Berwick upon Tweed and Alnwick Castle (or Our Visit to Hogwarts)

After taking a few days to catch our breath, unpack and do a bit of much needed laundry, we saw that the weather was good and made a dash to Alnwick Castle in Northumbria. We've been excited to take the kids here because Alnwick is used as the backdrop for Hogwarts for some of the Harry Potter films, and they have some Harry-related activities. Its a beautiful castle in its own right, with a rich history dating back to 1096 and the current home to the Duke of Northumberland, but having the Harry Potter connection made it a kid-favorite as well.

When Hagrid saw Ainsley approaching for her picture, he told Harry "I'm a bit worried about this one, she has spots!"

Before our visit to Alnwick Castle, we stayed the night in Berwick Upon Tweed (located between Spittle and Tweedmouth interestingly enough), the northernmost city in England. We were not in Berwick for too long, but found time to walk to city streets, visiting a great used book store, grabbing some fish n' chips, and walking the castle walls.

A spooky October cemetery by the castle.

Not a bad place to stop and read your new book.

Sorry to all our PETA friends.

The ramparts are a series of castle walls which were built up for protection, holding guns that could protect the town from a coastal invasion. The kids enjoyed climbing up and down the grassy hills and we walked along the top enjoying beautiful views of the North Sea.

In later years the guns were placed on these rotating tracks to for increased mobility.

Countryside around Alnwick Castle

Bright and early Saturday morning (we were the first ones to arrive actually), we headed down the motorway to Alnwick. The weather was beautiful, and it really did feel like we were at Hogwarts as we strolled towards the castle and enjoyed the scenery. One of our favorite parts about Alnwick Castle was that you're not in a city, but instead the castle is located out in the countryside and you can escape modern life.

The entrance to Alnwick Castle

One of main courtyards, which you might recognize from the movies.

Here is the spot where the broomstick lessons take place in the first movie. Later in the day Will and Ainsley took part in their own special broomstick training session

Not a bad place to live, if you like the whole castle-look.

Alnwick was home to an earlier Harry, known as Harry Hotspur, or Sir Henry Percy. Harry led rebellions against the Scottish and French, known as "Hotspur" because of his "impulsiveness".

Alnwick Castle has an area called Knights Quest, where kids can play games and do craft activities. Will and Ainsley are playing a nice game of "toss the dead rat".

Ring toss with mom.

Ainsley doing a bit of bowling. All that Wii has finally paid off.

 

It was finally time for broomstick lessons in the courtyard where the movie scene was filmed. Although Will was a bit bummed that he didn't actually get to fly up and over the castle walls, the broomstick session was still a lot of fun and you couldn't beat the scenic backdrop of it all.

We were all yelling "Up!", but no luck. We were forced to keep our activities on the ground.

"Muggle" broomstick races

View from one of the castle walls of a small bridge leading to the castle.

Another view of the surrounding countryside. The stream has undergone a few changes over the years as residents of the castle worked to make it more scenic. It was originally wider , but was gradually dammed to control the water flow. It was thought that a smaller stream would look prettier from the castle. It must be difficult when the view from your castle is just not right.

Similar to Berwick, Alnick Castle eventually had walls created to hold guns for protection. This was Will's chance to get fired from the cannon. I barely caught him in time.

As you're leaving the castle grounds, there is a giant treehouse restaurant with suspension bridges and observation areas. It makes our tree fort at home look a little small, but now we have some addition ideas. 

View from one bridge to another.

Brugge, Belgium

The last leg of our journey was a visit to Brugge, Belgium. This picturesque former trading center is a World Heritage Site, with cobblestone streets, beautiful architecture, canals, horse-drawn carriages, and windmills. It was a nice contrast to the large cities we had visited previously. Moving about was a bit tricky at times, with the majority of the signs in Dutch, and the locals speaking Flemish. For example, if you want to visit the Gruuthusemuseum, from the Markt, take the Wollestrat to Oude brug, turn left at Mariastraat and another left on Dijever (if you get to Mozenhoedkaai you've gone too far). As crazy as this seems, Brugge is still a touristy town and there was enough English to get by just fine. Brugge, and Belgium too, is famous for chocolate, frites (french fries), beer, and waffles any time of day. Not a bad place to call home for a few days.

Riding the rails to Belgium. The kids are getting quite accustomed to train travel. Monkey has the best view though.

We arrived in Brugge on Saturday afternoon, and the place was packed with tourists (imagine that!). Brugge is sort of a medieval Carmel/Monterey type of town. You can walk down beautiful cobblestone streets and window shop at upscale boutiques and designer stores. Its like you can go back in time, and take the mall with you.

Here is one side of the Markt in Brugge.

Brugge City Hall

Saturday afternoon in the Markt (market square), with plenty of people in town for the weekend.

On Sunday I went on a World War I tour through Flanders on the French/Belgium border. The town was just waking up as I was waiting for my tour van, and it was a nice opportunity to see the marketplace without all the crowds. Christa stayed back with the kids to rent bikes and pedal around the town. She'll fill you in on that escapade later.

Sunday morning view of the square as I headed off for my WWI battlefield tour.

Another morning picture of the bell tower, sun rising and the moon still visable.

Our hotel. Kidding, the building next to our hotel. The Provincial Hof.

Brugge is sometimes called "the Venice of Belgium" according to the tour books. Taking the boat cruise was a peaceful way to enjoy the medieval architecture and overall beauty of the city.

View of the canal as we made our way to the boat tour.

This is where we started our tour. We all liked the clogs painted like national flags.

We don't know exactly what this building is, but we sure thought it was pretty.

Canal view with The Church of Our Lady in the background.

Canal view with local homes on the right. Some of these are for sale if you're interested.

This is the Huis ter Beurze, a house in Brugge where Italian merchants used to gather in the 1400's. They claim it is the world's first stock exchange.

The Belfort, or belfry, sits in the Market Square and offers impressive view of the city if you're willing to climb the 366 stairs to the top. We made our way to the top and were rewarded with a gorgeous panoramic view of the town, including the canals leading out to the North Sea.

View of Brugge from the clock tower.

Another view from the tower, with one of the windmills in the distance.

Riding a bike through a quaint village, near a canal on your way to windmills sounds really sweet doesn't it?  We thought so- and it was.  It was also quite a challenge navigating cobblestones, horses, cars (on very narrow streets), crowds of people, parked cars all on ill-fitting bikes with too-narrow tires.  It just seemed like such a great idea.  If you don't want the long story just skip ahead to the pictures (of course we don't actually have any pictures of the bike ride because Tim had the camera with him on his WWI tour- so you can see photos from that).  And here begins the long story.....  The kids and I have breakfast then make our way to the Koffenboonjte where we are to rent the bikes.  Well, first we get lost on our way to find it, but then we get directions and find it- but I digress....   The man brings Will out a bike, but it was too "girlie" for him, with the purple flowers and all.  So the kind man brings Will a second bike that works just fine for him.  Ainsley and I think it would be great to use a trailer type bike- with her on her own seat, but attached to my bike.  It was VERY wobbly, so we decided to walk the bike through the crowds and try it further out of town.  Stopped at the store for a few snacks, then headed off, map in hand.  We made our way a few blocks before Ainsley and I actually got on our bike to try it and I'm sure it was a sight to see.  Both of us wobbling and teetering on this too large, unstable, thin-tired bike.  Hilarious, I'm sure.  We realized we could not do it, so we walked back to the Koffenboonjte.  We exchanged the trailer and Ainsley got her own bike (granted a bit too "boyish"- but fully functional) and again, we were off.  Once we were away from town we rode through the country, canals and windmill lined roads.  It was sweet and idyllic.  We had a snack under one of the windmills before making our way back to town.  We got turned around on our way back to town- I'm really not sure how it happened.  The town is SO small- it seems impossible to get lost.  We spent a good hour and a half circling the market square unable to find the center.  At one point we stumbled upon a playground, so we spent a bit of time there.  Eventually, after pushing our bikes and a few conversations about building character we reached the Koffenboonjte and returned the bicycles.  Whew- 

Waffles for desert! A nice way to end our stay in Brugge. They were delicious!

Paris

We started our Journey to Paris by making our way to St. Pancras station in London. In case you didn't know, London will be hosting the summer Olympic games in 2012 and the city is busy with preparations. The kids were excited about taking the "chunnel" to Paris (our train is pictured under the Olympic rings), but were a little bummed that the tunnel was not made of glass, so that you could see all the sea life in the English Channel. Turns out the train is a good distance under the sea bed and a scenic underwater tour was not in the cards.

Upon arriving in Paris we made our way to the Eiffel Tower. Will and Ainsley were most excited to see the tower, and I had to redeem myself for not going to the very top 16 years ago. Side story: Christa and I, with our friends Bear and Leslie, had traveled to France in 1996 during a record-setting cold spell (worst since WWII the papers had said). We went to the tower one night and I decided that half-way up in the freezing wind was high enough (plus I'm not thrilled with heights anyway) for me. Little did I know the teasing that would ensue over the years for not going all the way to the top. This trip was my chance for redemption.

I asked Will what he was thinking when they walked towards the Eiffel Tower and he said- "Wow!"

The view from the very top. 1063 feet at the tip of the tower!

The scarf that Will has on is from Bosnia-Herzegovina, which was playing a football (soccer) match against France later that night. There were hundreds of fans, decked out in B-H jerseys, hats, scarves, and even face-paint, who had traveled to Paris for the game and were visiting the tower prior to kick-off. Throughout the day you would hear songs, chants and cheers as the visitors moved around the grounds. I struck up a conversation with a group of them and traded one of my scarves (my Wilco scarf) for a B-H one. I have quite a few scarves from around the world up in my classroom, and couldn't resist the chance to score a Bosnia one. The group of men I spoke to predicted a 3-1 victory for Bosnia-Herzegovina, but they ended up tying 1-1 later that night.

Looking up the Champs-Elysee towards the Arc de Triomphe

Each day veterans come to replace the flowers at the tomb of the unknown soldier at the Arc.

Another one of our stops was to the Luxembourg Gardens, a beautiful park (the second-largest in Paris) in near the Sorbone in Paris. The gardens are home to the Palais de Luxembourg, fountains, sculptures, and a great playground with a marionette theater. Ainsley took some time to feed the birds, and the kids had a great time racing around the playground, which was quite impressive with climbing structures, zip-lines, and all kinds of things that could spin.

The marionette show was very fun, especially because it was in French. We all just sat back and tried to follow along with the story (The Three Little Pigs) as the children shouted warnings and encouragement to the pigs. At least I think that's what they were shouting.

Ainsley making friends with the pigeons at the Luxembourg Gardens.

Riding the zip-line at the Luxembourg Gardens.

Always the monkey

This is the marionette show we saw at the Luxembourg Gardens. 

Will wanted a hot dog for lunch. He didn't really care for it, but we figured dinner would be more interesting....

What visit to France is complete without trying some escargot, or snails? We told him it was like butter and garlic flavored gummy bears, but I was still impressed that he was willing to give them a try. He at half of them and seemed to like them just fine, although I don't think he would go out of his way to order them again.

Stylish as ever in their berets!

Ainsley liked the rental bikes that people use to travel around Paris, but was a little too small to ride them. She at least wanted her picture taken on one though.

The bells of Notre Dame.

We've had our share of climbing towers and cathedrals during our time in Europe, but we all enjoyed the trek up Notre Dame quite a bit. The stairs were manageable, only 387 of them, and the view with the gargoyles was terrific. You just don't get tired of the gazing at the Paris cityscape, no matter where you are.

The kids have spent some time in school talking about Claude Monet, so a visit to the Musee de l'Orangere was also a must. This museum is the home for eight Water Lilies murals as well as other impressionist and post-impressionist paintings. We didn't have much time here, but these giant paintings sure leave an impression, get it, impression? Impressionism? never mind.

Thankfully the Tuileries Gardens outside the Louve and Orangerie Museum have another great playground. This was another good way to burn off energy between museum visits.

Ainsley met a little girl from Illinois between spins.

Public trampolines- such a great idea. I'm guessing this would never happen back home because of the inevitable lawsuit when somebody gets hurt.

We took the kids to the Louve, which was packed. Ainsley and Will each took some time to sketch some things they saw (as well as draw comics that nothing to do with fancy art), and here is Ainsley sketching next to The Coronation of Napoleon, one of our favorite paintings. 

We asked the kids what they wanted to see on our last night, and they wanted to go back to the Eiffel Tower. There was a Patisserie with a macaroon Eiffel Tower that we all thought was pretty cute. After sampling the cookies, we spent sunset hanging out underneath the tower.

We stopped for one more picture on the way back to the hotel. Seeing the tower lit up was a nice final memory of our stay in Paris. I really like being on the ground as opposed to the top.

On our way back to the hotel, line 4 of the metro stops at Reaumur-Sebastopol. This was definitely a photo op that could not be missed for the family from Sebastopol. We tried to blend in with the artsy facade, aren't we funny?