The Hike

On Thursday I got to take a nice long hike in the forest. Even took a nap under a tree. Quite something to have Thursday, Friday, and Monday all off from school! Monday is just for me as all my students are in London. The following Monday everybody has off though. 

Good to have some time to work on painting the house and some other projects. Working on turning this blog into a printable book. Hopefully I can get it done before the move. Along with so many other things! Hopefully Naomi can figure out what is wrong with her belly. She has had a lot of pain, swelling, and trouble sleeping. More than usual. All the stuff she has been trying doesn't seem to help. Worrying. 

Amélie is really missing school. She wants to go every day. Abigail is happy with a few days off. They are both counting down the days to their birthday. Abigail lost another tooth last night, and she had some critical questions about the Tooth Fairy, so now both girls know that we are the Tooth Fairy. They sure are growing up!

The first tomatoes of the year!

A nice long hike in the forest.

Paint and Rot

The trim on the back of our house has needed a bit of new paint for a while now, but I didn't expect to uncover a bunch of rotten wood. Seems like the seams were missing some caulk and let the water in. Should be all patched up now, but it was a lot more work than I signed up for. Figures that after two months of drought I should pick the time when the rains come to start painting. Oh well. Still have a few more coats and some sanding to do, then I can move onto the next patches that need attention. 

Scotty, my business partner, found a new contact who is helping us find some students. She lined up four potential new lessons, two students each, for this weekend. That is unheard of! Maybe the lockdowns have something to do with it, but hopefully we can convert this big opportunity into fixed lessons. Scotty quit his job unexpectedly this week and is ready to head back to the States in two or three weeks, so he has more time and headspace now. What a relief!

The girls were a bit sick this week, but starting to feel better now. Naomi is having big trouble with her belly. Lots of pain. Hopefully that will ease up soon. I also have a bit of a cold, but hopefully the sunshine and warm weather will make everything better. 

Unwinding after some fun with friends. 

Catching Up

Normally we would do lots of extra things like painting the house, cleaning up the garden, and visiting doctors during our holidays. Since we have been traveling again, we need to squeeze all those extras into normal weeks. It has been a very busy week - feels like two weeks packed into one. Naomi even had a work dinner on our 10th anniversary, so that was disappointing, but we still got to celebrate at the castle. Good thing we have another one coming up this summer!

We had pictures taken of the gardens so that when we put our house up for sale this winter we can also show what it looks like in the summer. Getting everything looking nice took a long time. Even did some painting. Abigail participated in a soccer tournament and her team got second place! Yesterday Naomi went to visit a friend in Utrecht and I hosted a colleague and his two kids. They connected really well with our girls.

Also had a doctor appointment. Amélie seems to be 'cured' for now as she is eating what she wants (with the possible exception of spelt) and her stomachaches have mostly disappeared. The treatment seems to have worked in her case. Naomi has seen mixed results and I haven't seen any. The next step in my case is to focus on the Epstein-Barr virus that I picked up from having mono as a kid. It stays in the liver and moves around the body causing all sorts of trouble. The treatment is a bit counterintuitive. I will take the virus in pill form to activate my immune system and as it destroys what is in the pills it might destroy the other stuff in my liver too. We shall see. 

Wishing they were outside.

Celebrating our 10th anniversary.

Abigail hadn't played on a real field before, but she had lots of fun they got second place!

Finally outside. 

Back up North

We made it back home last night in time for dinner. Lots of driving this trip. Lots of fun too! After the trip down to Barcelona, we had a few days to relax and enjoy the beach. I found some a new swimsuit at a surf shop right on the Mediterranean. The girls had fun swimming in it, along with our swimming pool. It was a bit chilly, but okay. Got a sunburn while Naomi had lots of fun collecting shells. 

We also climbed up to a ruin and got chased off the mountain by a thunderstorm. Naomi wanted to visit a special bakery too. The guy who started it collected ancient grains that had died out from thatched roofs. He planted them again and now grinds them with a windmill. The bread is cooked in a wood oven, so it has a roasted flavor in addition to the sourdough. Very impressive!

I think our time in Paris was Abigail's favorite. She just loved the city. We did just about everything we wanted to do. Tickets for the catacombs were sold out, so when we got there we just had to get back on the metro. We tried to buy tickets to the top of the Eiffel Tower but could only climb up to the second platform due to some 'technical difficulties' which seem to happen far too often in France. The food was great though, and we saw the Louvre, Notre Dame, went inside Sainte-Chapelle had a great experience at a Malian restaurant (even got to speak some Bambara with the chef) and stopped by the Arc de Triomphe on the way to a nice dinner spot near Sacre Coeur in Montmarte (the neighborhood known for its artists) with live music. Basically, we packed two days into one. Amélie slept on the metro ride back but Abigail was still full of energy. 

Exploring the ruins near our apartment. 

The special bakery and windmill.

The Louvre.

Sainte-Chapelle - the relics 'found' during the crusades that this chapel was built to house actually cost much more than the construction of this entire chapel and are now housed nearby in Notre Dame.

Malian lunch - the girls really liked it!

Climbing the tower. Lots of steps!

Dinner in Montmarte.

The Peak

We are currently on our biggest roadtrip yet, and yesterday was the peak - we made it all the way down to Barcelona. We left early on Sunday a week ago to maximize our time with Auntie Claire and Matt. Stayed at their place for three nights. Had a really nice time together, although it was sad to say goodbye to the old city of Solothurn. It was our last visit to their Midieval apartment before they move into their bigger place. On Monday we had some down time in the old city and on Tuesday we went to Zurich. Also did a bit of shopping for the girls. 

Wednesday was the long drive to the South of France. We are staying near Narbonne. There are cypress and palm trees. The weather was not ideal, so we had to front load all our big activities. Thursday was a trip to Carcassone, a Mideival citatel, still mostly in tact. Amazing to walk through the old city. A bit too touristy though. On Friday we drove to Toulouse so that Naomi could show us where she lived and studied for her semester abroad. We also saw the biggest Romanesque cathedral in the world. Impressive. Very special for her to take a trip down memory lane.

Saturday was Naomi's birthday, so we had another special day. We went to Narbonne. It had a much more Mediterranean feel with the architecture and the palm trees. We found an antique market and a food market, then a nice spot for lunch on a quiet side street. After touring the cathedral, we found an old Roman Road that had been excavated out of a central square. It was a shallow pit that opened up to these large, black rocks. The girls played there for a while before we went to the beach. It was windy, but beautiful. We are afraid that Abigail lost her favorite sweater there, though. We were also unable to find a place for a birthday dinner so we picked up some seafood, went to a bakery, and cooked at home. 

Sunday was another early start. It was nearly 3 hours of driving to get down to Barcelona, but it was a beautiful trip though the Pyrenees. We started out touring one of Gaudi's houses. Had to pay 110 euros to get in, way too expensive, but what a place. Definitely makes one think about the houses we live in. After a nice lunch of paella, we went to Gaudi's cathedral, the Sagrada Familia. That was a better value at 72 euros. What a mind boggling project! By far the most impressive cathedral I have ever seen and it isn't even finished. They have been building for 130 years and it still isn't finished. It was interesting to see the ways the building techniques have evolved over time. These next few days should be a bit more relaxed before we head up to Paris.

Saying goodbye to the old city of Solothurn.

 

A quick stop in Geneva.

A board game was modeled from this Midieval city of Caracssone.

A trip to Toulouse.

We found Amelie's street!

A special birthday celebration in Narbonne.

One of Gaudi's houses in Barcelona.

The Sagrada Familia.