This week has been spent visiting Justin’s family and hitting Manchester so Justin could see a Manchester United game (a missing item on his “resume of sports events” that can now be “ticked”).  While the week had its challenges with poor little Stella having a pretty bad cold, it was a nice trip.

Francesca and Stella

We started out at Eden and Janine’s house in Stratford Upon Avon.  Wellington, Justin’s Dad, had arrived there for a visit so we met him for dinner with Eden, Janine and Francesca (Justin’s cousin).  It was a nice visit and good to catch up.  We had not seen them since 2005 when we were over for a visit.

We then headed up to Manchester so Justin and his Dad could go the match.  We stayed in a really nice hotel, Yang Sing Oriental Hotel.  I highly recommend it if you are going to Manchester.  Free breakfast, mini-bar and very nice/ornate rooms.  There’s also a great Chinese restaurant attached where we had a nice dim sum.

Stella and I spent the evening shopping and then hanging out in our hotel room with room service and a movie.  It was very nice mommy/daughter time which was quite fun for me as she’s finally old enough to relate to  – well sort of – and “hang out” with.

I even picked up a pair of proper English riding boots!

Manchester is a great city, shopping, culture and a variety of ethnic cuisine.  And of course they have teh best footy team Man-United!

Helen and Stella

We then headed back to Liverpool to visit Justin’s Grandmother Alice and also see some close family friends (and Justin’s Mum’s long time childhood friend), Helen, Charles and their lovely three boys.

Charles and Samuel with Stella

It’s been nice to let Stella spend some time with family and experience the life and culture of her roots here in England.  We look forward to the next few months as well where we will be taking her to Pennsylvania, NYC and of course VA to visit and experience some of my roots and places where Justin and I both have many memories.

That is the one thing about travel.  Outside of experiencing new things (which we love to do), it’s also nice sometimes to go back to your roots and explore and remember who you are and where you came from.

Back to Marlow for 10 days and then off to St. Louis for work on November 5.

Some Baby Tips:

Make sure you travel equipped with a few relief medicines, balms, etc. for baby in case they get a cold and you find yourself unable to get to a market.  Stella unfortunately picked up a really bad cold last week at the little daycare/play time we took her to.  I had a few things that I knew helped relieve her cold with me and picked up a few other things here.  At her age there isn’t much you can do but Vicks balm and menthol vaporizers really help.  Unfortunately I was unable to find a cool mist vaporizer in England.  Apparently no one uses those here.

Another thing to think about if you are traveling in Europe.  Don’t run out of diapers on a Sunday (and in some places, any day for that matter).  We were rationing out our last diapers last Sunday as I didn’t realize I was out until 5 pm on Sunday and every shop was closed.  Thankfully we made it with the last 2 diapers until morning but we could have been in BIG trouble!

Outside the City Walls of Dubrovnik

Of everywhere we visited so far I’d say Durbrovnik was my favorite.  I highly recommend it to anyone who dreams of a Mediterranean get-a-way right out of Conde Nast.  Thanks to Craig we had a gorgeous villa with amazing views.  (Minus the 300+ steps from top to bottom—but we all have strong calves now).

Our Villa - A View From the Sea

There were kiwis, fresh herbs, lemons and limes growing right on the property and a lovely garden with roses and all sorts of trees and flowers.  This was amazing given that the villa was literally built into a cliff.  A lot of history in this house as well, it was used as a look out point during the war.  For more information check out this article that was featured in the Washington Post in 2002 where the writer stayed in our villa.  And yes, they left us homemade apple streudel as well.

The View From the Garden

Old town Dubrovnik is a beautiful walled city with red tiled roofs.  We did the walk around the entire wall and had some great views.  There’s also a monastery, one of the oldest operating pharmacies in Europe and many galleries.  I read that the City of Dubrovnik spends 22% of their budget on cultural projects – that’s a lot given the country is still recovering from war torn status.

View of Old Town Dubrovnik from Tower Lookout Window

There’s a lot of debate amongst the locals regarding how and if they want to become a big tourist destination.  Dubrovnik is already being called the Riviera of the Adriatic and there are 4-5 cruise ships docked their on any given day.  The locals didn’t seem to keen to have any of us tourists there either.  The friendliness of Greece was virtually non-existent here.

We also hit Korcula, an island about 100 KM from Dubrovnik.  We were lucky to have a very traditional and yummy meal at our friend Randy Farac’s family’s restaurant, “Mate” in Putnap on the island.

Lunch at Mate

Most of the trip was spent relaxing on our porch overlooking the Adriatic and cooking fantastic meals in.    While we had a pool and steps right into the sea it was too cold for swimming.  Justin and Craig did hit the sea twice just to say they had been swimming but Sanaz and I weren’t going to brave the cold.

The only complaint anyone had was that since the Dubrovnik area and Croatia for that matter isn’t very toursity, outside of the Old Town of Dubrovnik we were hardpressed to find many shops or restaurants in the little villages we went exploring in.  We did find a great roadside stand selling fresh oysters and mussels.  We got 2 kilos of mussels for 16 kuna…that’s about $3.50 US!

There is a lot to see in Croatia and it’s on my list for a repeat visit.  I think the best way to do it would be to do a sailing trip so that you can hit all the islands and coastal villages.  Maybe in a few years when Stella won’t be falling overboard!

We are back in Marlow now and back on line and contactable via phone easily.  So back to a normal life again.  We are here for a month so we hope to get caught up on work and with friends and family.

As for the simple baby travel…we have to say that we are ready to not get on a plane or go anywhere for awhile.  With Stella walking she doesn’t want to sit still for long.  So perhaps the simpleness of baby travel may be coming to a close but stay tuned!

A tip on staying in a villa with children.  Check out how many stairs there are and if the place is child friendly.  We knew going in that our villa was not recommended for small children.  We figured that since she was just learning to walk it would be OK.  Carrying her up and down the stairs wasn’t so bad and she actually climbed a few herself.  However, the challenges of baby proofing were quite high this go around and she actually fell from the picnic table while Justin and I were sitting and standing right beside her.  But children will be children and they are going to fall!  Our villa did provide a pack and play and high chair again which was great.

We continue to be happy to have had these experiences traveling as a family and look forward to our future plans.

We’ve hit all our favorites the last few days and here’s a round up of the best of our family trip:

1.  Villages:

Lardhos Bakery - Stella got a free bread stick every time

Lardos:  Nicest people we met and a real local feel.  Don’t miss the bakery and butcher near the vegetable stand.  Stella got a free breadstick every time we saw the bakery lady and “Mr. Vancouver” aka Justin, got 2 free sausages from the butcher every time.  We shopped there often.  And of course Roula’s the restaurant which I blogged about before.

Mr. Vancouver and the Butcher of Lardhos

Gennadi:  Great restaurant called Mamma’s Kitchen and also a nice bakery and vegetable stand.  Very local and you get a great feel for the island life here.

2.  The Acropolis and village of Lindos.  Gorgeous and incredible that it’s still here after so many years (their are ruins in the acropolis dating back to 400 BC).

Acropolis of Lindos

3.  Old Town Rhodes.  Beautiful walled city and again, incredible that it has survived this long and after so many different occupiers of the island of Rhodes (Italians, Turks, to name a few).

4. The mountain drive from the airport to Embona (wine area).  Beautiful scenery and different from the rest of the island (plenty of trees).

5.  Restaurants:

Dionysius in Lindos:  great seafood (they tell you what is fresh) and nice atmosphere.

Roulas:  mentioned above.  Good Greek food.

Mamma’s Kitchen:  as mentioned in an earlier blog.  Fantastic homemade Greek food in a garden setting in the village of Gennadi.

Tsambika’s Taverna:  at the top of the hill at Tsambika’s beach and on the way to Rhodes Town from Lindos.  Great views and good seafood and grilled meat selections.  Definitely worth the stop.

Lee Beach Cafe at Lee’s Beach/Pefkos.  OK, we liked it for more than the name.  Fantastic gyros and again really nice people.  Great views.  We went there more times than we can count.

Jasmine in Pefkos.  Nothing to rave about their food but they have:  bar, big screen TVs with football/soccer, and a playground for Stella.  Great combo.  We also went there often for high speed wireless internet.

6.  Catamaran to Marmaris:  don’t go for shopping as advertised but for the boat ride over (beautiful) and a walk along the port and thru the village.  Both are very nice and you actually get a feel for Turkish life.

7.  Beaches:  St. Paul’s Bay (great view of the acropolis, quaint and nice beach shack for drinks) and Pefkos (sandy);

8. Hikes:  Hike up Navarone Bay cliffs (Where “The Guns of Navarone” was filmed) and the hike of the mountains and cliffs behind our villa in Navarone Bay/Saltos.

All in all it was a fantastic trip to Greece.  Would we do anything differently?  One suggestion would be not to rent a villa when it is brand new.  Wait until it has gone thru one season so that all the kinks and problems are worked out and all those things you wish you had brought but have to go buy are already there.

As for some baby tips.

I mentioned this before but call ahead to see if your villa or hotel has baby gear so you don’t have to bring it.  Our villa provided us with a pack and play and a high chair and our car rental company, M&S (great company by the way) provided us with a free car seat to use.

And drum roll please…Ms. Stella finally walked.  Check it out.  We had been betting on when she finally would.  She’s been crusing for months and taking 2-3 steps here and there for the past few weeks but yesterday she took off.