Normally I like to travel light and fit everything into a backpack. However, this would not be possible. I bought an embarrassingly large American-style suitcase, and this is what I packed for Hayden:

Checked luggage:

• Electric steam steriliser (with power adaptor)
• Electric kettle (with power adaptor)
• Ibuprofen
• Oral rehydration powder
• Enterol probiotic sachets
• Antibiotic eye drops
• Saline solution
• Light coloured onsies (long-sleeved with enclosed feet to protect from mosquitoes and sunburn)
• Sunscreen
• Aloe vera cream
• Fungicide
• Betadine
• Band-aids
• Burp cloths
• Nappies
• Powdered formula in aliquots suitable for 240mL water
• Ready-to-drink formula
• Breast pump
• Medela quick clean wipes

Checked at the gate:

• Bugaboo Bee Stroller
• Maxi-Cosi Car Seat with adaptor clips for stroller

Cabin baggage:

• paracetamol
• Baby bjorn carrier
• Passport
• Residence card
• 6 Avent baby bottles filled with 240mL sterile water (yes, security is OK with this)
• 4 days’ worth of formula aliquots
• anti-malarials
• anti-biotics
• 1 spare onesie
• Cold-water sterilising kit
• Ethanol hand sanitiser
• Anti-microbial wipes
• 7 nappies
• (I foolishly forgot a pen)

Adrian was already in India, so I made the 8 hour flight solo. It was actually fine – I caught a taxi to the airport and gave myself an extra hour to get through security (water bottles out of bag and onto tray, bag onto tray, baby out of car seat and into baby bjorn, car seat separated from stroller and onto tray, stroller collapsed and onto tray, walk through metal detector, stroller unfolded, car seat snapped back onto stroller, water bottles back into bag, baby back in car seat, baby bjorn packed into bag). Once on the plane, we had the whole four-seat bulkhead row to ourselves, and Hayden was happy to lay in his bassinette while I had my meals. We also met some lovely people across the aisle who wanted to play with him, which gave me another break.

Once we landed at 10:30pm, my headaches began. I waited 15 minutes for the car seat and stroller to be delivered to the gate. Then 20 minutes to get through immigration. Then 30 minutes for my luggage, only to be told that, as is tradition, it had been “delayed”. Somehow, Adrian’s luggage had travelled from Belgium to Portugal to Switzerland to Qatar to India without problem, but my one direct flight had been too much for the airline to handle. It took another hour for a representative to get my details and tell me that it would be at least another two days until I was reunited with my bag. I was somewhat relieved that the car seat had arrived, and my carry-on bag contained all the essentials we needed to keep Hayden fed safely for the next couple of days.

Poor Adrian had been waiting at the airport to meet us, and by the time we all got back to the hotel it was close to 2 AM. Hayden barely slept in his travel cot, and we all started the next day in low spirits. At breakfast I did not greet Kim, our travel companion, with much enthusiasm.

I already felt overwhelmed by India and I had yet to step out of my air-conditioned hotel.

We met our guide in the morning, and the first thing that he suggested was a bicycle rickshaw through the Chandni Chowk markets of Old Delhi.

This was one of the most noisy and chaotic experiences of the whole trip. We started out on the road, and I was suddenly surrounded by a cacophony of auto-rickshaws, motorbikes, cows, trucks, and cars.

The long rows of market stalls smelled of spices and street food, and the windows were filled with everything from marigold garlands to sparkling red wedding saris.

The crowded and narrow alleys of the markets bustled with pedestrians giving us curious looks, as well as monkeys sitting on the tangled cords that made up the electrical system.

By the time the rickshaw ride ended, I was feeling strangly rejuvinated. We had entered the colourful and chaotic world of Old Delhi, and I had actually enjoyed it. Here I was, reunited with Adrian and exploring an exotic and fascinating country with Hayden and Kim. There was plenty to learn here if I was just willing to let it in. I gave a kiss to my two boys, a smile to my other companions, and we all climbed back into the car ready to see more highlights of Delhi.

We decided to visit Tournai, one of the oldest cities in Belgium. It has an excellent Belfry and is the only city here ever to be ruled by England. An hour on the train took us to the heart of this new city. As we walked towards the cathedral, we spotted a market with a great deal of activity.

Along with fresh produce, there were also birds and goats for sale. The vendors had arranged them according to cuteness. We began with old-looking geese, and as we walked along we finally reached the chicks and ducklings. Excited looking children were choosing their new pets, and the vendors popped them into cardboard boxes and tied them up with string. The children distractedly carried the boxes in one had, and we could see anxious-looking beaks poking out of the holes.

We discovered a little duckling sitting in a box by himself, occasionally bounding up to poke his beak over the edge. Adrian called him Jumpling and we were very tempted to take him home and keep him in the bath. However, we decided that Peppermint might not be so welcoming.

The belfry was constructed separately from the cathedral, and we slowly climbed up the winding staircase to the top of the tower. The top was decorated with a gilded dragon, and golden gargoyles looked over our shoulders out at the view.

We finished up with a lunch in the main square, underneath the ferris wheel and between the market stalls, and then meandered home again. A bright spring morning sucessfully celebrated.

In the morning, we stumbled across a great bar/restaurant called Havana (Homphausbadstr 17) that served a delicious buffet breakfast. The chicken was succulent, the potato gems were crisp, the tomato was fresh, and the mozzarella was bursting with flavour. We then meandered through the streets towards the markets, admiring the quirky statues that seemed to lurk on every corner.

The markets were much smaller than those of Cologne, but well worth exploring. It was very cold outside, with a high for the day of one degree above freezing. I drank plenty of hot chocolate to ward off the ice, and we often popped into cafes or museums to defrost. Many people in the crowd were wearing novelty hats, often resembling a great herd of reindeer and elves. We caught sight of this hungry little puppy called Dusty, who was desperate to sample one of the German sausages.

The printen stores were everywhere, and happily offering free samples and describing their contents. There were hard and soft biscuits, covered with white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or icing, and filled with nuts or raisins or liquor. We picked our favourites and took some small samples home to tide us over for the rest of the winter. I was smitten with the sight of a printen reindeer in one of the shop windows, but when we went inside they told us that they were sold out. Adrian told them how much I loved the reindeer, and begged them to sell us the last one in the window. They obliged, moving boxes and tables out of the way so that I could take the very last reindeer home with me to Belgium.

We also explored Aachen as Charlemagne’s capital city back in the 8th century. We saw his portraits and treasures proudly displayed in the opulent rooms of the town hall and walked around his hodge-podge cathedral. He spent his winters in Aachen, solidifying his control over the region and planning his future conquests. He was buried in the cathedral that had been initiated on his orders 28 years previously.

Then we hopped onto the train at 4:20, sped back to Belgium at 300km/hour, and we walking through our front door at 5:45. One of the many joys of exploring Europe by rail.

I am now starting to understand the European concept of December. The air is so cold that the lakes ice over, yet it carries the scents of mulled wine and fresh gingerbread. Fir trees are everywhere, decorated with baubles and fairy lights. Strains of accordions and organ grinders waft over the crowds. Everyone is rugged up from head to toe, and babies are pushed around bundled up in thick sleeping bags. December tastes like hot chocolate and nutella crepes and tiny Dutch pancakes. They have found a way to bring warmth and anticipation to a cold dark month.

Cologne was bustling with visitors streaming in to experience its seven different winter markets. One of the advantages of having to rebuild Cologne after the war is that the train station is now situated right next to the cathedral, and so we were right in the middle of the action as soon as we stepped off the train. The majestic Cologne cathedral, grey and black in the dim light, and gold and black in the night, towers over the main market.

We lunched on some delicious garlic bread topped with an intriguing yogurt, tomato, chilli, and basil topping, and we stole some of Ellie’s poffertjes (tiny pancakes) for dessert. I did not envy the poor woman who had the job of endlessly  flipping hundreds of the tiny pillows with two wooden sticks, but the result was delicious. We spotted our first European mistletoe, bearing fruit and hanging overhead. Ellie was kind enough to take our photograph.

We moved onto the Cologne Old Town Heimat de Heinzel (home of the gnomes) to see the handcrafted goods for sale. The market was constructed in the style of tiny Swiss chalets, all bordered by fir trees and giant wooden carvings. There was an ice-skating rink and a carousel, and so many intricate items on offer. It made me wish that we had a tree at home so that I could hunt out some wooden treasures to hang from its boughs. However, we were able to sample a lot of the regional delicacies, and we piled our bag full of winter liqueurs, lollies, and biscuits.

The onto the Schiffsweihnachtmarkt (ship market), Europe’s largest floating market on the MS Wappen von Köln. Here I managed to find some fabulous purple gloves and a scarf for myself, as well as a v-shaped couples’ glove that meant that Adriana and I could still hold hands while out in the cold.

The final marketplace that we visited in Cologne was the Mittelalter-Weihnachtsmarkt (medieval market). This one might have been my favourite market. All the shopkeepers were dressed in simple canvas clothing, and only traditional items were for sale. A woman dressed in a flowing black cape guarded the entrance with a tall wooden sword, and only those children who were shorter than its hilt were permitted to enter for free. We drank steaming Viking Blood Wine out of terracotta goblets – honeyed white wine with cherry liqueur. I took part in a game of “mouse” roulette (similar to the guinea-pig roulette at Foire du Midi in Brussels). A girl, draped in a forest green cape and repeating herself in German and English, told us the story of a wizard who had conjured too many spells and had turned himself into a mouse (it was actually a gerbil). I placed a euro above the arch decorated with a crown, but the rodent ran into a different arch, so I did not win a magic stone. I cheered myself up with a traditional lumpy but delicious flat bread filled with hazelnut.

By this time it was 5pm and the sun had set. We walked back to the cathedral, admiring the thousands of fairy lights that lit up the city, and waved goodbye to Ellie. Soon it would be time to hop onto the train to Aachen for our next winter market adventure.

In Belgium, December is like stepping onto a movie set. Tonight we visited the Brussels Winter Wonder festival (plaisirs d’hiver / winter pret) with Laura and Ben. It was magical. It is still hard to comprehend that so many exotic experiences are now so close to home. The cathedral, town hall, opera house, and other majestic builders were lit up by pastel lights. Red and blue fairy lights were strung through the trees. Carols drifted over the crowd. There was an ice-skating rink where couples skated hand-in-hand through a tall tree, behind a giant Ferris wheel. Children rode in carousels full of grotesque and fascinating creatures out of the world of Tim Burton.

We warmed ourselves with hot chocolate, mulled wine, nutella crepes and frites. A long boulevard of tiny wooden houses offered us a range of hand-crafted goods for the winter season. Hats, scarves, chocolates, biscuits, wooden toys, and candles were all on display. I am starting to understand the strange joys of the European holiday season.

Photo by Kmeron