Happy New Year!!!
Okay, it's a little late for new years greetings, but better late than never, right!?! We've been pretty busy since the last post, so it's hard to know where to start... Anyway, I suspect no matter how I do it, this will be a longish post.
In the last post we were in Mougins and now we are in Munich and in between we had a long and internet-free stay in Baden-Baden. It seems that the blog is always a bit behind, but I'll try and recap.
We did end up making it to Cannes for a lovely afternoon. It was our last full day in France and we were keen to visit the perfume factories in nearby Grasse, so we piled in the rental car (kindly driven by Nick who did an amazing job of driving both in France and Italy) in the morning and headed out. Our timing was bad for a guided tour, so we wandered through the Fragonard perfume factory on our own, smelling all the different scents and checking out the traditional perfume making equipment.
And, as is the way, we ended up in a gift shop filled with travel-sized bottles of all different perfumes. There were also amazing smelling candles - the brioche one was so realistic that you'd be craving brioche every time you lit it!! I was tempted, but ultimately left it there - having once had a brandy custard smelling candle at home, I know how dangerous it can be to one's diet to have that smell wafting around.
In the afternoon, we switched directions and headed towards Cannes for a bit of sightseeing. I had expected Cannes to feel like a super wealthy and pristine town, but while it had some nice aspects, and lots of designer shopping, the town itself was a fairly regular looking city. We were again blessed with gorgeous weather and a stunning coastline.
Sadly, there were no Clooney sightings, but Jo and I managed to get a little dress shopping in and each left Cannes with a NYE-worthy black dress...
And on our last night in Mougins, we went out for a French meal at an atmospheric little bistro close to the apartment. There hasn't been much in the way of restaurant dinners on this trip. We've mostly either eaten at our apartments, picking up great breads, cheeses and cold meats, or eaten on the go (especially from the Christmas markets), or cooked up some simple meals. It's been fun wandering through foreign supermarkets and picking up delicious cheeses, breads, wine etc. that are not only yummy, but half the price (or less in the case of beer) than you'd find in Australia. Which has allowed us to splurge a bit on some Moët, and Veuve... And Mumm - but I digress. The point was that we were all keen to try and proper French meal (and wine) and it was a great way to end the French leg of the trip. Phil had a steak that recalibrated the standard and the creme brûlée at the end was delish!
The next day (30th Dec), was our longest travel day so far. The distance between Mougins and our destination, Baden-Baden wasn't that huge. But as Phil pointed out, we were travelling from one small town to another small town, so the connections aren't as great. Loading up on coffee and croissants from the local bakery, we were on our way by 9am, first driving to Nice Airport, the flying to Basel airport, then an airport bus to Freiburg, and finally two trains to Baden-Baden and a bus to the apartment. By the time we arrived it was after 5pm, but having the trip broken up into so many components was actually good for combatting travel fatigue.
Baden-Baden is a small town in Germany, on the edge of the Black Forest and only 20km from the French border. It is famous as a spa town with hot springs at the centre and as a leisure destination for the super wealthy in need of a winddown. Is the sort of place where you pass a gorgeous old hotel, only to realise it is not a hotel at all, but a house owned by the Rothschilds or similar. One of the main attractions is the Caracalla thermal hot springs which has several warm hot springs pools, both indoors and outdoors, a sauna, series of steam rooms, a whole day spa, sun beds, solarium beds and more. But it's also a lovely place to just walk around and window shop - you can find antique and super deluxe watches, art deco furniture stores (all furniture is original and barely used). It's not a large town, but it has a huge casino, opera house, theatre, modern art museum etc. It's also bordered on all sides by the black forest mountains (well, mini mountains) many of which are strewn with wineries.
All that description of Baden-Baden above may go some way to explain why we didn't actually do a whole lot in the six nights we stayed there. It's just a gorgeous place to go and soak up the vibe, walk through the streets, stop for a coffee and breathe deeply.
We were very fortunate that Phil's dad had organised with the neighbour to let us in on our first night and that she had opened up the apartment, and most importantly turned on the heating for us, before we arrived on our first night. After the gorgeous weather on the French Riviera, we were chilled to the bone by the time we arrived.
Our first day in Baden-Baden was new years eve, so we walked into town to find out what we might do. I knew there was a black tie ball at the casino and looked into it, but to judge from last years photos it's a very formal affair with the average age of revellers close to sixty. Perhaps not quite what we were looking for... It turned out that the bars in the town centre were mostly set price dinner affairs, so we decided to try a bar closer to our own apartment (which is 2.5km from the city centre). We found a local bar, with great beer, that quickly grew on us and we spent an hour or two there, but the owners wanted their own NYE celebration too, so we ended up at the apartment for the latter part of the night with beer and champagne, celebrating together.
At midnight, some of the other tenants in the block asked if we minded if they set off fireworks in the back garden. No problems, right?? Except, these little older ladies had giant rockets that went whizzing all over the place and nearly took out Phil's foot! He was all calm and I ran and hid inside, behind the couch!!! You can buy almost any kind of fireworks in Germany and from our vantage point up on a hill, we could see huge fireworks in every direction, and hear rockets exploding from every second house. All the neighbours came out and watched, and there was a really nice community atmosphere to complement the very real fear of being hit by a stray rocket!!
After a day of concentrated recovery on 1st Jan, we did make it to the hot springs the following day and spent three very chilled out hours paddling around the pools. They have a steam sauna room, which is like an aromatherapy facial for your whole body in ten minutes and a similar steam bath but with brine that was not my favourite. I even tried out the solarium bed for ten minutes... my Bali tan is all but gone!! On our last night, we all (sans Nick) went again in the evening for a final soak and it really was divine. We were all keyed up for the sauna, until we realised it was a clothes free zone... I guess naked sauna-ing something you have to be introduced to earlier in life than 30!!
What else?? We went to a traditional restaurant for lunch and sampled amazing deer stew, spent another night in De Kleine Knappe pub near the apartment, spent an afternoon, wandering around the town, doing a little browsing, stopping for nice coffee, went out for coffee and delicious cakes at one of the many tea houses. Jo and I had a seaweed facial at a day spa that was amazing... Soo much collagen my face was tingling!
We arrived in Munich on the 5th, on the eve of the day of the holy three kings (who are apparently also known as the three wise men). We arrived in a whirl of snow in Munich to the prospect of a relaxing public holiday, which in this part of the world means nothing is open - no shops, no supermarkets, nothing. We are staying at the house of Phil's dad and his wife, Cornelia in Munich - they are not hosting us in person because they are in Australia at the moment, at our place! House swaps are great, although quietly, I think we are getting the better deal!
More ribs than a sane person would eat in a month.
But the highlight was the band who played classic 50s rock headed by a lead singer whose voice embodied Elvis. The bar has a train set which runs the length of the walls and is used to deliver tequila shots to the band members along with requests. The place was absolutely packed with people who got right into dancing and drinking and it was a really really fun night.
The following morning we woke up to a world covered in snow - very pretty!!! And it has snowed at various points of our Munich stay which has been gorgeous.
Our first proper day was the public holiday, which as I mentioned earlier is taken very seriously in Bavaria, so knowing nothing much would be open, we headed into town for some sightseeing.
After a look around and a sizeable lunch, we headed back home for a few hours only. Turns out it was Tobi's 30th birthday that night (Tobi is Chris' friend who stayed with us in Bali in November) and he invited all of us to his birthday dinner at a Greek restaurant! So at 6pm, Chris picked us all up and took us out for a night of Greek wine, ouzo and grilled meats!! I think we got back at midnight and I definitely felt the combination of beer hall and wine and ouzo by the end of night!!!
It's actually Jo and Nick's last day in Munich today (it's gone sooooo fast) and they are packing up as I type. So we had to pack quite a lot into our few days in Munich. So despite the excesses of the previous day, Jo and I got up at 9am yesterday and hit Munich's shopping streets for the day. Jo wanted to try and get some work suits and so we shopped for clothes and left Phil and Nick with a list of other items (good German knives being up the top of the list). The sales were incredible and we shopped from 10am - 3 pm without a break.
By the time we caught up with Phil and Nick we were starving, and stopped for lunch. Which turned out to be a fortuitous energy burst because the shopping day had just started to crank up... We decided to head to Maximilianstrasse - the most expensive/ exclusive shopping strip in Munich. Just to have a look. That is until we found that Hugo Boss was having a 50% off everything sale. Coupling that with the amazing dip in the Euro/ surge of the AUD and the lower prices of Boss suits in Germany anyway, I think we all actually MADE money by buying up big. Phil bought, of his own volition, two suits, three shirts and a pair of pants. IN ONE GO. This is more clothing than he buys in an average year. Perhaps two years. I think his wardrobe is now a solid third of Boss. I am still pinching myself!!! Oh and by the time you convert the Euro to $$ and take away the VAT, it cost less than one Hugo Boss suit in Australia, on sale. Oh happy days!! Joelle has dubbed it the Tony Danza day (ie. who's the boss?). And it is hard to tell who is the boss since Jo and Nick also came out with a pile of sharp suits... And even a dressing gown!
And today has been pretty quiet but very Bavarian at the same time. Niko came by this morning with a packet of Weisswurst sausages which are traditionally eaten with pretzels and beer pre-midday. They were delicious and we would not have gotten ourselves organised if it hadn't been for Niko, our consummate Bavarian host!
Tonight the plan is to have a last dinner together at Kloister Andechs, a monestary that is also a brewery.
Phil and I are in Munich until Wednesday and then we head back to Bali to meet his dad and stepmother for a few days.
BTW - apologies for the lack of emails to all. Will be remedied soon!!
- Posted using the beer that is now flowing through my veins
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