A little piece of England in France.

Last week while it was snowing in England, we took a break from visiting castles and went to La Plagne in France for a weeks skiing. It is much safer being in France than England since they seem to know how to deal with snow in France.
Sarah organised for us to stay in a chalet hotel run by an English company that specialised in running family ski holidays. I think almost everyone staying in the hotel had kids and anyone that did not was a grandparent. All the guests were from the UK and so were all the staff. Here is the view from our hotel room.

View from out hotel room

Our one complaint about the room was that it was very hot. Despite numerous attempts to cool the room, it still felt like we were back in Sydney. In the end we slept with the door to the balcony open.
The kids were booked in for all day lessons for the first five days and we took advantage of the ski hosting to learn our way around the mountain. The kids had lunch back the hotel each day while we got to sample the on-mountain dining.

On the final Saturday we went skiing with the kids. There were 5 children and 6 adults. Our friends Lisa, Michael and Immi had joined us and Immi had been in ski lessons. Ella also had met a Scottish girl in her lessons and we had met her parents during the hosting.

After a few runs in the morning, which also included a run through the jumps in the snow parks and a few crashes we headed into one of the restaurants for the kid's favourite après-ski activity: hot chocolate.

We then headed out again and followed the kids around as they skied between trees and tried to find every jump and bump that they could on the side of the runs.
We made it safely to lunch, where everyone took advantage of the deck chairs.

Second visit to London

After our week in Belgium, we returned for a few more days in London. This was just before New Year. I had specially booked a hotel that was close to St Pancras station where the Eurostar terminates in London. The hotel was one tube stop away. Unfortunately, there was work occurring on the line and the tube stop was closed. So we had to walk the twenty minutes to the hotel. Some of the area looked like it was part of a housing estate. Having watched too many episodes of the Bill, Sarah was quite concerned and we had to make a few detours.
On the Saturday we were planning to go to Madam Tussauds. When we got there the queue was at least 20 or 30 minutes. Even though the children have embraced whinging, they have not embraced the other English pastime of queuing, so we decided to do the bus tour of London instead. The bus driver said this was the busiest that she had ever seen London. In the afternoon, we headed back to the hotel as the children were getting tired. After a period of rejuvenation Sarah treated each of the children to some shopping time with her. That night we went to Wagamamas for dinner. Ben was happy as he got rice, chicken and carrot; most of his favourite foods in one meal.

The next day we went to have a look at Buckingham Palace and were amazed by the number of people walking around.

After that we walked down to Westminster for a cruise on the Thames, which was included in the bus tour ticket.

In the afternoon we caught up with Angela, Lisa and John who are friends from Sydney living in London. We had a nice afternoon tea on the Kensington High street.

On the Monday morning we took the kids to the Tate Modern gallery, which is in the old Bankside power station. None of us were that impressed. The biggest attraction was the drawing tablets connected to computers for the kids.
Lunch was at Waterloo station. The boys were happy to get sushi again. Ella was treated to the Golden Arches. We all had a great time in London and there are still lots of things we want to see there. Top of the kids list is Hamleys -- the famous toy shop. However, it was very busy with people everywhere and Sarah and I were happy to get the train back to sleepy Weymouth.

Christmas in Brussels

We spent Christmas in Brussels, with our friend Hala, her husband Gillian and her two boys Elias and Edward. Gillian had been busy in the previous weeks getting an apartment ready for us to stay in. Elias was very exited and wanted to sleep with Ben.

Hala and Sarah cooked a nice Christmas lunch of turkey and roast vegetables. Hala had also done a lot shopping before we got arrived to ensure that everyone had their favourite foods. She bought a lot of cucumber.
The days following Christmas were a bit a grey and wet. On Boxing Day we went to Oostende. The next day we went to Bruges where we visited the chocolate museum and had a nice walk around the town.

Brussels was quite multicultural and the boys enjoyed their first sushi since we left Australia in October. The last morning in Brussels was spent looking at the Christmas markets for Ben and Ella to buy a souvenir and also going ice skating. On Friday afternoon we caught the Eurostar back to London. The adventure continues.

Bed in Breakfast and Another Castle

Our friends from Australia, the Lee family, are visiting their English relatives up in Birmingham for a few weeks over Christmas. While Michael was hard at work, Sarah took the children up to visit. The Lees are staying with Deb's Mum who didn't quite have room for another five, so Sarah and the kids stayed at a local bed and breakfast run by Deb's family friend, Celia. The place was called the Rectory Cottage and was very everything you'd expect of a typical English Bed and Breakfast. However, something got lost in translation with the kids as they were very disappointed not to get their breakfast in bed. They thought they were going to a 'Bed in Breakfast' place. They reluctantly trooped down to have their breakfast in the breakfast room with the two stuffed dead robins. While we were there we went to visit another castle, Warwick Castle, which was very impressive and included a cheesy swordfight display. 

London Armstrong Christmas Party

Normally on one of the weekends before Christmas we go to the Armstrong Christmas party with between 70 and 90 of Sarah's cousins. Sometimes we even host the party at our house.

This year we had a mini party with Rosie.

Rosie met us outside the London Aquarium and we walked down South Bank. Along the way, there were some street entertainers who fascinated the children.

Our first trip to London

On the weekend before Christmas we had out first trip to London. We caught the train up on the Friday afternoon. Luckily the flooding that had closed the train line on Thursday had subsided. The trip takes about 2:45 hours. We stayed at a hotel near the Tower of London.

On the Saturday, it was quite wet and we decided to go on the London Eye and visit the London Aquarium, which were both indoor activities. Our friends from Weymouth, the Lochs, joined us for the visit to the Aquarium. After lunch we went to Trafalgar Square via the Horse Guards.

Ben was very excited to see all the London taxis and red double decker buses.

On the Sunday, we visited the Tower Bridge museum and the the Tower of London. The kids were treated to a lunch at Pizza Express.

After lunch we had to get ready for the next adventure. The Eurostar to Brussels. This involved a stop at Tescos where the children as usual spent a lot of time being indecisive about which snacks they wanted to have on the train.

The weeks before Christmas

We checked out the Christmas markets at Bournemouth, which is a costal town about 1 hour to the east. Santa really gets around in England.

There were a few early starts. Ella is not a person that can wait for things. She even has trouble waiting for the end of movies and starts pestering you half way though the movie to ask what the ending is.

On the night before her birthday I was instructed to leave her presents outside her door. At 4:30 the next morning we woken up by an excited seven year old who was very happy with all of her presents.

On the 21st, we were going up to London and then Brussels so allowed the children to open their Christmas presents before we went. They were under strict instructions to not open their presents until 6:30. Rustling could be heard from about 5:30. I think all of Ella's presents were opened by about 6:15. Next year I don't think anything will be left under the tree until we are ready.