Christi Himmelfahrt means a nice long weekend in Germany. I had booked a trip to explore Rotterdam a big city in the Netherlands which I have not been to before. We left on the Friday around 11 and headed to Familerestaurant The Clown a Pannkoekenhuis close to Valkenswaard. This is Filip favorite restaurant and a must stop every time we are heading to Holland or passing through Holland. I do like the kids to have a favorite place  to come back so the memories will stay strong (especial close to Valkenswaard where i used to live when I was young). Of course it is nice to try new places but the rest of the trips are full of new places and experiences so I do like the routine of making The Clown a good stop on the road.  In Rotterdam we stayed at a hotel in the Erasmus University area. We found a small supermarket and a Starbucks on campus where we had breakfast before exploring the city. Public transport with a tram was a easy and good way to get down-town. I had done some ...

First of a few long weekends during May month in Germany. I had booked a trip with friends driving to the coast of Belgium which is 3,5 hours away from Düsseldorf ( depending on traffic around Antwerpen and Kennedy Tunnel). We booked hotel on the beach in Blankenberge and only 10 min on a fast train to Brugge. I am making the most of living close to everything since we soon will be living very far away from everything. This trip was planned as a birthday celebration trip for Filips 8th birthday together with close friends and I was thinking Belgium waffles, fritjes and chocolate will be perfect ingrediens for a great weekend. Brugge is a city I really wanted to see and experience and I was super excited to go on this trip and also to see Belgium beach in Blankenberge. I had explain for the kids that our hotel is right on the beach, but I guess they couldn't quite picture it because they were soo amazed when we got their. The weekend was great and the weather was on our side, warmes...

For my birthday last year I got a weekend with my friends in Hamburg. Greatest gifts are things to do together. It is not easy to find a weekend which fits everyone when having active lives, but last weekend was planned since a couple of months and I was very excited to meet up, catch up and hang out.  I left Düsseldorf in the afternoon on a Flixtrain to Hamburg - it took ca. 3 hours. From Hamburg HBF I grabbed a taxi to Gastwerk Hotel a very nice hotel with industrial elements since it was made in the old Gaswerk. We had a great weekend. Nice dinners, spa in the hotel, long rainy walk, vintage shopping and we ran into the cutest little creative shop "All my friends" concept store, Schanzenstraße.34, Hamburg.  Saturday evening we had a great dinner in a Asian fusion restaurant on 500 meters from our hotell called Madame Mai. Because of yet another strike in Germany I had to head back to Düsseldorf early Sunday morning but we had a very very nice weekend. Thank you for organiz...

  February means ski-break for most of the students and schools in Europe but not for the Germans school or at least not here in Düsseldorf, Nordrhein-Westfalen (here instead schools have two weeks off for Easter and two for Autumn-break) But we do have a couple of February days off to celebrate Karneval.  Karneval is a big deal! I have lived here for five years but still karneval is something special to experience and impressive to see how germans old and young likes dressing up to this level.  This year we did the Rosen Montag Karnevalzug in Wittlaer instead of the big parade down-town.  And instead of doing Karneval all weekend - me and the kids had planned a trip with friends to Lille in France. We left on Friday which was a day off and it is cool to live here in the heart of Europe and in 3 hours drive through 4 countries, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium and France. Lille was very cute french town and we do have a soft spot for cute French towns so this fitted us...

 When a great friend celebrated her birthday autumn last year me and two friends decided to treat her to a spring trip in Champagne, France. We bought a guidebook a nice bottle and made her a card about the coming trip. And we have all looked forward to this trip.  This weekend 1 of April it happened. We left Düsseldorf in the afternoon and drove towards Belgium and France. It was snowflakes and windy but not bad to drive in and the roads were not busy at all. It took 3,5 hours to get to Sedan North East France in Ardennes department. We had booked rooms in Château fort Sedan - a medieval castle 600 years old and the biggest fort/castle in Europe with a total area on 30,000 square metres. So cool that they have made hotel in the castle.  We booked nice French restaurants and had a great experience both evenings with the food and wine.  On the Saturday we drove one hour to Reims - the heart of Champagne We checked out a local market with wine, cheese and sausages Wal...

Last weekend we planned to go with friends to a cool playground in Belgien a couple of hours drive from Düsseldorf. All good we packed some picnic got ready and was in the car ready to go at 11.30 Saturday. Everyone was excited happy to be in the car going on adventures. NOOO!! Of course not. Everyone apart from me was heavily complaining. Mila wanted to stay home and play with her friend next door, Filip did not want to get in the car at all without explanation and Loren was thinking that it is unnecessary to drive for two hours when we can do something fun in Düsseldorf. Yeahh!! Bad mamma for thinking it would be fun to explore a little, to see something different and to force the poor family to sit in the car for 2 hours. But Somehow I managed to get them all in the car without too much drama.. Kids started complaining and asking if we are nearly there yet before we even hit the motorway which is literally 8 minutes from us. And Loren cheered them on sighing heavy and telling me ...

I started this post about one of our favorite spots in Prague, Lethna, I think roughly four years ago. I was putting together pictures from different seasons from Lethna and the best view of Prague. When we lived in Prague we spend a lot of time up here in the beergarten, in the playground, walking through the park, showing family and friends the view etc etc. Every season in Lethna is special. Here is some of the pictures I have taken from different seasons, although missing pictures from spring and summer when the beergarten are full of people and dogs which is the most common view of Lethna. Lethna Park / Letenské Sady is a large park on top of Lethna hill looking down on Pragues beautiful historic center and Vltava River and besides Prague Castle. The hill is in Holesovice and Bubenec quarters of Prague 7. On one side of the park you find a big and popular beergarten with  a great view and on the otherside of the park an open space where today you find a lot of people on skate...

Team Nikolovski is packing.  We are heading to Sweden tomorrow to celebrate Swedish midsummer We will head to Lundsätter to stay with my dad and to breath some quit forest air.  Midsummer eve ( always third Friday in June) we are heading to my mothers summer place where preparations for midsummer started half a year ago.  We are a pretty big gang and we have already received roles, responsibilities and a detailed schedule for the day. This is a summary of how our day will look like! Collect flowers for the maypole, make the maypole, Eat herring lunch & strawberry cake and sing snaps songs and drink snaps. Dance around the maypole, Midsummer Olympics with 6 different competitions, BBQ, Campfire, sauna and swim in freezing lake & at midnight hotdogs. After this we will sleep very very well I am sure!! If you want to know more about Swedish midsummer here is a fun video for dummies!!   Swedish Midsummer for Dummies    And why ...