Here was me thinking that finishing that phrase with “a horse” was merely a comment on the size of your appetite; I had no idea you could literally eat horse. And yet, nearly all of the menus around Lake Garda – where we’re currently enjoying an extended long weekend – have sported some type of horse steak on them.

It seems so wrong, and yet, when you see it advertised everywhere, you can’t help but feel a little bit curious… and so, I tried it.

Now before you think less of me, just remember that (a) it’s quite popular in some cultures, and (b) it’s better for you than steak – it has less calories, fat, and cholesterol, and is higher in protein and iron.

But how does it taste? Pretty good, actually! It’s tender, like a medium-rare eye fillet, and it’s just a little bit sweet, with a distinct flavour of peppercorns and cream – though that’s perhaps in part due to the creamy peppercorn sauce that was served on top of it.

I don’t know that I’d eat it again – if I’m honest, the thought of eating horse still feels a bit wrong to me, and I think I’m going to go vegetarian for the next week to make up for it – but hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. And, when in Rome, and all that…

Checking out a new city is always better when you’re there with an expert. With this in mind, we jumped at the chance when our Swedish friend Oscar (who I used to work with at CQS) offered us a tour of Stockholm. Aubain and Ingrid were on the same wavelength, so we all jetted off on Friday night after work to spend a weekend in the the capital of Scandinavia.

Stockholm is an absolutely beautiful city – so fresh and so clean! It’s actually composed of hundreds of little islands (well – 14 islands), so it’s hard to pick a photo that shows the “centre of the city”, mainly because I never really worked out where it was. Instead, here’s a photo of some water, buildings, and a park. The street on the right is Strandvägen, which according to Oscar is one of the most expensive places to live in the world.

The people who live there seem to be a bit of an enigma; clearly they want society to think the best of them for living in such a prestigious location, yet I saw at least two or three of the oldies sitting on their balconies and enjoying the sunshine – completely naked! Well, you know what they say about Europeans and nudity…

One of the great things about Stockholm is that all the streets are named after the most successful pieces of Ikea furniture. Take this sign for example, which not only points the way towards the Vasa Museum – but also towards Gälarvarvet street, named after their most successful ever line of dwarfish steak knives.

We chose the path towards the museum, and enjoyed learning about the “most badass warship of its time” (as described by Oscar), which, in 1628, sailed about 150 meters out of port before sinking to the bottom of the harbour. But, as Aubain put it so well – trust the Swedes to turn failure into success, by rescuing the ship in 1961, painstakingly restoring it and housing it in a purpose built museum, and then charging the public 110 SEK (about £11) to visit! It was well worth it!

When we told people we were going to Stockholm, the phrase we heard most often was, “ohh, it’s expensive”. Some people used even more “h’s” on their “ohh”, like, “ohhhhhhh”. And oh my, were they were right – for lunch on Saturday, we had two salads and a bottle of sparkle sparkle (that’s water, by the way) for the princely sum of 502 SEK (around £50). Ouch! So with that in mind, we were pleasantly surprised when in the Old Town, we stumbled upon a little hole in the wall called Caffellini Bar, and I found myself drawn inside. I did my best to try to blend in with the locals; as opposed to Aubain and Ingrid, who did their best to not look like the locals.

For 10 SEK (around £1), I wasn’t expecting too much from my macchiato, and yet it was exceptional! I would recommend the Caffellini Bar as the first port of call for any visitor to Stockholm!

We had enjoyed amazing weather on Saturday – perfect for exploring the town, grabbing some caches, and getting a bit of colour in our pasty white skin. As much as I’d like to say this continued on Sunday, it was actually the complete opposite – in fact, every time we went outside, it started pouring down, and every time we went inside, it stopped again! We were cursed! Thankfully, Stockholm is home to the largest photography museum in the world, so we had plenty of things to keep us busy. But we still got wet.

(That’s my photo by the way. The museum has approached me to feature it, but I’ve so far declined to comment.)

A huge thanks to Aubain, Ingrid, and Oscar for a great weekend away!

They say that “all good things must come to an end” and in the case of our week of skiing, that stupid cliche came true yesterday when we got back to London. To be fair, I think everyone was happy to be resting their tired muscles after a week on the slopes; but a relaxing weekend in our chalet followed by another week of skiing would have been a much better outcome than having to come home!

Our chalet was in Merbiel, which – along with Courchevel and Val Thorens – is part of the largest ski area in the world, known as “The Three Valleys”. One thing I can definitely say about the area is that there is an absolute metric crapton of snow – way more snow than I’ve ever seen before. And, since we were also higher than we’ve ever skiied before (the highest slope we hit was just over 3000m), the quality of the snow was generally amazing.

We were very lucky to enjoy perfect weather on our first few days, but the clouds rolled in on Tuesday night, bringing with them a fresh dump of snow. By morning the weather hadn’t improved at all; four of us did venture up to the top of our closest mountain, but the fog was so thick we could barely see each other, even just a few metres apart. It took us about an hour to very cautiously ski back down!

Still, even though hitting the pistes were out of the question we weren’t going to let all that fresh powder go to waste! And given that our “backyard” consisted of a fairly steep, wide open hill, Giovanni and Suzie found some shovels and slaved away building a huge kicker! I must admit, it took quite a bit of courage just to hit it, and it seemed even bigger once you were in the air! But the landing pad was like a well fluffed pillow, which I think we were all very thankful for…

The visibility certainly improved on Thursday, though the snow continued to fall well into the afternoon – so much so that they didn’t bother grooming the slopes until after the resort had closed for the day. Still, boatloads of powder, freshly groomed runs, and perfect visibility added up to an unbeatable day of skiing on Friday – just a pity it had to be right at the end of our trip!

Aubain, Ingrid, Kristy and I took the opportunity to venture as far as possible, and after about three hours, we managed to make it to the eastern most point of the resort, and into The Fourth Valley – one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen, in all the world. Photos don’t do it any justice!

This trip was also both colder and hotter than any other ski trip we’ve done. Thursday and Friday were especially cold – it was -17˚C at the base of one of the lifts, and that doesn’t account for windchill, nor the 1,000 metres or so of extra altitude at the peaks. I was mostly warm enough in two thermal layers, a fleece, a neck warmer, and the hardshell outer layers, but the wind rushing in and out of my goggles (which prevents fogging) was enough to give me a brain freeze! It’s even worse when you’re sitting on an “open plan” ski lift, as you’re not moving to keep warm, you’re up in the air, and you’ve got no protection from the elements! Brrrrrrr!!

On the contrary, our ski chalet was way too hot! Everything had in built heating – the rooms, the floors – even the sofas! And there was a problem with the wiring, which meant none of the thermostats worked properly (neither did the lights – they flicked on and off at random – but that’s another story). Most of the time we needed a door or window left open just to balance out the temperature a bit, and the hot, dry air meant everyone woke up feeling dehydrated each morning. Still, we can’t complain too much – too hot is definitely better than too cold!

All in all, it was a pretty amazing trip, and given how far in advance it had been planned, I’m still in disbelief that it’s already over. My fingers are crossed for a second ski trip this season; I just can’t get enough of it!

More photos in the skiing and the kicker albums.

As you’ve probably guessed, we joined Kirsty’s posse in Düsseldorf last weekend to celebrate her 30th birthday. Note here, it was Kirsty’s birthday, not Kristy’s birthday. Lots of people seem to get them confused, though I have no idea why. For further visual clarity, I have included here a photo of the two of them – my wife, Kristy is on the left, so by a process of elimination, that makes the other bird on the right, the lady of the hour Kirsty:

Oh my, Düsseldorf was cold! We managed to leave the warm comfort of John’s apartment for a walk around the city on Saturday morning. I can see how it would be quite a nice place to be in summer; however we could barely stand still for more than a few seconds to enjoy the scenery! Instead, we mainly spent our time scurrying from restaurant, to cafe, to bar – basically, anywhere that was heated and indoors!

In the afternoon, we took a train to Köln (“Cologne”), to check out the Christmas markets under the magnificent Cathedral. With dusk settling in, the Christmas lights coming on, and the smell of mulled wine and roasting pork in the air, it was quite the feast for the senses! (Well, not so much for poor old “touch”, as Köln was even more freezing than Düsseldorf!).

Probably the best thing about the Christmas markets was that Kristy was finally reunited with Kartoffelpuffer – deep fried potato pancakes covered in apple sauce. She’s been raving to me about these things ever since I’ve known here, so I was pleased to finally see what all the fuss was about. Just look how happy she is!

I have to admit… they were gooooooood.

We hit up some of John’s recommended evening hang-outs when we got back to Düsseldorf. Well, not all of them – the bouncer wouldn’t let Roland or I in at the first club that we went to (Roland since he was wearing cargo-pants, and me because I wasn’t wearing dress shoes). Still, there were loads of places that were happy to take our money, so we went to them instead.

One thing I really noticed in Germany was how profuse smoking is. Worse still, you’re allowed to smoke inside certain restaurants, so when you come out, everything wreaks of smoke. When you’re not used to it, it’s amazing how annoying it is! Still, it didn’t tarnish our otherwise good night out.

Unfortunately for us, it snowed heavily overnight, and the snow continued for all of Sunday. Going by the beer-bottle index, we got about 6 to 8 inches.

And, as you’ve (possibly) read, this meant that all flights out of Düsseldorf were cancelled, so we were stuck there for one more night. I won’t go into the details about how terrible it is – frankly, it could have been a lot worse (like the people that got stuck on the Eurostar in the channel tunnel for 16 hours) – but suffice to say, we were pleased when our rescheduled flight at 7:30 AM the next morning had taken to the skies.

I think Kirsty enjoyed her 30th celebration, and it was great to be part of “the crew” that helped her celebrate!

A few more photos in the Dusseldorf album.

We are in Düsseldorf celebrating Kirsty’s 30th.

It’s cold. Really, really cold.

By Sunday morning, we felt we’d seen as much as Bruges as we cared to in the rain, so we took an early train back to Brussels. After fighting with the automatic baggage check lockers for a few minutes, we were luggage free, and we headed in to town.

We immediately noticed that Brussels was nowhere near as friendly feeling as what Bruges was. For starters, the walk from the train station to the town centre went straight through one of those market places where everyone is yelling in different languages. After that, there was about 10 minutes of very empty, run-down, gray-building-lined streets. Finally we emerged into a more populated area, only to be insulted by a bus!

How rude!

Anyway, with the Christmas markets on, the little wooden roofs on the huts were the first sign of people that we saw, and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little glad to see them. The great thing about being in Brussels is that we didn’t have any agenda, so we just followed the ebbs and flows of the crowd to see where it would take us – unsurprisingly, it was pretty much along the entire route of the Christmas markets.

We took a slightly different route back to the train station, and walked past a fairly amazing display of baby photos. There was probably only about 5 baby “models” on display, and each photo was of their faces, pulling different (and sometimes rather comical) expressions. By this time it was getting dark, and since the photos were backlit, they really stood out.

That was about all that Brussels had to offer us in the few hours that we were there, though to be honest, I think I’d probably had my fill anyway. I’m sure there’s a load of nice things elsewhere in the city, but with so many other places to explore in the world, I probably won’t be rushing back – unless it was for a culinary tour for more mussels, fries, chocolate and beer!

Bruges has been on our “must see” list since the day we were born; or at the very least, since we saw the movie with the same name. So, capitalising on cheap Eurostar fares through Kristy’s work (bless you, TfL!), we headed out that way on Friday night. Even though it was dark, raining, and close to midnight when we arrived, I immediately recognised some of the scenery from the movie! In the light of the morning, the scenery looked even more familiar; but by that point, there’s a chance I was just getting confused with Amsterdam. There’s only so many ways you can present narrow buildings along a canal!

We stayed at The Hotel Loreto, and I can’t praise it enough! The price was great, especially considering it included a delicious breakfast each morning (they had a little machine for you to soft/hard boil your own eggs!). Plus, it had one of the most comfortable beds of any hotel I’ve stayed in – especially important given that it rained all weekend, which necessitated much sleeping! To top things off, when we came back to our room on Saturday afternoon, the delightfully friendly staff had left two little boxes of Belgian chocolates on the doona for us!

Everyone had told us that Bruges was only a small town, and a few hours would have been enough to see all its offerings. I think this is true, however with all the rain we had, we didn’t get around too quickly. Instead, we ambled about when we could, taking our time, and browsing at the Christmas markets, which only opened this weekend.

One thing that Belgian is known for is there beers, and there was certainly no shortage of bars around town. We stopped at one on Saturday afternoon which had a menu of over four hundred beers to choose from! I sent a photo of their menu to Jason, and as he put it so well – “where do you start?!”. We didn’t know either, so we just picked two at random, and hoped for the best!

Aside from the beer, we did our best to try as many of the other Belgian delicacies as we could, and I’m proud to say we successfully conquering them all in a single day: chocolate, waffles, flemish stew, mussels and frites. Yum! The only one that we missed out was rabbit – but you have to save some things for next time…

All in all, it was a lovely place to spend the weekend!

More photos in the album.

For the final bank holiday of the year, we tagged along with Ben and Michelle (and Ben’s mum, Wendy) for a trip to the capital of the Czech Republic: Prague. What a lovely little town!

It’s not such a big city, so three days was just about the right amount of time to wander around the place. One of Prague’s biggest icons is Charles Bridge (on the right in the photo), which connects the Old Town to the castle. During the day, it’s packed with tourists, buskers, artists, and various vendors flogging their wares.

The hike up the hill to the castle was steep! But it was well worth it, the views from the top were simply fantastic!

I think that “Czechoslovakia” must roughly translate into English as, “Town where beer is cheaper than water”. Seriously – a half-litre of beer was cheaper than a half-litre bottle of water! Crazy, right? Even Gumby decided to get in on the action!

On our second day, we headed to our local train station and managed to buy return tickets to Kutna Hora to pay a visit to the Sedlec Ossuary – better known as the Bone church. This place was freaky! Basically, it was a small church, decorated with bones. Heaps of them, and mainly skulls.

I don’t really get the point, and the Wikipedia article doesn’t really clear things up either. Something about a blind monk who had to exhume the bones in order to make way for renovations?

Anyway, the centrepiece of the floor was the enormous chandelier, which contains at least one of every bone from the human body. It’s surrounded by four tall pillar-like candlesticks, tastefully decorated with – you guessed it – more skulls.

Yep, that’ll definitely go on my “freakiest things ever” list.

We ate dinner when we got back to Prague, though it took us a while to find somewhere to eat. We tried one place right by the water, but their service was terrible, and they didn’t have anything that we ordered. So we tried to leave after a round of drinks, and they couldn’t even serve the bill!

Well, rather annoyed (and perhaps a little tipsy), I made a bit of a scene on our exit (I yelled at the staff on the door) – and successfully prevented 4 other diners from going through the same experience. Nice!

After we finally did it, it was very late, so I went back to Charles Bridge and took some night photos with a few less people around. Prague is as beautiful at night as it is during the day.

Our final day in Prague was spent in New Town, hunting around the shops for bargains. We didn’t really find any, but it was nice to have a wander anyway.

Prague was the perfect place for a three day getaway! My only complaint would be the food – their local cuisine was not at all to our taste. Our best meal was, ironically, had at a Brazilian restaurant! But otherwise, Prague was a fantastic city to visit, and one that I’d recommend to anyone.