The Framptons' Blog » vacation

Barcelona, Spain

Ken — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:07:08 +0000

We recently returned from a week in Barcelona. We had a great time and what a fantastic city! The week didn’t start off so well though. When we arrived at the Barcelona airport we called the owner of the appartment we had rented only to learn that it had been double booked! The rental agency worked hard to find us another place for the week. It turned out to be a dump. The only heat were two plug-in rediators, the hot water didn’t work, the bed sheets stank and the neighborhood sucked. So the next day we found an internet cafe, logged on to one of those “last-minute-hotels.com” sites and booked a suite in a 5 star hotel (at a pretty good price). We did get our money back for the crappy appartment too.

One of the coolest parts of the city is Las Ramblas, a street through the heart of the old city. It is packed with street performers, shops and weirdos (besides us).

We spent New Years Eve at our hotel having a very nice din

ner. We capped off the year by setting our table on fire with som

e of the confetti we were given!

Holiday in Crete

Ken — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:57:00 +0000

Hi its Lynlee – I am posting under Ken’s name because I can’t remember my logon details – [Ken has edited this post to include appropriate photos]

Our summer holiday this year was to Georgiopolis, Crete with our good friends the Luckwells. Phil and Carol have been going to the same place in Crete for about 10 years running and are treated like family at the hotel. So we wer on holicay with Carol and Phil along with their daughter Katie and her boyfriend, Eric.

Georgiopolis is a small pretty much tourist town on the northwest end of the island between Hania and Rethymnon. The hotel is about 1/2 mile up the mountain with a georgeous view of the city.

We had a pretty small room with one bathroom between the 4 of us with a shower just inches from the toilet. Mary is going through a very shy time regarding anyone seeing her without clothes on but we had to convince her that if she was going to take 30 minute showers someone might have to come in during it. I am not kidding – I did it and got wet. The plumbing in Crete is a little old fashioned so you couldn’t put toilet paper down the toilet anywhere. Big signs in english reminded you at every toilet. OK – enough about the bathrooms.

The hotel is a family affair with Ava doing all the cooking, her Mike waiting tables and taking care of us and grandchildren helping out as well. One night we told Ava that we wanted to eat there for dinner and she had a couple other people – a Scottish couple and their kids that the Luckwells knew and a couple of old geezers. They set one big table for 20 and we ate family style – no menu just what Ava was cooking that night. That night we had 2 types of lamb, green beans from Ava’s garden and greek salad. She charged us only for the wine that night. There are photos on Picassa web showing this night including the strange drinking game we played called “systema”.

The secound night we ate at the hotel was a lunar eclipse and we had no idea it was going to happen. We had been on the beach until late because we were watching the most beautiful full moon come up. Here’s a picture of Noah on the beach that night.

When we got back we were all too tired to go out so down to the resturant we went. Of coarse the resturant looks right over the city and we were sitting outside that night.

At one point Mary looked at the moon and said it wasn’t full anymore and sure enough one little corner of it was starting to go away. Throughout our evening we watched the moon get smaller and smaller. Believe it or not we were in a place that had a view over an 80% eclipse. Apparently it was complete about 1:30am but I had gone to bed a little bit before then.

Our first day in Georgeopolis we spent the whole day at the pool downtown. Noah and Mary met a couple of kids just their age from Wales and spent the whole day in the pool. Certain parents neglected to put suncreen on their children and both of them got lots of sun that day. The pool was right in front of the beach so you could either stay at the pool or wander down to the beach anytime. There was also a resturant right at the pool which allowed us to let the kids stay in the pool while we ate lunch. That night we got back to the room and Noah was exhausted. The whole group of us was going into Rythemnon that night but Noah asked if he could go to bed – at 7:00. I stayed with him while the rest of the group drove into Rythemnon.

Ava was kind enough to bring me a yummy greek salad for dinner that night along with some of her homemade meatballs. I made the group promise that we would go back to Rythmnon another time due to the fact that the real shopping is there.

The next day we went to a water park and the kids ran into the friends they had made at the pool the day before.

OK – this is a small place. Great pools and amazing water slides. There was one slide that was a total free fall. I got to the top of it and said NO WAY. When we got back to the chairs I asked Ken if he had let Noah go on that slide. I didn’t get a straight answer so I had to go to the boy. And YES he went on it.

One morning right after I had boiled water for my coffee – yes I was using a cafeteria to make coffee – no laughing. Anyway the electricity went out. Ava said that “it happened now and then” and it would come on later. Apparently some type of engery saving measure. We got into town and all the resturants were open but you couldn’t get anything hot or cold. No one seemed at all worried about it. We got to the pool and they had a generator so I got my Diet Coke with Ice – thank you very much. The one grocery store we went to had a generator as well. It was all very strange in that if the electrity goes out in the US – life pretty much grinds to a halt – but here it wasn’t any big deal. As it turned out there had been a major fire that had blown out a transformer. We had light when we returned from Rythemnon were we went for dinner that night because we thought that would be far enough away that they would have electricty.

The last day of our trip we went on a boat ride. They took us to an area where a hermit supposedly lived but we had to swim to the shore and then climb up to his home. It was pretty cool although it was staged. They took us on a ride to another cute beach where we hung out for a while and then back to the boat for lunch.

This was one of the best trips we’ve had in Europe. We didn’t do a lot of sightseeing but really just relaxed and soaked up the sun. On one of the last days Noah was actually mistaken for a local boy because he was so brown.

THE FOOD WAS AWESOME- Lamb, greek salad, gyros and calamari. Did I mention lamb?

Vacation on Lake Como

Ken — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 10:42:00 +0000

We returned from our holiday on Lake Como in Italy a couple of weeks ago. We had a great time even though the weather wasn’t the best. Noboby seems motivated to blog about it now, but there are lots of pictures so go check those out.

New Year’s in Brugge, Belgium

Ken — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 13:30:00 +0000

29Dec07 – The trip from Ypres to Brugge was really only about 60 – 90 minutes long. Once again though I was without good directions to the hotel. We were following directions to “Centre Brugge” and were really feeling very smug about our intelligence factor when we went into this tunnel which led directly into a parking garage. We were able to get out of the parking garage lane but had to pull over and let Ken look at the map. We got into old Brugge at about 5:00pm and it was a madhouse. This is a not a place that was ever built for cars. It was hopping with people shopping and walking around and buggies pulled by horses. Pulled over again and called the hotel. We ended up finding a place to pull over right in front of the hotel and were able to unload and then Ken and Mary went to park the car.

So Brugge was once a 13th-century cloth making center and is know as Brugge (Flemish), or Bruges (French). Apparently the city was right on the North Sea in those days but over the centuries the city has lost its port and canals were built. Today it has a very medieval feel and the center historic section is mainly pedestrian only.

So our hotel is not exactly posh as the Brits would say but the bar was open anytime so we went down and Noah made friends with the lady at the bar. She provided him with his own little bowl of nuts and a never ending supply of apple juice. She finally brought a bottle of apple juice out of the kitchen after the 2nd day instead of having to keep going back to the kitchen for Noah’s refills.

The shops were closing about this time so we decided to rest a while and then head out for dinner. Ken was in search of a cash machine so we did get a chance to walk through the town a little before deciding on a place to eat. We found this place that was covered with rock – n- roll star pictures and movie star memorabilla and Noah found an almost lifesize Elvis standing in the basement outside the bathroom.

Now Noah apparently has taken after his mother when she was young in that he wants to go to the bathroom about every 10 minutes. I actually discussed putting in the Lynlee Burton bathroom rule which I had as a child allowing me one trip per dinner. I can really remember trying to make the most of my one opportunity but that’s another story for my shrink. The interesting part was that I could actually go with Noah to the bathroom because especially in France most of the bathrooms were co-ed. This is really unnerving in a place where you can’t speak the language – walking into a bathroom to see a man standing at a urinal and actually being in the correct bathroom.

During our first walk around town all the shops were closed but there was a chocolate shop near the hotel. Of coarse Belgium is famous for its chocolates and you can get almost anything you want molded in chocolate. Mary was very distressed over the chocolate breasts.

30Dec07 – Our hotel did include breakfast and we continued to enjoy the standard European breakfast. I am not much for the meats and cheeses but I think I could get used to French bread and strawberry jam every morning. Yummy. The coffee was excellent in Belgium as well. I think poor Ken struggled with the coffee but it was perfect for me – very strong.

The first thing we did on Sunday morning was head for the center of Brugge and go on a horse and carriage ride. The center had an ice skating rink surrounded by the standard Christmas market shops which are very popular in Europe. The reviews I have seen about the Brugge Christmas market being mostly food and drink stalls are true and will tell you that Germany is the place to go for Christmas markets. They know how to do it.

The carriage ride lasted about 45 minutes and took us through the city to see the main historical spots. We had been promising the kids ice skating since November when we first starting planning the trip so we had to do that next. Mary did a great job and Noah finally got into the groove. Mary wanted to keep skating so I took Noah over to one of the places serving hot chocolate and he downed 2 hot chocolates in about 5 minutes. One of the ladies in the hot chocolate booth was from the US and she told me the best chocolate shop to go to – Gauller. We had lunch and headed to the Chocolate Museum. After the museum we decided it was time to find a place to start trying the 400 Belgium beers.

Now Belgium is also known for their beer and I must say that I am not a big beer fan but some of this stuff was really good. Ken tried and few and had the unfortunate experience to find out after the fact that most of the Belgium beer is actually 9% as opposed to the 3 – 4% that he is used to. We had a little trouble getting him back to the hotel after that first experience and for the rest of the trip he was a lot more careful. Instead of wine stores they have these beer stores and we went in one that was about the size of a small grocery store and did carry several hundred different types. They also have a glass for each type so you could buy your beer and the specific glass to go with it.

31Dec07 – This was the shopping day as well as the discovery of Belgium waffels by the kids. Actually Mary preferred the waffels while Noah preferred the pancakes which were really more like crepes – very thin. Both are served with whipped cream. Both enjoyed this as either breakfast or lunch. I have been eating a lot of omelettes, mussels and french bread. Fortunately we are walking quite a bit so hopefully I will still be able to fit in my clothes when we return.

I have reservations for dinner at an old church that puts on a medievel dinner theatre reenactment of a wedding from the 1400s. We stood in line for ever to get in and finally realized what was taking so long. Before you go in they stamp this big pole and introduce you. Tee hee – We were the Burton family since you know who made the reservations.

New Year’s Trip 2008 – Lille

Ken — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 14:55:00 +0000

27Dec07 – We packed up the car and drove to the Channel Tunnel on Thursday morning. We put the car on the train and off to France we were. The whole process was very easy. We had a reservation so you simply checked in via a drive through computer screen and then we got a hangtag with a letter on it. Then we drove to the waiting area which had several resturants, money exchange places and of course – duty free shopping. We ate at a Burger King and then our letter was called. Go to your car and get in line. We simply drove in an orderly fashion to the train and then drove straight on. Each car was 2 stories and held 10 automobiles per train car – 5 on the top and 5 on the bottom. I think there were about 8 – 10 total cars so probably 100 cars. The car was just like the passenger ones except no seats. We were on the top. We could have gotten out of the car and stood beside the car but we stayed in. The whole trip was about 30 minutes. There are about 2 trains per hour and it appears that they just go back and forth. Then the train stopped and we drove off – only now on the other side of the road. On the way over we didn’t have to show our passports.

The Channel Tunnel drops you off in Calias, France and we had reservations at a B&B in Lannoy, France which is east of Lille, France. Getting to the B&B in Lille was an experience. First of all there is a lack of road names in France. You pretty much just have to know which direction you are going in. We ended up getting to Lille no problem but apparently got off on the wrong exit. (Yes we had a Google map.) We then began to drive around the suberbs of Lille desparetly trying to determine which road we were on with not much luck. We got into Lannoy finally and were able to find one road on our map but resorted to calling Mom in the US to google the B&B and get a phone number. I was extremely organized for the trip with the exception of a printout from the B&B. Mom got us the phone number and we called the B&B and got the landlady (Catherine) who spoke minimual English but had enough to say that the place was hidden by a church. Basically we had been driving past it over and over again for the past hour.

So we were at the B&B by about 4:00 local time. We had the Lys suite in the B&B which had a small bedroom for the kids attached to our main room. It was very nice. The house was built in the 1700’s and had been in Catherine’s husband’s family for about 100 years. This was our first experience with a B&B and I am not really sure whether I liked it or not. The personal attention is nice but at the same time she was very nervous about the kids and where Noah was eating his package of potato chips. It was hard to get drinks when you wanted them although we did figure out that we had access to a little refrigerator with drinks in it in one of the common rooms. Here is the web site if you want to take a look. http://www.chateau-de-courcelette.com/uk/home.html

Ken ran down to the local bakery and got us some yummy snacks (think chocolate crossaints and lemon tarts – Ken actually communicated with the bakers by showing the height of the people he was buying for – hence chocolate crossaints for the kids and the lemon tart for me) and we relaxed until about 7:00 when the lady told us the resturants would open up.

So downstairs we went to speak with Catherine about dinner. Unfortunately we would have to drive into Lille for dinner as Lannoy apparently doesn’t have any place open for dinner on Thursday nights. She tryed to send us into Belgium for dinner – apparently that was closer than Lille but we went with Lille.

Ken spent about 20 minutes chatting with Catherine about the directions to Lille and ended up with a map that had absolutely no road names or numbers on it. It was a miriad of round abouts and head towards Paris then go to Lille and head towards the city center. It actually worked. We parked in the parking garage beneath EURALILLE which is a brand new mall. Then we walked into the city. By this time it was late so we went to the first place we could find that served mussels and went in. Ken and I both had mussels and french fries which is the thing in this part of the country and Mary had spaghetti carbonara, Noah had pizza. Getting home was a difficult but much quicker than getting in.

28Dec07 – We had prearranged with Catherine that we would have breakfast at 9:00. We shared the table with an older couple from Strasburg which is currently in France but in broken English we discovered that the lady had lived in the same city her whole life but had been French, German and then French again as the city has been going back and forth for years. We drove back into Lille directly to the Palais des Beaux-Arts which is 2nd only to the Lourvre in terms of the size and quality of the art on display. Supposedly they have artwork by Monet, VanGogh and Renoir but we either didn’t recognize it or didn’t see it. We walked down to Vieux Lille which is the old section of town. The Christmas market was still in full swing so we were able to ride the Ferris Wheel which is located in Les Places and is considered the heart of old Lille. This gave us a great view of the city. Lots of shopping (tons of stores just for children, a stop at the crepe stand – fresh crepes with Nutella and then back to the mall for a little shopping. Believe it or not the mall was awful and we wished that we had spent more time in the shops in the old town.

The weather was pretty chilly and being the lousy parents that we are both of our children have either outgrown their coats or consider the coat that they do own makes them look dorky. So Noah decided that instead of looking dorky he would be cold and Mary was stuck wearing a million sweatshirts. We spent a good part of today searching for coats for both kids but struck out.

We stayed in the city for dinner and drove back to the B&B to find we had been locked out so we had to ring the bell and get them up to get back into the house. Apparently the people who had come in before us had locked up too well.

30Dec07 – Up really early this morning. I think we finally made it to breakfast by 10:30 and hit the road to Ypres which was really only about 1 hour from Lannoy. Crossing into Belgium was very obvious as even though we can’t even begin to read Flemish they began to actually have road numbers and names. I am going to leave it to Ken to write about Ypres and move on to Brugge.