Center Parcs
We’ve just come back from three full days in Center Parcs (Friday noon–Monday noon).
It’s basically hundreds of wooden cottages inside a forest, with lots of activities for kids and adults. Most of them cost money, except for the subtropical water complex.
The kids loved it – they now want to go there for all their holidays (although I think Marcel will change his mind in about five years’ time – like Legoland, it’s devoid of young people between 15 and 35).
Marcel and Charlotte did archery, “Olympics” and quadbike, and Phyllis and I went for the serail treatment (which was really nice).
The only annoying thing that happened was when we all went for a birthday meal (Léon is 3 years old today) in the Chinese restaurant. We ordered the set menu in advance, and they told us that kids under 3 were free, which made us very happy because we were bringing three (Léon, Gordon and Anna). However, it turned out that they were planning to just give them empty plates for free and we were then “allowed” to share our food with them. Since when has it been free not to pay for nothing?!? Fortunately, the manager eventually gave in, but watch out if you’re planning to visit the Center Parcs restaurants!
Oxygen for babies
There was a story today about a Ryanair flight which lost cabin pressure as a result of which oxygen masks were released.
Fairly standard stuff that doesn’t worry me overly.
However, it made me wonder what to do about babies under two. You see, you can’t book individual seats for them, they have to sit on your lap.
So what do you do if you need oxygen and you only get one mask for your baby and yourself?
I asked in the comments section in the article I linked to above, and somebody relied:
It depends from aircraft to aircraft but all aircraft have 4 masks on certain rows, and therefore on a full flight passengers with babies should be checked into a row which has 4 masks. If in doubt check with check-in staff who should be adequately trained to know the aircraft configuration and also with cabin crew. It is a part of basic safety training that you know which rows have 4 masks, but again I can’t give a general comment on this as every single aircraft type I have operated on has differed in this respect.
However, a different person followed up:
However we flew on a Ryan air 737 over the weekend with our small baby and asked to sit in a row with 4 oxygen masks. The cabin crew didn’t seem to know what we were talking about!
So what do you do if the crew can’t help you and you can’t find a seat with an empty seat next to it?
Suitcase on wheels
Kiddie suitcase on wheels
While we were waiting for our suitcases in Stansted two days ago, two kids walked past me sitting on pink suitcases.
This looks like a great idea! Suddenly carrying their own luggage becomes a game for kids…
Only problem I can see is to keep them away from slopes in all disguises, or your kids might suddenly travel a bit faster than is advisable at that age.
I Danmark
Så er det blevet tid til den årlige tur til Danmark for hele familien.
Anna, Phyllis og mig var naturligvis i Danmark i begyndelsen af april, men Léon, Charlotte og Marcel har ikke været der i nu et år.
Vi er der fra fredag 1/8 til lørdag 16/8 (begge dage inkl.).
Vi regner med være det meste af tiden hos mine forældre i Sdr. Vissing.
Sagen er den, at hvor man kan leje en bil med fem sæder til en rimelig pris, koster en med syv sæder det dobbelte, så vi vil prøve, om vi kan klare os med offentlig transport og nogle taxature.
Men der er jo også god plads i præstegården, hvis nogen skulle få lyst til at komme forbi.
Pirosmani
Phyllis and I spent the weekend in Paris with Anna.
Close to our hotel, on the Rue Boutebrie, we found a wonderful Georgian restaurant, called Pirosmani (named after the painter, of course).
I had lobio and xink’ali, and Phyllis had ajapsandali and kharcho, but Anna liked the ajapsandali best.
აჯაფსანდალი ajapsandali (recipe here) is diced aubergine that has been cooked till it’s very tender with tomato and lots of herbs, and she just loved it.
Why aren’t there any Georgian restaurants in Glasgow? My lobio was just great, and if Pirosmani had been here instead, I’d definitely go there often.
It’s a long trip to get an ice-cream
Phyllis and I thought it was a bit unfair on the kids to do DIY for three days in a row, so Phyllis suggested that we should go for an ice-cream at Nardini’s in Largs.
Sure, it’s a long trip, but she claimed the ice-cream was worth it. (She says it was the first place she ever had a non-vanilla ice-cream in her life.)
However, when we got there, we found out it was closed (see the photo). We later met Joyce (with Steve, Karen and Andrew) who said it closed years ago, so Phyllis must not have been to Largs for longer than she thought.
Today we had our ice-cream at a different Nardini’s near the ferry terminal, and it was absolutely lovely!
All hope is not lost for trying the original Nardini ice-cream, though – according to this article, it is due to open later this summer under new ownership (but with the original recipes).
Annas første tur til Danmark
Anna flyver til København (via Amsterdam) mandag den 7. april og tager hjem igen tidligt søndag morgen den 13. april.
Hun tager mig med, da jeg er stedkendt, og sin mor, da hun leverer mælken.
Vi tager til nok til Sønder Vissing (så hun kan besøge sine bedsteforældre) tirsdag eller evt. onsdag, og vi tager vel tilbage til København lørdag, men alt afhænger af, hvem der vil have besøg af hende hvornår. Send mig en mail, hvis du/I er interesseret i at se hende!
Finally!
Ryanair must be reading this blog. It’s less than a month ago that I blogged that they should be opening a route from Billund in Denmark to Scotland instead of one to Birmingham.
And now they’re finally doing what I’ve been waiting for ever since I moved to Scotland, opening a direct route. The one they’re starting is Edinburgh-Billund, which makes good sense, I guess. Aarhus Airport is a bit far away from most attractions, and so is Prestwick.
Just a shame they’re not opening it in time for the summer holidays.
Birmingham?!?
I’ve just noticed that Ryanair are starting up a route between Birmingham and Billund. That means that they’re now flying to London, Dublin and Birmingham from Denmark.
What planet are they on? Unless they think lots of people in the Midlands want to visit the original Legoland (but why should they – Windsor isn’t that far away for them), I don’t understand who they expect to use this route.
In my experience, to a British person Denmark consists of Legoland and Copenhagen, while Danes tend to think of the UK as the Scottish Highlands and London.
So if they wanted an extra route from the UK to Denmark, why not Prestwick-Billund or Edinburgh-Copenhagen/Malmö instead? I definitely think this new route to Birmingham will be short-lived.
House swap
In the readers’ comments on an article in The New York Times about cheap holidays in Europe, somebody suggested house swapping as a way of holding down the price.
They recommended craigslist, and they definitely have a section about this, although there aren’t that many options for Glasgow at the moment.
Has anybody got any experience with this, and are there any other good websites to find other swappers?