As of September 1st, all of the leaves on the campus
where I worked suddenly fell to the ground and declared that autumn had
arrived. I do love autumn. It’s a bit cooler, I can start wearing cute coats
and sweaters and the trees look so nice and colourful (though admittedly not as
nice and colourful as they do in Canada in autumn). This does mean that summer
is over however and I was still waiting for it to really start!
Here’s a look at what I was up to for the second half of
the summer. First, I should share some news: Dan and I are engaged! To
celebrate we travelled to Strasbourg, France. The location was chosen a bit
randomly (Ryanair had
a sale where flights to Strasbourg were £7 per person – can’t pass that up!)
but we ended up absolutely loving it and hope to go back soon. Strasbourg is a
lovely medieval city on the French/German border in a region called Alsace.
Because of its location, it’s a wonderful mix of French and German foods,
German and Belgian beers (the best, in my opinion) and all kinds of delightful
architecture. Amazingly it wasn’t destroyed during the war and all of the old
buildings still stand today. They also do Christmas markets in
November/December which I think would be really beautiful and somewhat magical.
Plans for future travel! Here’s a look at a few of the places we visited:
Clockwise, starting at the top left, 1) we took a boat
tour of the city which I definitely recommend; 2) we had a caricature done, great
fun!; 3) a pretty bakery; 4) Maison Kammerzell,
we had dinner there on our last night and saw that many famous people (e.g.,
Putin, Robert Downey Jr, famous French people) have eaten there. It’s an old
restaurant hotel dating back to 1427, it was fancy, delicious and beautiful
inside; 5) a restaurant by the water where we tried (and loved) Munster cheese;
6) cathedral seen from the boat; 6) amazing giraffe-man statue; and 7) the “ancienne
douane” also seen from the boat.
Neither Dan nor I are big fans of visiting churches but
we did take the time to visit the cathedral in Strasbourg. It is truly an
architectural masterpiece. Unfortunately none of the pictures I took inside
came out very well but here are a few from the outside:
While we were in Strasbourg, we ventured on a day trip to
the town of Colmar. It is a lovely small town about a half hour away from
Strasbourg by train. There isn’t much to do in Colmar, I think half a day is definitely enough,
but it is very cute and worth a quick visit. In Colmar we took a touristy
little train ride (I couldn’t pass up a miniature train!) through the town and
then had a really good lunch and wandered around taking pictures of a town that
very much reminded me of Beauty and the Beast.
Now, for the best part of our trip, the food & drink!
What you see here is only a sampling (we must have each gained at least 10
pounds from this trip but it was so worth it!). Pictured are pork knuckle braised
in beer sauce, Munster cheese with potato pancake, choucroute (or “meat
mountain with sauerkraut”!), pâté, flammenkueche (a type of really thin German
pizza with creamy cheese and bacon), Dan in front of the world’s largest cheese
dome at La Cloche à Fromage (it’s actually the world’s largest cheese dome, it holds the record – it was
very impressive), an obligatory black forest gateau, Bugles (I thought these
were extinct!), the world’s best charcuterie plate in Colmar and some
vol-au-vent, the raclette cheese (melted tableside) with pickled vegetables,
charcuterie and potatoes and what I consider to be the best “café gourmand” I’ve
ever had. All this was washed down with amazing beers, delicious sweet German
wines like Gewurztraminer and Riesling and a local drink called “Crémant” which
is like a prosecco/champagne hybrid often drank with a shot of fruit liqueur
which we really enjoyed.
If I couldn’t convince you to visit Alsace because of the
architecture and loveliness of the cities and towns, I hope that the pictures
of mouth-watering food and drink may have helped!
Once we got back and start to eat tasteless healthy food,
we resumed normal life in London. We were visited by foxes in our backyard
again which I find very exciting every time it happens, we went to London’s Chinatown
where we watched little fish cakes being made and I randomly found a memorial
to William Wallace near the place where he died.
We also went to Hyper Japan once again which is a
convention of all things Japan (food, travel, anime, cosplay, videogames, etc.)
where we tried Okonomiyaki (a Japanese pancake/omelette filled with vegetables
and cheese), we saw really weird things for sale – golden poo!? and we got to
play with the latest videogames from Nintendo (and got nifty hats to take
home).
Lastly, the last weekend in August, our neighbourhood was
host to the Notting Hill Carnival. It is Europe’s largest street party and
attracts around 1 million visitors! It’s basically a celebration of all things Caribbean
and there is a parade that goes on throughout the day with amazing costumes,
music and food. We got some amazing jerk chicken from “Mr T” and his enormous
BBQ and it was so delicious. While the carnival can be a bit overwhelming due
to the sheer size of it, it is good fun and, I think, a lot safer than it gets
credit for. I have to say though that living 2 streets off of the parade route,
I will be going away for Carnival weekend next year – the level noise was
unreal and the revelling goes on until the wee hours of the morning (on a
school night).
So that wraps up summer 2015 for me. It was a good summer
and I’m looking forward to what the fall brings and to coming home to Ottawa
for Christmas. It will be Dan’s first visit to Canada and in winter no less, it
should be fun. So until next time, a quote:
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf
is a flower”
Albert Camus
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