Friends, family living in ideal areas

[Cataboo]

I have a hard time sometimes with the visiting relatives/friends. I think it's rude to visit someone without hanging out with them... Yes, I love visiting my family or friends. However, my idea of a vacation vs. their idea of a vacation is different. They don't want to kayak or ride their bike everywhere. I have relatives all over Scotland, and there's a ton of things that I'd love to do in Scotland... but I usually end up spending most of the time visiting elderly relatives and while I don't begrude them that because I know I don't have many more years to visit them while they're alive... I'd love to hike the west highland trail, kayak the isles, or something like that.

I had a bf whose family lived in Belgium... spent a lot of time visiting them, and when I was over... they wanted to have great big huge family dinners that took 12 hours... Or visit his 102 year old grandmother in the nursing home... Which was great - but I wanted to see the country. Then all his friends from childhood would want to see him. And while they all spoke english, they typically would speak flemish while together and I usually had no idea what was going on. It also meant that anytime we went through Europe, we had to take a few days through Belgium... Which after a while kind of irked me and I would fly home earlier instead about half the time.

One of my scottish cousins has a ski lodge at ski resort in Canada - and he's great if I visit. He works or he's not there, and I go ski - maybe we ski together a few days - and we meet in the evenings for food. I have other friends that live near ski resorts that I find constraining when I visit - because if I'm on a ski vacation I really really want to ski every day because that's not something I can do where I live. But if the person you're visiting doesn't feel like skiing or wants to do something else or thinks that the snow isn't worth skiing on (since they live near snow, they can afford to be picky)... It gets frustrating. In the latter case, I really would rather just pay for lodging.

It's sometimes easier if the people you're visiting work regular hours, so you can get away with doing your own thing.

[papaver]

Oh and I have a good friend who lives in and owns this place in Zambia

http://www.kaingu-lodge.com/

Would love to visit.

[papaver]

I had a bf whose family lived in Belgium... spent a lot of time visiting them, and when I was over... they wanted to have great big huge family dinners that took 12 hours... Or visit his 102 year old grandmother in the nursing home... Which was great - but I wanted to see the country. Then all his friends from childhood would want to see him. And while they all spoke english, they typically would speak flemish while together and I usually had no idea what was going on. It also meant that anytime we went through Europe, we had to take a few days through Belgium... Which after a while kind of irked me and I would fly home earlier instead about half the time.

Typical Belgian behavior I'm afraid. I'm not like that fortunately. I like to be on my own too and visit stuff and not just hang around with people.

[shootingstar]

It's sometimes easier if the people you're visiting work regular hours, so you can get away with doing your own thing.

Very true. When visiting and staying with family, I usually let them define certain key activities for me to join them. Then they prefer we entertain ourselves rest of the time ..by cycling since they must get on with their daily lives. It works out well so far since my family is health-conscious oriented ..so they understand need for daily exercise. Some of them practice yoga, jog or do pilates on their own time.

Papaver: If there is a link to dearie's cousin's hotel & restaurant in Black Forest region in Germany, I'll give it later. In family since 1700's.

[papaver]

o cool. Thanx shootingstar.

[shootingstar]

papaver:

Inn has been around since 1750.
It's in German. http://www.rebstock-waldulm.de/launch.htm but with lovely pics and reasonable prices. Dearie translated for me..just now.

Under the link at website "Die Region" there are automatic photos of the views from inn...which is on the side of steep hill vineyard area in Germany. His cousin is the chef of restaurant also and has been reviewed in a German foodie or travel magazine. The inn/restaurant is approx. 30 kms. away from Strausborg, France where there is a well-known cathedral.

This is the first time dearie saw his cousin's revamped website. Wonders of the Internet. Now we're going to shoot off the link to dearie's son who is a chef in Toronto and definitely does cook cheffy-like even though he can't read German.

Now you know, that elegant cooking and baking....genuinely is a family tradition and highly valued. My comments about quality food/cuisine both German ..(and Asian, since there have been restaurant owners in my extended family also) are for real.

[papaver]

Oh I can read and understand German quite well... thx for the link!

[jobob]

"If you gotta have in-laws they may as well live on Oahu"

- jobobism

[NoNo]

One of the really cool things about the car club I'm in is that even if you haven't actually met someone, you still open your home to them. In May of 07 I went over to England to meet the people from the club over there. Someone picked me up at Heathrow, took me to their house to stay for two days. Someone else picked me up from that house and took me to the hotel where the charity ball was held. People drove me around all that weekend. Then another person took me up to their house near York to stay for a few days and drove me around the area showing me the sights. It was a blast, my only housing costs were the weekend of the ball, and I got to see things that only the locals would know about. More importantly, I made some lifelong friends and look forward to returning there or opening my home to them.

In addition to the club, my mom's cousin just moved to London, after several years in Paris. I'm kind of upset I missed out seeing them in France. We also have family in Italy that I would like to meet. I talk to one of them on Facebook, and two of my cousins have gone over and met that side of the family, so at least there's some kind of link.