Hangzhou - Day 9, 10 and 11

The ride to the islands confused us a bit. There are many places to hire boats. We got off at the Longxiangqiao (龙翔桥站) subway station and walked over to the river (passing the Gucci store!). The best one to take is the really fancy air-conditioned one that will take you to the island. What we didn't realize is that this is the ONLY fancy boat and it just goes to the island and back to the shore. It doesn't do a round trip.



Each route is run by different boats and they basically go back and forth. They also leave the island in different places. So wherever you arrived (unless you want to go back where you came from) is not where you need to catch the next boat. In the middle of the island is a place to buy food and drinks.

Don’t forget to see the reflecting moon thingy’s. Not much to look at but just don’t miss them.

The island is actually really pretty and it's a very nice walk around with lots of opportunities for nice photographs. You can also see the whole perimeter of the lake so its good to get a good orientation. For example, one of the pagoda's we wanted to see turned out to be on the top of a hill and because of the hill and the fact that the pagoda looked like all other pagoda's we decided not to visit it!

Catch the boat to north-western corner of the lake and visit the Quyuan Gardens. They are bounded by the lake, Beishan Rd. and Yanggongdi Rd. We were going to go here but didn't have time. I'll definitely go next time because it looks like a really beautiful place to visit especially in the summer.

You can then head back to Beishan Rd. and go and visit the Yuewang Temple. We enjoyed roaming around in this place although it does look like many of the other temples in China!

And of course my favourite photograph that I now use as a background on my smart phone:

All of this should be enough to fill up your day! But if it's not there are always the shopping malls to take in :)

Day 10:

I would suggest biking around the lake on day 10. That is what I had planned to do :( Was really ticked that I didn't get to do that especially since the girls had practiced AND they had kids bikes for rent. 

There are oodles of things to see around the lake, like:
Orioles Singing in the Willows 杭州--柳浪闻莺
Hangzhou Underwater World 杭州海底世界
Chinese Silk Museum 中国丝绸博物馆 (I really wanted to go and see this one)
Leifeng Xizhao (a pagoda on top of a hill)
Jingci Temple
Taiziwan Park
Viewing Fish at Flower Pond 花港观鱼. 

And if you have any energy left take a trip to the China Tea Museum (88 Longjing Lu) and drink Hangzhou's most famous tea "dragon well".

Day 11:

Take time to chill before you catch the night train to Xi'an.

Catching the overnight train was relatively simple. We just had to get to the main train station and find the right waiting area. There was no good food or drink in the waiting area so make sure you get something before you go through security. We had decided to have instant noodles for dinner. These things are great, everyone eats them. You just buy a Styrofoam soup bowl, they are available absolutely everywhere, and then all you have to do is find hot water. This is not a problem in China. Every (train) car has a tap which serves you “scalding” water. So all you do is take your bowl to the tap, open the lid halfway (very important), remove the foldable fork, fill the bowl with adequate water and then close the lid using the fork to hold the lid down. If you've no idea how to do that just look at all the other peoples bowls and copy them. After 5 minutes or so you have yourself a hot meal albeit not so tasty.

You can see the noodle bowls in the bottom left hand corner!

Overall the train was great. The one problem we had was that people smoke in the train. It’s a non-smoking train but no one objects to people smoking between the carriages. The only problem with that is that the trains are sealed because they are fully air-conditioned. The smoke invariably seeped back down the corridor and into the compartment via the vent under the beds. Not nice but once you are asleep you might not even notice it! Once the staff had put the lights out, at around 9:30 pm, it was amazingly quiet. No more loud movies, chatting, or cell phones ringing. We were totally amazed and all slept relatively well.

And now on to Xi'an. Probably where we had the most fun of all :)

Basic Pastry

Bored out of my brains waiting for my eldest to be done with her gymnastics practice. One of those bad deals where it’s too far to drive back home but the wait is long if I chose not to go grocery shopping, which is the case today. But there is a silver lining to every cloud and in this case it is a pastry recipe.

The pastry is really easy to make. My mother taught me how to make it and I’ve been making it for decades. Once my mum figured out that my pastry tasted the best I was stuck for life making pastry! I remember once being dragged to the Indian Consulate in Kandy, Sri Lanka to demonstrate how I made the pastry!! Eventually, I figured out that the only reason my pastry turned out well was because I had cold hands. As I said above there is always a silver lining to a cloud.

So the trick is keep everything super cold. If you have regular hands that means you need to stick them in some ice to keep them cold while you are making the pastry. Alternatively you could use a food processor or a pastry thingy but the pastry will never taste as good as if you made it by hand. I bought an expensive food processor specifically to make pastry and returned it within a couple of days because the pastry was not up to par. 

This amount will make the base for a 9” tart. For something bigger or a thicker crust use 8 oz. of flour.

Ingredients:

           6 oz     Flour

           3 oz     Cold butter

           ¼ tsp.  Salt

                      Cold Water

Method:

Put the flour and salt into a bowl and mix. Cut the butter up into small pieces and put it in with the flour.

If you need to keep the bowl cool (because you live in the tropics or have super warm hands) put it in an ice bed. Keeping it all cool is the key to good flaky pastry.

Now rub the butter into the flour using the tips of your fingers. It’s a bit difficult to explain how to rub the butter in but I’ll give it a try. First mix the butter in so that it is all coated with flour. Then get your hand(s) coated in the flour. Pick up some butter and flour with your fingers and balance it on your four fingers. Using your thumb rub the butter off back into the bowl. If you are unsure as to how to do this try it without anything in your hand. Just rub your four finger tips, starting at your pinky and moving up to your pointing finger, with the tip of your thumb. This is the action you need to use but with flour and butter in between. The pieces of butter will become smaller and smaller until you have something that looks like this. (Commonly called "looks like breadcrumbs").

Don’t forget to keep your hands cold. If you feel like the butter is melting in your hands then you are too warm and your pastry won’t be light and fluffy.

Next you need to add some water. Add a little bit at a time and stir it well into the flour. You might consider using a knife to do this. At some point you will notice that the pastry starts lumping together. At this point stick in your hand and try forming the pastry into a ball. It should stick nicely together but not be sticky. Very carefully form a nice ball. 

Cover in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge to rest. Apparently dough needs to rest, but I have not figured out why yet!!

Once it's rested use it to make something like this:

Vegetarian Pot Pie

Oh, I was so craving for something wholesome and hot to eat!

The bright September sunshine had given way to clouds and there was a chill in the air and thus the craving. But there were other problems to be solved: like the ton of vegetables sitting in my fridge just begging to be eaten. I pulled them all out and found that I had quite a colourful array.

Remembering the taste of the chicken pie's my mother used to make when I was young, inspired me to turn the veggies into a pot pie (or pot pie's as it was since I don't have a proper large pie dish). So I did my usual thing, I Googled "vegetarian pot pie recipe". Nothing interesting showed up, nothing that would use up MY particular array of vegetables. So I decided to go it alone! The result turned out quite okay and pleased the whole family. There was a bit of haggling over the pie crusts. My husband doesn't like his crusts so I thought I could eat his but he wasn't parting today. My little one was saving them to the end so I pretended to be dense and asked her if she'd set them aside because she didn't want them (reaching toward her plate as I was saying this). Her plate moved super fast. Needless to say there was no chance of getting a bite of someone else's crusts. My older daughter told me that she was not parting either, not today!

Serves: 4 as an appetiser or 2 as a main

Ingredients:

Pastry:
	6 oz (175 g)	Flour
	3 oz (90 g)	Cold butter
	1/4 tsp.	Salt
Filling:
	1 1/2 oz (40 g)	Butter
	1 cup	Sliced onions
	1 tbsp.	Chopped garlic
	2 tbsp.	Flour
	1 1/2 cup	Water
	1/2	Veggie cube
	2	Bay leaves
	2 bowls	Random vegetables cut into bite sized cubes
		Salt and Pepper
	1	Egg, lightly beaten

Method:

I firmly believe that the pastry requires it's own post! So if you've discovered this after I've written the pastry post (I guess I should have done that first!) here is the link: Pastry Post. But if you are an ardent follower and just live to read my rantings then the above link DOES NOT WORK! But then that is not an issue because you'll soon see the recipe here.

So start off by making the pastry, wrap it in cling wrap and stick it in the fridge to rest.

You need to prepare your vegetables into bite sized pieces. If you are making individual pot pies like I did then it's not possible to eat your pie with a knife and fork. Actually it's quite challenging to cut anything which is inside a ramekin! My two bowls of veggie were just enough for everyone to be full but not stuffed. Next time I will make a bit more.

Notice, that all my veggies take about the same time to cook. Nothing is going to get over cooked if I throw it all in the pan at the same time. This was just luck. If you have things that cook quicker you'll have to add them later (mushrooms for example). 

Put a pan on the stove on medium heat and add the butter. Let the butter slowly melt. If you happen to burn the butter (i.e. it turns brown) trash the butter, wipe out the pan and start over. Burnt butter tastes disgusting and thus so will your pie.

Once the butter has melted add the garlic and onions and cook for about 2 minutes. Stir them regularly so that they are evenly cooked. 

Next add the flour and continue to stir until the flour is cooked. What on earth it means for the flour to be "cooked" and how you can tell that it is "cooked" I have no idea! So I generally cook it for about 30 seconds. If you want a bit of colour to your gravy then you have to let the flour brown a bit. 

Next add the water and the veggie cube all in one go and continue stirring. (You can substitute vegetable stock instead of the water and veggie cube.) Thanks to the onions and your vigorous stirring your gravy should not form any lumps. Once the gravy is smooth (i.e. all well combined, no lumps) throw in the bay leaves. Allow the gravy to simmer until it thickens. This is not a very thick gravy. 

Once the gravy has thickened add the vegetables, ...

and stir until it's all well combined. Next add salt and pepper to your taste. 

Cover the pan and let the contents simmer and cook for around 20 minutes or until the vegetables are just tender. Of course the time needed to cook will depend on the vegetables used. Be careful not to over cook them because they have to go back into the oven and you don't want to be eating mush.

While the filling is cooking take out the pastry from the fridge and get ready to make the pie lids. I used four small ramekins for my pot pies. You can use a large pie pan or any other pan as long as it is oven proof. 

I cut my pastry into four pieces and rolled each one out so that it was just larger than the top of the ramekin. If you want to have a base for your pie you will need to make double the amount of pastry. 

Then once the vegetables are cooked divide them equally among the ramekins.

Pop the pie lid on top and trim the sides. I kept on as much pastry as possible and secured the sides by pressing down on the outside of the dish. Don't forget to make some slits on the top so that the steam can come out. Make a pretty pattern with a sharp knife.

Then brush the lid with the beaten egg and voila! it is ready for the oven. 

Bake this baby (or these babies!) at 180 Celsius in a fan oven or 200 C in a conventional oven (that would be 400 F in most American ovens) and after around 30 minutes (I'm guessing, I forgot to look at the time when I pulled it out of the oven), once the pastry is golden brown it is ready to be served. Be careful it is extremely hot. Ours sat on the table for at least 20 minutes before they were eaten (hubby got stuck at the office) and they were still very hot. 

Simple, Delicious Chocolate Mousse

Have you ever eaten something that was so simple to make and yet so extremely godly?

NO? The only things that are godly are sooooo difficult to make...

Well then you really need to try out this amazingly simple chocolate mousse. You should be warned... it is extremely unhealthy. Although I was told by my German friend who gave me the recipe that "it's all good fat!" Whether you believe this or not the mousse is heavenly.

I only make this recipe when I can get ultra fresh eggs because the list of ingredients includes RAW EGGS. My "ultra fresh eggs" come from my friend who keeps hens as pets. She picks up an egg box, walks out to the hen house, fills the box with eggs and then drives to work. I then get a phone call, or a text, or a Whatsapp message to come and pick up the eggs. The eggs are divine.

Last week I received such a message and went to pick up my eggs. Immediately when I got home I put together my mousse so it would set in time for dinner.

This recipe makes 8 servings (servings size - VERY SMALL - as seen in the above photo). I usually make half the recipe because I don't like to keep any in the fridge owing to the raw eggs.

Ingredients:

200g	Dark chocolate (otherwise known as semi-sweet)
4	Eggs
1/2 l	Whipping cream

Method:

Melt the chocolate. I like to do this in the microwave but you have to be very careful that you don't burn the chocolate. You also have to be careful that you don't make it too hot because if the chocolate is hot it will cook the eggs and you will not have chocolate mousse for dinner tonight!

I leave the microwave on high and put the chocolate in for 30 seconds. Then I take it out and look to see how far it is melted. If more than half of it is melted, and the bowl is hot, then I stir the chocolate and let it sit. If not, I put it back in the microwave and keep heating it until enough is melted. By the time I'm done with the eggs the chocolate has completely melted and it's not very hot. If your microwave has hot spots I would recommend using a double boiler (Fill a pan 1/4 with water and suspend another bowl with the chocolate in it over it. Let the water simmer and stir the chocolate until it is melted. Allow to cool).

Oh and one other thing, make sure you get absolutely no water/moisture into your chocolate. If you do it will seize and again... there will be no chocolate mousse for you tonight!

Melted Chocolate

Next beat the eggs until they are fluffy.

Note there are only two eggs in the photo

Add the melted chocolate to the beaten eggs and mix until well combined.

Add the whipping cream and whip till the cream gets thick. This is the only step that is a bit tricky and how tricky it is depends on what cream you are using and in which country you live in. In the USA I've beaten heavy whipping cream for ages and nothing bad ever happens. If you do this in Germany with regular "schlagsahne" it will curdle i.e. turn into butter, so one has to be really careful. I rather under beat it than over beat it. If you use Kothmale fresh cream it will also curdle. 

Another trick to beating your cream quickly is to make sure it is cold. It's not a problem if you are using fresh cream because it would have been stored in the fridge, but if you use a long life variety make sure you chill it first. It's a real time saver. Since I never know that I'm going to make mousse in advance I just stick a pack, or two, in the freezer before I begin and by the time I get to using it, it is decently chilled. 

At the end the mixture looks like this:

You can then be lazy and put this directly in the fridge to set or you can pipe it into individual bowls as in the photo all the way at the top. Then chill the mousse for 2 - 3 hours. You can serve it how ever you like but mine like it with a bit of fruit a dollop of fresh whipped cream and a few pieces of grated chocolate.

Hangzhou - Day 8

My, oh my, another big city but what a beautiful one! The main attraction, the lake and surrounding area, is sure worth a visit. We were quite amazed.

Getting Around:

Getting around in Hangzhou as a tourist is pretty easy. There is now a spanking brand new subway that is still being expanded. Don’t be tempted by the subway to stay too far out. To get to the East Hangzhou Station from the main station takes at least 20 minutes if not more! And the stations seem to be miles apart (as they seem to be in most of China).

Hangzhou Metro Station

There are also some “tourist” buses that will take you from the main station to all the main attractions around the lake and all the way to the Yinglin temple (the subway doesn't go out that way). As usual you can buy a travel card. I apologize, but I was visiting relatives and was not allowed to purchase any tickets, anywhere, so I have no idea how much they cost or where to get them from. It might even be possible to use the same card as you did in Shanghai but don't quote me on it. 

Note that the some of the bus routes that are in the current Lonely Planet, China (2013) are already outdated. We caught the Y tourist bus at the main station and it took us all the way around the lake and ended up at the Yinglin temple. 

There is a great bike rental system, which we didn't get the chance to use. They red bikes of all sizes including kids bikes so it's all totally family friendly. The first hour is apparently free so you could technically keep returning the bike every hour and pay nothing for it. I don't remember seeing any tandem bikes but that doesn't mean they don't have them. 

Hotel:

Can't help you with this one! Except to say that you should stay somewhere close to town to save on travelling time. It can take a while to get around Hangzhou. Not because the transport is bad but because it is so HUGE. 

The itinerary below is not exactly what we did. Since we were staying with relatives we had to do some obligatory visits and that meant that we couldn't see all we wanted to. 

Day 8: 

You absolutely have to go and visit the Lingyin Temple. It is amazing but not cheap. Try to get there early before it gets too crowded. Take the tourist bus from the train station to its last stop at the temple scenic area. Take note, that unlike in Europe, in China cars get the closest to the entrance. If you take a bus you’ll end up walking quite a ways. I found this totally annoying! I’m guessing if you own a car, you are wealthy and thus should not be made to walk to far. If you’re taking the bus well then you can walk too! After you get off the bus it’s a bit confusing as to where to go. Basically the ticket office is to the left (when standing in the direction in which the bus arrived) so just go in that general direction. You’ll find it eventually, right opposite a Häagen-Dazs store and some toilets. Take note that this ticket gets you into the scenic area and not into the temple itself. The temple requires a separate ticket.

Once you have your "scenic area" ticket you have to take a picture of yourself with what we liked to call the dragon turtle. He’s sitting in his own small pavilion holding up something or the other. After you've taken the photo, and passed the pavilion, turn left and then right to enter into the paid area.
Once you are in you just follow the crowd. You will soon come upon heaps of Buddhist reliefs (470 in total) in the rocks. You can’t miss them, there are so many of them. All types of Bodhisattvaya's look down at you from the hill which has a bubbling stream, full of red carp, at its foot.

We decided to climb up the hill where the reliefs were. At the top there was nothing but mosquito’s so we came  down pretty quickly. There is no view. This is the so called "Feilai Peak" and legend has it that it was transported here from India. Unless you enjoy clambering up a hill just for the sake of it, like we do, you might want to skip the walk.

Once we were down we bought our tickets and went into the temple. We were each given a few free sticks of incense to burn. It is very clear where you can burn them and if you are observant you will see how to light them without any matches! Although borrowing some matches is much more efficient.

The temple is really huge and we walked all the way to the top taking the left hand side in on the way up. Just before the top, on the right hand side, there is a small pavilion where we sat down to eat our vegetarian dumplings that we had brought for lunch. If you didn't bring any food pick up something from the many stores before you get into the temple. There are vegan options too although the "tofu on a stick" was not very tasty.

After this welcoming break we walked continued to the highest shrine. In the left hand shrine you will find the only female statue in the temple!

Down the hill we went taking in the other side of the temple. Our girls enjoyed hiding coins into the facade at the foot of one of the staircases. It seemed like this was the thing to do! It’s kind of like the equivalent of throwing coins into a pond.

If you have more time I would definitely recommend visiting the rest of the scenic area. There is a cable car to take you to the top of one of the peaks which apparently has really good views of the area and of course there are many more temples. We didn't have time to do this because we had promised to meet up with my husband’s dad and aunt. 

But leave enough time for a short hike (2 - 3 km, some of it uphill) in the hills above the west lake. Take the non-tourist bus K7 from the temple. The bus leaves from the bus stand which is a bit along from where you got off the bus in the morning. You need to get out just before you arrive at the lake and the bus stop is across the road from a huge KFC and at a junction with a road heading up the hill (which incidentally is the road you have to walk up). On the corner opposite the KFC is the mausoleum. 

After finding our way to the mausoleum we walked up the trail to find the caves, look over the lakes and ogle at the pagoda. The trail starts out as a road on the west side of the mausoleum (or east of KFC!). Walk up the road and just keep going straight until the road turns into a well-kept, wide footpath. And let me tell you, the best part about this trail is that there is hardly anyone there. In fact it was so empty that we found it a bit spooky at first. The nature on this small hill is incredible and you cannot imagine that you are just a stone throw away from xxx million people. 

Beware! There are lots of mosquito's get your repellent on before you start walking up the hill. 

Once you've arrived at what seems like the top of the stairs you will see signs to a teahouse. If you are interested in seeing the Ziyun cave then just follow this sign. 

Foot of the Stairs to the Teahouse

You will come across a teahouse (and some unused but well-kept toilets). Walk into the teahouse court yard and head for the left hand corner where you will see a small doorway. Through this door you first enter a shrine area under a rock overhang. 

Don’t be shy, walk down those stairs and wonder around in the catacomb of passages in the cave. We spent our time wondering what they could have been used for in the olden days. Smuggling, hiding from invaders, to attack, to hide treasures, …

Wondering back down the stairs we returned to the path. Here we found it a bit difficult, there are so many junctions, so many paths going off, so many signboards, we were really not sure which road to take. The correct one is the one that goes off up the hill on the opposite side to the caves. Up and up until, on the ridge, the lake suddenly emerges. 

We turned left and walk along the ridge until we came upon the sunrise terrace, an unexpected structure that we were not expecting. I didn't venture up because I sent a scout up first and he said the view was no better than from below! We had a bit of a treat here with a troupe of men practicing their martial arts. The girls were amazed how one of the men did a headstand on the bare rock!!

Sunrise Terrace

Turning left at the top we followed the ridge around looking for the Baopu Taoist Temple. I was really looking forward to seeing it but we somehow missed the turn off. Actually we did see a sign and steps going down to a temple but the name on the signboard was not the same as the name in our tour book so we didn't go down. Turns out there is only one temple in that direction so if you want to go there just head down  the first sign boarded path (to the right) that you encounter. And don’t forget to tell me what I missed!

Following the path along eventually you will come across the pagoda. We were not totally impressed by it L . There were a LOT of people who had come up the other way. 

I was followed around by a very large wasp. He simply would not go away, I tried everything. Finally I walked far away from the kids and sat on a wall, with the wasp buzzing around me, and waited for the rest to be done with their sightseeing and photo taking. On the way down there is another teahouse. It looked pretty well stocked but I happened to be looking for a teahouse that served western style cake as it was my hubby’s birthday and they didn't. 

We walked back down to the lake and took the bus (K7, it was packed) into town where we visited the Green Tea Restaurant. We were a party of 6 and had to wait an hour to get a seat. And then it was so packed and the waiters were so rude that we thought it probably was not worth the while. The saving grace was that the food was pretty good, if only they had brought all our orders out together and not first half, and then when we were done with that half, the other half! I think they just forgot our order.

There was a western style bakery a few doors down and I managed to get a few pieces of cake. It’s probably the most expensive cake I've ever bought and it didn't taste that good. In fact I would describe it as tasting like very sweet and soft bread. On the other hand I would describe Chinese bread as tasting like not so sweet, soft cake!!!

Tamarind Liquid - Preparation

Oh my goodness I totally forgot that I had promised to post a recipe for tamarind liquid (see Pad Thai recipe)! So sorry to all of you who are close to a tamarind tree and not to an oak!! I'm wishing I was closer to the tamarind right now because autumn has decided to come early and I'm cold. At least this morning everyone agreed that it is now autumn and no longer summer. Thus, I am now able to put the heating on without feeling bad about it!

But yes, back to the tamarind liquid.

Tamarind Fruit

If you happen to be able to buy tamarind pulp, great! Tamarind pulp is semi-processed tamarind, i.e. it has the shell and the seeds removed but still has the fibers in tact. If you can't get the pulp then you have to process the tamarind yourself.

I'm not exactly sure how many kilo's of tamarind fruit you need to get 1/2 cup (8 fl. oz.) of pulp so you'll have to experiment, but my guess it's quite a bit. Make sure your tamarind is very, very ripe and I would advise that you wear gloves because the acid in the tamarind can ruin your hands. This I know for sure because we used to have two tamarind trees and my dad would hire people to come and process them to be sold. The poor ladies who did the shelling ... , but there were no rubber gloves back then in Sri Lanka.

A tamarind tree

Remove the shell and the seed and then you have pulp! It's a good idea to remove the fibers on the sides too.

For the tamarind liquid you need 1/2 cup of pulp and 1 cup of warm water.

Place the tamarind liquid in a bowl and pour the warm water over it. Let it stand for 20 - 30 minutes, poking and mashing it occasionally with a spoon so that it breaks up.

Next pour the liquid through a sieve pushing the pulp against the sieve with the back of a spoon to get as much of the juice out as possible. Add water so that the liquid is about the consistency of softly whipped cream or a thick pancake batter.

This should make about 1 cup.

Riding Around Kemnadersee

Not something I usually find myself doing... sitting in Starbucks on a Sunday afternoon. However, having to wait for two hours before my kids perform, on the stage just outside the window, was just too much time to waste. The free Wi-Fi, which is hard to get here in Bochum (especially on a Sunday), was too tempting. Plus of course I do get a cup of tea for the price, a warm environment (yes, it is just 20 degrees Celsius in August with no sun) and access to a clean toilet. Definitely worth it. I didn't realize that I'd get live classical music thrown into the package played by the Jungendsinfonieochester, Bochum!

Jungendsinfonieochester Bochum - Dr.-Ruer-Platz, Bochum

Initially I was a bit bummed that there were no free seats outside but now that a table has just freed up I've decided that I'm just going to stay inside so that my tea and my hands don't cool down too quickly. After all the view is not that bad.

The view from my seat

Although today is quite chilly, yesterday was perfect and a perfect example of how you can have fun in your own backyard and it doesn't have to cost an arm and a leg. My girls were a bit disappointed since we decided the day before yesterday that we wouldn't go to Mallorca for 7 days over the fall vacation. They really want to make the trip because everyone else does. They expressed real interest in seeing what others do while on vacation. After all we are just a boring family. Pottering off to places across the world, never staying for long at one place, and always having something to do. So it was good to have a perfect day to have a vacation at home.

The sky was so blue yesterday and it was just warm enough to go out with a sweater. My husband and I could not help but have to go outside, so we decided on taking our bikes and riding around Kemnader See. I was reminded that a friend was coming over to play so we quickly called her up and asked her to come early with her bike. After blowing up everyone's tires and adjusting all the bike seats we were ready to go.
The weather turned out to be really great for biking and we all got rid of our sweaters within a short period of time.

As we headed down the hill we met the local grass management. Now it's not like we live in a rural area. Bochum has a population of about 370 thousand and we live right next to the Ruhr University. So it might strike some people as an unusual technique:

There was even a shepherd and a sheep dog :) Of course rather modern day with an SUV parked nearby and a radio blaring!! The kids were a bit unnerved but a short blast with our bicycle bells made the sheep move out of the way. Actually I'm rather glad it was sheep, we've had goats before and they are a bit shifty!

One thing that I realized on this trip was that it is really difficult to take pictures while biking! I didn't have any pockets that I could use while biking so my eldest took my camera in her backpack. That made things even more challenging.

The biking path around Kemnader See is just over 10 km long. It's mostly flat so quite easy for the kids to manage. For us the hard part is going back home since we live on a hill. But you could also drive down to the lake and then take your bikes around. Another wonderful thing about the biking path (which is separate from the pedestrian path) is that a lot of it has been newly paved. In actual fact it's been made into a, soon to be officially opened, inline skating trail but since the "inliners" (as they are called here in Germany) go as fast as the bikes it's not a problem to share with them.

I've made a map of the path we took on Google maps


Our first stop was for lunch.

We had fries at an Italian restaurant by the side of the lake. Not the cheapest fries but we got huge portions and huge amounts of ketchup and mayonnaise (yes, in Germany you eat your fries with a mixture of ketchup and mayo and it rarely comes for free, in this case each portion was 0.50 € ). This place also has regular Italian food and a fancy looking pizza oven. As the weather was good we sat overlooking the lake and enjoyed our lunch which we supplemented with cherry tomatoes and grapes.

As we were sitting there having lunch we noticed that there was a bike and inline skate rental place in the same building as the restaurant. We'd lived here for almost 5 years and never stumbled on it! This could have been really useful before I bought my bike last year. We didn't check the prices but I'm tempted to rent some inline skates next time and skate with the girls..

After lunch we continued our trip around the lake. The lake has been artificially created by damming the Ruhr so you have to cross the water at both ends of the lake. On the south western side one crosses alongside the dam itself. It's a bit hidden, and not marked, so you have to be a bit careful. At some point you come to a junction with 4 options. At this point you basically have to take the path that turns very sharply left (basically a U-turn). Once you've taken the turn you will see the bridge and the dam. There is a huge sign asking all bike riders to dismount and push their bikes across the bridge but, as you can imagine, most bikers ignore the signs. This really disturbs the kids. After all it's very clear, even they can read it, any adult must be able to understand what they are expected to do!

Once we were over the dam we turned left but had to stop immediately because one of the kids bikes started rattling. Hubby inspected the bike but couldn't figure out what was wrong. Luckily my older one figured out that it was just a piece of metal hitting the spokes of the tire. That was easy enough to resolve and then we were on our way.  If you go straight, instead of left, you arrive at Haus Kemnader which has a nice little music museum that is free of charge. They also have a fancy restaurant if you are up for something more fancy and relaxing. It does not over look the Ruhr. Just after the damn there is a small kiosk if you need to pick something up. It does not take long to get here from where we had lunch so we didn't stop. I've been there before though and it sells drinks and ice-cream. I don't think it sells any hot food.

I really like this part of the path even though it's squeezed between the highway and the lake. It's higher up than either the highway or the pedestrian path and both sides are densely overgrown with trees. This dampens a lot of the noise and makes you feel like you are in a forest somewhere as opposed to squashed between a highway and a lake.

At the end of the forest path we passed under the highway. Apparently, so I was told later, you can actually take a short cut and cross the river alongside the highway. There are ramps going up on both sides which are rather difficult to see, which is why I missed it even on my second time past! If you don't take the short cut just keep turning left at every junction. One of them actually opens up onto a main road and there are no signs as to where the bike path continues. But here you need to take a left turn which will bring you to yet another pub and most importantly an ice-cream van!! We really enjoyed having ice-cream here last time we were riding around the lake. This time we decided to have ice-cream once we'd finished the loop because we still felt like we had lunch in our tummies.

After crossing the bridge turn left again and follow the path all the way around back to the beginning. Once you get to the end you'll start bumping into people. I nearly had an accident with a zigzagging toddler. I didn't realize he was zigzagging because he had just got onto the path and his father just left him behind and rode off. I assumed he could ride. So since he was riding on the left I passed him on the right. On the right... probably a  big mistake but I was riding fast and he slow, really slow and he was almost on the grass on the left side of the path. My goodness he cut back into me and then after almost knocking me off my bike he cut back to the left and nearly knocked off the on coming rider (who was riding very fast). You know, if you're child can't handle the rules of the biking path it's totally fine to have them ride on the pedestrian trail. At one place, see map, even we rode on the pedestrian part because the bike path is just wide enough for two well experienced riders to pass. Last time when I took it it was disastrous, but I didn't know any better and was just following the signs. It's really dangerous to be  riding on a path with people whizzing past you especially if you don't know which is your left and right. The first time we did it, earlier this year, I spent my time riding behind the girls continually shouting, "bike coming, move to the right!" I felt like a broken record.

We ended our circuit with an ice-cream. It's not the best ice-cream but at least it is "homemade".

Of course once we got home it was time for a nice pot of tea and a cookie.

Right, the kids are ready to sing so it's time to for me to get going. Enjoy!