Here we are at the end of the summer, or at the beginning of the school year, depending on your world view, and nary a blog to show for it. It is amazing that we have marked our one year anniversary in Bonn, with not much fanfare, and are trekking the kids off to school again like locals.
So I guess it is time for a little recap of our summer to give our time line some perspective. In June we were blessed to have visitors from home come and spend a month in and out of our lives. It was definitely the highlight for all of us in so many ways.
The kids loved having friends here to share in their life and play and be silly with, as only familiar buddies can. As for me, I was refreshed by having my dearest friend and her family here to experience first hand the abundance of sausage, beer and narrow roadways, as well as appreciate the quaint markets and Germaness of it all. And Olof loved having someone to banter about ideas with, and then some.
Making a good thing even better, our families ventured to France and England together for a wonderful vacation.
Spending the summer in a quaint french village has always been a quiet little fantasy of mine, and I will happily qualify the week we spent on Ile-aux-Moines in Brittany as fantasy fulfillment.
Luck was truly on our side when we found this island, and the house was perfect for our two
families. With our rented bikes on this virtually car free island, we were free to discover lovely beaches and hidden paths on our own. It was a joy to go off to the little market, pick up fresh bread and veggies each day. With plenty of restaurants to choose from, we had quite the culinary experience as well (as much as one can with kids in tow) and reading Julia Child's "My Year in France" was extremely fitting.
After this idyllic week our families split up to make our separate ways to London. The Byström's did so via ferry to Portsmouth and a stop in the village of Tewksbury where we viewed the resting site of my ancestor Bishop Wakeman, the last abbot of Tewksbury, who made his stand again King Henry VIII.
Unfortunately we realized we traveled in the wrong direction for our taste buds. My advice is never go to England directly after visiting France without preparing yourself for a shock. I am no food snob, but for our first meal in England we happened upon a local pub serving "Sunday carvery". This was an interesting introduction to British cuisine consisting of yesterdays roast and broccoli cooked since sun-up....yuck. However, while making our way to London we stopped off at Stonehenge, which made up for the carvery experience.
Stonehenge really is as spectacular as we anticipated and the whole family were impressed by this set of very old rocks.
London was of course fabulous, though exhausting. There is so much to do and see there, we felt like we were going 100 miles an hour. We managed to squeeze in the Tower of London, double decker buses, platform 9 3/4, the London Bridge, the London Eye, a bit of Indian food, a few pints for the parents, a ton of walking, the changing of the guard, the Imperial war museum....and those are just the highlights!
The the only downside of such a great vacation with friends is that eventually one must go home. The end was sad, but this is certainly not our last adventure together.
The rest of our summer was pretty tame, with several laid back weeks in Bonn. Not too many people hang out here in the summer, so the kids were happy whenever a friend could come to play.
We managed one last trip before summer ended and drove to Sweden for the week. We made a detour to Legoland, which was sweet for the kids and then spent the week with Olof's brother and family eating crayfish, playing cards and fishing.
Swedes know how to party and our excuse to be there that specific weekend was our brother-in-law's 50th birthday, which was a blast. It is just too bad that the drive is so long, otherwise we would be up there a whole lot more often.
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