Freezing February in Luxembourg - Part II

Me and Hauke covered in snow and confetti at the Diekirch Cavalcade

Wow, I've really failed at keeping the blog updated haven't I? The end of February, and also the last month here in Amsterdam have been crazy busy, so I've got a bit of catching up to do, so please excuse a couple of bad blog posts until I'm up to date again. Part I of February in Luxembourg is here, and my mid-month trip to Metz is here.

To summarize the last half of February:

I spent an insane amount of time running around completing a ton of errands and working extra. Despite my best intentions of crossing off everything on my to-do-before-leaving-Luxembourg list, there is still a lot for me to check out next time I visit!

Ollie and Pepi being all cute on Valentines Day

I went ice skating one night, at an indoor place in the city. It was actually really boring, in the memories I have of ice skating in Christchurch, with the music, disco lights and constant games and competitions, it's a lot more fun!

Valentines day was pretty quiet, I just stayed home with my two boys. It marked one year since I first set foot in Luxembourg, as I'd come out here for one night on Valentine's Day while I was staying in Brussels. Its amazing to recall my first impressions of the country and contrast them with my current feelings towards it now. I should do a round-up of seven months in Luxembourg post sometime.

Ollie, Hauke and Pepi off on an adventure!

Hauke came to visit. As I expected the kids fell in love with him immediately, especially Pepi, who spent whole weekend either tailing Hauke like a baby duck, or repetitively asking where he was. We walked all around the city checking everything out, actually managed to take Pepi out for hot chocolate without disaster, did a lot of shopping, spent an awesome night out with my spanish-speaking friends, a not-so-awesome-because-I-got-really-sick night out visiting a few clubs (Hauke got bounced from a club for being too young!) and another relaxed night out visiting a few very fancy bars. We also took the kids out to Esch-sur-Alzette on the train, and went to the Cavalcade in Diekirch, so a very intense but awesome weekend.

Diekirch Cavalcade - candy in one hand, vodka in the other!

Diekirch Cavalcade is the biggest Carnival celebration in Luxembourg. Carnival in Europe is similar to carnival in Brazil, a huge celebration before Lent begins, with a parade/street party type thing going on. Think Santa Parades in New Zealand without the Christmas theme and a whole, whole lot more alcohol. I was amazed, despite the event being 'kid friendly' with kids marching in the parade and lining the streets, the majority of adults in the parade were drinking and smoking really heavily.

Pepijn's birthday cake

I remember that they banned throwing candy in parades in New Zealand because of the dangers of kids running out onto the road, but here in Luxembourg they threw not only candy but miniature bottles of spirits, and people were walking around offering candy to kids and pouring alcohol for the adults. Very strange. You get more of an idea what it was like from my photos here.

We celebrated Pepi's fourth birthday. I made a Postman Pat birthday cake that wasn't quite as cool as Ollie's train cake, but still took quite a bit of work!

Me with friends on my last night out in Luxembourg

I went to strip clubs three times (they're the only kind of bar still open after 2am on a weekday). Definitely time to move to a new country when you're visiting strip clubs so much...

I went out with friends for a last-hurrah, it was a really awesome night and I'm so glad that my various groups of friends all got along so well when they finally met! I arrived home at 6.15am and was still awake when Ollie woke up and started crying at 6.30am.

We packed up and moved out! Ok technically this was March, we left Luxembourg on March the 5th. More on the move later...

More photos are here.