Sleighbells ring...

Great times at superhosts Ben and Ara's over the festive period - ham eggs and bubbles for breakfast, a walk in the forest with Manu, delicious food by Ara (bread sauce is something else!!), movies, yo yos, balloon animal making and lots of laughs.

Present time

Beautiful table by Ara

Festive walk in Epping Forest

Manu in his decorated cage

A Christmas lark

A few more festive pics...

'Let's see how this balloon animal making thing is done...'

Harder than it looks

Ta-da...a dog?

Lisa and violin brooch

Mr Men

Ben and Manu tango

Ara and her German Christmas dec

Christmas feast

Win and Dan hosted us for another fabulous Christmas feast. Win and Dan had glazed a ham (Nigella's recipe - it's boiled in coca cola!), baked some egg nog cup cakes, made chocolates and decorated the flat like a magical Santa's grotto. Dale's pumpkin, chilli and ginger soup was such a treat too. After a few hours of great food and conversation and of course Dolly and Kenny's greatest Christmas carols we rolled out into the cold night feeling the Christmas cheer...

Mulled wine cup

Jane and Win super excited about their Dolly Parton Chrismas cds

Bulli and Dale

Dale giving us his Andre Villas-Boas (Chelsea manager) side-line moves

Chatting

AMAZING ham

Cupcakes

Sweden

I was lucky enough to visit the Gard family who were visiting Angie's family in Eskilstuna Sweden for a couple of days. Everything was super festive; I was there for St Lucy's Day (Lucia) again but due to a funny rift between the minister and the choir at the local church there were no local festivities, but we enjoyed the morning watching the carols and Layla and Lewis dressed up. It was a relaxing visit and so good to see old friends. I also enjoyed making gingerbread, playing with the kids, yum hot chocolate and goulash and of course the sauna!

Big hot chocolates

Decorating the gingerbread house, we also made a heap of biscuits

Me and the little Santas

It takes a while to rug up for the chilly outdoors

Watching Lucia on tv

Festive Munich

In early December Lisa, Win, Jane and I whizzed to Munich to get ourselves into the festive spirit with some Christmas markets.

Friday night we hit Tollwood which is a more alternative Christmas market - organic and fair trade food and not really a Christmas decoration in sight. There were lots of people and a good atmosphere, kartoflepuffas (no idea how to spell it), gluhwein and bratwurst.

Saturday was a real highlight, we departed early on a bus tour to the Bavarian royal palaces high in the Alps. Ludwig's hunting lodge was a real surprise - relatively humble from the outside but inside, so amazingly opulent, a homage to the French sun king with even a mini hall of mirrors.

We stopped for a schnitzel and a shop in a cute village where we stocked up on decorations...

We heard the tragic story of King Ludwig and decided we were firmly on his side - outsted cos he was 'mad'? We decided just misunderstood. If only they had the foresight back then to see how many people Ludwig would attract to Bavaria with his dreamy castle Neuschwanstein. Only eight rooms were finished before Ludwig was taken away from there but they were pretty magical. He was quite the architect and decorator!

Saturday night we hit the more traditional markets and with a bit of patience we finally got into a traditional beer hall for a real Bavarian meal. Sunday was more markets (you can never have too many) before it was time to train to the airport, our bags clinking with our collection of mulled wine cups...

One of the world's most famous castles, Neuschwanstein

Welcome!

Reindeer skins were popular at the medieval market

There were some characters...

Very cute market at the Residenz

Decorations galore

A crepe, a bratwurst, a kartofflepuffa, a fruit kebab? What to have...

Royal sighting

We took the day off for Bulli's birthday and on a whim decided to get off the tube at Victoria and walk up past Buckingham Palace and up the Mall to get to Covent Garden. It became clear as we walked something out of the ordinary was happening; the Mall was closed to general traffic and all the Queen's guards and carriages were parading through some of the back roads.

We thought it was some sort of rehearsal so just carried on up the Mall...then it the band struck up and next thing Queen Elizabeth and Prince Phillip cruised on passed us, heading to Horseguard's Parade for the Turkish President State Visit.

Only managed to snap a pic of the carriages near the back of Horseguard's parade. A nice surprise though given that usually people line up a few deep on a special occasion hoping for a glimpse of royalty.

Eelbrook common

Is it sad that I went searching for more leaves? Well you gotta look for the positives in November. From Parsons Green to Eelbrook Common and then on to Bon Bon, a lovely italian deli, for a drink.

Parsons Green

After pilates this morning went walking in search of some autumn leaves, first stop, Parsons Green...

Afternoon delight

Win declared afternoon teas were the new way of entertaining, and I think she's right. On a recent Sunday afternoon Win set up the most beautiful table with a mix and match collection of antique china, sourced from France to York to ebay...

Champagne, tea, guiness chocolate cake, chicken waldorf sandwiches, duck orange pate and smoked salmon bagels were all on the menu - beyond delicious.

Venezia

View from near Accademia

Win and Jane were kind enough to join me on a visit to one of the must-see destinations of Europe, Venice. We arrived well after midnight and as our very slow little boat eased past all the stops around the Grand Canal you could hear the water slopping up against the piers and spot the last sightseers of the day canalside and by candlelight, enjoying the only real peaceful time of day in this super busy city.

It's busy but it is a picture. The Doge's Palace does give you an insight into what life was like in the 'serene state' for hundreds of years. We ate delicious seafood, a yum tarta cocco, sipped on aperol spritz (the distinctive orange drink), paid too much for a coffee at historic Cafe Florian featuring an orchestra serenading St Mark's square, visited Peggy Guggenheim's for a modern art fix, and of course enjoyed a gondolier ride. We queued for St Mark's Basilica where the remains of Mark, author of the gospel of his name, were interred after their clandestine trip back from Constantinople and saw the golden jewelled altar that came with them.

Out on the lagoon on the ferry to Murano (glassmaking) and Burano (lace making) families sped around on speedboats enjoying the October sun and beautiful blue waters.

A drink in the historic Hotel Daniele with its handmade Murano glass chandeliers was a visual treat as was the taxiboat we sped across the lagoon to the airport in. With the wind in our hair we arrived in style, but as we had to inelegantly jump over a closed gate to complete our journey the glamour was over - as Win said 'We arrived like Angelina and left, well, not like Angelina'.

Cute Burano, home of lacemaking and just 2,700 people

A glass owl on Murano

St Mark's Basilica

Win and Jane at Cafe Florian

Bergen mountain hike

Setting out from Ulriskbanen - Bergen below

Bergen residents take to the mountains instead of the shops on a Saturday, as we discovered on our walk from the Ulriskbanen cable car across to Floyen and the Floibanen funicular.

Lonely Planet suggested this was a well worn trail and a relatively cruisy three hour walk. Not so much, more like a four and a half hour hike of rugged terrain, which we weren't that well kitted out for - in jeans and shorts, trainers and a sandwich and a chocolate bar between us.

The coltish Norwegians were decked out in their stylish and practical Berghaus and Craft outdoor gear, and were kindly and embarrassingly concerned about me after I took a tumble on a rock following my shock at the Wallabies loss to Ireland, and in the process exposing a fair bit of shin-skin and blood...

Small adventure aside it was a breathtaking hike and it was awesome.

I was amazed that people could mountain bike this terrain! It was also dotted with little overnight huts and it has a lit cross country ski trail for winter, and there were families and little kids doing at least a little bit of the hike. Every city should have a handy mountain up above it for a stimulating Saturday walk....

Norway in a Nutshell

Oslo to Bergen train via the historic Flam railway and a trip through the majestic fjords. Potentially one of the most beautiful one day journeys in the world...

The whole day was scenery on another level and there's no way my photos capture the purity and grand scale of some of these sights.

One of the teeny villages dotted throughout the fjords

Super cute village

Lashings of waterfall