels

We had great expectations of Brussels, and we were not disappointed. Our day started on a high with morning coffee in the glorious Galeries St Hubert. This 213 m long, light filled, soaring retail arcade was Europe’s first shopping mall.

For a city that houses the centre of the EU in the European Commission with its thousands of Eurocrats, we were delighted to find that the most common desert is waffles.

Being the land of the Smurfs, Lucky Luke and Tintin it is no surprise that there exists The Belgian Comic Strip Centre. It is housed in the former Waucqez Warehouse, a glorious piece of art nouveau architecture by the master of this genre, Victor Horta.

As a theme for our wandering we spent a couple of hours trying to find as many of the 50 or so cartoon murals scattered throughout the city in sometimes surprising and fun locations.

On cousin Jen’s recommendation, I sought out The Museum of Musical Instruments. This is housed in the fantastic Art Nouveau iron and glass Old England building. The extensive collection of instruments is quite impressive, but I am afraid I spent more time looking at the structure of the building itself.

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Ghent

Ghent is a delight. So far, it’s our favourite place in Belgium. It has all the prerequisite canals, lanes, squares, medieval architecture, bars and museums as well as the Belfry which we climbed, of course. It has all the atmosphere of its better known neighbours, but apparently not the tourists.

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Antwerp

For our Belgium sojourn, we stayed with Craig, Sophie and Elliot who live in Ekeren, a very pleasant and leafy suburb in the north of Antwerp. We had the chance to see the extremely varied house architecture styles in the neighbouring suburb of Sint-Mariaburg on an agreeable late afternoon walk down to the local pub. Here we tried the first of the many gorgeous local beers. Next day we were given a guided tour of the city of Antwerp, taking in the shopping streets, the old quarter of the city, the main market square and then a walk along the River Schelde to the MAS art museum in the old docklands area. We climbed (escalated?) to the top for a magnificent panoramic view of the city and the docks.

I was sent off alone for a couple of hours to marvel at the Antwerp Central Railway Station. It was built around 1900 in a very eclectic style. The effect is cathedral-like, but possibly more useful. The platforms were recently expanded down another three levels in order to accommodate more local and high speed trains.

Antwerp has atmosphere and is full of interesting Belle Epoque, traditional and modern architecture, museums, art galleries, shops and cafes. We look forward to visiting some these when we return to catch up with the Cleator family. 

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Ypres

Ever since our visit to the western front for the last ANZAC Day dawn service at Villers Bretonneux, I have felt a need to visit the grave of my grandmother’s favourite brother, after whom my father is named. Thomas Hodge is buried in the Brandhoek New Military Cemetery between Ypres and Poperinge in the Western Flanders part of Belgium. Crouching beside his neatly tended grave, one was reminded of the cruelty and absurdity of the First World War, but the overwhelming emotion was that of sadness. Moreover, this was no longer history, it was personal.

The medieval Cloth Hall sits imposingly on the Ypres market square. It is almost impossible to imagine that, as with the rest of the town, it was reduced to rubble by enemy bombardment during WWI.

In all, 300,000 allied soldiers died in the Ypres ‘Salient”, the front line around the town. Inscribed on the walls of the Menin Gate are the names of 55,000 Commonwealth war dead who have no official graves.

On a lighter note, we had a brilliant fish and chip lunch at a cafe on the market square, where Ingrid amazed the locals with the volume of vinegar poured over her chips. We then took a very pleasant walk around the Vaubanesque ramparts and moat which still surround a significant part of the town.

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Bruges



In describing Bruges, Lonely Planet says … “Picturesque cobbled lanes and dreamy canals link exceptionally photogenic market squares lined with soaring towers, historic churches and old whitewashed almshouses…. That means that there is an almost constant crush of tourists.” We found this to be perfectly true, especially the last bit. It is certainly a place we would like to revisit, but in the off season.

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Luxembourg

On our way to visit Craig, Sophie and Elliot in Belgium, we stayed overnight in Luxembourg. We then spent a morning wandering around the old town. We both agreed that it would perhaps be a pleasant place to live, quite unaware of how prophetic this was to be.

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Ansbach

For another blue dot on our Castles of Bavaria poster we drove to Ansbach, west of Nuremburg. We did a guided tour of the Margrave Palace also known as the Ansbach Residenz together with Kelly, a work colleague of Ingrid's. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside but the 27 rooms were all decorated in the usual obscenely splendid rococo fashion.

Attached to the Residenz is the magnificent Hofgarten with the 100 m long Orangerie, modelled on the Grand Trianon at Versailles. We pretended to not understand whilst the guide described the damage incurred during the WWII bombing raids.

In an impressive show of civic pride, the old town is dotted with street sculptures, statues and monuments. A number of these refer to the mysterious Kaspar Hauser, who may or may not have been the Prince of Baden, rightful heir to the throne at the time.

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Paris

We had planned for quite some time to meet up with Craig and Sue in Paris. Unfortunately, they were unable to make the trip, so having already booked our tickets, our consolation prize was to spend some time with Deb, who has settled in nicely to her new life in France. She lives in the delightful suburb of Garches, an almost village-like enclave in the west of Paris.            

The city turned on some perfect autumn weather for the three of us to wander almost aimlessly around the Left Bank area and over the Seine to the Luxembourg Gardens via the Parthenon.

Ingrid and Deb seemed to have plenty to talk about, so I just wandered and took photos. One of my relatively innocuous fetishes is cast iron and glass structures. The 2^nd and 10^th arrondisements of Paris offer a treasure trove of these, from the magnificent Gare du l’Est to the delightful passages and galleries hidden away between the major thoroughfares.

For something completely different, we also visited Les Halles and the Pompidou Centre. Now that is quite a steel and glass structure! Not quite the same fascination as the Belle Epoque marvels that surround it, but impressive just the same.

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Ellingen

In our continuing quest to fill our “Castles of Bavaria” poster with little blue dots, we travelled north to the relatively unknown small town of Ellingen. It boasts a rather magnificent Late Baroque Residenz, with associated brewery, and not much else.

From 1216 to 1789 it was the seat of the Commanders of the Teutonic Order in Franconia, hence the proliferation of Maltese crosses and nasty looking armaments.

The highlight of our visit was the guided tour given by a young year 12 student. On finding that we were the only ones booked in for the tour, he offered to proceed in what he very modestly described as his limited English. The tour was thoroughly enjoyable as he appeared to enjoy himself as well. We were given access to all areas, including (shock, horror !!) being allowed to walk outside the defined pedestrian areas. We felt rather anarchic.

After the tour, we retired to the (ubiquitous) attached biergarten for a pleasant combination of local Franconian wines and a relatively light lunch.

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Blindheim and Eichstatt

When in England recently we went to the amazing Blenheim Palace. This was awarded to the Duke of Marlborough (Churchill's family) for his winning of the Battle of Blenheim. When we came home to Munich we discovered that this battle took place at Blindheim (Blenheim is the English derivative of this) only an hour away. So we downloaded a podcast about this famous battle and headed off to the castle at Hochstadt near Blindheim which would give us a blue dot for our Castle poster as well as it having a special exhibition for this battle. Being off the tourist trail we were not expecting too much so we were very pleasantly surprised when the exhibition was very thorough and in English as well - there were even drawings of the palace (Blenheim) that Duke Marlborough was to get after his great battle. We drove along the battlefields nearby and then headed to Eichstatt.

Eichstatt turned out to be another lovely surprise. Malcolm thought by being in the castle grounds there we earned its' blue dot but I had heard the museum inside was worth it so went in. Thankfully we did as it was incredible. The hill-top castle housed the Jura-Museum with amazing fossils found nearby. There was also a 6000 year old mammoth skeleton.

If the museum was not interesting enough Malcolm was thrilled when Ferrari after Ferrari drove through the tunnel up to the car park for a meet.

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To Autumn

"Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness...." riding our bikes to school this morning with the muffled sounds of corn harvesters in the background. Amazing.

Oberstdorf and Kempton

After being back at work for 3 weeks we decided we needed a break. At Kempton there is a Residence we needed to see for another blue dot, so we decided to go first to Oberstdorf where we had read about a couple of good walks. We headed off early Saturday morning and headed straight to Breitachklamm which is a spectacularly picturesque gorge.

We climbed up to the top of the gorge and crossed a (very) small bridge 80 metres above the torrent to get a birds eye view.

We then headed towards a gasthaus in the mountains for lunch before heading back to the car. The scenery from the gasthaus was breathtaking and almost as enjoyable as the well earned beer.

After checking into our hotel we drove part way and then walked through woods up to Freiberg lake and then around it. With Malcolm being most impressed with a cantilever built ski jump that is used for competitions. That night we wandered through the town and had possibly the worst pizza in Europe.

The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine and a cacophany of town hall and church bells.  Someone thought it was 128 o'clock! Our hotel offered a special discount on cable car passes so we then headed up to the Nebelhorn peak (2224 m). The views to the north over the Allgau and south over the alps were spectacular. We were near to where the paragliders take off (Malcolm was very keen) and we walked down part of the way to one of the transfer cable car stations. 

We then took a cable car down the middle section before getting out and walking the final section down and into town. Just in time as it started to get grey. After lunch we headed to Kempton to see the Residence and although amazing and very beautiful, the mountains stole the limelight for this weekend.

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