Christmas plans this year involve us – all of us, including Bubba – to go to England. The easiest and cost-effective way we found to do this was to drive from Morges to Calais, spend the night there, then take the Eurotunnel shuttle from Calais to Folkestone the following morning and drive to Leicester. In total, it’s a 1000km+ journey.
We left at 7:30 this morning for the 750km leg to Calais. Byron was not impressed at the early start but he was a super good boy along the way. We averaged a stop every hour or so to stretch legs and let him out to pee.
The rest of the time he was either sleeping with his head on my leg or alternating between sitting looking at me or sitting snuggled next to me. We made it to Calais at around 16:30. It was a long drive…..
I was really relieved to have made it, because I had a lot of anxiety about Bad Things Happening. None of which materialized.
Then I get a text from Gino, while we’re in the hotel parking lot, telling us he hopes we’re taking the ferry tomorrow because the French just went on a no-notice strike at 11 this morning and all tunnel activity is suspended until further notice and nobody knows how long it’ll take to get resolved.
Fuck.
Read more about the strike
Unions called the strike at 11:00 GMT. Under French union law they can run the strike for as long as they like, and there is no indication at the moment how long it will go on for.
The tunnel operator is not covered by a 2007 French law that makes a 48-hour strike notice compulsory for transport operators, which is why the walkout took everyone by surprise.
Staff were offered discretionary bonus of a €1,000 (£867) bonus, but the unions’ request is for three times that much.
Of all the things I was fretting about, this was not one of them. We only expected to be in Calais overnight so only had one night booked. This could turn ugly quickly. Thankfully, I could reserve a (different) room for tomorrow night and cancel it if we didn’t need it.
In the meantime, Byron, Katy and Ben were getting comfy in the room – which is quite nice. It’s a dog friendly hotel.
While we were waiting for our dinner booking, we weighed our options. Our shuttle tickets were refundable, so erring on the side of actually making it to the UK tomorrow, we cancelled the train and booked a ferry crossing. Hopefully that goes well tomorrow, but that is a worry for another day.
Being dog-friendly, Byron could come to the hotel restaurant with us. He was very well-behaved, especially considering that there were at least 4 other dogs there – two of which were uber barky.
While we had dinner, surrounded by other people and their dogs, we started chatting with a nice older couple from Strasbourg who were in the same predicament as we were, but they informed us that the strike had already been resolved. Murphy’s law says that this is because we cancelled our booking and made alternate plans, because has we not done so, the strike would have lasted forever. I firmly believe that the universe hates me.
So now Byron is snoring, Ben is watching Netflix on his laptop and Katy and I are going to try and get some sleep. It’s going to be another early start and another set of anxieties to deal with.
We’re not in Leicester yet, but hopefully by early afternoon we will be.
Pray for Omarion.
Three day escape to Italian wine country
At the start of the year, I bought a QoQa experience, consisting of 3 days, 2 nights in Castiglione Faletto at Il Torre, a really nice hotel, and also including a gourmet 4 course meal and a wine tasting at a local vineyard. Getting there (and back) was a 5h journey each way, with lots of beautiful scenery and… roadworks everywhere. The highway toll system in Italy takes some getting used to, but we managed.
Once we got there, we parked the car and started on the serious business of eating and drinking. The Cantina Communale was nice, but overpriced (seriously!). Dinner that evening was gorgeous, but they killed us with food. After the pasta course, we were already both full, and there were still mains and dessert to come. We struggled through the mains but conceded defeat to pudding. Katy is now officially obsessed with braised veal cheeks in wine. Then… grappa. Oooooh, grappa. It’s a good thing that the restaurant was literally next door to the hotel, otherwise we wouldn’t have made it.
The next day, after breakfast, we walked down into Barolo. We took the goat pass that the hotel had kindly told us to avoid by car, as a shortcut. The scenery was gorgeous. The flies though…. FUEGO!! (didn’t want to keep swearing, so I’d just yell fuego randomly). We stopped at Vite Colte on the way into Barolo and had a tasting of some very nice wines, then carried on towards the old town.
Katy was not impressed with the incline getting into Barolo. Expletives were heard. We were happy to see that the corkscrew museum was open – according to their website, it shouldn’t have been. We then visited the WiMu wine museum, which was really interesting, then had coffee and ice cream before trying to locate the cab we’d pre-booked to get back up the hill to Castiglione for our wine tasting at Monchiero. The wines were nice, but the highlight of that visit was the handmade salame!!
We went back to the hotel, had a nap, and then got ready for dinner at Convino. They again killed us with food, but more gently as we shared the plate of the pasta course. But still so.much.food!!! Katy fell in love with our waitress. She must think we’re completely bonkers.
On Friday morning, we had breakfast, checked out, went to pick up a few cartons of wine from Vite Conte and headed for a quick visit to Marolo – a grappa distillery – for a quick purchase, then Alba before heading home. Sadly, we just missed the opening of the Alba white truffle festival by a day, but it is what it is. We left at 12:30 and made it back to Family Dog in time to pick up a very happy (and very tired) Byron then finally made it back home.
Wine weekend in Verona
The Nestlé wine club organised a 3-day wine tasting trip in Verona, in the Soave and Valpolicella region. We left early by train on Friday morning and came back late on Sunday night. It was a 3-day wine, food and sightseeing fest.
On Friday, we had lunch at Locanda ai Capitelli and visited the Pieropan vineyard. The food was excellent, the wine was OK, though the vineyard is beautiful. We had dinner at our Hotel, le Muse, and that was excellent. I have discovered the joys of risotto made with Amarone and proper eggplant parmigiana.
Travel
Locanda ai Capitelli
Pieropan
Saturday, we visited Tenute Ugolini, where we spent a relaxing 5h visiting the vineyards (gorgeous!) and having a wine pairing meal on a shady terrace overlooking the vines. The wines were already a notch above what we tasted on the previous day but, IMHO, a bit overpriced. The final tasting was at Azienda Farina, and that was the crown jewel of the visit. Their wines were superb, and we’re paired with some of the best cheese and charcuterie I’ve had in recent memory. We got to sign our names to a cask – they do that with some visitors. That night, we had a buffet dinner at the hotel, paired with some of the wines we’d bought previously.
Tenute Ugolini
Farina
Buffet at Le Muse
Sunday was a guided visit in Verona, very pretty town, with lunch (homemade tagliatelle with truffles and mushrooms) and gelato. We had a bit of free time to explore, then headed for the train station. I managed to buy some of the cheese we’d eaten the day before, a sharp cheese matured in Amarone. We had an impromptu apero on the train with the meat, bread and cheese I’d bought because the dining car ran out of food, but that was still a really good time. At one point, we were chatting about absinthe and counterfeit money with the train controller.
Verona
Train
By happy circumstance, the train was stopping in Morges so I had an easy way home. Finally got home around midnight, where I was greeted by a very happy Byron and a very tired Katy, so we all went to bed.
Finally here
It took me a while, but I finally made it to Montréal.
When the dog runs out of coffee…
… and has to take an impromptu nap on the armrest.
Zurich trip in a nutshell
We took our first family vacation that didn’t involve going to see family in over 4 years, and our first Swiss vacation ever, and spent 4 days/3 nights in Zurich. At first, we weren’t sure if we were going to cancel at the last minute. Not because of covid-19, but because Ben came back from scout camp super tired and grumpy and we didn’t want to spend an inordinate amount of money going somewhere else to have the same arguments we could have for free, at home. In the end, we decided to go and at least Katy and I would try and have a good time – which we mostly did.
We drove up from Morges. Initially, we were going to take the train but it worked out pretty much the same price and take the same amount of time to drive/park or take the train – and we’d be able to listen to music and wouldn’t need to keep masks on for the whole time. We made decent time, and only got turned around a bit before getting to the hotel and their well-hidden parking. The hotel was super nice, and super conveniently located, but also super expensive. Well, ok for Switzerland, and we did have two adjoining rooms separated by a door so we could shut the child in his own room. This turned out to be a mixed blessing, because of course he binged on the always-on internet, didn’t go to sleep until stupidly late and was therefore tired and grumpy all the time, woohoo!
On Monday, we did a quick reconnoiter of the general area, walked around the chinese garden, picked up information for a lake cruise and went to dinner at the hotel’s teppanyaki restaurant.
On Tuesday, we went to the zoo, which is one place Katy has been wanting to see ever since we moved to Switzerland, and even more so since one of the tigers ate a keeper. The zoo was really nice, but the visit was kinda sorta marred by the small one, who kept whining about being tired and wanting to go back to the hotel, and then having a complete meltdown when we didn’t buy him all the stuff he wanted us to get him from the gift shop.
After the zoo, we went on an evening dinner cruise on the lake. That was brilliant. Good food, good wine, gorgeous weather, and Ben wasn’t a shithead.
On Wednesday, we went to the Bahnhofstrasse and the old city to have a proper exploration. Again, the child was uber tired, uber cranky and uber wanty, so … we don’t speak of that day anymore. It was also a bit annoying that the main train station is under serious renovation, so we couldn’t really see it.
Saving grace for that day however was meeting Mira in Zug for dinner at a really great little tapas restaurant. Zug is also very cute.
On the last day, we discovered a nice little shopping center where Ben desperately wanted to go to a game shop (that also has branches in Lausanne), but there was minimal drama and then we headed home.
So, in the end, Zurich is very nice, very expensive, I had a great time with Katy and I could have done without the child’s shitty moods. But we kind of expected that.
All pictures here: https://www.flubu.com/blog/pictures/zurich_aug_2020
Bobble has gotten around quite a bit
The first mention of Bobble the owl in my blog goes all the way back to 2005. I don’t honestly remember when Bobble started living full-time in my bag. Probably while I was working at the EBI and traveling a lot for business.
In the years since, he’s been to Belgium, Canada, England, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the US. He’s driven boats, ferries, tractors, planes. He’s travel on planes, trains and automobiles. He’s drunk lots of coffee, beer, wine, gin, port and cocktails. He’s eaten everything from gourmet meals to roadside fast-food. He’s enjoyed vices like cigars, gambling and tattoos. He’s attended scientific conferences, training courses and workshops, West-End plays and movies.
Not bad for a little ball of stuffing :)
Long live the owl!
Love the food, hate the schedule
Damian and I have been in Barcelona since Sunday. I love the food, but the eating schedule is kicking my ass. Having lunch at 1pm is late, but dinner at 830pm is a killer. And of course, even then, we’re the first ones there waiting for the restaurant to open. Silly guiri…
There are worse places to work
The view of the University of Barcelona courtyard from the math department, where we are currently meeting.
I can’t go home
At least not tonight.
Flight got canceled, woohoo! To make things even more fun, apparently Barcelona is hosting several large events/conferences this week and hotels are booked solid. The easyjet staff were walking up and down the queue of already happy people informing them that, yes, they could wait to get to the head of the line, but there was no guarantees that easyjet would be able to find them a hotel room by then. If we could find something on our own, we could get it reimbursed later.
I am SO happy that I finally got a corporate credit card just before my trip to Brussels. It’s already proven to be worth its weight in gold for occasions just like this. So now I’m I a very-nice-but-overpriced hotel room for tonight and I’m hopefully flying back tomorrow at noon.