New York, now that is exciting

New York, New York, no other city on earth has a buzz like it! The vertical architecture, the smells of hot dogs and pretzels, the stifling heat and bitter dry cold, the theatres and shops, the restaurants and bars….. but why on earth would one take children to ruin your fun? The answer is that New York always serves up something new, and with children you will see an entirely different city to what you saw before.

New York has such a wealth of attractions and diversions that its never the same between different people and different visits. The broad range of restaurants caters for all from down and outs to glamorous and trendy; from very old to very… young.  As ever in America, finding food that children eat is not difficult.  One deservedly well-rated venue we headed to on our first night was the Ellen Stardust Diner, famous for its waiters cum dancers putting on regular singing and dancing routines throughout the evening. As cheesy as it sounds, the America-style enthusiasm for this even encouraged the cynical boys in our corner to release a smile.

And talking of cynical boys – the comic book shops of New York are where the tables were turned. The various branches of mid-town comics dragged us straight into scenes from the Big Bang Theory! The boys were delighted, here was nerd heaven on a massive scale. Staff could assist with the most abstract and specific questions, delightedly running round the shop servicing their various requests.

New York, or Manhattan at least, is compact enough to walk around, with the occasional jump onto a bus or subway when little legs get too tired. But the buzz of the streets and the new sights on every block can keep the energy levels high, topped up with the occasional sugar-fuelled diner stop. It takes a couple of hours at child pace to walk from Central Park at one end, via the High-Line, to Battery Park at the other, before getting the Staten Island ferry for the best and cheapest views of the Statue of Liberty and the skyscrapers of lower Manhattan. The option is there to join the queue for the Statue of Liberty itself, however this didn’t seem to be a great way to experience the city, so we skirted it.

The highlight of our trip for the boys (we had an extra one in tow) was a visit to the incredible USS Intrepid Sea Air Space Museum. A vast aircraft carrier moored on the Hudson river. Intrepid suffered major Kamikaze damage during the second world war, events which are vividly demonstrated on the impacted decks through lighting effects and film footage from the time. Numerous real life exhibits bring reality to war stories – lying in a bed in the cramped sleeping quarters was particularly graphic was me.  The information boards were informative and more honest about the reasons for going to various wars, including Vietnam, than I was expecting. And its not just the aircraft carrier itself, the museum includes a submarine, the Space Shuttle “Enterprise”, a Concorde, a collection of aircraft. This is the one unmissable venue to let kids lead you around.

A more poignant experience comes from the World Trade Centre site. By the time we visited, the new buildings were largely complete, demonstrating the pragmatism and optimism demonstrated by New Yorkers. However the impact of the memorial to the events of 9/11 was moving for all 3 of our children. The foundations of the twin towers have been excavated into a pair of vast empty square holes, with water running down the walls of each one. The names of those killed are all carved in the stone surrounds. Its an immensely calming experience after the hectic buzz of the city. As the children read through some of the names, the enormity of the events that had occurred 15 years earlier came through to them.  

Despite my dismissal of queueing for the Statue of Liberty (and the same goes for the Empire State Building), a trip to New York should include taking in a view somehow. An exciting but costly and brief way to do this is by helicopter, but any tall building will do. We went to the “Top of the Rock” in the Rockefeller centre. The views across Central Park one way, and the mid-town to lower Manhattan the other were incredible. As we stood there (in April – this was an Easter break) snow began to fall, it was jolly romantic – and the children were jumping with excitement!

And excitement, after all, is what New York is about, and what travelling is about, and what children are about. New York will always be exciting, and with the infectious excitement of children it becomes even more so!

Malta, Sunshine, History and Seaside on a budget

Most families travel on a budget, and sometimes that budget is tight with the demands of all the family. Our mission for summer 2015 was to book a week for the 5 of us in 5-star hotel with guaranteed sunshine for under £2,000 including all travel and most of the food. With the help of Ryannair’s route map, we rediscovered Malta. We had stopped off there in the days before children, vowing to return after an all too brief run around a tiny part of its amazing history.

And this history is visible history on a monumental scale – with bloodthirsty tales through the crusades, and pretty much every War affecting Europe and North Africa since. As the home of the Royal Navy’s Mediterranean Fleet since 1800, it was besieged by the Nazi’s and Italians until 1942, and became the most bombed place in the world, ever. The destruction of the the stunning capital city of Valletta (since entirely rebuilt) and fortitude of its citizens earned Malta the George Cross, an honour of which the island remains very proud. This piece of history is excellently recounted in the Lascaris War Rooms under parapets of Valletta. We were shown round the welcomingly cool subterranean corridors by a guide who never wavered from his view that Britain really is the greatest country on earth (apart from Malta). The reality of Europe of War is brought alive in this network of rooms, where Eisenhower and Montgomery planned the invasion of Sicily, and where hundreds of military planners lived and worked throughout the war.

Moving further back in time, Malta’s place in the British empire from 1800 is re-enacted daily by a superb group of enthusiastic historians in Fort Rinella. Dressed in Victorian military costumes, they provide genuinely interactive demonstrations of signalling, weaponry, and cavalry attacks which all our children were encouraged to actively participate in. There can be few opportunities in the EU today for 10 year-olds to don a pith helmet and fire a Victorian Musket, but this is one of them. Being about half an hour bus ride from Valletta, and therefore slightly off the beaten track, Fort Rinella feels like a hidden gem, right from getting off the bus and being unable to see it concealed in the hillside; to being one of only three family groups there during our visit.

And so the history goes back, through the Maritime History, the Knights of St John, the great siege of Malta, Normans, Arabs, St Paul, Phoenicians, and even further to Stone-Age settlements. But this is a holiday rather than a history tour, the rest will wait for another visit.

Back to the original specification. There was sunshine, lots of it. This is the Southern Mediterranean. Malta has a few beaches, but we didn’t head to them as we could jump into a clear blue sea from a series of little platforms and steps from the hotel. The hotel pool was welcomingly cool, good enough to spend a few relaxing days there without venturing beyond its borders. I had the impression that most of the guests never left the hotel complex at all, which seems a tremendous loss.

We slightly exceeded the £2,000. Ryannair flights were just under £200 each, but by upgrading to a suite big enough for the 5 of us, the cost on a B&B basis stretched above £1,000. However eating out was cheap and plentiful. Our hotel was close enough to stroll for 10 minutes into St Julian’s, which (beyond the more obvious drunk British teenagers on the seafront) provided plenty of excellent family friendly restaurants. There is a strong Italian influence on the food, with numerous “proper” pizza restaurants and a range of gelato bars. We also wandered along the beach one evening to a local bar which seemed to be full of families, where we ate a delicious meal of seafood for around EUR 5 – 10 each.

So sunshine, yes; £2K budget – nearly.  Extras for interest – completely exceeded. Malta is definitely a place to come back to, both to see the rest of it, and to see it again through the eyes of the children as their ages and interests change.

Three generations boys adventure trip II: Peak District and Caves

Buoyed by the success of the earlier 2012 trip to the Peak District, we decided to return 2 years later, but with the addition of a few friends this time. Each son brought a friend and each friend brought a father, making 3 men and 4 11 and 12 year old boys for the first few days. We stayed in Eyam, taking over the family rooms in the coach house adjoining the excellent Youth Hostel. This was a brilliant decision, we had a 4-bed room, and the other 2 families had a twin room each, with a shared bathroom. It was perfect for coming home muddy each evening, and waking up after a good nights sleep, at a phenomenally low price. Eyam itself, famous as the plague village which shut itself off from the world during the Black Death to protect neighbouring villages, was a 10 minute stroll across the fields down the hillside. Once again, the Youth Hostel provided breakfast and packed lunches, the excellent pubs of Eyam filled us up in the evening. 

 

We stopped at Carsington Water on the way up for an hour of kayaking. It was the first time that we had all got together, so bonding in wetsuits while soaking one another with oars as water beaters was a superb start to the trip. There is something marvellous about water for all ages. Strangely - everyone seems to be equally good / bad at kayaking, its a kind of natural action that anyone can pick up. This was exactly what we needed at the end of a tedious trek up the M1. From there it wasn’t far on to Eyam.

 

We had made arrangements with the excellent team at Pure Outdoor to provide activities over the weekend. They were extremely helpful on the phone in advance with suggestions, so we had high hopes as we arrived at their outdoor centre early on Saturday morning. After a thorough run through the options, I was outvoted on my plan to abseil off a railway bridge as we had originally planned. Instead we would spend the morning rock-climbing on Stanage Edge, and the afternoon “Weaselling”.  

 

Early adolescence is the stage where not only do boys start to realise that their fathers are not the majestic sporting heroes they thought, but they also overtake us in terms of sporting ability. Nowhere is this more apparent than rock climbing, where progress up a sheer cliff is dependant entirely on the ratio of strength in your fingers to overall body weight. That is to say, athletic skinny boys make a better job of it than middle-aged men with large feet and beer guts. All of the boys felt they were skilled climbers based on their experience of climbing walls. However a cliff face is a different matter entirely. Now the purpose of the ropes and the importance of the safety briefing were very real. But the actual effort involved to pull yourself up from the thinnest of cracks in the rocks is immense. Its also immensely satisfying to achieve progressively harder climbs. And from the top, the views are incredible, and so much more earned than walking round the cliff as on Trip I. The inevitable bloodied knees and bruised shins just added to the sense of achievement.

 

Weaselling didn’t sound like such a fun concept to me, but I was very wrong here – this was one of the most enjoyable parts of the trip, and the part where there was more laughter than any of the other bits. Essentially this involves scrambling over and under the enormous rocks that have cascaded down the side of Higger Tor. Sounds very simple, and it is if you have the physique of a 12 or 13 year old. However manoeuvring my belly between the narrower gaps and crevasses proved very challenging.  There were a number of occasions when it seemed the rocks were attempting to give birth to the adults in our group, although its not normally the baby that makes those noises. Each time we emerged from another gap, in any direction, we were greeted by another awesome view of the countryside, and a gang of four giggling boys.

 

Day Two was the challenging event 5 hours spent underground, working our way through the Cave known as the “Giant’s Hole”, with such a range of physical and technical challenges I sometimes think back and wonder if we really did it. The route begins very easily where some early 20^th century entrepreneur concreted the floor and blasted any obstacles out of the way. Then the fun starts. We abseiled down a deep hole through a waterfall into pitch blackness – thank goodness we had done so much abseiling on the rocks the day before. We then passed through the “Crabwalk” – half a mile of twisting through a crevice narrower than me (but again – wider than the boys) culminating in “The Vice”, which was as easy to get through as it sounds.  The route then goes through a series of steep climbs and descents, some scrambled, some on ropes, and mostly through very cold water. Eventually we got to the “Giants Windpipe”, a 20 metre or so stretch where the roof of the cave is about 18 inches from the floor, and its half filled with water. This was quite a challenging crawl, and our instructor John kindly rewarded us with a very welcome cup of Hot Vimto at the end of it. From there, it seemed a fairly straightforward scramble, climb and abseil back to the start. The pub that night was a very welcome sight!

 

Next day, our friends left us, and Grandad returned to join us for a few days walking.  Mountain climbing was off the agenda this time, so we followed the Monsal Trail and Tissington Trail. These form two of the old railway lines across the peaks which have been restored as foot and cycle paths. The routes are extraordinary, from the days when no expense was spared in building viaducts and tunnels to follow a straight line on a map regardless of the contour lines in between. Some of the tunnels are up to 400 metres long, but fully lit, which gives them a magically eerie glow. Much easier than crawling through the Giant’s Windpipe anyway.

 

This was an ideal adventure trip for boys who old enough to know that their dad’s aren’t cool, but young enough to get some pleasure from our company when we’re doing something active and fun. Most of the activities were things where they could really prove that they were better than us, and that;s oddly satisfying for all of us. The tricky thing was going to be… how do we beat that one?

Cannes: French food, sandy beaches, and glamour

I do like France. I know the language well enough to avoid starvation, but badly enough to feel I am somewhere foreign and exotic. You can smell the croissants the moment you leave your apartment to hit the Patisserie-Boulangerie. Provence has the added benefits of a splendid combination of chic glamour and an efficient subsidised public transport network.

Like two of our earlier trips to the region (see https://bigsummerholiday.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/cannes-with-one-baby-may-2003.html) we rented an apartment in Cannes within walking distance of the sea and the railway line. On this occasion we took the bus direct from Nice Airport, which was cheap and quick, and dropped us 5 minutes walk from the flat. Unlike our earlier trips, the children were now carrying their own luggage rather than us carrying the children and all the luggage!

I mention the railway because whilst Cannes itself is lovely, the trips out along the coastal line stop at no end of places well worthy of a visit. The stunning beaches and coves of St Juan les Pins, Villefranche and Beaulieu, the towns of Nice and St Raphael, the WaterPark at Biot are all just an air-conditioned ride away. However, we had a little mission in mind on this trip.  Changing for a bus at Cagnes-sur-Mer, we were carried into the mountains to the idyllic setting of Vence. Our destination was the the Rosaire Chapel, designed by Henri Matisse and suddenly well known in London following the creation of a replica version in the Tate Modern to accompany an exhibition of the colourful “cut-outs” associated with him and the Chapel. The chapel is beautiful, and well worth the walk with children in tow to see how the sunshine filters through the stained glass “Cut-out” windows to splash the interior with colour. There is a fairly lengthy talk about the chapel construction, which is best missed with children for the exhibition beneath it bi-lingually explaining the construction and art within. The coach trips then rock on to the scenic St Paul de Vence, but if your priority is Ice Cream and Snacks, Vence itself is much less touristy. We had a very pleasant afternoon strolling through the narrow streets and shaded squares, breezing into the occasional shop and cafe, before returning to Cannes for the evening.

A little further on the train passes through Monaco, and this has to be a highlight of a trip to the area. The station itself, hollowed out of the mountain and glamorously lined with marble, is a worthy introduction to the ludicrously expensive theme of Monte-Carlo. The wealth on display around the streets is marvellous or obscene depending on your point of view. One of the children was delighted to spot a second hand Airbus A320 private jet offered for EUR 20 million in the window of a ship and estate agent. Traffic jams of Ferraris of Ferraris delighted the kids, the diamonds and handbags flaunted on the streets reminded Mrs _H of some of her poor life choices. Aside from strolling the quayside and people watching (a low-cost activity that can be enjoyed from any pavement bench in the principality), it’s the Palace that provides most entertainment. The climb up the steps is quite hard work, but the palace itself is almost Disneyesque in its shiny white cleanliness and pretty steepled towers. Yet this is a living, working building, albeit one maintained by a very wealthy family. The tour of the palace is quite interesting, the audio devices enabling us to do it at the kind of pace that avoided children being bored. But the better attraction with children is the aquarium a few streets away. Whilst this lacks the vast shark tanks and Perspex tunnels of more modern rivals, the family all seemed to love the small scale of it, the format of the presentations and the collections of marine memorabilia founded by the Royal Family. It also presents outstanding views across the Mediterranean from its position on the corner of the rock.

Which brings me back to the theme of the seaside, and especially the beaches of Cannes. This part of Provence has huge stretches of sandy beaches, varying in culture from crowded to quietish; flanked by designer boutique to the occasional ice-cream seller; exposed and open to secluded coves; touristy to locals. One delight of Cannes is that the extremely glamorous but crowded beach along La Croisette (see my 2003 and 2006 blogs) is contrasted with a much quieter beach just the other side of the old port and castle. This is the beach used by the locals, with a few small snack bars to keep nourished, and the shady “Square Mistral” across the road to provide a playground and shade. The castle-topped hill, itself worth a climb for a look around, shields this part of the coast from the hoards around the corner, keeping it from the hoards nearer the centre of town. Life is also noticeable cheaper this side of town; there is much better value to be had in a café here than in the more touristy joints around La Croisette.

Lots of people have their favourite part of France, and this is ours.  Like anywhere else in France, the food and wine are excellent.  However this is the only region that we’ve returned to as a family three times, and there are reasons for that. The travel is convenient, the exploring is efficient, and the people-watching is outstanding; this area more than any other has that je ne sais quoi.